, William Rockefeller's home outside
Sleepy Hollow, New York on
Jekyll Island in
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Rockefeller married Almira Geraldine Goodsell (March 19, 1844 – January 17, 1920) on May 25, 1864, in
Fairfield, Connecticut. There were many connections among this and other elite families. Her sister Esther Judson Goodsell was married to
Oliver Burr Jennings, who became one of the original stockholders of Standard Oil. Together, William and Almira had: • Lewis Edward Rockefeller (March 2, 1865 – August 3, 1866) • Emma Rockefeller (June 8, 1868 – August 11, 1934), who married Dr. David Hunter McAlpin Jr. •
William Goodsell Rockefeller (May 21, 1870 – November 30, 1922), who married Sarah Elizabeth "Elsie" Stillman • John Davison Rockefeller II (March 8, 1872 – 1877) •
Percy Avery Rockefeller (February 27, 1878 – September 25, 1934), who married Isabel Goodrich Stillman •
Ethel Geraldine Rockefeller (April 3, 1882 – August 13, 1973), who married
Marcellus Hartley Dodge Sr. William Rockefeller Jr. died of pneumonia on June 24, 1922, in Rockwood Hall. He had caught a cold during a car trip he took with brother
John and nephew
John Jr. to visit his childhood home in
Richford, New York. He was interred in the historic
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (less than a mile south of Rockwood Hall) in the monumental
William Rockefeller Mausoleum, which he had built for his wife, who had predeceased him by two years.
The New York Times, in discussing a trust that Rockefeller set up for his born and yet-to-be born great-grandchildren, stated that he "left a gross estate of $102,000,000 which was reduced to $50,000,000 principally by $30,000,000 of debts and $18,600,000 of
inheritance and estate taxes." Rockefeller was a regular attendee of the
Saint Mary's Episcopal Church in Scarborough in the last few years of his life.
Descendants Rockefeller and Almira's elder daughter, Emma Rockefeller, married Dr. David Hunter McAlpin Jr., a notable physician and the son of prominent industrialist and real estate owner
David Hunter McAlpin. The younger daughter,
Ethel Geraldine Rockefeller, married
Marcellus Hartley Dodge Sr., president of The
Remington Arms Company. Known as Geraldine, she was a highly respected expert on dogs and a great patron of the arts. The Dodges' only child,
Marcellus Hartley Dodge Jr., heir of two massive fortunes, was killed in an automobile accident at the age of 22. Two of Rockefeller and Almira's sons,
William Goodsell Rockefeller and
Percy Avery Rockefeller, married daughters of
James Jewett Stillman and Sarah Elizabeth Stillman. James Stillman was president and
chairman of the board of directors of the
National City Bank. In their chronicle of the Rockefeller family,
Peter Collier and
David Horowitz note: Most of the storybook marriages of the time were between continental nobility and wealthy young American women. Yet the significant marriages occurred at home, serving to unite almost all the wealthy families as distant cousins or even closer. There was the bond of the William Rockefellers and the Stillmans. [...] ‘‘High” society became an increasingly small world. (
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty) Both sons were financiers and board directors of multiple companies, including the National City Bank, of which their father-in-law had been president and chairman of the board.
James Stillman Rockefeller, son of William Goodsell Rockefeller, married Nancy Carnegie, grandniece of
Andrew Carnegie. An
Olympic rowing champion, he also joined the
National City Bank. Like his maternal grandfather,
James Stillman, he eventually became the bank's president and later chairman of the board.
Residences , built by William Rockefeller in 1912 The
Rockefeller (Indian Mound) Cottage is a house on
Jekyll Island, Georgia, located next to the
Jekyll Island Club. The house was built by businessman
Gordon McKay in 1892 and called Indian Mound Cottage. McKay died in 1903, and the house was bought by William Rockefeller in 1905. The house remained in the Rockefeller family until 1947, when the Jekyll Island Authority bought the property. It was open as a museum from 1950 until 1968, when it was closed for badly needed repairs. In 1971, the Indian Mound Cottage was
listed on the National Register of Historic Places as "Rockefeller Cottage." It is now part of the Jekyll Island Club
National Historic Landmark District. It would become the
second-largest private house in the U.S. at the time. William's decision to build his home in Westchester was a key factor in his brother
John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s decision to buy land nearby in
Pocantico Hills, starting in 1893. John D. Rockefeller's estate,
Kykuit, was less than a mile from Rockwood Hall. The two properties eventually comprised a single large Rockefeller estate area, connected by a network of carriage roads designed by the family. After William's death, his heirs put the property up for sale. However, no individual buyer could be found, and the property was broken up. In the 1940s, the mansion was demolished, and the land was incorporated into the
Rockefeller State Park Preserve. He insisted that his name was not to be placed on the bridge's commemorative plaque. ==References==