National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

The Gilded Age and Country Places
Diagram #1 describes the two management systems employed for these three properties.
It should be noted that the personal secretary was a vital communication link between property
owner and manager when the property owner was not in residence. 177
In Munsey's Magazine, Harrington describes in detail the management of Hudson Valley
estates, as he found it in the period:
Most of the properties along the Hudson are divided into a "park side" and a "farm side."
The division is generally made by a country road. A superintendent is employed who is
responsible for the care of the entire establishment. The number of men employed on the
average country place varies with the season and the amount of work to be done. It may be
anywhere from ten to two hundred. To conduct such an estate, the services of farm hands,
gardeners, laborers, teamsters, stablemen, coachmen, and grooms are required. 178
Next to the superintendent, the most important man on a country place is the head gardener.
He directs the operations of the men in the greenhouses, lays out the flower beds, and is
responsible for the care of the lawns. Every morning at six o'clock the superintendent calls
the roll and sends the various employees to their posts of duty. It requires as much
bookkeeping and management to conduct one of these country seats along the Hudson as it
does to direct the affairs of a business house. 179
On one estate not far up the Hudson about thirty laborers are employed, whose monthly wages
are thirty-five dollars each. A competent superintendent may be obtained for a thousand dollars a
year, and the salary of a first class gardener is six hundred dollars. You must add to this the wages
of the stable force, usually ten men in all, and the household servants, who number half a score.
Here are fifty or sixty retainers whose wages amount to nearly twelve thousand dollars annually.
A country place, taking into consideration its extent and the tastes of its owner, may cost
anywhere from ten thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars a year. We read much of the
poultry, the eggs, and the milk which come to the market from the "farm sides" of some of these
estates along the Hudson. In spite of these sales, the gentleman farmer generally finds that his
agricultural operations are on the wrong side of the ledger. Next to maintaining a first class steam
yacht the most expensive pursuit is conducting a country seat. 180
Harrington's reference to the elaboration of systems for management and
bookkeeping as akin to those of business is apt. At Hyde Park, Herbert Shears was assisted
by an office clerk who maintained estate records, and the Webbs' more elaborate farm
operations at Shelburne required the services of four to six clerks for record keeping. The
emphasis on breeding, agricultural production, and the management of a game preserve at
Shelburne Farms exceeded the scale of Hyde Park and most estates of the period. An article
in Country Life in America in 1903 described the system of record keeping by department at
Shelburne which applied generally to country estates of the era:
Four clerks are employed to keep the books and take care of the financial end of this great
farm. So thoroughly are the business operations systematized that there is instant reference
177 Herbert Shears' journals, account books, and payroll records in the ROVA Archives; farm manager's
correspondence, account books, and payroll records in the collection of Shelburne Farms; William
Gilmour diaries and correspondence in the collection of PSNC.
178 Harrington, 732.
179 Harrington, 733-734.
180 Harrington, 734-735.
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