Lewis Cass Ledyard (1851-1932)

He was born in Detroit and was named for his maternal grandfather, Sen. Lewis Cass, U.S. Secretary of State etc. On his father's side, he was a great-grandson of Henry Brockholst Livingston, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. Becoming a lawyer, he was counsel for the U.S. Steel Corporation and the American Tobacco Company as well as personal counsel for J.P. Morgan and the New York Stock Exchange. He was responsible for drafting and executing Morgan’s will and those of Payne Whitney, Col. John Jacob Astor and William K. Vanderbilt among others. He was President of the New York Public Library, President of the Bar Association of the City of New York and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1905, he purchased a summer home, "Sunset Ridge" (see images) at Newport from Abbot Augustus Low. He was a member of the Newport Reading Room and held a considerable number of shares in the Newport Casino. He was a director of the Newport Country Club and Commodore of the New York Yacht Club. He gifted $2-million to the New York Public Library and $600,000 to the Newport Hospital in memory of his father, its founder and first president. He was married twice and had one son.