William Richardson Belknap

William Richardson Belknap
Born (1849-03-28)March 28, 1849
Louisville, Kentucky
Died June 2, 1914(1914-06-02) (aged 65)
Jefferson County, Kentucky
Resting place Cave Hill Cemetery
Residence Lincliff
Alma mater Sheffield Scientific School (Yale University)
Occupation Businessman
Known for President Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company
Home town Louisville, Kentucky
Spouse(s) Alice Trumbull Silliman, Juliet Rathbone Davison
Children Eleanor Belknap Humphrey, William Burke Belknap, Alice Silliman Belknap Hawkes, Mary Belknap Gray, Christine Belknap
Parent(s) William Burke Belknap, Mary Richardson

William Richardson Belknap (March 28, 1849 – June 2, 1914),[1][2] for 28 years was president of the Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company[3][4][5] based in Louisville, Kentucky, one of the largest hardware American manufacturing companies and wholesale hardware companies of its time.

Biography

William R. Belknap was born in Louisville,[1] the son of William Burke Belknap the elder and Mary Richardson. He graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1869, and in 1873 he spent a year traveling in Europe with his younger brother Morris Burke Belknap.[6][7] In 1880, following the death of his father, founder of the Belknap company, he became its president. After his retirement as president of Belknap Hardware, he became the company's Chairman of the Board.[6] He was the brother of Morris B. Belknap[8] and father of William Burke Belknap the younger and Eleanor Silliman Belknap Humphrey. He was the great-grandfather of economist Thomas MacGillivray Humphrey.

In 1911 he built his home, Lincliff, hiring two architects of McDonald Brothers, Kenneth McDonald and William J. Dodd, to carry out its design.[9][10] The Olmsted Brothers were hired by Belknap to create plans for the estate grounds. Lincliff was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[11]

Lincliff gates

Lincliff is currently owned by Stephen F. Humphrey, widower of the mystery writer the late Sue Grafton. Together they worked on restoration of the building and grounds.[12]

Belknap was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.[1] The William R. Belknap School in the Belknap neighborhood of Louisville was named for him.[13] He was a charter member of the Salmagundi Club and served for three years as its secretary.[6] He was a trustee of Berea College, and the namesake and founder of the William R. Belknap Prizes awarded for excellence in the fields of geology and biology in Yale's Sheffield Scientific School.[6]

In 1898 Belknap lived at 406 Ormsby Avenue, Louisville.[14] and died in Jefferson County, Kentucky.[15] At his death in 1914 after building Lincliff in 1911, his estate was estimated at $3,000,000 to $5,000,000.[4][16] He is buried in the Belknap family plot at Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville.[17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 [s.n.] (1914). Memoir of William Richardson Belknap. Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 40 (2): 2941–42.
  2. ↑ [s.n.] (1915). Memoir of William Richardson Belknap. Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 79: 1494–95.
  3. ↑ James R. Miller (Spring 2012). Kentucky at Work: Philatelic Genealogy. Bluegrass Roots 39 (1): 12–15.
  4. 1 2 The Cincinnati Enquirer, June 2, 1914, p. 2.
  5. ↑ http://brokensidewalk.com/2010/lost-louisville-belknap-warehouses/
  6. 1 2 3 4 Johnson, E. Polk (1912). A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce and Industry Vol. III. Chicago and New York: Lewis Publishing Company. p. 1153.
  7. ↑ Obituary Records of Graduates of Yale University (a Google ebook), pp.1153-1154. https://books.google.com/books?id=5rk3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1311&dq=%22William+Richardson+Belknap%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zbgMVdbCJbCPsQSA9oDADw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22William%20Richardson%20Belknap%22&f=false
  8. ↑ "Kentucky Digital Library". kdl.kyvl.org. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  9. ↑ https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/83002694_text
  10. ↑ http://openbuildings.com/buildings/lincliff-profile-21274?_show_description=1
  11. ↑ http://ww2.rediscov.com/olmsted/default.asp?IDCFile=/OLMSTED/GENB.IDC,CURRENT=51,DATABASE=63985909,RECORDMAX=50,ORDERBY=,THUMB_NAILS=YES,RI_WORDSDESC=,
  12. ↑ "Lincliff: Author Sue Grafton's 1912 Kentucky Estate". On Pinehurst Place. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  13. ↑ Kleber, John E. (ed.) (2001). The Encyclopedia of Louisville. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. p. 81. ISBN 0-8131-2100-0. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
  14. ↑ [s.n] (28 October 1898). Brief notes about people. The Courier-Journal. p 6.
  15. ↑ Kentucky Death Records http://interactive.ancestry.com/1222/KYVR_7016165-2762/1195851?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2f%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3findiv%3d1%26db%3dkydeaths%26h%3d1195851%26new%3d1&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnRecord
  16. ↑ A Classification of American Wealth: History and genealogy of the wealthy families of America. http://www.raken.com/american_wealth/OTHER/individuals_list_B1.asp
  17. ↑ William Richardson Belknap. Find A Grave.

Further reading

  • The Filson Historical Society. "Belknap Family Papers, 1856-1904".
  • Yale University. Sheffield Scientific School. Biographical Record, Classes from Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-eight to Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-two of the Sheffield Scientific School. Class secretaries bureau, Yale university, 1910.
  • E. Polk Johnson, A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities, (1912).

"Catches in the Social Stream",Palm Beach Daily News - February 25, 1912. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1961&dat=19120225&id=5p0hAAAAIBAJ&sjid=f5kFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1678,1607857&hl=en

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