May 16-23, 1916

During the middle of May, 1916 Kate Roosevelt’s younger sister, Caroline Shippen, had minor surgery. She didn’t go into details about the operation, but Caroline’s recuperation required that she stay at her sister Kate’s home at 301 Lexington Avenue under the care of private-duty nurses. Although the procedure was not a big deal, the people that came to visit the sickly-spinster certainly were. “Ann Morgan and Maude Wetmore came to see Caroline,” was the diary entry for May 16^th.  By now I knew that Ann Tracy Morgan was the unmarried daughter of the fantastically wealthy financier, J.P. Morgan.  She was one of the founding members of the elite Colony Club for Women and also an active volunteer, raising funds for the fatherless children of France and driving an ambulance during World War One. Ann Morgan along with her sisters, Louisa Satterlee and Julia Hamilton, and their former governess, Florence Rhett, kept company with all of the Shippen sisters, Caroline, Sophie, Ettie, Georgie and of course, Kate Roosevelt. Her father, J.P. Morgan referred to Ann as “The woman who runs me” and gave in to her every whim.

The identity of the moneyed-Ann Morgan was no mystery, but Maude Wetmore was another story and what a story she had to share.

After visiting with Caroline Shippen in New York, Maude, who lived at15 Waverly Place, soon left the city for the summer season at her family’s mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. Chateau Sur Mer certainly outshone the simple shingle-style seaside cottage called the “Anchorage” in Rumson, New Jersey that the Shippen family spent their summers at.

Up until 1966 when Edith Wetmore died, she and her maiden sister, Maud Wetmore, who died in 1951 remained loyal guardians of this grand mansion that could most certainly give Downton Abbey’s Highclare Castle a run for its money.

George Peabody and his wife in an electric car, 1906

Maude’s father, George Peabody Wetmore, the former Governor of Rhode Island, also known as the “Silent Senator” devoted his life to public service after graduating from Yale in 1867 and Columbia Law School in 1869. George Wetmore inherited Chateau Sur Mer from his father, William Shepard Wetmore, who made his fortune trading in the Orient.

Between 1850 and the turn-of-the-twentieth century, as the mansions went up along Bellevue Avenue, they became testaments to America’s own brand of aristocracy. With few prospects to achieve English rank or title, the newly-minted millionaires were propelled into the pursuit of riches that translated into social status. The “nouveau rich” earned a reputation for fostering an obsessive quest for material gain.  There were few places where this addiction to affluence was more evident than in Newport, Rhode Island and no home more impressive than Chateau Sur Mer. When it was built in 1857 the New York Times called it “One of the largest and most magnificent houses in Newport.”

When George Wetmore and his new wife, Edith inherited the mansion in 1870, they began renovations under the direction of noted architect, Richard Morris Hunt. Known for designing the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, the Vanderbilt Mansion on Fifth Avenue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hunt was put in charge of modernizing and enlarging Chateau Sur Mer.

Servants

When Hunt began the project, that spanned ten years, servants were just starting to enjoy a certain social status of their own and their living and working arrangements mirrored those changes. The architect’s goal, according to Domestic Life at Chateau Sur Mer by Holly Collins, “Was to achieve servant detachment and a proper isolation without proximity to their employers.” An addition to the stable complex made room for the coachmen and grooms and a housekeeper’s room was added to the servants’ wing.

The 1880 Census, taken when Maude Wetmore was seven years-old listed fifteen servants living on the estate. The staff included an English butler, a French cook, four footmen, a groom, a maid, a nurse, two chambermaids, two kitchen girls and two laundresses.  Fifty percent of the servants were Irish immigrants.

Chateau Sur Mer

According to The Transformation of Chateau Sur Mer by Winslow Ames, “Mrs. Wetmore chose the footmen who performed a vast array of duties and had frequent contact with the family from dawn to dusk.”

The Wetmore’s four footmen took charge of the basement boot room, located directly under the library in the main house it was where they cleaned and polished the family’s footwear.  Their early morning tasks, done before laying out the breakfast table, included cleaning knives and forks, trimming lamp wicks, brushing-out the master’s clothing and polishing the furniture.

In 1907 the regimental running of the basement kitchen was commanded by a French Chef named Urbain Dubois who oversaw the  twenty-seven year-old French Cook, Louis Cuffenpre and Irish kitchen maids, eighteen year-old, Nellie Martin and twenty-six year-old, Angie Qnaltie who spent hours standing over cavernous copper stock pots, stirring simmering sauces and unmolding elaborate aspics. The perfect presentation of the jellied side-dish would have been praised even by the fictional Mrs. Patmore who ran the kitchen at Downton Abbey like a delightful drill sergeant.

Upstairs, the English Butler, John Callajheue, polished the silver and arranged the battalion of china and serving pieces. The four footmen, referred to by their last names: Cosgrove, Johnson, White and Shekey dusted and polished the dining room before laying the table and awaiting the approval of mansion’s major-domo, the white-gloved butler.

One or both chambermaids, Annie McDonald and Elizabeth Riley, arranged flowers grown by the estate’s gifted gardener, Robert Christie.

The Dining Room at Chateau Sur Mer

After their parents died, the two spinsters, Edith and Maude Wetmore remained at Chateau Sur Mer, maintaining a long-gone lifestyle with the help of a retinue of loyal servants, some still wearing full livery.

The sisters divided the daily running of the estate.  Maude was in charge of the house, assisted by a butler, a cook, three kitchen maids, a houseman, a footman, three pantry helpers, two upstairs maids, two ladies maids and two chauffeurs.  Edith took charge of the grounds with the help of nine gardeners.

Following in her father’s footsteps, Maude Wetmore became a nationally-known Republican leader and served as President of the Women’s Republican Club.  Edith Wetmore was President of the Old State House in Newport, founder of the Newport Theater and a fellow in perpetuity of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

When Edith Wetmore died in 1966, her butler was quoted in the New York Times, “She was a great lady, really one of the old guard.”  Edith and her younger sister, Maude, who died in1951 were referred to as “The last representatives of the conservative elegance that dominated society a half century ago. When society gradually began breaking the rules of times past, the two very proper ladies did not.  The Wetmore’s tradition of distinguished Victorian and Edwardian culture stood unflappable and the lengthy tenure of many of their servants attests a relationship bound by mutual respect.”

In her will Maude left generous bequest to all of her servants including Jeanie Binden, whose late-husband, James, came from England to work as caretaker at Chateau Sur Mer in 1897. He died in 1949 after forty-five years of service to two generations of Wetmores.

Now the mystery of Maude Wetmore had been solved and I had taken a trip back in time to another era and another place where Edwardian etiquette still held court, servants were more than necessities and money, even though it couldn’t buy class, certainly helped to sustain it.

Sharon Hazard’s Dowager’s Diary appears on Thursday.

Photo One:
The Shippen Sisters:
Author Collection

Photo Two:
George Peabody and his wife in an electric car, 1906
Library of Congress

Photo Three:
Servants
National Trust, England

Photo Four:
Chateau Sur Mer
Library of Congress

Photo Five:
The Dining Room at Chateau Sur Mer
Library of Congress

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