I. Townsend Burden

Isaiah Townsend Burden (February 21, 1838 – April 23, 1913) was a prominent American member of New York Society during the Gilded Age. His siblings were Peter Abercrombie Burden (1822–1866), Margaret Elizabeth Burden (1824–1915), Helen Burden (1826–1891), Henry James Burden (1828–1846), William Fletcher Burden (1830–1867), James Abercrombie Burden (1833–1906), and Jessie Burden (1840–1917). with his brother James A. Burden, until his death in 1913. After his brother James's death in 1906, his nephew, James A. Burden Jr., became more heavily involved in the company.

He also served as president of Port Huron Iron Company and was one of the organizers of the Knickerbocker Trust Co. of New York, of which he held a large ownership interest. He was also a trustee of the Lake Champlain and Moriah Railroad Company, and president of Bailey's Beach in Newport. His wife was credited with introducing Harry Lehr to high society at their home in Newport. In 1870, Morton had Richard Morris Hunt, designer of Ochre Court, add a ballroom to the house for a visit by Ulysses S. Grant shortly after he became president. In 1881, McKim, Mead and White designed family rooms on the second floor over the ballroom and added Tiffany & Co. stained glass windows to the Great Hall. When Burden bought the home from Morton in 1900, he commissioned Peabody and Stearns to add a curved porch. After his death, the home was passed to his children.

Personal life His eldest son, I. T. Burden Jr. (second from left in the back row), while on the Harvard Golf Team, 1897 On April 18, 1871, he was married to Evelyn Byrd Moale (1847–1916), a daughter of William Armistead Moale (1800–1880) of Baltimore, Maryland, who was a descendant of the Carter and Byrd families of Virginia. Her sister Judith Carter Moale was married to Robert Livingston Cutting Jr., a prominent banker. Together, they were the parents of four children:

Evelyn Byrd Burden (1874–1968), who did not marry. Isaiah Townsend Burden Jr. (1875–1953), who married Florence Sheedy (1888–1949) of Denver in June 1911. who married Florence Vanderbilt Twombly (1881–1969), a daughter of Florence Adele Vanderbilt Twombly and Hamilton McKown Twombly, in 1904. Gwendolyn Townsend Burden (1884–1935), who married David Dows (1885–1966) in December 1911.

Burden died on April 23, 1913. Following his death, he was buried at the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. a banker who served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium from 1959 to 1961, and Shirley Carter Burden (1908–1989), a prominent photographer.