Russell Sage - Rumors

Financier, born in Oneida Co, New York, USA. A clerk at his brother's store in Troy (1828), he attended night school, bought out his brother's store (1836), and opened a wholesale grocery business. Active in local politics from 1845, he served in the US House of Representatives (Whig, New York, 1853–7) where he promoted the preservation of Mount Vernon. His interest in railroads and finance was sparked by a meeting with Jay Gould, with whom he became an ally. In 1863 he moved to New York City to pursue stocks and finance, and is credited with originating ‘puts and calls’ on the stock market (1872). He promoted the development of the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co and its consolidation into Western Union, and was a prodigious money lender. His fortune at his death was estimated at $70 million.

Russell Sage (4 August 1816 - 1906) was a financier and politician from New York.

Sage was born at Shenandoah in Oneida County, New York. Sage, in Troy, New York.

On 7 May 1867, Sage's first wife died of stomach cancer. In 1869, Sage was involved in a case concerning the Usury Laws in New York state, accused of being the gang leader in a usury group. Later that year, Sage married his second wife, Olivia Slocum.

He bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (1874) and thereafter was known as a financier.

In his later years he was closely associated with Jay Gould in the management of the Wabash Railway, St. Louis and Pacific, Missouri Pacific Railroad, Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the St. Louis - San Francisco Railway, the American cable company, the Western Union telegraph company and the Manhattan consolidated system of elevated rail­roads in New York city, in all of which corporations he was a director. Mr. Sage was for many years closely connected with the affairs of the Union Pacific Railroad, of which he was a director. He was a director and vice-president in the Importers and Traders' National Bank for twenty years, and also a director in the Merchants' Trust Company and in the Fifth Avenue Bank of New York City. His demand was refused, and the bomb exploded, killing the bomb-toting man and Sage's secretary.

In 1906 he died and left his entire fortune of about $70 million to his wife, Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage (1828-1918), who subsequently devoted a major portion of these funds to philanthropy. In 1907 she established the Russell Sage Foundation, and in 1916 she founded Russell Sage College in Troy.

Rumors

There is speculation still today that Russell Sage and his second wife were never in love and never intimate. The two were married out of convenience according to many, Sage holding on many different affairs. Some claim that the founding of Russell Sage College in his name was done out of spite for the man, who purportedly hated the concept of women getting an education. While there are apparently two buildings named for Russell Sage at RPI, one (Russell Sage Dining Hall) is actually named after Sage's nephew Russell Sage II who graduated from RPI in 1859.