Oakleigh Thorne

1900-1912: Trust Company of America He was 34 years old when he came to New York at vice president of the International Banking and Trust Company, in 1900. Several months later the company appointed him president. Thorne remained president until the Trust Company of America was absorbed by the Equitable Trust Company in the spring of 1912. When he retired from the Trust Company of America, Thorne spent $500,000 purchasing the Corporation Trust Company of New Jersey. Thorne was president of the Milbrook Company, which was organized as the holding company of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The Milbrook Company then sold on October 29, 1907, by Thorne and Marsden. The merger resulted in a lawsuit by a banker with interest in the companies, seeking an injunction against the merger in late 1906. In a formal statement issued on March 9, 1914, Thorne confirmed that he had accepted $8,250,000 from J. P. Morgan & Co. to purchase the New Haven Road, with the money used to purchase the securities of the New York, Westchester & Boston and New York & Port Chester Railroads. He had also purchased their construction companies and the developments, and upon the cancellation of his contract, Thorne turned over all the acquired assets to J. P. Morgan & Co.

In March 1913, Thorne and William H. Chesebrough purchased the corners at the northwest corner of State and Whitehall Streets on Long Island, with plans to build a skyscraper for use as an office building.

1918-1930s: Agricultural career On October 9, 1918, it was announced that Thorne had purchased Briarcliff Farms at Pine Plains, New York At the time, the property had 4,200 acres and had a herd of around 1,000 cows. That year Thorne changed careers to focus on developing Briarcliff, which was originally a dairy farm that used for beef cattle production. He became president of the American Angus Association, from 1929 to 1931. He became the first to win the grand championship at the International Live Stock Exposition twice, in 1931 and 1933

Personal life A "crack shot" in pigeon shooting, he won the international pigeon-shooting match for the Gun Club International Cup in England in July 1892, as one of three Americans out of 69 competitors. On February 26, 1889, he married Helen Seymour Stafford The couple went on to have three daughters.

In 1916, Thorne ceased living at his town home at Park Avenue and 73 Street to live full-time in Millbrook, New York, A number of incidents at Thornedale reached the press, and in July 1916, Thorne was rushed from Thornedale to a hospital in Poughkeepsie to have an operation for appendicitis. With Thorne recovering from his operation at Thornedale, in early August 1916, two large barns on the Thornedale estate were burned, with the fires put out by the Millbrook Fire Department. When Mrs. Thorne received information that new fires were to be started, she hired a force of detectives to guard every building on the estate. In August 1919, Thorne had his ex-butler arrested on the charge of writing annoying letters to his daughter. Thornedale was robbed of silverware in July 1922 while the Thorne family slept, the second time it was robbed that year. On October 21, 1922, residents of Millbrook held a hunt ball at the Sunny Croft estate of Frederick Chesebrough, in honor of Thorne and his wife, with Thorne dubbed master of hounds. The event marked the official opening of the hunting season.

Thorne died on May 23, 1948, in New York's Doctors Hospital at the age of 81. His death was attributed to shock, after he broke his leg a week earlier at a fall at Thornedale. The funeral service was held on May 25 at Thornedale. Thorne has a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren,

In honor of Helen Thorne, the Garden Club of America established in the 1950s the Mrs. Oakleigh Thorne Medal for outstanding work in garden landscaping, design, architecture, or art. She designed outstanding gardens, both civic and private, for the communities where she lived in New York state and, later, in California.