Talk:Mary (Mai) Huttleston Rogers Coe

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Talk page for Mary (Mai) Huttleston Rogers

revisions to eliminate possible copyvio
I had previously established this article as redirect to her mother's page. Without intending to discourage new contributions to WP, IMHO, the recent changes by Phil Fish are too much like the text on the website he cited to avoid our copyvio members flagging us. To avoid that, I have copied over what i already had in the mother's article, and added a little. I would encourage Phil Fish to improve it with information from multiple sources. Mai was an amazing woman, and web searches turn up lots more about her. My main interest is that I have written extensively on the Virginian Railway, and hence, Henry and Abbie Rogers, William R. Coe, etc. I have added some of these article to the see also for this article.

For the WP history, I am copying the part I removed below. Please do not restore it to the article in current form, nor become discouraged from this action. WP is all about collaboration.
 * Mark in Historic Triangle of Virginia Vaoverland 14:57, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

text removed:

Mai Rogers, christened Mary, was born in 1875 in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, the youngest of four daughters of Henry Huttleston Rogers and Abbie Palmer Gifford. The Rogerses, an old Yankee family, had arrived in America on the Mayflower. Mai's maternal grandfather Peleg Gifford was a whaling captain, and had participated in the "Great Stone Fleet" of scuttled ships that blockaded Charleston Harbor during the Civil War.

Her father H.H. Rogers (1840-1909) had made his fortune as one of the founders and organizers of the Standard Oil Company. A "robber baron" of the old style, Rogers' many business interests included transportation, utilities, and mining. Dubbed "Hell Hound Rogers" by his enemies and by the press, and said to have been "pitiless as a shark", Rogers was a generous philanthropist, endowing his native town Fairhaven with a school, town hall, library, roads, nd a magnificent Unitarian church. He provided financial backing for Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute, and paid for Helen Keller's college education (all anonymously). A man of immense charm, his circle of close friends included Mark Twain, whom he saved from financial ruin.

Mai was strikingly pretty and reportedly her father's favorite. Brought up with all of the advantages the Gilded Age had to offer, she was educated at private seminary schools. Mai spoke fluent French, played the piano, and was interested in art and decoration.

In 1893, at age eighteen, Mai eloped with Joseph Cooper Mott, but the marriage ended in divorce due to Mott's alleged adultery. Not much is known about Mr. Mott or the nature of Mai's relationship with him, but when divorce proceedings concluded in 1896, Mott was pictured as a ne'er-do-well who was out of work and too poor to pay the alimony ordered by the court. In letters between H.H. Rogers and Mark Twain, the two men labeled Mott a scalawag.

Afterwards, Mai traveled extensively throughout Europe with her older sister Cara Rogers Broughton as her chaperone. Cara and her two sons would later be raised to the British peerage for her husband Urban Broughton's charitable work. Urban, a successful civil engineer, passed away shortly before the title was bestowed in 1929, but Cara became the Lady Fairhaven; she presented Fort Phoenix to the town of Fairhaven, and Runnymede (which at one time she owned) to the British nation.

On June 4, 1900, Mai Huttleston Rogers married William Robertson Coe, a 30 year old insurance company manager. Coe had met Mai during a transatlantic crossing. Between 1900 and 1910 they had four children, William Rogers Coe (1901-1971), Robert Douglas Coe (1902-1985), Henry Huttleston Rogers Coe (1907-1966), and Natalie Mai (née Coe) Vitetti (1910-1987).

By 1910, Coe had become president of Johnson and Higgins Insurance Co., and was involved in insuring the hull of the RMS Titanic which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. Coe rose to Chairman of the Board of Johnson and Higgins by 1916.

Coe was on the Board of Directors of The Virginian Railway Company from 1910 until his death in 1955, and headed the company for a brief period during World War II. He was also a director of Loup Creek Colliery and the Wyoming Land Company.

Mai and her husband had a large estate, Planting Fields, built on the Gold Coast of Long Island, New York. They named the manor house "Coe Hall". Mai and her husband shared a love of horticulture.

It was Mai who brought two noted American artists to leave their mark at Coe Hall and Planting Fields. She loved interiors that were rich in details as seen in the murals executed by Robert Chanler for her bedroom suite and the Breakfast Room. Her love of European culture was evident in her involvement in the Louis XVI Reception Room, the final form of the Blue Pool Garden, her frequent trips abroad, and her collection of books about European court life. Under Mai's directive, artist Everett Shinn designed a charming interior and executed murals for the Tea House, the focal point of the Blue Pool Garden.

Mai was a fashion plate with great taste and style, and was particularly fond of diamonds, sapphires, and hats. The Coes shared an interest in horticulture and landscape design. Their development of Planting Fields also influenced the landscape design of Lady Fairhaven's estate in England, Anglesey Abbey (now a National Trust property).

Chronically ill for the last decade of her life, Mai died on December 28, 1924 at the age of forty-nine. Her distinctive taste can be seen throughout Coe Hall and Planting Fields.

In 1949, their estate was donated by Coe to become a New York state park.

--Phil Fish 10:52, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Toward a more perfect Wikipedia article
This article needs a clear lead. See: Lead section. – Autodidact 23:09, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Mary (Mai) Huttleston Rogers Coe. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20041212092212/http://www.millicentlibrary.org/cara.htm to http://www.millicentlibrary.org/cara.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20041015130430/http://www.delanoye.org/primary/Fairhaven.html to http://www.delanoye.org/primary/Fairhaven.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20041218081805/http://www.napoleonseries.org/genealogy/10722.htm to http://www.napoleonseries.org/genealogy/10722.htm

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