Ross Revillon Winans

Ross Revillon Winans. Heir to a railway fortune at age 28, he was a Gilded Age "gentleman of leisure". Ross Revillon Winans (June 8, 1850 - April 25, 1912) was a Baltimore, Maryland heir of a railway fortune. His father and grandfather were famous railroad innovators and entrepreneurs. He is best remembered today as a Gilded Age heir and socialite, the builder of a magnificent house in Baltimore, and for his controversial will.

Early life

The Winans family fortune began with Ross R.'s grandfather, Ross Winans, a pioneering train mechanic and inventor. A key figure in early railroading, he designed numerous innovations for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, including the first successful coal-burning freight locomotives and the eight-wheeled rail car system, which allowed cars to navigate tight turns. This invention, featuring swivel trucks on four-wheel cars, remains in use today.

In 1843, Ross Winans sent his sons, Thomas DeKay Winans and William Louis Winans, to Russia. They were tasked with engineering the first major Russian railroad line between St. Petersburg and Moscow. The initial five-year, $5 million project to build the line led to an even more lucrative contract to build and maintain all the rolling stock. This maintenance agreement, paying per car and per mile traveled, became so profitable that the Russian government eventually paid an additional $8 million to buy out the remainder of its terms.

During his time in Russia, Thomas DeKay Winans married Celeste Revillon Winans in 1847. She was a Russian national of French and Italian ancestry. Their first child, Ross Revillon Winans, was born in St. Petersburg in 1850.

Shattered by family deaths, disputes, and losses, Winans returned to his Baltimore mansion and became a recluse; rarely seen or heard from, he found solace in books. It was during this period of isolation that his grand home on St. Paul Street became known to locals as the "House of Mystery."

The publication of his will immediately created controversy. From an estate valued between $2.5 million and $4 million, the most surprising provision was a bequest of $500,000 to Dorothy Bateman of Newport. According to Winans, she was a little girl who gave him flowers on the beach at his Rhode Island beach house years ago; as she grew older, she continued to be friendly to him through Winans' last years. She also may have been his housekeeper. She received one of the largest single shares of the fortune. His estranged son, Thomas George Winans, was left only the income from a $200,000 trust fund. Furthermore, Thomas's own children would not receive any of the principal from that fund until after their father's death.

The will reflected the family problems of his final years. Winans made no provision for his two French grandchildren. This disinheritance of the children of his late daughter was on the surface surprising since he was said to have once been very fond of them. However, it was rebuke of his son-in-law, Prince Henri de Bearn. The Prince's lawyer questioned the will's validity, stating it was odd that the infant grandchildren were ignored while "elderly relatives and lawyers... who were [nearby Ross]" were named as beneficiaries. He implied that those with access to Ross had undue influence, while the Prince and his children were abroad and unaware of the situation.

To avoid a difficult public court battle that would necessitate challenging Winans's state of mind, the beneficiaries came to a private agreement. In a settlement filed in November 1912, they voluntarily gave up $500,000 of their own inheritance to establish a trust for the disinherited de Bearn children. The bulk was given by some minor beneficiaries, and Dorothy Bateman. The settlement ensured that the grandchildren Winans had cut out of his will fared better than those he had included. The de Bearn children received a substantial fund, while Thomas Winans's children were left with only a future claim on a smaller trust.