“WHO WERE THE MILLSES?”

Ogden and Ruth Mills were a very wealthy and socially prominent couple who lived at the turn of the century. Their house illustrates the belief of many American millionaires of that time that their great fortunes had made the American upper class an equivalent of European aristocracy. The Mills mansion reflects their belief that it was their place to bring the best of European culture to the U.S.

“HOW DID THEY GET THEIR MONEY?”

Ogden Mills’s father,Darius Ogden Mills, went to California during the Gold Rush of 1849. Beginning as a merchant, he reinvested his profits by founding the Bank of D.O. Mills, which became the most successful bank in Sacramento. He later co-founded the Bank of California and served as its first president. When the Comstock Lode was being developed in Nevada, he and two partners founded the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, which transported most of the silver ore from its mines. Around 1880 D. O. Mills moved back east to New York, and invested with great success in many of the most important corporations of the day, including the Niagara Falls Power Company, the New York Tribune, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, and several others. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant businessmen of his time. Ogden Mills and his sister Elisabeth Mills Reid were D. O. Mills’s principal heirs. Ogden Mills, like his father, was a leading capitalist who served on the boards of a great many corporations.

Ruth Livingston Mills’s side of the family derived its wealth from real estate ownership; they had valuable property in New York City and in Dutchess County. Mrs. Mills’s parents were considered to be of the old landed gentry of the Hudson Valley -- their estate at Staatsburg had been in the Livingston family since 1792.

The marriage of Ogden Mills to Ruth Livingston in 1882 was an instance of new wealth being joined to old.

“DID THEY HAVE ANY CHILDREN? ARE THEIR CHILDREN STILL ALIVE?”

Ruth and Ogden Mills had twin daughters named Gladys and Beatrice in 1883 and a son named Ogden Livingston Mills in 1884. All three are deceased.

“WASN’T MILLS A POLITICIAN?”

Ogden and Ruth Mills’s son, Ogden Livingston Mills, was a United States congressman from Manhattan from 1921 to 1927, Undersecretary of the Treasury from 1927 to 1932, and Secretary of the Treasury from 1932 to 1933. He also ran unsuccessfully for the governorship of New York, losing to Al Smith in 1926.

“I KEEP HEARING ABOUT LIVINGSTONS. WHAT IS THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THE MILLSES?”

Mrs. Mills’s maiden name was Livingston.

This estate had been in her family since 1792 when the land the mansion stands on was purchased by her great-grandfather, Morgan Lewis. Morgan Lewis was married to Gertrude Livingston, a sister of Chancellor Robert Livingston of Clermont, and also a sister of Janet Livingston Montgomery, who built Montgomery Place. Morgan and Gertrude Lewis’s daughter Margaret married her distant cousin, Maturin Livingston; their son Maturin Livingston Jr. was Mrs. Mills’s father.

“DID THE MILLSES LIVE HERE ALL YEAR?”

“WAS THIS THEIR SUMMER HOUSE?”

The Millses used the mansion principally between mid-September and the Christmas holidays. They were here intermittently at other times of the year.

“WHEN DID THEY LIVE HERE?”

The family made the greatest use of the mansion from the time of its enlargement in 1895 to Mrs. Mills’s death in 1920. Mr. Mills then occupied the house for a few months each year until he died in January 1929. Their son, Ogden Livingston Mills, then inherited the mansion; he appears to have used it for only one season (autumn 1934) before he died in 1937.

“HOW MANY HOUSES DID THE MILLSES HAVE?”

Five. Besides this one, they had a town house at the corner of 69th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, an estate in San Mateo County, California called “Millbrae,” a 120-room house on eight acres in Paris, and a Newport “cottage” called “Ocean View.”

“HOW MANY SERVANTS DID THEY HAVE HERE?”

Twenty-four, including a butler, two chauffeurs, maids, footmen, a valet, cooks and a French pastry chef.

“WHO WAS RICHER, THE MILLSES OR THE VANDERBILTS OF HYDE PARK?”

Ogden Mills reportedly left a fortune of fifty million dollars at his death in 1929. Frederick Vanderbilt left a fortune of seventy million dollars at his death in 1938.

“WERE THEY FRIENDS OF THE VANDERBILTS? OR WERE THEY RIVALS?”

Ogden and Ruth Mills were good friends of Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt of Hyde Park. The Vanderbilts are said to have purchased their Hyde Park estate after having learned from the Millses that it was available for sale (the previous owners of the estate, the Langdons, were also friends of the Millses). Ogden and Ruth Millses’ daughter Beatrice wore a pearl necklace given to her by the Vanderbilts at her wedding; she later named Louise Vanderbilt her children’s godmother.

“HOW OLD WERE THE MILLSES WHEN THEY DIED?”

Mrs. Mills was 65 when she died in 1920 of heart disease. Mr. Mills was 72 when he died in 1929 of pneumonia.