Walter Lispenard Suydam


Walter Lispenard Suydam was a prominent member of New York society during the Gilded Age.

Early life

Suydam was born on May 20, 1854 in New York City. He was the son of Anna White Suydam, and Charles Suydam. His siblings included Charles Schermerhorn Suydam and Helen Suydam, who married R. Fulton Cutting.
His paternal grandparents were Ferdinand Suydam and Eliza Suydam. His maternal grandfather was Abraham Schermerhorn. His relatives included: aunt Elizabeth Schermerhorn, who married General James I. Jones; Helen Schermerhorn, who married John Treat Irving Jr., a nephew of Washington Irving; and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn, who married William Backhouse Astor Jr., the middle son of William Backhouse Astor Sr. He was a cousin of Eleanor Colford Jones, who was married to Augustus Newbold Morris; Benjamin Welles, Emily Astor, who married sportsman/politician James John Van Alen; Helen Schermerhorn Astor, who married diplomat James Roosevelt ; Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, who married Marshall Orme Wilson ; and John Jacob Astor IV, who married Ava Lowle Willing and, later, married socialite Madeleine Talmage Force, before perishing aboard the Titanic in 1912.

Career

He started his business career at an early age and was prominent in financial circles on Wall Street as a produce exchange broker. He owned several large real estate holdings on Long Island.
During World War I, Suydam was a member of the National Guard of New York, achieving the rank of Major.

Society life

In 1892, both Suydam and his wife were both included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.
Suydam was chairman of the Sayville Tournament Committee and was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Union Club of the City of New York, the Navy Club, the Holland Club and the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, the Military Society of the War of 1812, the Society of Colonial Wars, and the Sons of the American Revolution.

Personal life

At age twenty on April 29, 1875, Suydam was married to his cousin, Jane Mesier Suydam, the daughter of Ann Middleton Suydam and John R. Suydam, a merchant and "gentleman well-known in New-York society for his genial and hospitably qualities." Her grandfather, John Suydam, "one of the old Knickerbocker merchants" who was the head of Suydam & Wycoff, and her uncles included Henry P. M. Suydam and D. Lydig Suydam. Jane's grandfather, John Suydam, built and endowed St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Sayville, New York. They had an estate in Blue Point on Long Island and a home in New York City at 5 West 76th Street. Together, they were the parents of:
Suydam died after a short illness at his estate in Blue Point, Long Island on August 10, 1930. His funeral and burial was held at St. Ann's Church in Sayville. His widow died two years later leaving an estate valued at "more than $20,000".