Religion Episcopalian | Name Richard Wilson, Spouse(s) Marion Steedman Mason | |
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Occupation Banker/businessmanRacehose owner/breeder Children Marion Mason WilsonLouisa Steedman Wilson Parents Melissa Clementine Johnston | ||
Richard Thornton Wilson Jr. (September 11, 1866 – December 29, 1929) was an American banker and businessman who was a prominent figure in Thoroughbred horse racing in the early decades of the 20th Century.
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Early life
Wilson was born in New York City one of five surviving children of Richard Thornton Wilson Sr. and Melissa Clementine Johnston. Richard Sr. was a multimillionaire investment banker originally from Loudon, Tennessee who served on the staff of Lucius B. Northrop, the Commissary-General of the Confederate States of America.
Family
Richard Wilson Jr.'s sister Grace Graham Wilson married Cornelius "Neily" Vanderbilt III of the Vanderbilt family. Neily's sister Gertrude was married to prominent horseman Harry Payne Whitney. In 1896, Richard Wilson Jr. and Harry teamed up with a group of investors to purchase Saratoga Race Course which had fallen into the hands of an undesirable New Jersey brothelkeeper, Gottfried Waldbaum. Wilson then served as president of the Saratoga Racing Association which operated the facility. Wilson's other siblings also married into very prominent families. His older brother, Marshall Orme Wilson, married Caroline Schermerhorn "Carrie" Astor, youngest daughter of William Backhouse Astor Jr. and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn of the Astor family. Carrie's brother was Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, richest passenger on the RMS Titanic. Wilson's other two sisters, Mary (May) and Belle, married, respectively, New York real estate heir, Ogden Goelet, and the Honorable Sir Michael Henry Herbert, brother of the Earl of Pembroke and British ambassador to the United States, during Theodore Roosevelt's administration. Wilson's niece, Mary Goelet, married the Duke of Roxburghe. Because of all the family's advantageous marriages, the Wilsons were known in New York and Newport society as the "Marrying Wilsons."
Career and thoroughbred racing
Wilson followed in his father's footsteps and was successful in banking and business.
In 1896, Wilson hired Thomas J. Healey to manage his racing stable. Together for three decades, they would win a number of the most important East Coast races including the Travers Stakes three times, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. Among Wilson's successful racehorses were:
Personal life
On March 11, 1902, he married Marion Steedman Mason, daughter of Amos Lawrence Mason and Louisa Blake Steedman. They had two daughters:
In 1902, Richard Wilson Jr. purchased an estate at Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina from John Holbrook Estill where in 1916 he built a mansion and maintained a stable and a blacksmith shop. The home burned down in 1926 and the property was sold. [1]
Wilson died on December 29, 1929. His funeral service was held at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, New York. He was interred in the family mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.