Hamilton McKown Twombly (1849-1910)

He was born at Boston, Massachusetts, and was educated at the Boston Latin School before graduating from Harvard (1871). He began his career in Boston as a paper manufacturer with H.M. Clark & Co. before establishing his own firm, Twombly & Co., in 1873. In 1877, he married Florence Vanderbilt, daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt, President of the New York Central Railroad, and he swapped paper manufacturing for leasing and managing the grain elevators on his father-in-law's railroads. Described as "a very correct Bostonian," a stickler for detail and, "the poster boy for pecuniary prudence," it was those characteristics that saw him become his father-in-law's personal financial advisor, as well as an advisor to J.P. Morgan.

He was an investor and the director of numerous companies including: Western Union; the Chicago & North Western Railway; the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad; the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad; the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad; the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroads; the New Jersey Shore Line Railroad; the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation; the National Union Bank; and, the New York Mutual Gas Light Company. He incorporated the Edison Electric Light Company and was a Trustee of the Guarantee Trust Company and the Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1890, with brothers-in-law Abram Hewitt and Edward Cooper he established the American Sulphur Company that became the Union Sulphur Company. He and his wife were worth a combined $70-million. They lived between 684 Fifth Avenue, New York City; Florham in New Jersey; Vinland in Newport, Rhode Island; and, "Pine Tree Point" on Upper St. Regis Lake in the Adirondacks. They had four children (listed).