Ogden Mills (financier)
Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Ogden Mills (December 18, 1856 – January 29, 1929) was an American financier and Thoroughbred racehorse owner.<ref name=obit/>
Early life
Ogden Mills was born on December 18, 1856, in Sacramento, California, to Jane Templeton Cunningham and Darius Ogden Mills (1825–1910).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His father was a highly successful banker and investor who, upon his death in 1910, left Ogden Mills and his sister, Elisabeth Mills, who married Whitelaw Reid an estate valued at $36,227,391.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As a result of his father's many corporate investments, Ogden Mills served on the Board of Directors of a number of companies including the New York Central Railroad.<ref name=inherit>Template:Cite news</ref>
Thoroughbred racing
A member of The Jockey Club, Ogden Mills raced horses in the United States and maintained a racing stable in France in partnership with Lord Derby. Among their successes in that country, they won the 1928 Grand Prix de Paris with the colt Cri de Guerre, bred by Evremond de Saint-Alary.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On his death in 1929, Ogden Mills left to his daughter Beatrice, a resident of London, England, married to Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard, his French racing stable and a home at 73 Rue de Varenne in Paris. That year, Beatrice led all French owners in purses earned.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1926, Mills' daughter Gladys and son Ogden established Wheatley Stable, which became one of the preeminent racing and breeding operations in American racing history.
Personal life
In 1882,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ogden Mills married Ruth T. Livingston (1855–1920), daughter of Maturin Livingston Jr. and Ruth Baylies a descendant of Thomas Baylies (1687–1756).<ref name="RLMObit1920"/> She was the twin sister of Elizabeth Livingston (1855–1943),<ref name="ELCBObit1943">Template:Cite news</ref> who was married to William George Cavendish-Bentinck (1854–1909).<ref name="NYTObit1909">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She was also the granddaughter of Maturin Livingston (1769–1847) and Margaret Lewis (1780–1860), who was the only daughter and sole heiress of Gov. Morgan Lewis (1754–1844). Together, Ogden and Ruth had three children, twin daughters and a son:
- Gladys Livingston Mills (1883–1970), who married Henry Carnegie Phipps (1879–1953) in 1907<ref name=GLMP1970obit>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Jane Beatrice Mills (1883–1972), who married Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard (1874–1948) in 1909<ref name=JBMF1972obit>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Ogden Livingston Mills (1884–1937), who became the 50th United States Secretary of the Treasury in 1932,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and married Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd in 1911. After their divorce in 1919, he married Dorothy Randolph Fell, former wife of the banker John R. Fell, in 1924.<ref name="OLMWedding1924">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=OLMobit1937>Template:Cite news</ref>
Mills' wife inherited the Livingston mansion in Staatsburg, New York, which the couple used as a summer home and where they raised horses.<ref name="Reynolds">Template:Cite book</ref>
Ruth Livingston Mills died at their residence in Paris, France, on October 13, 1920.<ref name="RLMObit1920">Template:Cite news</ref> Ogden Mills died of pneumonia on January 29, 1929, at the family home in New York City.<ref name=obit>Template:Cite news</ref> Ogden Mills was buried with his wife at the mausoleum in St. James's Cemetery in Hyde Park, New York.
Philanthropy
Like his father, Ogden Mills was involved in a number of charitable causes and the Ogden Mills & Ruth Livingston Mills State Park encompasses their mansion at Staatsburg, New York, that is now Staatsburgh State Historic Site.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Mills was instrumental in assisting the State of New York to erect a statue of Robert Livingston, his wife's great-great-great-grandfather, into the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C., highlighting him as one of the state's two most illustrious citizens.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Descendants
Through his eldest daughter, he was the grandfather of Barbara Phipps Janney and Ogden Phipps (1908–2002), and the great-grandfather of Ogden Mills Phipps (1940–2016) and Cynthia Phipps, also major figures in horse racing.