George Hoffman Bend (1838-1900)
George H. Bend, Member of the New York Stock Exchange
He was born in New York City and as a stockbroker became a partner in Mowry, Keys & Bend from 1866. He was Governor of the New York Stock Exchange from 1873 to 1877 but was suspended from the Exchange for six months in 1890 following a dispute with Leopold Schepp that saw him punch Schepp in the nose for calling him a liar. His bankruptcy was declared about ten years later which occurred at roughly the same time as his death - more than likely not of natural causes. The effect his bankruptcy had on his two daughters led Edith Wharton to use Amy (whose second engagement had been announced in 1897 to the considerably older William Kissam Vanderbilt) as the model for her character Lily Bart in “The House of Mirth”.
In about 1872, at a cost of $60,000, he commissioned McKim, Mead & White to build a "handsome" brick house with stone trimmings on a bluff overlooking the Hudson at Riverdale in the Bronx, surrounded by 8 to 10 acres of landscaped gardens. By 1876, it was described as his permanent home and housed a valuable library and art collection that with his wife's jewellery was valued at $40,000. A fire in 1882 reduced it to, "a smoldering ruin with only a wall or two standing". The family moved back into the city at 4 East 46th Street (that after his bankruptcy and death was sold in 1901 to Adelaide Townsend Douglas), summered at Newport, and built a new country home in 1891. They named the latter "Sky High," a 2-story stone house (77-by-42-feet) with 9-fireplaces and 5-chimneys at Hunter in Onetera Park, described as, "one of the finest residences in the Catskills". Bend was a member of the Union Club, Metropolitan, Union League, New York City Riding Club, The Players, New York Yacht Club, and the American Geographical Society.
In 1868, he married Elizabeth, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Isaac Townsend and a sister-in-law of Buchanan Winthrop among others. George Bend himself was a brother-in-law of Henry Asher Robbins; a nephew of Thomas Byrom Grundy; a grand-nephew of Elias Boudinet; and, his step-grandmother was a niece of the Renaissance Man best known as a portrait painter, Charles Willson Peale. In 1892, the Bends (George, his wife and their two daughters) were listed as members of the Mrs Astor's hallowed "Four Hundred". Their eldest daughter, Amy, married Cortlandt Field Bishop; and, their younger daughter, Beatrice (died without children), married the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, Henry P. Fletcher.
In about 1872, at a cost of $60,000, he commissioned McKim, Mead & White to build a "handsome" brick house with stone trimmings on a bluff overlooking the Hudson at Riverdale in the Bronx, surrounded by 8 to 10 acres of landscaped gardens. By 1876, it was described as his permanent home and housed a valuable library and art collection that with his wife's jewellery was valued at $40,000. A fire in 1882 reduced it to, "a smoldering ruin with only a wall or two standing". The family moved back into the city at 4 East 46th Street (that after his bankruptcy and death was sold in 1901 to Adelaide Townsend Douglas), summered at Newport, and built a new country home in 1891. They named the latter "Sky High," a 2-story stone house (77-by-42-feet) with 9-fireplaces and 5-chimneys at Hunter in Onetera Park, described as, "one of the finest residences in the Catskills". Bend was a member of the Union Club, Metropolitan, Union League, New York City Riding Club, The Players, New York Yacht Club, and the American Geographical Society.
In 1868, he married Elizabeth, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Isaac Townsend and a sister-in-law of Buchanan Winthrop among others. George Bend himself was a brother-in-law of Henry Asher Robbins; a nephew of Thomas Byrom Grundy; a grand-nephew of Elias Boudinet; and, his step-grandmother was a niece of the Renaissance Man best known as a portrait painter, Charles Willson Peale. In 1892, the Bends (George, his wife and their two daughters) were listed as members of the Mrs Astor's hallowed "Four Hundred". Their eldest daughter, Amy, married Cortlandt Field Bishop; and, their younger daughter, Beatrice (died without children), married the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, Henry P. Fletcher.
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Contributed by Mark Meredith on 23/09/2022 and last updated on 24/09/2022.