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William Collins Whitney (July 5, 1841 – February 2, 1904) was an American political leader and financier and a prominent descendant of the John Whitney family. He served as Secretary of the Navy in the first administration of President Grover Cleveland from 1885 through 1889. A conservative reformer, he was considered a Bourbon Democrat.
Early life
William Whitney was born at Conway, Massachusetts, of Puritan stock. The family were descended from John Whitney of London, who settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635. William Whitney's father was Brigadier General James Scollay Whitney; his mother, Laurinda Collins, was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. William Whitney had a well known older brother, industrialist Henry Melville Whitney (1839–1923), president of the Metropolitan Steamship Company, founder of the West End Street Railway Company of Boston, and later founder of the Dominion Coal Company and Dominion Iron and Steel Company in Sydney, Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island. His sister Laurinda Collins "Lily" Whitney married Charles T. Barney, who became the president of the Knickerbocker Trust Company.[1] Another sister, Susan Collins Whitney, married attorney Henry F. Dimock.
Educated at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, Whitney was graduated from Yale University in 1863, where he was a member of Skull and Bones,[2]:1099 and then studied law at Harvard. He left in 1864 to study law with Abraham R. Lawrence in New York City, and in 1865 was admitted to the bar.[1][3]
Political career
Whitney was active in organizing the Young Men's Democratic Club in 1871. He was an aggressive opponent of the Tweed Ring, and was actively allied with the anti-Tammany County Democracy of 1871-1890. In 1872, he was made inspector of schools, but the same year met defeat in the election for district attorney.
From 1875 to 1882[4] he was corporation counsel of New York City, and as such brought about a codification of the laws relating to the city, and successfully contested a large part of certain claims, largely fraudulent, against the city, amounting to about $20 million, and a heritage from the Boss Tweed regime.[5] In 1882, he resigned to attend to personal interests.[6]
In 1883, through the Broadway Railroad Company, Whitney became involved in a struggle with Jacob Sharp and Thomas Fortune Ryan for the Broadway street-railway franchise. Sharp initially won the franchise by means of bribery, but in December 1884 Ryan formed an alliance with Whitney and Peter A.B. Widener. By arousing public opinion, instituting court action, and prompting legislative investigation, they defeated Sharp. The Ryan syndicate finally received the franchise in 1886.[7]
During President Cleveland's first administration (1885–1889), Whitney was United States Secretary of the Navy, and did much to develop the United States Navy. The contracts issued under the previous administration were investigated impartially by a committee appointed by Whitney and comprising Commander Evans, Commodore Belknap and Herman Winter, chief engineer of the Metropolitan Steamship Company.[8] Whitney promoted the adoption by industry of the technology needed for the construction of steel steamships and modern naval guns and the domestic manufacture of plate armor. He also reorganized the finances and logistics of the Navy Department and helped make the Naval War College a success.
When Whitney left office in 1889, steel vessels completed or under construction included the armored cruiser (later battleship) Maine; monitors Puritan, Amphitrite, Monadnock, Terror and Miantonomoh; protected cruisers Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Newark, Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and San Francisco; dynamite-gun cruiser Vesuvius; dispatch vessel Dolphin; gunboats Yorktown, Concord, Bennington and Petrel; and torpedo boat Cushing. These constituted the nucleus of the "New Navy"[9][10] During Whitney's four years in the cabinet, his home in Washington, D.C., was a social center of great attraction. In 1888, Yale conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D.
Whitney joined Charles T. Barney, Henry F. Dimock, W.E.D. Stokes, Francis W. Jenks, and others in forming the New York Loan and Improvement Company in 1890. This concern developed the Washington Heights section of New York City. Barney was president of the company when he died in 1907, three years after Whitney.[11] In opposition to Tammany, Whitney was instrumental in bringing about the third nomination of Cleveland in 1892, and took an influential part in the ensuing presidential campaign.[5]
Whitney joined his brother Henry in organizing the Dominion Coal Company Ltd. in 1893, and the Dominion Iron and Steel Company Ltd. in 1899, to exploit the mineral resources of the Sydney district of Cape Breton Island. Other early investors included Henry F. Dimock, Almeric H. Paget and Charles T. Barney. In the next general election, in 1896, disapproving of the "free-silver" agitation, Whitney refused to support his party's candidate, William Jennings Bryan.[5] [6]
Thoroughbred horse racing
William Whitney was also a major investor in thoroughbred horse racing, hiring the best trainers, buying the best horses, and engaging the services of the best jockey of the day.[12] He established Westbury Stable with a string of thoroughbred race horses, competing against the successful stable of business associate James R. Keene. At his vast summer estate near Old Westbury on Long Island, Whitney built an 800-foot (240 m) stable with 84 box stalls and an adjoining mile-long training track. Around the start of the 20th century, in the United States his horses were trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee John W. Rogers and in England by John Huggins.
Whitney maintained a city residence in New York, a Venetian palace and 5,000 acres in Wheatley Hills, near Jamaica, L.I.; a Sheepshead Bay house, with a private track covering 300 acres; a mansion with 700 acres at Lenox, MA; October Mountain summer cottage, 10,000 acre estate including 800 acre fenced-in game reserve, in Washington, MA;[13] Stony Ford Farm, New York, used as an auxiliary to his Kentucky Stock Farm; an Adirondack game preserve of 16,000 acres; a lodge at Blue Mountain Lake with a fine golf course, a Blue Grass farm of 3,000 acres in Kentucky. Whitney also spent time in the equestrian community of Aiken, South Carolina, revamping a local cottage into a 69-room winter residence that included 15 bathrooms, a full-size ballroom, a squash court and a stable to house 30 horses. His involvement in Aiken along with that of Thomas Hitchcock, the Vanderbilt family, the Astor family and other equestrian minded business associates helped establish the premier Aiken Winter Colony. Aiken remains a haven where horses are brought in from the north to train and enjoy a more temperate winter.
He was the breeder of twenty-six American stakes winners, including the great filly Artful from his stallion Hamburg. On June 5, 1901, Whitney won England's Derby with Volodyovski, leased by him from Lady Valerie Meux.[14][15] On October 24, 1903, the New York Times reported that W. C. Whitney had entered into a ten-year lease deal with A. J. Alexander for one thousand acres (4 km²) of the Wood Stud farm property at Spring Station, Kentucky. [1]
In 1901 Whitney led a group of investors who bought the Saratoga Race Course, which had been in decline. Whitney made major improvements to the track and is widely credited with revitalizing racing at Saratoga.[16][17]
Personal life
On October 13, 1869, he married Flora Payne, daughter of Senator Henry B. Payne of Ohio[18] and sister of Whitney's Yale classmate, Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne, later treasurer of the Standard Oil Company. The Whitneys had five children:
Harry Payne Whitney (1872–1930), who married Gertrude Vanderbilt (1875–1942)
Pauline Payne Whitney (1874–1916), who married Almeric Hugh Paget, 1st Baron Queenborough (1861–1949)
William Payne Whitney (1876–1927), who married Helen Julia Hay (1875–1944)
Oliver Whitney (1878–1883), who died aged 5[19]
Dorothy Payne Whitney (1887–1968), who first married Willard Dickerman Straight (1880–1918) and later married Leonard Knight Elmhirst (1893–1974)
Flora Payne Whitney died on February 5, 1893, at age fifty-two. Two years later, William Whitney remarried to Sibyl Randolph (née May), a widow of a Mr. Randolph. He acquired for her a residence at Fifth Avenue and 68th Street in New York City, and commissioned McKim, Mead & White to do a $3.5 million renovation of the house. In 1898, she suffered a horse riding accident at their estate, Joye Cottage, in the Aiken Winter Colony in Aiken, South Carolina,[7] in what is now known as Hitchcock Woods and died at age forty-one on May 6, 1899.[20]
Whitney was a member of Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred" as well as the Patriarch Society until its dissolution in April 1897.[21] On January 5, 1901, at his residence, 871 Fifth Avenue, Whitney gave a debutante ball for his niece, Helen Barney.[22]
He remained active in street-railway affairs until the reorganization of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company in 1902. At that time he retired from all personal identification with the company.[23]
William Collins Whitney died on February 2, 1904, and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. At the time of his death he was one of the largest landowners in the eastern United States, worth approximately $23 million (1/993rd of US GNP).[24][25]
Honors
In his honor:
The USS Whitney (AD-4) was named after him when launched on October 12, 1923 at the Boston Navy Yard
The William C. Whitney Wilderness Area of the Adirondack Park in Upstate New York is also named in his honor.
Early life
William Whitney was born at Conway, Massachusetts, of Puritan stock. The family were descended from John Whitney of London, who settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635. William Whitney's father was Brigadier General James Scollay Whitney; his mother, Laurinda Collins, was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. William Whitney had a well known older brother, industrialist Henry Melville Whitney (1839–1923), president of the Metropolitan Steamship Company, founder of the West End Street Railway Company of Boston, and later founder of the Dominion Coal Company and Dominion Iron and Steel Company in Sydney, Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island. His sister Laurinda Collins "Lily" Whitney married Charles T. Barney, who became the president of the Knickerbocker Trust Company.[1] Another sister, Susan Collins Whitney, married attorney Henry F. Dimock.
Educated at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, Whitney was graduated from Yale University in 1863, where he was a member of Skull and Bones,[2]:1099 and then studied law at Harvard. He left in 1864 to study law with Abraham R. Lawrence in New York City, and in 1865 was admitted to the bar.[1][3]
Political career
Whitney was active in organizing the Young Men's Democratic Club in 1871. He was an aggressive opponent of the Tweed Ring, and was actively allied with the anti-Tammany County Democracy of 1871-1890. In 1872, he was made inspector of schools, but the same year met defeat in the election for district attorney.
From 1875 to 1882[4] he was corporation counsel of New York City, and as such brought about a codification of the laws relating to the city, and successfully contested a large part of certain claims, largely fraudulent, against the city, amounting to about $20 million, and a heritage from the Boss Tweed regime.[5] In 1882, he resigned to attend to personal interests.[6]
In 1883, through the Broadway Railroad Company, Whitney became involved in a struggle with Jacob Sharp and Thomas Fortune Ryan for the Broadway street-railway franchise. Sharp initially won the franchise by means of bribery, but in December 1884 Ryan formed an alliance with Whitney and Peter A.B. Widener. By arousing public opinion, instituting court action, and prompting legislative investigation, they defeated Sharp. The Ryan syndicate finally received the franchise in 1886.[7]
During President Cleveland's first administration (1885–1889), Whitney was United States Secretary of the Navy, and did much to develop the United States Navy. The contracts issued under the previous administration were investigated impartially by a committee appointed by Whitney and comprising Commander Evans, Commodore Belknap and Herman Winter, chief engineer of the Metropolitan Steamship Company.[8] Whitney promoted the adoption by industry of the technology needed for the construction of steel steamships and modern naval guns and the domestic manufacture of plate armor. He also reorganized the finances and logistics of the Navy Department and helped make the Naval War College a success.
When Whitney left office in 1889, steel vessels completed or under construction included the armored cruiser (later battleship) Maine; monitors Puritan, Amphitrite, Monadnock, Terror and Miantonomoh; protected cruisers Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Newark, Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and San Francisco; dynamite-gun cruiser Vesuvius; dispatch vessel Dolphin; gunboats Yorktown, Concord, Bennington and Petrel; and torpedo boat Cushing. These constituted the nucleus of the "New Navy"[9][10] During Whitney's four years in the cabinet, his home in Washington, D.C., was a social center of great attraction. In 1888, Yale conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D.
Whitney joined Charles T. Barney, Henry F. Dimock, W.E.D. Stokes, Francis W. Jenks, and others in forming the New York Loan and Improvement Company in 1890. This concern developed the Washington Heights section of New York City. Barney was president of the company when he died in 1907, three years after Whitney.[11] In opposition to Tammany, Whitney was instrumental in bringing about the third nomination of Cleveland in 1892, and took an influential part in the ensuing presidential campaign.[5]
Whitney joined his brother Henry in organizing the Dominion Coal Company Ltd. in 1893, and the Dominion Iron and Steel Company Ltd. in 1899, to exploit the mineral resources of the Sydney district of Cape Breton Island. Other early investors included Henry F. Dimock, Almeric H. Paget and Charles T. Barney. In the next general election, in 1896, disapproving of the "free-silver" agitation, Whitney refused to support his party's candidate, William Jennings Bryan.[5] [6]
Thoroughbred horse racing
William Whitney was also a major investor in thoroughbred horse racing, hiring the best trainers, buying the best horses, and engaging the services of the best jockey of the day.[12] He established Westbury Stable with a string of thoroughbred race horses, competing against the successful stable of business associate James R. Keene. At his vast summer estate near Old Westbury on Long Island, Whitney built an 800-foot (240 m) stable with 84 box stalls and an adjoining mile-long training track. Around the start of the 20th century, in the United States his horses were trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee John W. Rogers and in England by John Huggins.
Whitney maintained a city residence in New York, a Venetian palace and 5,000 acres in Wheatley Hills, near Jamaica, L.I.; a Sheepshead Bay house, with a private track covering 300 acres; a mansion with 700 acres at Lenox, MA; October Mountain summer cottage, 10,000 acre estate including 800 acre fenced-in game reserve, in Washington, MA;[13] Stony Ford Farm, New York, used as an auxiliary to his Kentucky Stock Farm; an Adirondack game preserve of 16,000 acres; a lodge at Blue Mountain Lake with a fine golf course, a Blue Grass farm of 3,000 acres in Kentucky. Whitney also spent time in the equestrian community of Aiken, South Carolina, revamping a local cottage into a 69-room winter residence that included 15 bathrooms, a full-size ballroom, a squash court and a stable to house 30 horses. His involvement in Aiken along with that of Thomas Hitchcock, the Vanderbilt family, the Astor family and other equestrian minded business associates helped establish the premier Aiken Winter Colony. Aiken remains a haven where horses are brought in from the north to train and enjoy a more temperate winter.
He was the breeder of twenty-six American stakes winners, including the great filly Artful from his stallion Hamburg. On June 5, 1901, Whitney won England's Derby with Volodyovski, leased by him from Lady Valerie Meux.[14][15] On October 24, 1903, the New York Times reported that W. C. Whitney had entered into a ten-year lease deal with A. J. Alexander for one thousand acres (4 km²) of the Wood Stud farm property at Spring Station, Kentucky. [1]
In 1901 Whitney led a group of investors who bought the Saratoga Race Course, which had been in decline. Whitney made major improvements to the track and is widely credited with revitalizing racing at Saratoga.[16][17]
Personal life
On October 13, 1869, he married Flora Payne, daughter of Senator Henry B. Payne of Ohio[18] and sister of Whitney's Yale classmate, Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne, later treasurer of the Standard Oil Company. The Whitneys had five children:
Harry Payne Whitney (1872–1930), who married Gertrude Vanderbilt (1875–1942)
Pauline Payne Whitney (1874–1916), who married Almeric Hugh Paget, 1st Baron Queenborough (1861–1949)
William Payne Whitney (1876–1927), who married Helen Julia Hay (1875–1944)
Oliver Whitney (1878–1883), who died aged 5[19]
Dorothy Payne Whitney (1887–1968), who first married Willard Dickerman Straight (1880–1918) and later married Leonard Knight Elmhirst (1893–1974)
Flora Payne Whitney died on February 5, 1893, at age fifty-two. Two years later, William Whitney remarried to Sibyl Randolph (née May), a widow of a Mr. Randolph. He acquired for her a residence at Fifth Avenue and 68th Street in New York City, and commissioned McKim, Mead & White to do a $3.5 million renovation of the house. In 1898, she suffered a horse riding accident at their estate, Joye Cottage, in the Aiken Winter Colony in Aiken, South Carolina,[7] in what is now known as Hitchcock Woods and died at age forty-one on May 6, 1899.[20]
Whitney was a member of Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred" as well as the Patriarch Society until its dissolution in April 1897.[21] On January 5, 1901, at his residence, 871 Fifth Avenue, Whitney gave a debutante ball for his niece, Helen Barney.[22]
He remained active in street-railway affairs until the reorganization of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company in 1902. At that time he retired from all personal identification with the company.[23]
William Collins Whitney died on February 2, 1904, and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. At the time of his death he was one of the largest landowners in the eastern United States, worth approximately $23 million (1/993rd of US GNP).[24][25]
Honors
In his honor:
The USS Whitney (AD-4) was named after him when launched on October 12, 1923 at the Boston Navy Yard
The William C. Whitney Wilderness Area of the Adirondack Park in Upstate New York is also named in his honor.
William Collins Whitney - Wikipedia
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Doug Most - The Race Underground - America's First Subway & Boston, New York
In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew more congested, the streets became clogged with plodding, horse-drawn carts. When the...
Thank you, my friend TSgt Joe C. for sharing a summary of the life and achievements of American political leader and financier William Collins Whitney who was born on July 5, 1841 in Conway, Massachusetts.
Doug Most - The Race Underground - America's First Subway & Boston, New York
"In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew more congested, the streets became clogged with plodding, horse-drawn carts. When the great blizzard of 1888 crippled the entire northeast, a solution had to be found. Two brothers from one of the nation's great families—Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York—pursued the dream of his city digging America's first subway, and the great race was on. The competition between Boston and New York played out in an era not unlike our own, one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America's place in the world.
The Race Underground is peopled with the famous, like Boss Tweed, Grover Cleveland and Thomas Edison, and the not-so-famous, from brilliant engineers to the countless "sandhogs" who shoveled, hoisted and blasted their way into the earth's crust, sometimes losing their lives in the construction of the tunnels. Doug Most chronicles the science of the subway, looks at the centuries of fears people overcame about traveling underground and tells a story as exciting as any ever ripped from the pages of U.S. history. The Race Underground is a great American saga of two rival American cities, their rich, powerful and sometimes corrupt interests, and an invention that changed the lives of millions.
About the Author
Doug Most is the deputy managing editor for features at The Boston Globe. He is the author of Always in Our Hearts: The Story of Amy Grossberg, Brian Peterson, the Pregnancy They Hid and the Child They Killed. He has written for Sports Illustrated, Runner's World and Parents and his stories have appeared in Best American Crime Writing and Best American Sports Writing. He lives in Needham, Massachusetts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IysJNvZ5Flk
Background from racingmuseum.org/hall-of-fame/william-collins-whitney
William Collins Whitney was associated with thoroughbred racing for only a few years, but his imprint on the sport was arguably as significant as any individual in the history of the American turf and still resonates more than a century after his death.
Born on July 5, 1841, in Conway, Mass., Whitney was the third child of James Whitney and the former Laurinda Collins. James Whitney was a longtime member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and his wife was a descendent of Gov. William Bradford, of Plymouth Colony. Based on family pedigree it was no surprise young W. C. Whitney developed an interest in the political arena.
After graduating from Yale University, Whitney studied at Harvard Law School before obtaining employment in a New York City law office. He soon opened his own practice in partnership with another young attorney, Henry Dimock. From 1875 to 1882, Whitney was corporation counsel of New York City, and as such brought about a codification of the laws relating to the city. He successfully contested a large part of certain claims, largely fraudulent, against the city, amounting to about $20 million. These actions considerably diminished the power of Tammany Hall’s corrupt leader, William M. “Boss” Tweed.
Whitney went on to become Secretary of the Navy during the first term of President Grover Cleveland and led the modernization of its fleet and organization. The contracts issued under the previous administration, many of which were behind the times or simply insufficient, were reviewed impartially by a committee appointed by Whitney. This led to the construction of steel steamships, modern naval guns and the domestic manufacturing of plate armor. Whitney also streamlined the Navy’s finances and logistics and helped make the Naval War College a success.
In the mid-1890s, Whitney began to scale back his political endeavors and became interested in thoroughbred racing. He was introduced to the sport by August Belmont II and John E. Madden and quickly began assembling his stable. In 1899, Whitney purchased his first standout racehorse, Jean Bereaud, for $30,000 and won the Belmont and Withers with him in the name of his racing manager, Sydney Paget. All of Whitney’s horses ran in Paget’s name and colors during 1898 and 1899. Whitney received counsel on racing and bloodstock matters from Madden and hired Sam Hildreth to train the stable with Paget serving as the front man at the outset.
Whitney began to race in his own name in 1900. A disagreement led to Hildreth’s departure the following year and Madden took over as the stable’s primary trainer. Whitney was also enjoying success running horses in England, including a victory in the 1901 Epsom Derby with Volodyovski. It was from the English stable of George Lambton that Whitney purchased the iconic colors of Eton blue with a brown cap, which became synonymous with American racing excellence throughout the 20th century through his son, Harry Payne Whitney, and grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney.
Along with the prominence of his stable, Whitney became a respected leader in the sport. Saratoga Race Course, which for many years featured top-class sport and efficient management under the leadership of John Morrissey, had fallen on hard times during the dark era of Gottfried Walbaum in the 1890s. Leading a syndicate of prominent owners known as the Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses, Whitney purchased Saratoga Race Course in 1901 and spent a half-million dollars to upgrade the track — widening it from one mile to 1⅛ miles to eliminate the sharp turns and adding a steeplechase course in the infield — while also enhancing the grandstand and grounds. He immediately stabilized the declining stakes program and quickly returned the level of competition to its former level of prestige. Saratoga’s future, thanks in large part to Whitney, had been secured.
“Natives of Saratoga regard William C. Whitney as a patron saint,” said Frank Thorp in the Illustrated Sporting News. “He has scattered his dollars far and wide. His purchases of property have been on a magnificent scale. His improvements at the race course will foot up a half million dollars, much of which has gone into the pockets of Saratoga residents. The towns-people bless the day W. C. Whitney first set foot in their compact little village.”
Whitney was one of the original stockholders and directors of the Westchester Racing Association. When it became apparent that Morris Park was no longer a suitable racing venue, Whitney and Belmont financed and planned the construction of America’s largest track, Belmont Park.
All the while, Whitney’s stable was flourishing and his breeding operation was beginning to bear fruit. In 1901 and 1903, Whitney was the leading owner in America and it appeared he was about to embark on a racing dynasty. Whitney, however, suffered a ruptured appendix in late January of 1904. A blood infection was discovered, necessitating emergency surgery. Whitney died during the operation on the afternoon of Feb. 2. He was 62. In his limited time in the sport, Whitney bred 26 stakes winners, including the champions Artful, Tanya, Perverse and Tangle.
Whitney’s stable was raced in 1904 by Herman B. Duryea through a lease agreement. The majority of Duryea’s record $200,107 earnings that year came from Whitney’s horses. The bloodstock was dispersed at Madison Square Garden in New York City that October for a total of $463,650. Harry Payne Whitney was the sale’s principal buyer, purchasing 16 mares and two stallions (including the great Hamburg for $70,000) to begin his own remarkable foray into thoroughbred racing.
Upon Whitney’s death, President Cleveland said: “Mr. Whitney had more calm, forceful efficiency than any man I ever knew. I recall Mr. Whitney’s devotion to his friends, his extreme consideration for all with whom he came into contact, his thoughtfulness for the ease and comfort of others and his steady impulse to help those who needed it.”
FYI LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless SSG William Jones SSG Diane R.
Doug Most - The Race Underground - America's First Subway & Boston, New York
"In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew more congested, the streets became clogged with plodding, horse-drawn carts. When the great blizzard of 1888 crippled the entire northeast, a solution had to be found. Two brothers from one of the nation's great families—Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York—pursued the dream of his city digging America's first subway, and the great race was on. The competition between Boston and New York played out in an era not unlike our own, one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America's place in the world.
The Race Underground is peopled with the famous, like Boss Tweed, Grover Cleveland and Thomas Edison, and the not-so-famous, from brilliant engineers to the countless "sandhogs" who shoveled, hoisted and blasted their way into the earth's crust, sometimes losing their lives in the construction of the tunnels. Doug Most chronicles the science of the subway, looks at the centuries of fears people overcame about traveling underground and tells a story as exciting as any ever ripped from the pages of U.S. history. The Race Underground is a great American saga of two rival American cities, their rich, powerful and sometimes corrupt interests, and an invention that changed the lives of millions.
About the Author
Doug Most is the deputy managing editor for features at The Boston Globe. He is the author of Always in Our Hearts: The Story of Amy Grossberg, Brian Peterson, the Pregnancy They Hid and the Child They Killed. He has written for Sports Illustrated, Runner's World and Parents and his stories have appeared in Best American Crime Writing and Best American Sports Writing. He lives in Needham, Massachusetts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IysJNvZ5Flk
Background from racingmuseum.org/hall-of-fame/william-collins-whitney
William Collins Whitney was associated with thoroughbred racing for only a few years, but his imprint on the sport was arguably as significant as any individual in the history of the American turf and still resonates more than a century after his death.
Born on July 5, 1841, in Conway, Mass., Whitney was the third child of James Whitney and the former Laurinda Collins. James Whitney was a longtime member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and his wife was a descendent of Gov. William Bradford, of Plymouth Colony. Based on family pedigree it was no surprise young W. C. Whitney developed an interest in the political arena.
After graduating from Yale University, Whitney studied at Harvard Law School before obtaining employment in a New York City law office. He soon opened his own practice in partnership with another young attorney, Henry Dimock. From 1875 to 1882, Whitney was corporation counsel of New York City, and as such brought about a codification of the laws relating to the city. He successfully contested a large part of certain claims, largely fraudulent, against the city, amounting to about $20 million. These actions considerably diminished the power of Tammany Hall’s corrupt leader, William M. “Boss” Tweed.
Whitney went on to become Secretary of the Navy during the first term of President Grover Cleveland and led the modernization of its fleet and organization. The contracts issued under the previous administration, many of which were behind the times or simply insufficient, were reviewed impartially by a committee appointed by Whitney. This led to the construction of steel steamships, modern naval guns and the domestic manufacturing of plate armor. Whitney also streamlined the Navy’s finances and logistics and helped make the Naval War College a success.
In the mid-1890s, Whitney began to scale back his political endeavors and became interested in thoroughbred racing. He was introduced to the sport by August Belmont II and John E. Madden and quickly began assembling his stable. In 1899, Whitney purchased his first standout racehorse, Jean Bereaud, for $30,000 and won the Belmont and Withers with him in the name of his racing manager, Sydney Paget. All of Whitney’s horses ran in Paget’s name and colors during 1898 and 1899. Whitney received counsel on racing and bloodstock matters from Madden and hired Sam Hildreth to train the stable with Paget serving as the front man at the outset.
Whitney began to race in his own name in 1900. A disagreement led to Hildreth’s departure the following year and Madden took over as the stable’s primary trainer. Whitney was also enjoying success running horses in England, including a victory in the 1901 Epsom Derby with Volodyovski. It was from the English stable of George Lambton that Whitney purchased the iconic colors of Eton blue with a brown cap, which became synonymous with American racing excellence throughout the 20th century through his son, Harry Payne Whitney, and grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney.
Along with the prominence of his stable, Whitney became a respected leader in the sport. Saratoga Race Course, which for many years featured top-class sport and efficient management under the leadership of John Morrissey, had fallen on hard times during the dark era of Gottfried Walbaum in the 1890s. Leading a syndicate of prominent owners known as the Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses, Whitney purchased Saratoga Race Course in 1901 and spent a half-million dollars to upgrade the track — widening it from one mile to 1⅛ miles to eliminate the sharp turns and adding a steeplechase course in the infield — while also enhancing the grandstand and grounds. He immediately stabilized the declining stakes program and quickly returned the level of competition to its former level of prestige. Saratoga’s future, thanks in large part to Whitney, had been secured.
“Natives of Saratoga regard William C. Whitney as a patron saint,” said Frank Thorp in the Illustrated Sporting News. “He has scattered his dollars far and wide. His purchases of property have been on a magnificent scale. His improvements at the race course will foot up a half million dollars, much of which has gone into the pockets of Saratoga residents. The towns-people bless the day W. C. Whitney first set foot in their compact little village.”
Whitney was one of the original stockholders and directors of the Westchester Racing Association. When it became apparent that Morris Park was no longer a suitable racing venue, Whitney and Belmont financed and planned the construction of America’s largest track, Belmont Park.
All the while, Whitney’s stable was flourishing and his breeding operation was beginning to bear fruit. In 1901 and 1903, Whitney was the leading owner in America and it appeared he was about to embark on a racing dynasty. Whitney, however, suffered a ruptured appendix in late January of 1904. A blood infection was discovered, necessitating emergency surgery. Whitney died during the operation on the afternoon of Feb. 2. He was 62. In his limited time in the sport, Whitney bred 26 stakes winners, including the champions Artful, Tanya, Perverse and Tangle.
Whitney’s stable was raced in 1904 by Herman B. Duryea through a lease agreement. The majority of Duryea’s record $200,107 earnings that year came from Whitney’s horses. The bloodstock was dispersed at Madison Square Garden in New York City that October for a total of $463,650. Harry Payne Whitney was the sale’s principal buyer, purchasing 16 mares and two stallions (including the great Hamburg for $70,000) to begin his own remarkable foray into thoroughbred racing.
Upon Whitney’s death, President Cleveland said: “Mr. Whitney had more calm, forceful efficiency than any man I ever knew. I recall Mr. Whitney’s devotion to his friends, his extreme consideration for all with whom he came into contact, his thoughtfulness for the ease and comfort of others and his steady impulse to help those who needed it.”
FYI LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless SSG William Jones SSG Diane R.
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