Winthrop Sargent Gilman
Encyclopedia
Winthrop Sargent Gilman (1808–1884) was head of the banking house of Gilman, Son & Co. in New York City.

Biography

He was born in Marietta, Ohio
Marietta, Ohio
Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Ohio, United States. During 1788, pioneers to the Ohio Country established Marietta as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory. Marietta is located in southeastern Ohio at the mouth...

 to merchant Benjamin Ives Gilman and Hannah (Robbins) Gilman. Benjamin Ives Gilman, born in 1766, was a native of Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town's population was 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood...

, where his ancestors were among the most prominent early settlers and where he graduated in the first class of the Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...

.

In 1837 Winthrop Sargent Gilman let the abolitionist Elijah Parish Lovejoy hide his printing press in one of Gilman's warehouses in Alton, Illinois
Alton, Illinois
Alton is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 27,865 at the 2010 census. It is a part of the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area in Southern Illinois...

. In the ensuing riot the angry mob burned Gilman's warehouse to the ground and killed Lovejoy. Following the Alton riots, Gilman moved to New York City and entered the family banking business. He was married to Abia Swift Lippincott
Gilman, who in 1900 narrowly escaped burning to death from a gasoline torch in front of the Charles Scribner
Charles Scribner
Charles Scribner is the name of several members of a New York publishing family associated with Charles Scribner's Sons:*Charles Scribner I *Charles Scribner II *Charles Scribner III *Charles Scribner IV...

 mansion at 12 East Thirty-eighth Street.

Winthrop Gilman had an abiding interest in science and built a private observatory at his home 'Fern Lodge
Neiderhurst
Neiderhurst is a historic estate located at Palisades in Rockland County, New York. The main estate house was built as a summer home between 1872 and 1874 in the High Victorian Gothic style. It is a two story, "L" shaped residence surmounted by steep gable roofs. It was built by Winthrop S....

' at the Palisades, New York
Palisades, New York
Palisades, formerly known as Sneden's Landing, is a hamlet in the Town of Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of Rockleigh and Alpine, New Jersey; east of Tappan; south of Sparkill; and west of the Hudson River....

, where he frequently observed meteors.

Gilman, Son & Co. in New York often acted in conjunction with the interests of the Brown family of Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

, founders of Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

. Subsequently, John Nicholas Brown and the Gilman Land Company, an offshoot of the Gilman family banking business, were involved in the development of the Gilman Block in Sioux City, Iowa
Sioux City, Iowa
Sioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....

,as well as other real estate properties.

Winthrop Sargent Gilman's sons were Winthrop S. Gilman, Jr. (1839–1923), Benjamin Ives Gilman
Benjamin Ives Gilman
Benjamin Ives Gilman was the Secretary of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from 1893 to 1925.He was the son of Winthrop Sargent Gilman, and first worked for the family banking house. Then he returned to college. At the Johns Hopkins University he studied as a graduate student under Charles Sanders...

, Theodore P. Gilman
Theodore P. Gilman
Theodore P. Gilman was an American banker and politician.-Life:He was the son of Winthrop Sargent Gilman and Abia Swift Lippincott Gilman. He graduated from Williams College in 1862, where he was a member of The Kappa Alpha Society, and graduated A.M. in 1865. He married Elizabeth Drinker Paxson...

 and Arthur Gilman (1837–1909). Arthur was a banker with the family firm, but when his health faltered, he retired to his estate 'Glynllyn' in the Berkshires near Lee, Massachusetts
Lee, Massachusetts
Lee is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, metropolitan statistical area. The population was 5,943 which was determined in the 2010 census. Lee, which includes the villages of South and East Lee, is part of the Berkshires resort...

, and became a writer on historical subjects and family history, a philanthropist and the founder of Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...

 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

.

Papers

Papers of Winthrop Sargent Gilman and his sons and other Gilman family members are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society. They include correspondence, diaries, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, printed materials, and genealogical information.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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