Crawford Livingston

The son and namesake of the first Livingston to invest in the express business, Crawford Livingston was born in 1848, the same year his father died. He inherited a (relatively modest) share of the Livingston fortune and the genes which had made some of his forebears outstanding entrepreneurs. After an early career as a banker and broker in New York, Crawford Livingston headed West to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he became one of the foremost regional railroad developer and utility tycoon. By these means he built a large fortune and contributed to renew the Livingstons' claim to a position in the power elite. The town of Livingston, Montana is named in his honor. The Livingstons who played an important if not vital role in the inception of the key players in the express business, American Express and Wells, Fargo & Company, were all descendants of the mainline branch of Manor Lords. Crawford and William Alexander Livingston were brothers and among the initial investors in Livingston, Wells & Co and in Livingston, Fargo & Co, two of the three firms which joined to form American Express in March 1850. Their younger cousin, Johnston Livingston, joined them later but had the merit to stay in the express business for the rest of his life, more than sixty years. His career earned him the largest fortune of any Livingston descendent by the turn of the 20th century. A lineal descendant of Robert Livingston (c. 1654-1728), the 17th-century Scotsman bestowed an approximate 150,000-acre land grant and title, Lord of the Manor, the family’s presence as the wealthiest dynasty north of New York City was sealed by Robert Livingston’s marriage to Alida Schuyler Van Rensselaer (c. 1656-1727), heir to the Schuyler and Van Rensselaer family fortunes. Even though the Livingstons were one of New York's prominent land barons, Gerald's father, Crawford Livingston II (1848-1925), left the splendor of Livingston Manor in 1870 with his share of the family inheritance, his father and uncle, Crawford I and William Alexander Livingston, had established a freight-and-express business that would later become known as the American Express Company, and settled in St. Paul, Minnesota. In St. Paul, Crawford II branched out from his New York banking and brokerage experience, playing a significant role in the nation’s westward expansion. He invested in several railroads and utility companies, becoming founder and president of St. Paul Gas & Light. A bank director, "Money broker," and an insurance executive, his occupation was listed in an 1880 census as, Gentleman; a decade later, his occupation was changed to, Capitalist. In 1882 the town of Livingston, Montana was named for him as a result of his investment with the Northern Pacific Railway. After his oldest son, Crawford III, died in 1904, the elder Livingston returned to New York and opened the C. Livingston Company, a brokerage and investment firm at 51 Exchange Place, reviving the family's name and establishing his only surviving son, Gerald, amidst New York's financial and social milieu. While Crawford Livingston shuttled back-and-forth from St. Paul to New York during the next two decades, his son, Gerald, remained in New York. When his father died in 1925, Gerald shared his father’s $10 million estate, with his two sisters, Mary and Abbie Frances. With the Livingston investment business established, Gerald had married Eleanor Rodewald, settling into their Gilded Age Upper East Side townhouse and sharing a passion for the sporting life, becoming a presence at Nassau County dog shows and Piping Rock horse shows.