Owen Franklin Aldis (S&B 1874)
Chairman of board of Yale Literary Magazine Senior year; member Sophomore and Junior Class Supper and Junior Promenade committees, Kappa Sigma Epsilon, Delta Beta Xi, Delta Kappa Epsilon,and Skull and Bones. [4]
Pioneer in building steel framework office buildings in Chicago.[4]
Trustee of many large estates.[4]
Agent for several Scottish and English insurance and investment companies.[4]
Former President University Club of Chicago.[4]
After retirement from active business spent some time in Washington, D. C; during last twelve years of his life had lived in France most of the time.[4]
28 Oct 1912 - Married (2) - in Pans, Mane Madeleine, daughter of Comte Gaston duMas and Comtesse duMas (nee Madeleine de la Roche-Giffard). No children by second marriage. Death due to a stroke of paralysis. Interment in Louvaines Cemetery near Chateau deLaunay (Maine et Loire), France. Survived by wife, a brother, Arthur T. Aldis, of Lake Forest, 111., and a sister, Mrs. Bryan Lathrop, of Chicago (another sister, Miss Cornelia Aldis, studied in Yale School of the Fine Arts in 1874); also left a nephew and five nieces.[4]
1911 - Established Aldis Collection of American Belles Lettres at Yale, by presenting his very valuable and unique collection of first and notable editions, manuscripts, and letters of American authors to the University Library.[4]
1893, FYI - Frederick Seymour Winston (S&B 1877) was influential in securing the location of the World’s Fair of 1893 in Chicago. The fair became a demonstration piece for Westinghouse Electric and the alternating current (Tesla), The fair ended with the city in shock, as popular mayor Carter Harrison, Sr (Scroll and Key) was assassinated by Patrick Eugene Prendergast who days before the fair’s closing. Closing cermemonies were cancelled in favor of a public memorial service.
1893 - Director of World’s Fair 1893 and member of its grounds and building committees; trustee Field Columbian Museum.[4] (Assassination of Mayor, Carter Harrison Sr., Yale, Scroll and Key.)
Until 1890 - practiced in that city [Chicago], largely occupied in realty law and the management and development of central business property.[4]
1886 - Founded real estate firm of Aldis, Aldis & Northcote (now Aldis & Company), but retired from active business about 1908 on account of ill health.[4]
18 Dec 1878 - Married (1), in Chicago, Leila R., daughter of William DeZeng and Marcia Elizabeth (Stockbridge) Houghteling, and sister of James L. Houghteling, ‘76 S. One son, Owen (died in 1903). Mrs. Aldis died in 1885.[4]
Studied law at Columbian Law School, Washington, D. C, during winter of 1874 and in Vermont the following summer; went to Chicago in October, 1875, and continued law studies with firm of Beckwith, Ayer & Kales; admitted to Chicago Bar in September, 1876.[4]
1874 - Graduated Yale, Skull and Bones Patriarch.[1]
Note: Mother, Mary (Taylor) Aldis; daughter of James and Mary (Townsend) Taylor; granddaughter of Alexander Taylor, who came to America from Scotland during the latter part of the eighteenth century.[4]
Yale relatives include three nephews: Francis S. Houghteling, ex-‘03 James L Houghteling, ‘05, and William Houghteling, ex-08’S.[4]
Died 5 Aug 1925, from Stroke of Paralysis. Age 73
Note:
Father, Asa Owen Aldis (B A.University of Vermont 1829); studied at Harvard Law School; judge of Supreme Court of Vermont; judge on Southern and French Claims commissions; trustee University of Vermont; son of Asa Aldis (B.A. Brown 1796), chief justice of Vermont, and Amy (Owen) Aldis; descendant of John Aldis, who came from England to Dedham, Mass., about 1634.
Note: At the time of Harrison Sr assassination, Harrison was engaged to a young New Orleans heiress named Annie Howard, who was worth an estimated $3,000,000.[6]
[3] - Skull and Bones Membership List by David Luhrssen
[5] - Find a Grave.com - Owen Franklin Aldis (S&B 1874)
[6] - Book - Cater Harrison’s Assassination
[7] - Website - Worldsfairchicago1893.com
[8] - Website - grunge.com - The Incredible story of the 1893 World’s Fair
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