Editor’s Note:This video clip begins with information about Richard Gwinn’s ancestors, particularly his father Richard Gwinn, Sr. (1833-1898) and mother, Elizabeth Burns Gwinn (1836-1922). It also touches on his siblings Mary Cornelia Gwinn (1865-1925), Elizabeth Rose (“Bessie”) Gwinn (1871-1939), and Thomas Ross Gwinn (“Tom”) (1883-1962). Chapters may be accessed by the blue dots or the Table of Contents grid in the lower right corner of the video above.
His marriages to Mary Agnes Roche in 1900, and Elizabeth Josephine Tack in 1907 brought four children into the world, so we also learn a bit about my mother, his daughter with Mary Roche, Mary Agnes Gwinn (Bowe) (1901-1979), and his daughters with Elizabeth Tack (1872-1946), Elizabeth Cosgrave (“Betty”) (1908-1966), Martha Burns (Casey) (1910-1987), and Nancy (born Ann Chesley) Gwinn (Riboud) (1911-1991).
The video also provides an account of Richard Gwinn’s banking career, including the founding of the Calvert Bank in 1901, and his lobbying of New York financier and steel magnate Charles Schwab that resulted in a Bethlehem Steel mill built in Baltimore and employing 20,000 workers in its heyday.
1916 Riverside Dr, looking north from about 70th Street, New York, NY. Richard Gwinn, Jr. met with steel magnate Charles Schwab at Schwab’s spectacular residence seen on the far right. Schwab’s home, a French chateau-style mansion, was one of the largest private residences ever built in Manhattan. A grand symbol of the Gilded Age’s opulence, it was razed in 1948.
The video also describes Gwinn’s personal relationships with his co-founders of the Calvert Bank, later Baltimore Mayor, James H. Preston, and William Page, who later married Gwinn’s sister, Mary Cornelia. There is also mention of his relationship with George Weems William, co-executor of the estate of “Bottle Cap King” Samuel Cook. Williams went on to defeat Gwinn’s close associate James Preston in the battle for the Democratic nomination for Baltimore’s mayor in 1919, only to lose the general election in that year’s Republican sweep.
The video concludes with Gwinn’s visit with Elizabeth Tack Gwinn to Chicago in 1928 to visit my mother Mary Gwinn Bowe shortly after her marriage to my father, William John Bowe, Sr. (1892-1965).
