Nathaniel Thayer III

Nathaniel Thayer
Born	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	21 March 1911(1911-03-21) (aged 59) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Financier, railroad industry leader
Years active	1874–1911
Known for	President of Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad Company; Vice President of North Chicago Rolling Mill Company; board member of multiple major companies

Nathaniel Thayer (June 13, 1851 – March 21, 1911) was a prominent American financier and leader in the railroad industry.

Early life

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Thayer was the son of Nathaniel Thayer Jr. (1808–1883), a Boston-based banker affiliated with John E. Thayer and Brother, and Cornelia Paterson (née Van Rensselaer) Thayer (1823–1897). His brothers and sisters included Stephen Van Rensselaer Thayer; Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer, who married J. Hampden Robb; Harriet Van Rensselaer Thayer; Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer; Bayard Thayer; and ornithologist John Eliot Thayer. His father was both a Harvard fellow and a major patron.

On his mother's side, he was descended from the distinguished Van Rensselaer family and Schuyler family, with grandparents Stephen Van Rensselaer IV and Harriet Elizabeth Bayard Van Rensselaer. His paternal lineage traced back to Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Thayer, a Unitarian clergyman, and Sarah Parker (née Toppan) Thayer, connecting him to theologian John Cotton of the early Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Thayer completed his studies at Harvard University in 1871, an institution that benefited from his father’s donation of Thayer Hall.

Career

Following his Harvard graduation, Thayer spent two years traveling internationally. He joined his father’s banking enterprise in 1874 after returning to the United States. Upon his father’s death in 1883, he inherited $2,000,000 from an estate valued at approximately $16 to $17 million.

In 1876, he assumed the presidency of both the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad Company and the Union Stock Yards Company of Chicago. Additionally, he acted as vice president for the North Chicago Rolling Mill Company and was appointed to the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He campaigned as a Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts legislature in 1877 and again in 1879.

Thayer held board positions at several leading companies such as the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Massachusetts Life Insurance Company, Old Colony Trust Company, United States Steel Corporation, Merchants' National Bank, and New England Trust Company. His civic involvement included serving as a trustee for Massachusetts General Hospital.

Personal life

On February 1, 1881, Thayer wed Cornelia Street Barroll (1856–1885), daughter of Benjamin Crockett Barroll, a distinguished attorney and writer. By 1910, their primary residence was in Lancaster, Massachusetts, complemented by a summer home in Newport, Rhode Island. Their offspring were:

• Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer (1881–1960), who married Danish Count Carl Moltke (1869–1935), then Denmark’s Ambassador to the United States, in 1907.
• Anna Morton Thayer (1883–1953), who first married William Samuel Patten in 1904 and later Rev. Thomas Frederick Davies in 1930.
• Sarah Barroll Thayer (1885–1938), reputed as "the prettiest girl in Boston," who became wife to Frederic Bayard Winthrop—son of banker Robert Winthrop—in 1911.

Following Cornelia’s death in 1885, Nathaniel remarried on June 11, 1887 to Pauline Revere (1862–1934). Pauline was politically active within Republican circles and held a position on the Republican National Committee in 1924, providing counsel to Presidents Coolidge and Hoover. Nathaniel was affiliated with numerous prestigious clubs across Boston and New York City.

Inheriting a mansion from his mother Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer in 1897, he expanded this Lancaster residence by 1902 into a lavish 42-room estate designed by architect Ogden Codman Jr., renowned for his architectural contributions in Newport and New York.

Nathaniel Thayer passed away on March 21, 1911 at his home located in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood after suffering what was described as a "general nervous breakdown." His second wife died in 1934.

Descendants

From his eldest daughter came Count Carl Adam Moltke (1908–1989), who was involved with the Danish resistance during World War II. In 1944, he married Mabel Wilson Wright (born Comstock; 1909–1988). Their marriage ended in divorce in 1956, after which he wed Doris Eccles (1914–1965), daughter of Edward Eccles (1882–1975) from Newport, Rhode Island, later that same year.

His youngest daughter was the mother to three children: Nathaniel Thayer Winthrop; John Winthrop, who passed away in childhood; and Katherine Winthrop (1914–1997), a notable tennis athlete who married Quincy Adams Shawn McKean (1891–1971). Their lineage includes David McKean, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg under President Barack Obama.