Rhiannon Promotions The Universal Cavalier Special Issue 2013 | Página 28

So Who Was Roswell Eldridge, esq?
by Anne Marie Rasmussen
Roswell Eldridge – anyone who knows
the history of the breed knows the
name but who was this man?

Manhattan, taking control of the
Hoboken Ferry, Astoria Ferry and Union
Ferry companies. He sold the
companies for a great profit before
ferries became obsolete with the
building of bridges and tunnels linking
Manhattan to New Jersey and Long
Island. He would then take his
business skills to Wall Street where he
became an investor in various
companies including the Hanover Bank.

Roswell Eldridge was born in 1857 and
grew up in Hempstead near Great
Neck, New York, USA where his father
was the town treasurer. Eldridge
married his wife Louise Udall in 1894
who was from a well-to-do Great Neck
family whom he met when working as
an office boy on the Udall family estate.
However according to family legend he
was not immediately seen as the
appropriate mate for this rich heiress.
The Udall fortunes started with James
Udall, a farmer turned entrepreneur
who started a steamship line which ran
between New York and surrounding
areas. His daughter, Lousia married
William Skidmore and as James’ only
surviving child she inherited his
fortune. William and Louisa had a
daughter Louise who would later inherit
the entire Udall fortune.

Eldridge’s stock certificate for the
Hoboken Ferry Company
At this point he was able to present
himself as a man of sufficient means to
be an appropriate match for marriage
to Louise and they married when she
was 34 years of age. They were to
have no children. After their marriage
Eldridge purchased 600 acres of land
adjacent to the Udall estate doubling

After a few years working at the Udall
estate Eldridge took over the
management of the property and then
later the steamships line and a factory
in Brooklyn that manufactured wooden
nails for boat construction owned by
the family. His entrepreneurial
ambitions didn’t end there and he went
on to running ferry boats to and from

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