Edvard Bech

Edward Bech (May 4, 1812 – July 9, 1873) was a Danish diplomat and businessman who lived in the United States. His former home is now part of Marist College.

Early life Nybrogade in Copenhagen: Bech's birthplace is the building to the right and the one to the left is where he was raised from 1816 (now No. 24). Bech was born on May 4, 1812, in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was a son of Ellen Sophie Magdalene (née Meyer) Bech (1784–1846) and Jørgen Peter Bech (1782–1846), a prosperous Copenhagen merchant and friend of Crown Prince Frederick.The family lived at Nybrogade 24 (until 1816 in a now demolished building at No. 22) and had an estate south of Copenhagen, near the border in territory that was later absorbed into Germany.

Personal life

On September 11, 1846, Bech was married to Canadian born Charlotte Elizabeth McCarty (née Hossack) Braëm (1808–1900), the widow of Rudolph Gothard Sighart Braëm. From her first marriage, she was the mother of two sons, the Danish consul Henri Monad Braem (who married Emily Maria Forbes Bridge, a sister-in-law of Stuyvesant LeRoy). Together, they were the parents of two daughters and two sons:

Mary Elizabeth Bech (1847–1900), who married Count Karl Heinrich von Linden (1838–1910) in 1877; Linden served as High Chamberlin under King Charles I of Württemberg. Sophie Marguerite Bech (1848–1935), who married Danish nobleman Carl Arthur O'Neill Oxholm (1843–1914), eldest son of Oscar O'Neill Oxholm of Rosenfeldt Manor at Vordingborg, in 1872. who married Mary Stevens Strong (1855–1880), a granddaughter of John Austin Stevens, in 1879; Mary and their son, Edward Henri Peter Bech, died during childbirth. After her death, he married Julia May (1859–1954) of Baltimore, a daughter of U.S. Representative Henry May, in 1887. Her sister, Lillian, later married William Bagot, 4th Baron Bagot. After his death, Julia married William Babcock and moved away from Rosenlund.

Bech died from tuberculosis on July 9, 1873, in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. His body was returned to the United States and he was buried at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery in a mausoleum was designed by Detlef Lienau in 1862 for Bech's eldest son Edward who died young. At his death, Bech left an estate valued at $1,837,342 of which one third went to his son George, and 1/9 each to his daughters. The remaining third was left in trust for his widow from which she received about $25,000 per year. His son George continued managing his businesses until his death in 1890. He hired Danish architect Detlef Lienau, the younger brother of his wine trading partner, Michael Lienau, who designed a gatehouse, gardener's cottage, carriage house, and a main house in the Gothic Revival style, but died before the main house was built.

The Rosenlund estate passed to his widow Elizabeth and, after her death in May 1900, it was willed to her son Henri, who died in Vienna in February 1900, therefore, it passed to her granddaughter, Pauline Elizabeth (née Braem) von Nauendorf (1871–1916). After the Braem estate was settled in 1905, Pauline sold Rosenlund to Brother Louis Zephiriny of the Marist Brothers in 1908, which increased their property to and eventually became Marist College.