My grandfather once told me that his parents had to wait for several years to marry. When they did, in January 1885, my great-grandfather was 32 and his bride 23 – hardly old by our standards, perhaps! My grandfather’s box of family papers yields a copy of the wedding invitation; even better, another envelope contains the tiny (2 5/8” by 4”) notebook in which my great-grandmother listed her wedding presents.
Cam Steward and Daisy Beeckman were “poor relations” at this stage in their lives, so they were fortunate to receive two checks for $1,000, one from “Kate & Louis [Lorillard]”[1] and one from Cam’s brother John Steward (Jr.).[2] The value of money in 1884–85 can be hard to approximate in today’s dollars, but $1,000 was certainly equivalent to a generous year’s income in many parts of the United States.
That they were not expected to remain “hard up” is suggested by the rest of the wedding presents – and their donors. Family was well-represented, of course: Cam’s first cousin J. J. Van Alen[3] sent dishes and an epergne; their cousin Sallie Marié[4] gave coffee cups; Mrs. Foster – presumably Daisy’s grandmother[5] – sent a family Bible and a quilt; and Will Lyman, who would later marry Daisy’s sister Helen,[6] gave the couple a silver tea caddy.
Members of the Knickerbocker Greys, ca. 1863: From left, William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919), later 1st Viscount Astor; Campbell Steward (1852-1936); John Steward (Jr.) (1847-1923); James Hooker Hamersley (1844-1901); James Henry Jones (1846-1919), whose sister Cordelia married John Steward Jr. in 1871; and (kneeling) Ogden Goelet (1846-1897).
Fittingly, as the Steward and Beeckman circles included the novelist Edith Wharton, other presents came from friends with distinctly Knickerbocker names. Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Astor[7] sent a tea set; Mrs. Astor[8] gave a gold bracelet, and Mr. and Mrs. Ogden Goelet[9] a diamond pendant; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Goelet[10] sent a tête à tête; Mrs. Winthrop[11] gave the couple a set of lunch plates; and presents arrived from members of the Brevoort, de Peyster, Iselin, Livingston, and Suydam families.
My great-grandmother listed the flowers she received (“Basket – Mr. Barnwell”); then, leaving a few pages blank, used this little notebook to track the vital statistics of her first child, Campbell White Steward (1886–1960).
Continued here.
Notes
[1] Daisy’s sister Katharine Livingston Beeckman (1855–1941) was married to Louis Lasher Lorillard 1874–1910.
[2] Mrs. John Steward (Jr.) (Cordelia Schermerhorn Jones [1849–1920]) sent a check for $500.
[3] James John Van Alen (1848–1923) was married to Cordelia Steward’s first cousin Emily Astor 1875–81.
[4] Sarah Steward Marié (1861–1886), who married Francis Key Pendleton in June 1885.
[5] Eliza Robinson Atherton (1812–1891) was married to Samuel Henry Foster 1830–61.
[6] William Pratt Lyman (1860–1924) married Helen Beeckman in 1886.
[7] William Waldorf Astor was married to Mary Dahlgren Paul 1878–94.
[8] Charlotte Augusta Gibbes (1825–1887) married John Jacob Astor in 1846.
[9] Ogden Goelet married Mary Reta Wilson in 1877.
[10] Robert Goelet (1841–1899) married Harriette Louise Warren in 1879.
[11] Katharine Wilson Taylor (1839–1925) was married to Daisy's kinsman Robert Winthrop 1859–92.
