Misplaced Pages

Alice Townsend Dows (née Alice Townsend Olin) (April 9, 1881 – August 31, 1963) was an American socialite and poet.

Early life

Alice Townsend Olin was born on April 9, 1881. She was the eldest child of Stephen Henry Olin (1847–1925), the acting President of Wesleyan University from 1922 to 1923, and Alice Wadsworth "Elsie" (née Barlow) Olin (1853–1882).

Her younger sister was author and Baháʼí Julia Lynch Olin who married twice, including to former Lieutenant Governor of New York Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler.

After her mother's death in 1882 at the age of 29, her father remarried to Emeline Harriman, the former wife of William Earl Dodge III, in 1903. Emeline was the daughter of Oliver Harriman and the sister of Anne Harriman Vanderbilt, Oliver Harriman, Jr., J. Borden Harriman, and Herbert M. Harriman.

Her maternal grandparents were Samuel Latham Mitchill Barlow and Alice Cornell (née Townsend) Barlow. Her uncle was New York City Magistrate Peter Townsend Barlow.

Her paternal grandparents were Julia Matilda Lynch Olin and Rev. Dr. Stephen Olin, 2nd President of Wesleyan University and the son of Henry Olin, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont.

Career

Alice was known as a prominent Hudson Valley socialite and poet. She was a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, Gore Vidal, and Margaret Chanler Aldrich (the sister of her brother-in-law Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler).

Personal life

In 1903, Alice was married to Harvard graduate Tracy "Pup" Dows (1871–1937) at her parents home in Rhinebeck, New York. He was a younger son of grain merchant David Dows and Margaret Esther (née Worcester) Dows.

Together, they were the parents of:

• Stephen Olin Dows (1904–1981), who studied at the Yale School of Art; he was a close friend of author Thomas Wolfe and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt; in 1950, he married Chilean diplomat Carmen Vial de Senoret, a descendant of Ramón Freire, first president of Chile.
• Margaret "Bargy" Dows (1906–1992), who married Swedish diplomat Knut Richard Thyberg, with whom she had three children.
• Deborah Dows (1914–1994), who opened a riding school in the late 1930s known as the Southlands Foundation; in 1935, she married Harvard lawyer John Lancaster Burling, son of Edward B. Burling; they later divorced.

Her husband died unexpectedly, from an internal ailment, on July 3, 1937, at his apartment in London.

Dows died on August 31, 1963, and was buried at Rhinebeck Cemetery.

Her estate was divided equally amongst her three children.

Foxhollow Farm

Alice inherited the Olin family's sixty-acre homestead, Glenburn, in Rhinebeck, which had been enlarged by Henry Bacon and Harrie T. Lindeberg.

The Dows added to this by purchasing part of the Grasmere estate, where the Dows built a large country home in 1909 on their eventual 700-plus-acres known as Foxhollow Farm.

Following the death of Tracy Dow in 1937, their children elected to sell the Foxhollow mansion and some of the acreage around it.

Deborah inherited approximately 200 acres at the southern end of Foxhollow and started a horse-riding school called Southlands.

Their son inherited the Olin family homestead, Glenburn, where he lived as well as at his wife's family's estate in Chile.

In 2010, Bill and Hillary Clinton stayed at Glenburn while in Rhinebeck for their daughter Chelsea's wedding.

References

1. "Col. Olin Heads College.; Will Act as President of Wesleyan University for a Year". The New York Times. August 4, 1922. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
2. ^ "S. H. Olin Dies at 78; 50 Years a Lawyer; Specialized on Copyright Law and Represented Foremost Publishing Houses. Acting Head of Wesleyan for 30 Years He Was Trustee of the New York Public Library – A Founder of Players Club". The New York Times. August 7, 1925. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
3. "Deaths: Chanler". The New York Times. March 12, 1961. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
4. "Died. Olin". The New York Times. November 10, 1882. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
5. ^ Times, Special to The New York (August 14, 1938). "Mrs. Emeline H. Olin Is Dead at Newport; Daughter of Oliver Harriman Is Stricken after Brief Illness". The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
6. "Obituary – Olin". The New York Times. November 9, 1882. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
7. Cutter, William Richard; Clement, E. H. (Edward Henry); Hart, Samuel; Talcott, Mary Kingsbury; Bostwick, Frederick; Stearns, Ezra S. (1911). Genealogical and Family History of the State of Connecticut; A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Maaking of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. New York, Lewis historical publishing company. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
8. "Olin, Henry – Biographical Information". bioguide.congress.gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
9. "Stephen Olin, Office of the President". Wesleyan University. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
10. "Eleanor Roosevelt, "My Day, March 30, 1953,": Dows, Alice Olin, 1881–1963". www2.gwu.edu. The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Digital Edition (2017). Retrieved August 15, 2022.
11. Vidal, Gore (1995). Palimpsest: A Memoir. Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-44038-3. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
12. Harris & Ewing (1928). "Mrs. Tracy Dows and Mrs. Richard Aldrich". Library of Congress. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
13. ^ "Married: Dows–Olin". The New York Times. November 12, 1903. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
14. ^ "Tracy Dows; Succumbs Suddenly in London at Age of 64 – Harvard Graduate". The New York Times. July 4, 1937. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
15. "Papers of Olin Dows 1886–1986 and undated". FDR Library. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
16. ^ "Olin Dies, Artist Known for His Murals, Dies at 76". The New York Times. June 7, 1981. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
17. Shannon, Thomas (August 8, 2016). "Thomas Wolfe's Rhinebeck". Hudson River Zeitgeist. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
18. "Olin Dows, Prominent Local Artist, Dies". Poughkeepsie Journal. June 7, 1981. p. 5A. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
19. "Carmen Viale Freire Dows, 70, A Former Chilean Ambassador". The New York Times. January 28, 1978. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
20. Times, Special to The New York (February 25, 1925). "Miss Dows Is Engaged.; Betrothed to Knut R. Thyberg, Swedish Vice Consul Here". The New York Times. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
21. "Among the Autumn Weddings; Knut R. Thyberg and Miss Margaret Dows Are Married at Rhinebeck – Other Ceremonies". The New York Times. October 11, 1925. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
22. Harnesk, Paul, ed. (1962). Vem är vem? 1, Stor-Stockholm [Who's Who? 1, Greater Stockholm] (in Swedish) (2nd ed.). Stockholm: Vem är vem. p. 1,302. SELIBR 53509.
23. "Where Women Made History". contest.savingplaces.org. National Trust for Historic Preservation. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
24. Times, Special to The New York (May 13, 1935). "Deborah Dows Engaged.; Daughter of Mrs. Tracy Dows Will Be Wed to John L. Burling". The New York Times. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
25. "John L. Burking, Lawyer, Was 47; First Assistant to Halley During Crime Committee Investigation Is Dead". The New York Times. December 10, 1959. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
26. Thompson-Stahr, Jane (2001). The Burling Books: Ancestors and Descendants of Edward and Grace Burling, Quakers (1600–2000). Jane K. Thompson. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-9613104-0-0. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
27. "Deaths – Dows – Alice Townsend". The New York Times. September 1, 1963. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
28. "Mrs. Alice Dows. Rhinebeck Woman Left Estate Exceeding $50,000". Poughkeepsie Journal. October 6, 1963. p. 16B. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
29. ^ Eberlein, Harold Donaldson; Hubbard, Cortlandt Van Dyke (January 1, 1990). Historic Houses of the Hudson Valley. Courier Corporation. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-486-26304-5. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
30. "Our Time at Foxhollow Farm: A Hudson Valley Family Remembered". Rizzoli Bookstore. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
31. "Our History". southlands.org. Southlands Foundation. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
32. "Dateline". Poughkeepsie Journal. November 20, 2013. p. B2. Retrieved August 15, 2022.

External links

• Alice Olin Dows and Stephen Olin Dows by sculptor Henry Hering, 1909
• Papers of OLIN DOWS: 1886-1986 and undated at the FDR Library

• 1881 births
• 1963 deaths
• 19th-century American poets
• 19th-century American women writers
• 20th-century American poets
• 20th-century American women writers
• American socialites
• American women poets
• People from Rhinebeck, New York
• Poets from New York (state)