William Brown Dinsmore (1810-1888)
of "The Locusts" Staatsburg, New York; President of the Adams Express Company
He was born in Boston and grew up on a farm in New Hampshire. Returning to Boston, he became associated with Alvin Adams who was starting an express line between Boston and New York, one of the first companies that carried express shipments by rail across the U.S. In 1842, he came to New York to manage the business there while Adams remained in Boston. After Adams died in 1877, Dinsmore became President of the Adams Express Co. which was affiliated with almost all of the railroads across the country although because of the Civil War the southern connections had been sold to stockholders. Among others, he was a director of the American Exchange Bank and the Pennsylvania Railroad. He married Augusta Snow of Brewster, Massachusetts, and they were survived by two sons.
He kept a townhouse at 302 Fifth Avenue and bought "The Locusts" at Staatsburg in 1854 which encompassed 1,000-acres and enjoyed a mile-and-a-half of frontage along the Hudson River. Tearing down the existing house, he began construction of his 92-room Italianate villa in 1871, filling it with more than a hundred paintings acquired from Knoedlers, New York. He owned one of the largest herds of Alderney cattle in the country and his stables housed 20-farm and 18-carriage horses. He landscaped 56-acres and gave land to the community for the school, firehouse, and golf course. "The Locusts" remained in the Dinsmore family until 1941 when his great-granddaughter, Helen Dinsmore Huntington, replaced it with a Beaux-Arts villa which she called "Locusts-on-Hudson".
He kept a townhouse at 302 Fifth Avenue and bought "The Locusts" at Staatsburg in 1854 which encompassed 1,000-acres and enjoyed a mile-and-a-half of frontage along the Hudson River. Tearing down the existing house, he began construction of his 92-room Italianate villa in 1871, filling it with more than a hundred paintings acquired from Knoedlers, New York. He owned one of the largest herds of Alderney cattle in the country and his stables housed 20-farm and 18-carriage horses. He landscaped 56-acres and gave land to the community for the school, firehouse, and golf course. "The Locusts" remained in the Dinsmore family until 1941 when his great-granddaughter, Helen Dinsmore Huntington, replaced it with a Beaux-Arts villa which she called "Locusts-on-Hudson".
