National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Historical Overview
LOUISE HOLMES ANTHONY TORRANCE VANDERBILT (1844 - 1926)
Louise Vanderbilt was born in 1844, the daughter of wealthy financier Charles L.
Anthony of Newport and New York. 212 Louise's first marriage to Albert Torrance, Frederick's
first cousin, ended in an uncontested divorce for which she filed in September 1877. Frederick
and Louise's secret marriage on December 17, 1878 caused some consternation on the part of
William H. Vanderbilt and his family. They married when Frederick was twenty-two years old,
the same year in which he graduated from Yale. Louise was twelve years older than her
husband. That, coupled with her divorce, made her a questionable match for the third
Vanderbilt son. William H. is reported to have said at the time that it was easier to manage three
railroads than one infatuated son. 213
As with any bit of Vanderbilt gossip, the Vanderbilt marriage was widely reported in the
press, this account appearing in 1885 in the form of a biography:
The third son is Frederick. He got into trouble and lost caste by marrying. William H.
Vanderbilt and his wife have taken a sensible democratic view of the question matrimonial,
saying to their children: "Now be respectable, and within that rule marry anybody you
choose." Frederick obeyed the last part of the rule. He is an impressionable, sensitive,
sympathetic sort of a fellow, and was fascinated by the wife of his cousin Torrance. He and
Mrs. Torrance met; were enamoured; poured their griefs into each others ears and he
married her, a divorce was obtained, of course; but the family was shocked, for Frederick's
mother was the daughter of a puritan parson. The subject of discarding and disinheriting
Frederick was seriously considered by his father, who, with his wife Mary [sic], lay awake
nights and discussed it. The conduct of Frederick was shocking and outrageous; that they
agreed. If he had been rich they would have turned him out neck and heels into the cold
world - him and his eccentric wife. But he was worth only $2,000,000 and they wept when
they thought of the dear boy, on the verge of poverty, as it were, wandering about looking for
something to do. So they relented, forgave the couple, gave them a few million dollars and
set them up in housekeeping. 214
Louise Vanderbilt remains an enigma and the miscellaneous existing descriptions of her
tell us very little. She was thought of as kind and generous. Her married life seems to have been
quite happy, despite the lack of children. Some even describe her in ways which seem silly or
vain. Yet, the pieces are fragmentary enough to evade interpretation. What follows is a
selection of descriptions of Louise by her contemporaries. A reporter for the Poughkeepsie
Sunday Courier met the Vanderbilts on a visit to the estate in 1896, when Louise was fifty-two
years old, and found her to be, "a very handsome woman, and so queenly in her carriage as to
make her seem taller than her inches. She is lovely and gracious in spirit, and the promotor [sic]
of many charities." 215 Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. recounts a well-known story about his Aunt
Louise:
212
Charles Anthony was born in Providence, R.I., and moved to New York where he ran a dry goods
business called Anthony, Whittemore & Clark until 1862. His later dry goods partner was George W. Hall
in the firm of Anthony & Hall at 66 Leonard Street. He retained the business until his death in 1874. New
York Times, May 28, 1874.
213
Snell, "Historical Handbook Manuscript," 5. Snell cites New York Daily Tribune, February 15, 1879, 5;
New York Daily Tribune, February 18, 1879, 5.
214
"Gossip About the Vanderbilts, Some Stories of the Sons that are True Enough to be Interesting,"
Commercial Gazette, Cincinnati, OH, December 13, 1885, Scrapbook, "William H. Vanderbilt New York
City and Brooklyn Papers," Vol. 2, Shelburne Farms Archives.
215
Snell, "Historical Handbook Manuscript," 4. Snell cites Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier, July 19, 1896, 2.
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