National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Historical Overview
each employee." 404 In the winter, the farm crew would cut Christmas trees on the estate for
employees and deliver them around to the resident staff. 405 Louise also gave sweaters to the
farm laborers for Christmas. 406 She gave gold coins to the staff with greater responsibility. Cap
Newman describes getting a gift from Louise:
Well, one day the chauffeur drove up in the arch . . . there's an arch there by the cow barn
and she hollered, "Mr. Newman, Mr. Newman!" I went out to see what she wanted and she
says, "I want to shake hands with you this morning." And when she let go a $50.00 gold piece
was in my hand. 407
Mrs. Farley remembered that her husband received $50 at Christmas from both Mrs. and Mr.
Vanderbilt. 408
While regular pay, tips, and bonuses were given with consistency to estate staff, vacation
time, either paid or unpaid, medical expenses, and medical leave appear to have been awarded in
a less consistent manner. Vacation seems to have been given, if at all, as part of the seasonal
cycle of work. Peggy Newman reported that her husband Cap received three weeks of vacation
in the fall. It is not clear from her interview whether or not this was a paid vacation. 409
For accidents that happened on the job, estate owners handled compensation at their
own discretion. One Hyde Park resident described the case of a man mortally wounded by a fall
while working at Hyde Park. Reportedly, his widow received no compensation despite the
man's forty-year employment on the estate. 410 Peggy Newman remembered that her husband
lost one winter of work after being kicked by a horse, and that they received no assistance from
the Vanderbilts with his medical bills and no sick pay. They continued with free housing, food,
and fuel and Peggy's own wages from a side job kept the family together. 411 When Mr. Farley, as
tree man, fell and broke all of his ribs, he was laid up for two months. During this time, Louise
visited the family often and seemed to help out financially. Mrs. Farley recalled:
Well, the first I really met her or had anything to do with her was when Farley fell off the
tree. Then she started coming down to our house and she came often, very often, to see the
children. She liked the children and she came in pretty near every day she'd stop. She'd go
to Poughkeepsie, come back and she'd ask the children what they wanted. She give them a
radio. The first radio, I think, that was in town. When she gave them one of these Victrolas
that you carry around like a suitcase and every day the Chauffeur, Douglas Crapser or Mr.
Donnelly, would stop at the house with records for them, in fact footballs, all kinds of toys,
she was wonderful. 412
A close reading of the estate payroll records, however, does indicate that aged estate employees
who could no longer work were paid a small monthly salary until their death. 413 This
presumably applied only to employees who lived on the estate.
404
Knauss, 1973, 4.
405
Peggy Newman, 12.
406
Peggy Newman, 12.
407
Peggy Newman, 12.
408
Theresa Farley.
409
Peggy Newman, 6.
410
Fogel, 22-23.
411
Peggy Newman, 6.
412
Theresa Farley.
413
Hyde Park Estate Payroll Books.
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