The Van Alen Sister's Saga ~ Better Than A Soap Opera

"Miss Sarah Van Alen Now Mrs. R.J. Collier; Wedding Quietly Solemnized at Newport Yesterday"

"Special to The New York Times July 27, 1902, NEWPORT, R.I., July 26. -- The wedding of Miss Sarah Stewart Van Alen to Robert Joseph Collier to-day did not attract the attention of the society people of Newport as did the Martin-Oelrichs wedding of Thursday. The two functions differed widely. One had been long heralded and invitations were numerous; the other came as a surprise, was in a measure of a private character, and the invitations were very few in number." 

A Gilded Age Bride

The wedding of a young, Newport Rhode Island woman, in high society is "quietly solemnized"?  The newspaper article goes to the trouble of telling the readers that this particular wedding was not "long heralded", did not "attract the attention of the society people of Newport" as a wedding of one of her peers had, and it came as a surprise. I am going to post the whole article below, as it goes into great length describing the beautiful Wakefield event.  

 

Maybe quiet weddings, attended by the Astors and Condé Nast, among others, seemed like small potatoes in the Gilded Age, but the details sound absolutely wonderful.  Again though, as you will read in the article, many friends were invited to the church mass for the couple, but few attended.  Made me wonder...

 

Did she marry a cad?  Was this on a whim?  Was she already in a "delicate state"?  Maybe, none of those reasons.  It is highly possible that her father was not happy about his daughter May's "love entanglements", long list of broken unofficial engagements, one of which was to the Duke of  Manchester. Maybe her younger sister Sarah was as well.

Another of May's many notable 'entanglements' was supposedly her future brother in-law, Mr. Collier.  The newspaper goes on to say that she tired of him, and "Accordingly, she turned him over to her sister, Miss Sarah Van Alen, an arrangement, which up to the present time, appears to be eminently satisfactory both to Mr. Collier and the younger Miss Van Alen."  That particular quote is from an article from August 20, 1902. Less than a month after theVan Alen-Collier wedding.  The article is headlined "Miss May Van Allen (sic); Something About the Girl for Whom Remington Killed Himself" 

 

 August 19, 1902, Robert Reading Remington committed suicide.  He too was another jilted lover of May's.  The article, headlined "Sensational Suicide of One of New York's Society Young Men; Disappointment Over a Broken Matrimonial Engagement Believed to Be the Cause" goes on to say he "Blew out his brains with a revolver in his rooms at La Forge Cottage" and explains how despondent he had been over May's jilting him.

 

He actually shot himself 3 times.  The first and second bullets didn't do the trick, one shot from the side "ploughed across his forehead" and the next, shot with the gun pointing at his front, "glanced over the top of his head ... "  The young man described by the paper as having "a wonderful amount of grit" finally killed himself by firing the gun through his mouth with "death probably resulting instantly."  You cannot make stuff like this up!  

I wanted this blog posted yesterday, as promised, however the more I read about the Van Alen sisters, family, the weirder things get.  Keep in mind this all began with a society dinner party by Miss Leary.  I just thought I would quickly look up the two young ladies the dinner party was honoring.  Nothing more.  Reading these articles is like watching a soap opera, and it gets better with every click of my mouse.  That being said, the Gilded Age Etiquette will be posted tomorrow.  Right now, I want to get back to my soap!

 

The Account of Miss Leary's Gilded Age Dinner Party

"It was like a vision of fairyland when the guests left the dinner table and stepped on to the piazza and then to the garden.  The trees were ablaze with illuminations of every description, the walks being outlined with lamps of various colors.  Two large tents were erected at each side of the lawn, one for the men to smoke in the other where coffee was served to the ladies.  Japanese umbrellas were distributed about the lawn, which was completely covered with Turkish rugs." 

That is the opening of the story (shown below) which ran in the New York Times, September 4, 1900.  Miss Leary evidently had a desire to create a festive and global theme for the evening.  According to the Times, Miss Leary's party in Newport, was "one of the largest of the season" and it was held at her "cottage," which I imagine was a fairly good size. 

 The guest list was full of debutantes of the day, and the Newport elite.  The dinner was held in the honor of  "Miss Van Alen, and her sister Miss Sarah Van Alen, the daughters of James J. Van Alen."  The name "Van Alen" sounded familiar, so on a lark I decided to look  the Van Alens up.  That is when this simple article about a dinner party in 1900 changed into something completely different.

James J. Van Alen

Sportsman and politician James J. Van Alen commissioned
Charles Eamer Kempe and Dudley Newton to design and build "Wakehurst".

The Van Alens were not your run of the mill family.  This blog post is part one, of I am hoping just 2 or 3 parts.  Otherwise, I will never get any sleep.  I have been at this for several nights now. 

He was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Italy on October 20, 1893, but declined the appointment

Van Alen was a widower, and according to many accounts, spent much of his time after the death of his wife in a depression.  From other accounts of his travel and social life, he seemed to be quite the ladies man and very outgoing.

Emily Astor Van Alen

 Here is what I found on Van Alen under Virginia University website's "Class & Leisure" Section on him.

James J. Van Alen (1846-1923) was a sportsman, politician, and member of an old-monied New York railroad family. Van Alen solidified his status as a member of upper-class society by marrying Emily Astor, daughter of society matron Caroline Schermerhorn Astor and William Backhouse Astor Jr.
 
Like many upper-class Americans, Van Alen was fond of English culture and architecture. In 1882, he hired English architect Charles Eamer Kempe to design Wakehurst (1884-1887), a stone Tudor mansion modeled after Wakehurst Place, an English country estate in Sussex, England. The mansion stood at Ochre Point in Newport, Rhode Island.
 
Newport architect Dudley Newton oversaw construction of Wakehurst. Rooms were designed and constructed in England, then imported to Newport. The rooms featured English tapestries, antiques, and accessories. Landscape architect Ernest Bowditch, a student of Frederick Law Olmsted, designed the grounds.
 
Van Alen was known as a charming host who enjoyed speaking in Tudor English. An avid yachtsman, Van Alen joined fellow Newporters Edith Wharton and her husband Edward R. (Teddy) Wharton on a four-month Mediterranean cruise aboard The Vanadis in 1888.
 
Wakehurst is now part of the campus of Salve Regina University.

The website breaks down the class structure of the era

Part 2 of my post continues tomorrow, with a Van Alen wedding and a section on Gilded Age Etiquette...