Oliver Belmont

Vocation

Notable

American socialite and United States Representative from New York. Oliver Belmont's father was August Belmont, a Hessian Jew who came to the United States in 1837 as an agent for the Rothschilds, and accumulated enormous personal wealth. His mother, Caroline Slidell (née Perry), was the daughter of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, who was renowned for commanding the naval expedition that opened Japan in 1853-54. Belmont graduated from the United States Naval Academy on June 10, 1880. He was commissioned as a midshipman and served until June 1, 1881, when he resigned. In 1882, Oliver married Sara Swan Whiting, who was pregnant with his child, in Newport, but they divorced the same year. Natica was adopted by her stepfather, George Lockhart Rives and took his last name. Belmont was a charter member of the Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the Revolution in 1896. He was eligible for membership in the Society by right of his descent from Captain Christopher Raymond Perry who has served as a privateer in the American Revolution. Oliver received a huge inheritance when his father died in 1890. He was a bachelor at the time of his father's death and decided to build a summer house in Newport. Richard Morris Hunt was the architect for Oliver's Newport mansion, Belcourt Castle. Belmont designed Belcourt as he pleased. The entire first floor was composed of a multitude of stables for Belmont's prized horses. The monumental Gothic rooms with their huge stained-glass windows were emblazoned with the Belmont coat of arms. On January 11, 1896 Belmont married Alva Vanderbilt, the ex-wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt. Belmont was at one time a member of the banking firm of August Belmont and Co., New York City. He became publisher of the Verdict, a weekly paper. Belmont served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1900, and was elected as a Democrat from New York's 13th District to the Fifty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1901-March 3, 1903). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1902. Oliver Belmont died on June 10, 1908 at his Brookholt estate in East Meadow, New York. Link to Wikipedia biography