Alister Greene

Alister Greene
Born(1854-09-28)September 28, 1854
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedMarch 8, 1923(1923-03-08) (aged 68)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma materColumbia College
Columbia Law School
Parent(s)Martin E. Greene
Matilda Zabriskie Greene
RelativesEliot Zborowski (cousin)
Andrew C. Zabriskie (cousin)

Alister Greene (September 28, 1854 – March 8, 1923)[1] was an American soldier and social leader during the Gilded Age.

Early life

Greene was born in New York City on September 28, 1854.[2] He was the son of Martin E. Greene (1826–1907)[3] and Matilda Mary (née Zabriskie) Greene (d. 1898),[1] who had been well known in the older New York society.[4]

His maternal grandparents were Mary (née Ryerson) Zabriskie[5] and Andrew Christian Zabriskie,[6] and the Zabriskie family descended from Albrycht Zaborowski, a Polish immigrant from Angerburg (Węgorzewo) in Ducal Prussia, who settled in New Jersey in 1662 alongside a Dutch community.[7] His cousin, Andrew Christian Zabriskie was married to Frances Hunter in 1895, and Alister served as best man.[8] Another cousin, Eliot Zborowski, was married to Margaret Astor Carey, a niece of William Astor Jr., Caroline Astor, and granddaughter of William Backhouse Astor, Sr. of the prominent Astor family.[9]

He was a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School.[10]

Career

After Greene graduated from law school, he "devoted his life to study and research in law" but never actually practiced law.[10]

He was also a volunteer with the 10th company of New York's 7th Regiment,[11] which was referred to as the "silk stocking" regiment or "Blue-Bloods", due to the disproportionate number of its members who were part of New York City's social elite,[12]

Society life

In 1892, Greene, who was well known in the "New York club and society worlds,"[4] was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[13][14] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[15]

He was a member of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, serving on its executive committee,[16] a life member of the New-York Historical Society (since 1896),[17] and was a member of the Union Club of the City of New York, the Metropolitan Club, the University Club, the Army and Navy Club, the New York Yacht Club, and the American Bar Association.[10]

Personal life

Greene, who did not marry, lived at 65 East 72nd Street in New York City, one of two four story (and basement) dwellings, covering a plot 40 ft. by 102 ft along with 63 East 72nd Street which was owned by his father.[18]

Greene died of pneumonia at his New York residence on March 8, 1923.[10] His funeral was held at the Church of the Incarnation on Madison Avenue.[1] A month after his death, the heirs of his and his later father's estates sold the East 72nd Street properties.[18] In November 1923, his estate sold additional property owned by Greene at 102 Franklin Street (in the modern neighborhood of Tribeca) which consisted of a five-story and basement building on a lot of 25 by 100 feet.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c "DIED. Greene" (PDF). The New York Times. March 10, 1923. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  2. ^ "U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925". ancestry.com. W. Reid Gould, Law Blank Publisher and Stationer. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  3. ^ "Died. Greene" (PDF). The New York Times. November 5, 1907. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Mrs. Matilda Mary Greene" (PDF). The New York Times. May 24, 1898. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  5. ^ Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Totten, John Reynolds; Mott, Hopper Striker; Pitman, Harold Minot; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Maynard, Arthur S.; Mann, Conklin (1892). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 144. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  6. ^ Van Valen, James M. (1900). History of Bergen County, New Jersey. New Jersey pub. and engraving Company. p. 157. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  7. ^ Seroczynski, Felix (1911). "Poles in the United States". The Catholic Encyclopedia. 12. Robert Appleton Company.
  8. ^ "Zabriskie--Hunter" (PDF). The New York Times. June 7, 1895. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  9. ^ "Wills of Mr. and Mrs. Carey.; How They Dispose of Two Large Estates". The New York Times. 22 May 1881. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  10. ^ a b c d "Alister Greene" (PDF). The New York Times. March 10, 1923. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  11. ^ The Seventh Regiment Gazette, Vol. 36-37. 1921. p. 135. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  12. ^ Lukasik, Sebastian Hubert (2008). Military Service, Combat, and American Identity in the Progressive Era (PDF). Duke University, Ph.D. diss. p. 84. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  13. ^ McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  14. ^ Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 217. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  15. ^ Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  16. ^ Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, H. Minot (Harold Minot); Ditmas, Charles Andrew; De Forest, Louis Effingham; Mann, Conklin; Maynard, Arthur S. (1870). The New York Genealogical and Biographical record. New York: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  17. ^ New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin. New-York Historical Society. 1922. p. 27. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  18. ^ a b "LATEST DEALINGS IN REALTY FIELD; $6,500,000 Lease to 'Schraffts' for Building Site in Times Square Section. A HUNDRED-YEAR TERM Ralph A. Gushee Exercises Option to Purchase Turbell Property for $300,000" (PDF). The New York Times. April 11, 1923. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  19. ^ "LATEST DEALINGS IN REALTY FIELD; The Vanderbilt Avenue Building Sold by J. Clarence Davies to Robert M. Catts. DEAL INVOLVES $3,000,000 Buyer Will Add Twelve Stories to Structure -- J.H. Eagle Also Buys in Central Zone" (PDF). The New York Times. November 14, 1923. Retrieved 21 November 2018.