James Deering
| James Deering | |
|---|---|
James Deering, 1917, by John Singer Sargent
|
|
| Born | November 12, 1859 South Paris, Maine |
| Died | September 21, 1925 (aged 65) aboard SS City of Paris |
| Occupation | industrialist, art collector |
| Known for | building Villa Vizcaya |
James Deering (November 12, 1859 – September 21, 1925) was an industrial executive in the family Deering Harvester Company and subsequent International Harvester, a socialite, and an antiquities collector. He is known for his landmark Vizcaya estate, where he was an early 20th-century resident on Biscayne Bay in the present day Coconut Grove district of Miami, Florida. Begun in 1910, with architecture and gardens in a Mediterranean Revival style, Vizcaya was his passionate endeavor with artist Paul Chalfin, and his winter home from 1916 to his death in 1925.
James Deering was born in 1859 in the western Maine town of South Paris. He was the son of William Deering and his second wife, Clara Hammond Deering. His older half-brother was the arts patron Charles Deering.
His father, who had inherited the family woolen mill and was landowner in the Northeast, invested in a farm-equipment manufacturing company, renaming it the Deering Harvester Company. In 1873, he moved the family to Chicago, Illinois. New 'Deering Harvester Company' reaper machinery enabled Midwestern United States farmers to harvest an acre of grain per hour, a substantial increase in productivity that increased the profitability of Midwest agriculture significantly. The Deering Harvester Company grew in value, so that by the end of the 19th century, the Deerings had become one of America's wealthiest families, although his father William was conservative in family spending. His parents did acquire a residence in St. Augustine, Florida, for the winter season. James Deering's older brother Charles joined the family business in the 1880s, after attending the United States Naval Academy and nine years in the Navy. James Deering attended one year each at Northwestern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before also joining the company at the same time.
...
Wikipedia