William Fletcher Weld

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William Fletcher Weld (1800-1881), scion of the Weld Family of Boston, was a shipping magnate during the "Golden Age of Sail". He later invested in railroads and real estate. Through his financial acumen, Weld multiplied his family's fortune into a huge legacy for his descendants and the public.

1 Early life
2 Financial success
3 Weld Hall
4 Further legacy
5 References

[edit] Early life

Weld was the son of prosperous shipmaster and ship owner William Gordon Weld and his well-connected wife Hannah Minot. Young William planned to attend Harvard as his father and many ancestors had before him. However, during the War of 1812, a British frigate cruising off Boston Harbor captured one of the family's ships carrying a valuable cargo of wine and Spanish silver dollars. This financial disaster canceled William Fletcher Weld's plans for college.

Instead, the young Weld became a clerk for an importer in Boston at age 15. By age 22 he was in the dry-goods trade but his partner's lack of business sense mired the young company in debt.

[edit] Financial success

Eventually, Weld entered the shipping trade that had enriched his father. By 1833, Weld had made enough money to build "The Senator", the largest ship of its time.

William Fletcher Weld eventually became one of the most successful merchant-ship owners in the United States. He operated 51 sailing vessels and 10 steamers. His fleet sailed under the name and symbol of the "Black Horse Flag".

As profits from the American shipping industry began to wane, he sold off his fleet and focused his business acumen on urban real estate and railroads, in particular the Boston and Albany and Boston and Maine lines.

[edit] Weld Hall

Harvard Yard with Weld Hall visible in the background

In 1870, William Fletcher Weld donated money to Harvard for a dormitory to be built in memory of his younger brother Stephen Minot Weld. This building, called "Weld Hall", should not be confused with the family's ancestral home "Weld Hall" that stood atop Weld Hill in Forest Hills.

The inscription on the dormitory, translated from Latin, reads "To Stephen Minot Weld, a man well-deserving of the University, dedicated by his brother." Tours of Harvard Yard often pause near Weld Hall no note that John F. Kennedy lived there during his freshman year.

[edit] Further legacy

Weld married twice, fathering six children by his first wife, Mary Perez Bryant, and one son by his second wife, Isabella Walker. In 1906, his youngest son George Walker Weld, donated the Weld Boathouse to Harvard University.

William Fletcher Weld left an estate estimated at $20 million. His granddaughter Isabel Weld Perkins inherited $17 million of this at age 5. She later married diplomat Larz Anderson and left a legacy for the public that includes Larz Anderson Park and Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Anderson Memorial Bridge in Cambridge, the Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection at Arnold Arboretum and Anderson House Museum in Washington, DC.