William Riggin Travers (1819-1887)
Banker, Celebrated Wit, and the 1st President of the Saratoga Race Course
He was reckoned by The New York Times to be the most popular man in the country. Known as "Stuttering" Travers for his speech impediment, he became a celebrated wit and his stutter served only to make him even more charming. Edith Wharton, a great friend of his daughter Matilda, satirized him as Sillerton Jackson in The Age of Innocence. He was born in Baltimore and began studying at West Point but resigned his appointment and finished his education at Columbia College (1838). After several failed attempts at the shipping business in Baltimore, he moved to New York City in 1853 and became an investment broker, bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1856, and made a fortune estimated at about a million dollars. He maintained a brokerage partnership and lively friendship with Leonard Jerome for the rest of his life.
He had business interests in cotton and tea. In 1880, he laid out a picturesque village for working men on 350-acres along the Delaware & Lackawanna Railroad, an hour from New York City: "The houses were compact and well-constructed, and were leased at small rents, with the option of purchasing on convenient instalments. This model village was called Lyndhurst, and nearby he erected factories, which gave employment to a large number of its inhabitants. His inclinations were emphatically philanthropic, and his secret benefices were numerous; managed on the lavish and princely scale characteristic of all his doings. Many struggling young men received the first impulse to success at his hands, and some of them became, in after years, the most successful operators in Wall Street."
His popularity was evident by the fact that he was a member of 27 clubs. As an athlete, he excelled in tennis and yachting and helped found the New York Racquet Club (1873) and later the Metropolitan Club. He was the first President of the New York Athletic Club, and when the club purchased Hogg Island in Long Island Sound in 1887 they renamed it Travers Island in his honor. However, he was best known for his interest in horse racing.
He co-founded and served as the first President of the Saratoga Race Course where the Travers Stakes are named for him - the oldest major thoroughbred horse race in the United States. He was one of the backers of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track on Coney Island and a partner with John Hunter in the Annieswood Stable in Westchester Co., New York. The stable had considerable success, their horse 'Kentucky' won the first running of the Travers Stakes in 1864 and 'Alarm' was considered one of the best sprint horses in American thoroughbred history. In 1843, he married Maria Louisa Johnson, daughter of U.S. Senator Reverdy Johnson, of Baltimore, and they had nine children (listed). They lived between 3 West 38th St., N.Y.C., their summer home in Newport, the Travers Villa, and their winter home in Hamilton on the Island of Bermuda, "Woodlands," where he died.
He had business interests in cotton and tea. In 1880, he laid out a picturesque village for working men on 350-acres along the Delaware & Lackawanna Railroad, an hour from New York City: "The houses were compact and well-constructed, and were leased at small rents, with the option of purchasing on convenient instalments. This model village was called Lyndhurst, and nearby he erected factories, which gave employment to a large number of its inhabitants. His inclinations were emphatically philanthropic, and his secret benefices were numerous; managed on the lavish and princely scale characteristic of all his doings. Many struggling young men received the first impulse to success at his hands, and some of them became, in after years, the most successful operators in Wall Street."
His popularity was evident by the fact that he was a member of 27 clubs. As an athlete, he excelled in tennis and yachting and helped found the New York Racquet Club (1873) and later the Metropolitan Club. He was the first President of the New York Athletic Club, and when the club purchased Hogg Island in Long Island Sound in 1887 they renamed it Travers Island in his honor. However, he was best known for his interest in horse racing.
He co-founded and served as the first President of the Saratoga Race Course where the Travers Stakes are named for him - the oldest major thoroughbred horse race in the United States. He was one of the backers of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track on Coney Island and a partner with John Hunter in the Annieswood Stable in Westchester Co., New York. The stable had considerable success, their horse 'Kentucky' won the first running of the Travers Stakes in 1864 and 'Alarm' was considered one of the best sprint horses in American thoroughbred history. In 1843, he married Maria Louisa Johnson, daughter of U.S. Senator Reverdy Johnson, of Baltimore, and they had nine children (listed). They lived between 3 West 38th St., N.Y.C., their summer home in Newport, the Travers Villa, and their winter home in Hamilton on the Island of Bermuda, "Woodlands," where he died.
