October 26, 1907 Saturday

October 26 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: I don’t know how I got through all of it—doing 9 days’ work in 3 days, but it is over and I am in New York. Arrived at 3 to find the King and AB at billiards. I brought in the pretty little cat and the King was glad to see it. Myron Whitney came in to rehearse his concert program with Clara for the 11th. His voice is superb. They had to have the King come in to hear it, but the King was much annoyed, and hated to leave his billiards, even tho’ he had to concede that Whitney’s voice was wonderful.

October 25, 1907 Friday

October 25 Friday – The annual Cotillion Ball of the Tuxedo Club was held and the New York Times reported the event, Oct. 26, p.11. If Sam attended, as his letter of Oct. 23 to “Miss Anonyma” shows, he would have had to have returned from 21 Fifth Ave. for the event, since he moved back on Oct. 24. No mention of him was made in the Times article, though H.H. Rogers, Jr. (Harry) and wife Mary were listed, so he likely  canceled plans to attend, returning to his N.Y.C. house. Possibly the events at the Knickerbocker Trust Co. led to the changed plans.

October 23, 1907 Wednesday

October 23 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to “Miss Anonyma.”

Dear Miss Anonyma: / This is to express my joy in the fact that you are able to go fishing, & to thank you very heartily for letting me share in the result. It is my purpose to call & say these things orally this afternoon, & so I am merely uttering them with the pen as a precaution, since it often happens—as you will have noticed—that the things we propose to do get interfered with & do not occur.

October 22, 1907 Tuesday

October 22 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Oh, it’s too dreadful. Every penny the King has, fifty one thousand dollars, is in the Knickerbocker Trust Co. and it has suspended payment. It has gone crashing into a terrible state. I was in town and read of the panic in the Times, and Ashcroft and I went to the bank, at 30th st and Fifth Avenue to see crowds of people there, with bank books in their quivering hands. And then I came back to Tuxedo to find the King in bed and so cheerful and beautiful and brave, and trying not to show his anxiety.

October 21, 1907 Monday

October 21 Monday – A run on the Knickerbocker Trust Co. bank in N.Y.C. caused panic elsewhere, and the bank was forced to close its doors the next day. Sam had deposits of about $51,000 at the bank. J.P. Morgan would gain the help of fellow bankers, including John D. Rockefeller, to raise funds and import $100,000,000 in gold from Europe to restore confidence. See Oct. 22. H.H. Rogers and Katharine Harrison had originally recommended the Knickerbocker Trust Co. to Sam. A business slowdown from the resulting spreading panic lasted for months.

Subscribe to