Augustus C. Gurnee
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Augustus Coe Gurnee (March 11, 1855 – July 6, 1926) was an American socialite and art patron during the
Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...
.


Early life

Gurnee was born on March 11, 1855, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Mary (
née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
Coe) Gurnee (1820–1893) and capitalist Walter Smith Gurnee (1813–1903), who served as Mayor Chicago from 1851 to 1853 and was the namesake of
Gurnee, Illinois Gurnee ( ) is a Village (United States), village and suburb in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Its population was 30,706 as of the 2020 census. It borders the city of Waukegan, Illinois, Waukegan, and is a popular tourist attraction within ...
. Gurnee attended
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
and graduated with the class of 1878. Through his maternal uncle, Dr. Matthew Daniel Coe, he was a first cousin of Frantz Hunt Coe, the physician, public official and educator. Among his siblings was Delia E. Gurnee, Mary Evelyn Gurnee, Frances Medora Gurnee, Walter Scott Gurnee, Grace Gurnee, and Isabel Gurnee. In 1863, the family moved to New York where his father engaged in banking and other businesses, serving as the treasurer and director of the
Shelby Iron Company The Shelby Iron Company was an iron manufacturing company that operated an ironworks in Shelby, Alabama. The iron company produced iron for the Confederate States of America and was destroyed towards the end of the American Civil War. The company ...
, the
American Smelting and Refining Company ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company) is a mining, smelting, and refining company based in Tucson, Arizona, which mines and processes primarily copper. The company has been a subsidiary of Grupo México since 1999. Its three largest o ...
, and the American Surety Company, among others.


Society life

After graduating from Harvard, where he was a member of the
Hasty Pudding Club The Hasty Pudding Club, often referred to simply as the Pudding, is a social club at Harvard University, and one of three sub-organizations that comprise the Hasty Pudding - Institute of 1770. The current clubhouse was designed by Peabody and ...
, he briefly worked as a banker in New York. Gurnee was "free from the necessity of engaging in business" and, instead, spent his time "engrossed in the cultivation of the arts and spent much time in travel, living at intervals in Italy and France." In 1892, Gurnee was included in
Ward McAllister Samuel Ward McAllister (December 28, 1827 – January 31, 1895) was a popular arbiter of social taste in the Gilded Age of America, widely accepted as the authority to which families could be classified as the cream of New York society ( The Fou ...
's "
Four Hundred 400 (four hundred) is the natural number following 399 and preceding 401. Mathematical properties A circle is divided into 400 grads. Integers from 401 to 499 400s 401 401 is a prime number, tetranacci number, Chen prime, prime index p ...
", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.


Personal life

Gurnee had a home in
Bar Harbor, Maine Bar Harbor () is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population is 5,089. The town is home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory, and MDI Biological Laborat ...
,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, and
Nice, France Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million
. His home in Maine, known as Beaudesert, was originally designed by
William Ralph Emerson William Ralph Emerson (March 11, 1833 – November 23, 1917) was an American architect. He partnered with Carl Fehmer in Emerson and Fehmer. Early life and education A cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson, William was born in Alton, Illinois, and ...
in 1881, but was renovated for Gurnee in 1900 by architect Fred L. Savage, who also designed the nearby
Breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island, Antarctica * Breakwater Islands, Nunavut, Canada * ...
,
Reverie Cove Reverie Cove is a historic summer estate on Harbor Lane in Bar Harbor, Maine. It was designed by local architect Fred L. Savage and built in 1895, and is a particularly opulent example of Colonial Revival architecture. A later owner of the pr ...
, Raventhorp, and the Philler Cottage. In 1925, he donated his home in Nice, for the benefit of wounded soldiers, and a number of valuable works of art to the city of Paris, including twelve tapestries of Aubusson,
Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...
, and Paris before the time of
Gobelin Gobelin was the name of a family of dyers, who in all probability came originally from Reims, France, and who in the middle of the 15th century established themselves in the Faubourg Saint Marcel, Paris, on the banks of the Bièvre. The first ...
. He was honored by France with the ribbon of the Chevalier of the
Légion d’Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
. Gurnee, who did not marry, died on July 6, 1926, in
Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, and was interred at the Gurnee Mausoleum at
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York, is the cemetery, final resting place of numerous famous figures, including Washington Irving, whose 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is set in the adjacent burying ground of the ...
. In his will, Gurnee left many large bequeaths to charity, including the Presbyterian Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital, the Nursery and Child's Hospital, and the
Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor The Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (AICP) was a charitable organization in New York City, established in 1843 and incorporated in 1848 with the aim of helping the deserving poor and providing for their moral uplift.Coble, Alan ...
, many trust funds for his relatives, and then left his residuary estate to Harvard. His secretary, Gustave Frederick Dutschke, who lived at 17
Avenue d'Iéna Avenue or Avenues may refer to: Roads * Avenue (landscape), traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees, in the shifted sense a tree line itself, or some of boulevards (also without trees) * Avenue Road, Bangalore * Avenue Road, Lon ...
in Paris, received $300,000 in three and a half per cent Liberty bonds and $20,000 a year from the residuary estate.


References


External links


Photograph of Gurnee dressed for the Vanderbilt costume ball, March 26, 1883
at the
New-York Historical Society The New York Historical (known as the New-York Historical Society from 1804 to 2024) is an American history museum and library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. It ...
. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurnee, Augustus C. 1855 births 1926 deaths Harvard University alumni Knights of the Legion of Honour Burials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery People from Chicago American bankers People from Bar Harbor, Maine