Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb


Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb was an American heiress.

Early life

Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt was born on September 20, 1860 in Staten Island. She was the youngest daughter and seventh child of William Henry Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt. Her elder siblings were Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard, William Kissam Vanderbilt, Frederick William Vanderbilt, Florence Adele Vanderbilt Twombly, and Emily Thorn Vanderbilt. Her younger brother was George Washington Vanderbilt II, builder of the Biltmore Estate.
Her maternal grandparents were Rev. Samuel Kissam and the former Margaret Hamilton Adams. Her grandfather was business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, owner of the New York Central Railroad.
Eliza attended Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut.

Personal life

On December 20, 1881, Vanderbilt married Dr. William Seward Webb at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City. William was a physician and railroad executive who later became a member of the Vermont House of Representatives and was a founder, and president, of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was the son of James Watson Webb, a newspaper publisher who served as U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, and his second wife, Laura Virginia Webb. Among his siblings was elder half-brother Civil War General Alexander S. Webb, and younger brother H. Walter Webb, also a railroad executive. Together, Eliza and William were the parents of four children:
She enjoyed playing golf, contract bridge, gardening, traveling and reading. She was one of the first female members of the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Vanderbilt died on July 10, 1936 at her home in Shelburne, Vermont. After a funeral at Trinity Church in Shelburne, she was buried alongside her late husband at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

Residences

With her US$10 million inheritance, Vanderbilt bought and developed Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont in 1899. She planned meals, hired servants, hosted guests, and took care of the interior decorating and garden design. She entertained at Shelburne Farms until her death in 1936. During his 1909 visit to Shelburne Farms, President William Howard Taft said her husband was absent because he was drunk.
In April 1923, Vanderbilt built a house on Dunbar Road in Palm Beach, Florida. Later, she built another house in Gulf Stream, Florida.