Frederick Henry Prince was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stockbrokerA stock broker or stockbroker is a regulated professional broker who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers or Agency Only Firms on behalf of investors...
,
investment bankerAn investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of securities...
and
financierFinancier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...
.
He was born in
Winchester, MassachusettsWinchester is a town located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, eight miles north of Boston. With its agricultural roots having mostly disappeared, it is now an affluent suburb...
, the son of
Frederick O. PrinceFrederick Octavius Prince was an American lawyer, politician, and mayor of Boston, Massachusetts.He was the father of financier Frederick H. Prince.-Biography:...
, former Mayor of the city of
BostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and Helen Henry Prince. He studied at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, but left in his sophomore year to get an early start in the business world. He acquired a seat on the
New York Stock ExchangeThe New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
, on 10 December 1885 and retained his individual membership throughout his life.
Business career
Frederick Prince made a fortune through his investments in a number of business ventures. Seeing the potential for the
stockyardA feedlot or feedyard is a type of animal feeding operation which is used in factory farming for finishing livestock, notably beef cattle, but also swine, horses, sheep, turkeys, chickens or ducks, prior to slaughter. Large beef feedlots are called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations . They...
business, during the first decade of the 20th Century, he began buying up small companies, merging them into the giant
Union Stockyards and Transit CompanyThe Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meat packing district in Chicago for over a century starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired swampland, and turned it to a centralized processing area...
, of which he was chairman. A significant and integral part of the food and tobacco sector, to ensure control over delivery service to his stockyards, Prince's company acquired outright or held a controlling interest in the Pere Marquette Railway and the Chicago Junction Railway, which gave his stockyard operations hundreds of miles of rail lines and close to 1000000 acre (404,686 ha) of land. In the early 1920s, Prince acquired
Armour and CompanyArmour & Company was an American slaughterhouse and meatpacking company founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1867 by the Armour brothers, led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company was Chicago's most important business and helped make the city and its Union Stock Yards the center of the...
, one of the country's major
slaughterhouseA slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
s and
meatpackingThe meat packing industry handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock...
operations.
A friend of
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. was a prominent American businessman, investor, and government official....
, in 1925, Frederick Prince helped finance Kennedy's acquisition of the Robertson-Cole/Film Book Offices, which would evolve to
RKO PicturesRKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
.
A
Republican PartyThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
member and delegate to the 1928 convention, Frederick Prince aided President
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
efforts to pull America out of the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of the 1930s. In 1933, he formulated a widely debated program for consolidation for the nation's railroads. Known as the 'Prince Plan', it was projected to create savings for the nation's railroads of $740,000,000 annually. The Plan was rejected, because it would have thrown thousands of workers out of their jobs. This experience led him to also propose sweeping changes in the
United States ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
, to make the President more independent of faction.
Personal life
Married in 1884, to Abigail Kingsley Norman (1860–1949), they had two sons, Frederick Henry Prince Jr. (1885–1962) and
Norman PrinceNorman Prince was a leading founder of France's Lafayette Escadrille with Bill Thaw, Elliott C. Cowdin, Frazier Curtis, and Greeley S. Curtis, Jr....
, who died in 1916, while flying with the
Lafayette EscadrilleThe Lafayette Escadrille , was an escadrille of the French Air Service, the Aéronautique militaire, during World War I composed largely of American volunteer pilots flying fighters.-History:Dr. Edmund L...
in
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Besides his home in
BiarritzBiarritz is a city which lies on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast, in south-western France. It is a luxurious seaside town and is popular with tourists and surfers....
, Mr. Prince had an estate "Villa Sainte-Helene" at Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques,
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(today the residence of the Prefet des Pyrenees Atlantiques), where he had been
Master of FoxhoundsFox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...
in the annual hunt for more than 25 years. He had homes in Boston (including Princemere, detailed below) and
Aiken, South CarolinaAiken is a city in and the county seat of Aiken County, South Carolina, United States. With Augusta, Georgia, it is one of the two largest cities of the Central Savannah River Area. It is part of the Augusta-Richmond County Metropolitan Statistical Area. Aiken is home to the University of South...
, and in 1932, bought the
Marble HouseMarble House is one of the Gilded Age mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, now open to the public as a museum. It was designed by the architect Richard Morris Hunt, and said to be inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles . Grounds were designed by noted landscape architect Ernest W...
at
Newport, Rhode IslandNewport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
from Mrs.
Oliver Hazard Perry BelmontOliver Hazard Perry Belmont was an American socialite and United States Representative from New York.- Biography :...
(formerly
Alva VanderbiltAlva Erskine Belmont , née Alva Erskine Smith, also called Alva Vanderbilt from 1875 to 1896, was a prominent multi-millionaire American socialite and a major figure in the women's suffrage movement...
).
In 1947, Frederick H. Prince and his wife established the Prince Charitable Trusts, that is a benefactor to various philanthropic endeavours in the city of
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
,
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and the state of
Rhode IslandThe state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
.
Sportsman
Frederick Prince was a financial supporter and co-founder of the
International Tennis Club of WashingtonThe International Tennis Club of Washington plays real tennis on Prince's Court at the Regency Sport and Health Club in McLean, Virginia, 6 miles from Washington, D.C. Dedicated on October 11, 1997, Prince's is the only new real tennis venue to be constructed in the United States since the...
. A member of the
New York Yacht ClubThe New York Yacht Club is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. The organization has over 3,000 members as of 2011. ...
, he owned the
Weetamoe, a
J-class yachtThe J-Class serves as a rating for large sailing yachts designed between 1930 and 1937. Reserved for a wealthy elite of yachtsmen, these boats were used to compete with the best sailing talents in three races of the America's Cup.-The 1930s:...
. The
Weetamoe competed for a berth in the
America's CupThe America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
, losing in the 1934 trials to the ultimate Cup winner
Harold Stirling VanderbiltHarold Stirling Vanderbilt was an American railroad executive, a champion yachtsman, a champion bridge player and a member of the Vanderbilt family.-Background:...
and his yacht,
Rainbow.
In the 1890s, Frederick Prince purchased a 994 acre (402.3 ha) estate at
Wenham, MassachusettsWenham is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,875 at the 2010 census.The Town of Wenham was originally settled in 1635 and has retained much of its unique historic character and tranquil rural scenery...
, that he called Princemere. He owned a large number of horses and established numerous riding trails and carriage roads on the estate. Prince was one of the nine founding members of the
National Steeplechase AssociationThe National Steeplechase Association is the official sanctioning body of American steeplechase horse racing.The National Steeplechase Association was founded on February 15, 1895 by August Belmont, Jr., the first president of The Jockey Club and chairman of the New York State Racing Commission,...
, created in 1895 to organize competitive
steeplechase racingSteeplechase may refer to:* Steeplechase, an event in horse racing* SteepleChase, a Danish jazz label* Steeplechase , a 1975 arcade game released by Atari...
.
Following his death,
Gordon CollegeGordon College is a liberal arts college located on the former Princemere estate in Wenham, Massachusetts, northeast of Beverly. Founded by Baptist minister A. J...
relocated to the estate in 1955. The most distinct building on campus is the stone mansion, built in 1911, which had been Prince's residence. Today, it is known as Frost Hall and houses the majority of the College's faculty and administrative offices, the Admissions Department, as well as a small number of classrooms.
External links