Francis Townsend Underhill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Henrietta Graham Meyer,
- Carmelita Dibblee
Francis Townsend Underhill | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 25, 1863 Oyster Bay, New York, U.S. |
| Died | August 22, 1929 (aged 66) |
| Burial place | Santa Barbara Cemetery |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | 3 |
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Francis Townsend Underhill (25 February 1863 – 1929) was a politician from the U.S. state of New York and an amateur architect in California.
Born in Oyster Bay, New York, he was a ninth-generation descendant of Captain John Underhill. Underhill was raised by his aunts as his parents (James Week Underhill, 1819–1868; Margaret Varnum) died when he was of a young age. He was educated by tutors in the US and abroad, studying architecture and landscape architecture.[1]
Underhill married Henrietta Graham Meyer in 1883. Their three daughters, Margaret Varnum Underhill (born 1885), Katherine Underhill (born 1892), and Dorothy Underhill (born 1894), were raised at the family's Oyster Bay estate. He was a member of Caroline Astor's Four Hundred social registry, the Knickerbocker Union, Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the American Revolution, and the Union Club of New York.[1] A horseman, he was a judge at Madison Square Garden in 1890. Underhill raced his yachts, Mayflower and Mischief in the America's Cup. He served as an Army officer in Cuba during the Spanish–American War alongside Theodore Roosevelt. He briefly served as secretary to E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad.
In 1884, Underhill bought the Ontare Ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley from Dixie Thompson for $18,000, moving there with his family. Two years later, he purchased 5,260 acres south of Los Alamos, California from Dr. James Barron Shaw in spring 1886.[1] He wrote Driving for Pleasure: Or, The Harness Stable and Its Appointments in 1896. In 1900, Underhill divorced Henrietta and moved permanently to California, tired of splitting his time between two coasts.[1] He purchased the 6,000 acre El Roblar Rancho near Los Alamos in 1904, and two years later, he married Carmelita Dibblee (born 1886, Santa Barbara), granddaughter of Pablo de la Guerra and great-granddaughter of José de la Guerra y Noriega.
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