George Griswold Haven Jr. (June 14, 1866 – July 21, 1925) was an American businessman.[1]
Early life
Haven was born in
New York City on June 14, 1866. He was the son of George
Griswold Haven Sr. (1837–1908) and Emma Walton (
née Martin) Haven (1840–1873).[2] Among his siblings was Cornelia Haven[3] (wife of Stephen Peabody),[4] Alice Griswold Haven (wife of John Nelson Borland),[5] and Joseph Woodward Haven.[6] His niece, Alice "Ella" Borland,[7] was married to
Orme Wilson Jr., the
U.S. Ambassador to Haiti under
Franklin D. Roosevelt.[8]
His father, a prominent
New Yorker, came from a family that had settled in
New England in the earliest times.[1] His maternal grandparents were Cornelia (née Walton) Martin and Isaac Parker, descendant of Joseph Martin, who came to the United States from the
Canary Islands and settled in New York City.[1] In 1898, his father purchased the former Callender estate on
Narragansett Avenue in
Newport, Rhode Island from Mrs. Frances Ogden.[9] His grand-uncle was
John N. A. Griswold.[9]
After his graduation, Haven returned to
New York City to enter the Lehigh & Wilkes Barre Coal Company. Following in his father's footsteps, Haven became interested in railroads, his next job being secretary and treasurer of the
St. Paul & Duluth and
New York and Northern Railways. He later became general manager of New York & Northern.[1]
In 1896, Haven joined the firm Strong, Sturgis & Company, whom he represented on the
New York Stock Exchange.[1]
Haven was married twice. He married his first wife, Elizabeth Shaw Ingersoll (1860–1923),[12] the daughter of
Charles Roberts Ingersoll, a former
Governor of Connecticut, on September 4, 1889. Together, they were the parents of:
Leila Ingersoll Haven (1890–1974), who married Gilbert Edward Jones Jr. (1888–1925).[13]
George Griswold Haven III (1892–1944),[14] who married Elizabeth George (1896–1990) in 1925.[15][16]
Alice Haven (1895–1946),[17] who married George Schieffelin Trevor (1892–1951) in 1915.[18] They divorced and she later married William Otis Waters (1889–1940).[19]
Two years after the death of his first wife, he married Dorothy James on February 4, 1925,[20] the daughter of Henry Ammon James and Laura Brevoort (née Sedgwick) James.[1][21] In early 1924, Haven suffered a nervous breakdown. He retired from business and began traveling in hope of regaining his health, but on July 21, 1925, Haven shot himself through the head with a revolver, at his home on Fifty-third Street,
New York City.[11] He was interred at
Green-Wood Cemetery.[1] His estate was left to his widow and children.[22]
References
^
abcdefghObituary Record of Yale Graduates 1925-1926, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 22nd Series, August 1, 1926, #22, p. 126-7.