American CEO and philanthropist (1881?1963)
Marcellus Hartley Dodge Sr.
(February 28, 1881 – December 25, 1963) was the chairman of the board of
Remington Arms Company
and a member of the family associated with the
Phelps Dodge Corporation
. He was the president or director of several companies and the president of
YMCA
in the United States. He was a well-known
philanthropist
with significant donations to many institutions and organizations and he was a major contributor to the successful efforts to protect the
Great Swamp
.
[1]
Biography
[
edit
]
He was born on February 28, 1881, to Emma Hartley, who died from complication of childbirth on March 3, 1881, and
Norman White Dodge
.
[2]
His paternal grandfather was
William E. Dodge Sr.
, an
abolitionist
, but also a partner at Phelps, Dodge, a company that exported cotton from the deep south to Liverpool, England. Phelps, Dodge was also in the business of importing copper from England and diversified into mining and smelting. He was a promoter of the rights of
Native Americans
who served as the president of the
National Temperance Society
from 1865 to 1883, represented the New York 8th congressional district in the
United States Congress
for a portion of the 39th United States Congress in 1866-67, and was a founding member of
YMCA
in the United States. He had married
Melissa Phelps
(1809-1903), the daughter of
Anson Greene Phelps
and
Olivia Egleston
and in 1833, William E. Dodge and his father-in-law founded the mining firm Phelps, Dodge, and Company, one of America's foremost mining companies.
His maternal grandfather was
Marcellus Hartley
, a merchant and financier of
Manhattan
. His grandfather had provided a home on Thirty-seventh Street adjoining his on Madison Avenue for his daughter, Emma, as a wedding present when she had married Norman W. Dodge on May 6, 1880. Emma died on March 3, 1881, a few days after the birth of her son.
[1]
Several years after the death of his mother, his father remarried on January 5, 1897,
[2]
[3]
and Marcellus was raised by his maternal grandparents.
[4]
Marcellus Hartley died in 1902 and left his grandson as heir to $60 million (approximately $2,112,923,000 today) at the age of twenty-one, while he was attending
Columbia University
and living with his grandmother,
Frances Chester Hartley
, at 282
Madison Avenue
in Manhattan.
Education and early adulthood
[
edit
]
In 1903, Dodge was graduated from
Columbia University
, where he was president of his class, manager of the
track
team, and
coxswain
of his class
crew
(sometimes referred to as
college rowing
).
Upon his graduation, he and his maternal aunt,
Helen Hartley Jenkins
(Mrs. George W. Jenkins), presented the
Hartley Hall
dormitory to Columbia. The building became Columbia's largest dormitory and created more of a college atmosphere for the new campus in
Morningside Heights
.
Well known in society and an avid
yachtsman
, on July 11, 1906, Dodge took a party of his friends on the
Wakiva I
, his large pleasure and cruising yacht, on a month-long tour to the upper waters of the
Amazon River
, the
Orinoco
in
Venezuela
and
Colombia
,
the Guianas
:
British Guiana
,
Surinam
, and
French Guiana
. They visited many locations in the Caribbean,
[3]
including
Cuba
where they toured the battle fields of recent armed rebellion before returning to
Tampa
. His guests included Nicholas Crosby, international law authority
John Bassett Moore
, historian H. A. Cushing, Everitt Dominick, Eugene Delano Jr., cartographer and historian
William Robert Shepherd
, J. R. Thompson, and Dr. James R. Cannon. Photographs and some remembrances of the trip by Eugene Delano were published in the Yale Courant, Volume 43 May 1907, pages 686?693, under the title,
Les Iles du Salut
.
Marriage
[
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]
In 1907, Dodge became engaged and married to
(Ethel) Geraldine Rockefeller
of 689
Fifth Avenue
. She was a child of
William
and Almira Geraldine Goodsell Rockefeller, and was estimated to have her own fortune of more than 100 million dollars. They were said to be the wealthiest newlyweds in the country when they married. Initially, when they resided in New Jersey, they lived together at
Hartley Farms
, a country estate in New Vernon purchased by Marcellus and his aunt, Helen Hartley Jenkins, in 1904.
Soon, they bought all of the land between two estates held by his family in
Morris County, New Jersey
, that lay between Spring Valley Road in the community of
New Vernon
and Madison Avenue in
Madison
. Most of the area is part of the Harding Township area that extends from
Chatham
to
Morristown
. The last portion purchased, that had belonged to
Charles W. Harkness
, the third largest stockholder of
Standard Oil
shares, named
Giralda Farms
, was purchased by Geraldine in 1923. She maintained it as a grand country estate among the rolling hills.
Eventually, they resided separately on the adjoining estates. He preferred the New Jersey setting and maintained his residence in New Vernon throughout his life, but his wife regularly stayed in her Manhattan residence for two or three days each week.
Dodge expanded the house at "Hartley Farms", which initially had been used as a country retreat associated with his family's charitable organization,
"Hartley House"
in Manhattan. After it became his residence, he added two wings and some interior enhancements to the house as well as secondary living quarters, barns, stables, and a polo field. The property has been preserved with a
conservation easement
and his residence has been listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
. At one time
Hartley Farms
extended for a thousand acres (4 km
2
).
They had one child,
Marcellus Hartley Dodge Jr.
, who died in an automobile crash in
Mogesca
,
France
in 1930.
[4]
His mother built an extensive memorial to him as a civic center in Madison along with the train station she built opposite the center. They also donated a structure on the campus of
Princeton University
, from which their son had been graduated shortly before his death.
At the time of his marriage, Dodge was the president and a director of the
Union Metallic Cartridge Company
, president of the
Bridgeport Gun Implement Company
, director of the
Equitable Trust Company
, director of
International Banking Company
, director of
M. Hartley Company
, a member of the
Lawyers Club of New York City
, the
Essex County Country Club
, and the
City of New York Club
.
An accomplished
equestrian
, Dodge also founded the
Spring Valley Hounds
, a hunt club that not only conducted hunts for their members among the many estates nearby, but also held a major annual
horse show
in New Jersey. Competitions included those for hunters and open jumpers, as well as for saddle horses of three and five gaits. Many of the competitors followed the international horse show circuit that closed its season with the November exhibition at
Madison Square Garden
on Fiftieth Street and Eighth Avenue in
Manhattan
each year. Nearby, the
United States Equestrian Team
formed for the
Olympics
from these ranks in 1950, it was founded just off of Spring Valley Road, on van Beuren Road at the Coates estate.
Remington Arms Company
[
edit
]
Eventually, Dodge became the chairman of
Remington Arms Company
, taking the place of his maternal grandfather. The Remington Arms and Union Metallic Cartridge factories at Bridgeport, Connecticut were described as the greatest small arms and ammunition plant in the world by the editor of the
New York Times
in 1916.
[5]
Cash control of the company was acquired by
E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company
of
Wilmington, Delaware
, in 1933, but Dodge remained at the head of the business.
Following the business tradition established by his grandfather at the time of the
American Civil War
, his company was the supplier of sixty-nine percent of the
arms
,
ammunition
, and
munitions
being used by the federal government during the
Second World War
. Secret meetings about this were held on his country estate,
Hartley Farms
, at his
polo
fields which, except for the war years, were also used from 1927 as the site of the exhibition of the
Morris and Essex Dog Show
held by his wife, Geraldine. During these meetings General
Dwight D. Eisenhower
and he became close friends.
Columbia University board of directors
[
edit
]
He was a member of the board of trustees of
Columbia University
, his
alma mater
and made many donations to the university.
[5]
He was the founder of the Marcellus Hartley Dodge Cup that is awarded in crew. The Marcellus Hartley Dodge Award is bestowed in his honor.
[6]
A bronze plaque dedicated to Dodge and bearing his likeness is displayed at the university.
Champion of the Great Swamp
[
edit
]
When the remnants of
Glacial Lake Passaic
, the
Great Swamp
that abutted Dodge's estate, was targeted for development as an airport by the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
, nearby citizens formed the
Jersey Jetport Site Association
in 1959 to protect it by purchasing properties to assemble for donation to the government as a federal park. Dodge, being close to the area and fiscally capable, joined their efforts.
Dodge was one of the first trustees of the
North American Wildlife Foundation
that completed the acquisition of enough of the Great Swamp to protect the massive natural resource. Legislation was introduced that was championed by
Stewart L. Udall
while he was a congressman from Arizona. It was passed on November 3, 1960, protecting the important natural resource. In 1964 the park was dedicated by Udall, who had become
Secretary of the Interior
to president
John F. Kennedy
and continued in the same role under
Lyndon B. Johnson
.
[7]
[8]
The
Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
was dedicated in 1968. It was named the M. Hartley Dodge Wildlife Refuge,
[6]
in honor of his son.
Death
[
edit
]
Dodge died on
Christmas Day
, December 25, 1963, at
Giralda Farms
in
Madison, New Jersey
.
[1]
He is buried at
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
, at Sleepy Hollow, in
Westchester County, New York, USA
[9]
in the
Rockefeller Family
plot alongside of his son and where, ten years later, his wife also would be buried.
Legacy
[
edit
]
In
The New York Times
, Dodge was described as an outstanding citizen, remembered above all for the warmth and generosity of his personality. He was a well-known
philanthropist
. Beginning with a donation of fountains on the plaza before
Low Memorial Library
and a residence building for students in 1903,
Hartley Hall
, that he and his aunt,
Helen Hartley Jenkins
, donated, he provided many gifts to Columbia University
[7]
, and numerous other institutions and organizations. After his death his family and estate underwrote the construction of Dodge Physical Fitness Center at Columbia, and the university renamed another of its buildings Dodge Hall in his honor.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Marcellus Hartley Dodge Dies. Ex-Remington Arms Chairman. Philanthropist Inherited $60 Million at 26. Married Ethel Rockefeller in '07. Wife's Fortune Larger. Columbia Benefactor"
.
The New York Times
. December 26, 1963
. Retrieved
2011-03-11
.
Marcellus Hartley Dodge, honorary chairman of the board of Remington Arms Company, died here today at his home. He was 82 years old and lived at Giralda Farms.
- ^
"Emma Hartley Dodge"
.
FamilySearch
. Death, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,322,597
. Retrieved
11 September
2015
.
- ^
Went up the Amazon in an American Yacht...
,
New York Times
, September 16, 1906
- ^
"M. H. Dodge Jr. Killed in French Auto Crash. Kin of J.D. Rockefeller Was Heir to Fortune"
.
New York Times
. August 31, 1930
. Retrieved
2007-05-30
.
Marcellus Hartley Dodge Jr., grand-nephew of J.D. Rockefeller Jr., was instantly killed and his companion on an automobile trip in France, Ralph Applegate, was seriously injured when their car
- ^
Strother, French (January 1916).
"America, A New World Arsenal"
.
The World's Work: A History of Our Time
.
XXXI
: 321?333
. Retrieved
2009-08-04
.
- ^
"Marcellus Hartley Dodge Award"
(PDF)
. Retrieved
2007-05-30
.
- ^
"Letter from Marcellus Hartley Dodge to Nicholas Murray Butler"
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2006-09-07
. Retrieved
2008-05-26
.
- ^
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
.
www.fws.gov
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 11 November 2012
. Retrieved
13 January
2022
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
- ^
Find a Grave - Marcellus Hartley Dodge, Sr.
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