William R. Travers

Infobox Person
name = William R. Travers


image_size = 250px
caption =
birth_date = July, 1819
birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland
death_date = March 19, 1887
death_place = Hamilton, Bermuda
occupation = Lawyer
spouse =
parents =
children =
Three sons:
William R. Travers, Jr.
John Travers
Reverdy J. Travers
Six daughters:
Mary Mackall Travers Hecksher
Maria Louisa Travers Wadsworth
Harriet Travers Fearing
Ellen T. Travers Duer
Matilda E. Travers Gay
Susan B. Travers

William Riggin Travers (July, 1819 – March 19, 1887) was an American lawyer who made a fortune on Wall Street. Along with John Hunter, in 1863 he founded Saratoga Race Course and served as its first president. Saratoga's Travers Stakes is named in his honor and is the oldest major Thoroughbred horse race in the United States. In 1884, William Travers became one of the backers of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track on Coney Island.

Travers was a partner in Annieswood Stable with John Hunter and George Osgood. The operation had considerable success both in racing runners and with breeding at their Annieswood Stud farm in Westchester County, New York. Their horse Kentucky won the first running of the Travers Stakes in 1864. One of their most famous horses was Alarm, considered one of the best sprint race horses in American Thoroughbred horse racing history.

Travers was a long-time president of the New York Athletic Club. On January 13, 1887 the club purchased Hogg Island in Long Island Sound and Pelham, New York shoreline from the estate of John Hunter and renamed it Travers Island in his honor. [Source: 'Travers Island', New York Times, Jun. 9, 1889, p. 3]

A well-known cosmopolite and high liver, Travers was a member of 27 private clubs, according to Cleveland Amory in his book "Who Killed Society?"

William R. Travers married Maria Louisa, the fourth daughter of Reverdy Johnson. They had nine children. One of their five daughters, Matilda, married the painter Walter Gay and moved to Paris, France in 1876 where she remained until her death in 1943.

Death

Travers died in Bermuda on March 19, 1887 from complications of diabetes. In his obituary, "The New York Times" wrote that he was "probably the most popular man in New York." [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |quote=William R. Travers, well known for the last 30 years in Wall-Street, in the leading clubs, and in society in this city, died in Bermuda March 19. He was unconscious during the last hours, when his wife, his son, R.J. Travers, his daughter Susie, and his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Duer, stood around his bed. |title=William R. Travers Dead; Final Rest Of A Man Universally Popular. Dying At Bermuda After A Long And Languishing Illness--Sketch Of His Career. |url= |work= |publisher=New York Times |date=March 28, 1887, Wednesday |accessdate=2007-06-01 ]

References

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* [http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/Alarm.html Alarm at Thoroughbred Heritage.com]
* [http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/spring_07/reviews/taub.shtml Matilda Travers Gay information published by the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art]
* [http://www.historicpelham.com/timeline.htm William R. Travers information at the History of the Town of Pelham, New York]