Major John Vernou Bouvier Jr. (August 12, 1866 – January 15, 1948) was an American Wall Street lawyer and stockbroker. He was the father of John Vernou Bouvier III as well as a grandfather of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, socialite Lee Radziwill, and cabaret performer Edith Bouvier Beale.
Bouvier was born on August 12, 1866 in Torresdale, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Captain John Vernou Bouvier Sr. and Caroline Maslin (née Ewing) Bouvier. His father was a U.S. Civil War veteran who served as aide-de-camp on the staff of General Marsena R. Patrick and was one of the earliest members of the New York Stock Exchange.
Bouvier's grandparents were Louise Clifford (née Vernou) Bouvier, of Philadelphia, the second wife of Michel Bouvier, a French cabinetmaker from Pont-Saint-Esprit in southern France who immigrated to Philadelphia in 1815 after having served in the Napoleonic Wars. In addition to crafting fine furniture, Bouvier had a business distributing firewood which led to his acquisition of nearly 800,000 acres of forest, some of which turned out to contain large reserves of coal. Michel further grew his fortune in real estate speculation. John's father and uncle, Michel Charles Bouvier, distinguished themselves in the world of finance on Wall Street. As the only remaining male Bouvier heir, John Jr. inherited the Bouvier fortune from his father and uncles.
His early education was from private tutors in the United States and in France before he began attending the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York City. He graduated with an A.B. degree from Columbia University in 1886 as the president of his class. The following year he received an A.M. degree from the Columbia University School of Political Science, followed by an LL.B. degree from the Columbia Law School in 1889.
On June 28, 1888, Bouvier was admitted to the bar in New York and began working with the Hoadley, Lauterbach and Johnson firm. During World War I, he was commissioned a Major in the Judge Advocate General's Department of the Army, the legal arm of the United States Army. After the War, he resumed the practice of law, with various firms, including Bouvier and Beale at 165 Broadway with his son-in-law Phelan Beale, until his retirement in 1930. Bouvier, who also held a seat on the Exchange, kept a diary and wrote on October 29, 1929, also known as "Black Tuesday" of the 1929 crash, "XXXX Blackest Panic Day of All. Record 16,410,000 shares traded. No bids at last prices. No bids--no bids". By the end of the crash, Bouvier had lost half of the $250,000 (equivalent to $3,647,771 today) inheritance he received from his parents nine months before the crash.
His retirement was short-lived as a year later, he joined his uncle's firm, M. C. Bouvier and Co., members of the New York Stock Exchange, as a general partner. His uncle had wisely unloaded most of his common stock positions before the 1929 crash, thereby preserving much of his $7,000,000 wealth (equivalent to $102,137,597 today). Upon his uncle's death in 1935, the firm was dissolved.
Bouvier worked as an trial attorney for forty years, specializing in contracts, testamentary law, torts, securities, and stock exchanges. He served as general counsel for the Aetna Life Insurance Company, the Travelers Insurance Company, the Equitable Life Insurance Company, and the Metropolitan Street Railway Company.
On April 16, 1890, Bouvier was married to Brearley School graduate Maude Frances Sergeant (1869–1940). She was the daughter of British born merchant William Roberts Sergeant and Edith Matilda (née Leaman) Sergeant. Together, they lived at Woodcroft, an estate in Nutley, New Jersey built in 1895, and, later, at 521 Park Avenue in New York, and were the parents of five children:
Around 1910, Bouvier bought a home on Long Island, known as Wildmoor on Apaquogue Road in the Georgica Pond section of East Hampton. In 1925, his wife bought the much larger estate, known as Lasata,[b] which was built for George Schurman in 1917. The home was two blocks from the ocean and three from the Maidstone Club, where he was a member in 1926. He entertained many friends, including Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler, Judge Samuel Seabury among others, on a grand scale in East Hampton and was well known in society there.
He was a member of the Society of Cincinnati, the Sons of the Revolution (of which he was General-President for two terms), and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He served on the boards of the New York Foundling Hospital and the New-York Historical Society and was a member of the Union Club of the City of New York for over fifty years.
His wife died at their home, 765 Park Avenue in Manhattan, in April 1940, a few weeks before their 50th wedding anniversary. Bouvier himself died at the same home almost eight years later on January 15, 1948. He was buried at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery in East Hampton.
Through his eldest son John, he was the grandfather of First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (who married John F. Kennedy in 1953 and Aristotle Onassis in 1968) and socialite Lee Radziwill, who married Prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł. Through his daughter Edith, he was the grandfather of Edith Bouvier Beale, Phelan Beale, Jr., and Bouvier Beale. Through his daughter Maude, he was the grandfather of author John Hagy Davis.
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