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Lucile Carter

Lucile Stewart Carter Brooke (née Polk; October 8, 1875 – October 26, 1934) was an American socialite and the wife of William Ernest Carter, an extremely wealthy American who inherited a fortune from his father. The couple and their two children survived the RMS Titanic disaster after the ship struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912. She was said to be one of the heroines of the tragedy as she, with some of the other socially elite women, assisted in the rowing of one of the Titanic's lifeboats.

Lucile Carter
Lucile Carter circa 1900
Born
Lucile Stewart Polk

(1875-10-08)October 8, 1875
Baltimore, Maryland, US
DiedOctober 26, 1934(1934-10-26) (aged 59)
Resting placeSt. Michael's Cemetery, Birdsboro, Pennsylvania
Spouse(s)
1. William Ernest Carter(1875–1940)
(m. 1896; div. 1914)

2. George Brooke Jr. (1867–1963)
(m. 1914⁠–⁠1934)
Children3

Early life

 
Sketch of Lucile Stewart Polk in the social pages of a Baltimore newspaper in 1892 when she was aged 17.

Lucile Stewart Polk was born in 1875 in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father was William Stewart Polk (1828–1917) and her mother was Louisa Ellen (née Anderson). Carter’s father was a partner in the very successful insurance brokerage firm Hopper Polk and Purnell of Baltimore[1] and was fairly wealthy. Many of the newspaper reports noted that he was a descendant of President James K. Polk.[2]

Before her marriage, Carter was mentioned often in the social pages of the Baltimore newspapers. The picture on the left is a sketch of her in the newspaper Baltimore American in 1892 when she was aged 17.[3]

Marriage

On January 29, 1896 she married William Ernest Carter.[4] He was the son of William Thornton Carter (1827–1893) who had made a vast fortune in the coal industry and was said to be "one of the most extensive and successful coal operators in America".[5] Carter's husband inherited much of this fortune and the couple led a very privileged lifestyle. They had two children, Lucile Polk Carter born in 1897 and William Thornton Carter II born in 1900, who were also passengers on the Titanic and survived.

After their marriage, the couple was frequently mentioned in the social pages. Lucile was often noted for her striking clothes. The following is an extract from one of the newspapers.

Mrs William E Carter of Philadelphia, a beauty of pronounced type, has been startling Newport with flaming costumes. In an accordion plaited Eton suit of red and with a red hat, a red parasol, red slippers and silk stockings of the same shade her Dresden china colouring seems even lovelier than when she wears less striking costumes.[6]

Carter was also very athletic and quite daring. One newspaper commented that "she was the first woman to play polo riding astride and the first woman to drive a four-in-hand (which is a carriage with four horses) through crowded Thames Street in Baltimore.[7]

In about 1907, the Carter family went to live in Europe. They annually returned to the United States and lived in their mansion in Bryn Mawr during the summer with visits to Newport.[8] It was on one of those return trips that they booked their passage on the RMS Titanic.

On board the Titanic

 
The RMS Titanic lifeboat 6 being rowed toward the RMS Carpathia similar to lifeboat 4, the one rowed by Lucile Carter.

The Carters boarded the Titanic at Southampton. Accompanying the couple were their two children, Lucile Carter's maid Auguste Serepeca, William Carter's manservant Alexander Cairns, and the chauffeur Charles Aldworth.[9] On the voyage, William Carter brought on board his 25 horsepower Renault Towncar. They occupied First Class Cabins B96/98.

The original story told in the press regarding the Carter family’s experience of their ordeal was that William Carter came to the cabin and escorted his family to lifeboat 4. He then left this area with the other men who had taken their wives to this boat. These men were John Astor, George Widener and John Thayer.[10] William Carter escaped from the Titanic on collapsible lifeboat C (along with Bruce Ismay) but the other three men were lost on the liner.

Carter gave details of what happened when she and her two children boarded Lifeboat 4. Her statement was as follows.

When I went over the side with my children and got in the boat there were no seamen in it. Then came a few men, but there were oars with no one to use them. The boat had been filled with passengers, and there was nothing else for me to do but to take an oar. We could see now that the time of the ship had come. She was sinking, and we were warned by cries from the men above to pull away from the ship quickly. Mrs. Thayer, wife of the vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was in my boat, and she, too, took an oar. It was cold and we had no time to clothe ourselves with warm overcoats. The rowing warmed me. We started to pull away from the ship. We could see the dim outlines of the decks above, but we could not recognize anybody.[11]

She was acclaimed by the press later to have been one of the heroic women who rowed the heavy lifeboats.

Later years

Following their rescue by the RMS Carpathia, the family returned to "Gwenda", their mansion in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.[12] Less than two years later, in January 1914, Carter filed for divorce.[13] The divorce was granted on May 30, although no details were made public at the time.[14] The following year it was sensationally revealed by the newspapers that the grounds for the divorce had been "cruel and barbarous treatment." Carter's sworn statement revealed that William Carter had not accompanied her and the children to Lifeboat 4 to ensure their safety:

We sailed for America on the Titanic. When the Titanic struck my husband came to our stateroom and said: 'Get up and dress yourself and the children'. I never saw him again until I arrived at the Carpathia at 8 o'clock the next morning, when I saw him leaning on the rail. All he said was that he had had a jolly good breakfast and that he never thought I would make it.[15]

Second marriage

At a Philadelphia dinner party given by Mr. & Mrs. Edward Brooke, Carter met the host's brother, George Brooke Jr.,[16] a wealthy banker and steel manufacturer,[17] and a bachelor in his mid-40s.

With her divorce finalized, Carter and her daughter departed for Europe in June 1914, intending to stay for a year.[18] Edward Brooke, his wife and four children also spent that summer in Europe; brother George was to join them in August.[19] When World War I broke out at the end of July, Carter and her daughter were caught in Paris. George Brooke arrived in London and tried to get to Paris, but wartime travel restrictions made it impossible. Instead, he arranged passage for Carter and her daughter to England. Rather than waiting until they returned to the United States, the couple married in London on August 16, 1914, with Brooke's brother and family and Carter's daughter in attendance.[20] The whole group sailed almost immediately back to the United States on board the Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic.[21]

For the first two years of their marriage, the couple divided their time between a city house in Philadelphia; a country house in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, "Brookewood", that Brooke had inherited from his late parents; and a rented summer cottage in Newport, Rhode Island. In Fall 1916, they rented a Radnor, Pennsylvania mansion, "Rock Rose". Carter's daughter Lucile made her Philadelphia society debut while they were living at "Rock Rose",[22][23] but their stay was marred by a December 12 fire.[24] The following December, the Brookes gathered in Birdsboro to celebrate Christmas. In the early hours of Christmas Day 1917, Brooke, Carter and the children were roused from their beds by a fire that destroyed "Brookewood".[25] The couple bought a country house outside Birdsboro, "Clingan", that had belonged to a Brooke cousin;[26] and "Isle Field" in Ithan, Pennsylvania, on Philadelphia's Main Line, which they renamed "Almondbury House".[27]

Brooke and Carter had one child together, a daughter named Elizabeth Muhlenberg Brooke, born April 14, 1916. Later known as Elizabeth "Betty" Brooke Blake, she was living in Dallas, Texas as of April 2012,[28] and died in Newport, Rhode Island, on August 8, 2016.[29]

Death

Carter died of a heart attack on October 26, 1934 at Almondbury House.[30] George Brooke sold the mansion and moved to an apartment in Haverford, Pennsylvania.[31] He died twenty-nine years later. They are buried together in St. Michael's Cemetery in Birdsboro.

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ The Washington Times, September 08, 1917, p. 3
  2. ^ The Times Dispatch (Richmond), April 19, 1912, Page 9
  3. ^ Baltimore American, October 16, 1892, p. 9
  4. ^ "29 Jan 1896, Page 7 - The Baltimore Sun at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2017-04-16.
  5. ^ Carter, C. M. R. 1909 “John Redington of Topsfield, Massachusetts, and some of his descendants, with notes on the Wales family”, p. 24
  6. ^ Palestine Daily Herald, July 23, 1904, p. 6
  7. ^ The Reading Eagle, June 18, 1914, p. 11
  8. ^ Toledo Blade, April 25, 1912, p. 8
  9. ^ Encyclopaedia Titanica
  10. ^ Mowbray J. H. 1912 Sinking of the Titanic: Eyewitness Accounts, p. 126.
  11. ^ Mowbray J. H. 1912 “Sinking of the Titanic: Eyewitness Accounts”, p. 55
  12. ^ Scroll down to "Dwelling for Mr. W. E. Carter," 2013-10-20 at the Wayback Machine from Bryn Mawr College.
  13. ^ "Wife sues W. E. Carter," The New York Times, January 31, 1914.
  14. ^ "Mrs. Carter has divorce," The New York Tribune, May 30, 1914.
  15. ^ Keowee Courier., January 27, 1915, p. 5
  16. ^ George M. Meiser XI, The Passing Scene, Volume 13 (Historical Society of Berks County, 2005), p. 225.
  17. ^ "George Brooke, Jr.," Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography, Volume 3 (1914), pp. 1002-03.
  18. ^ "Mrs. Carter weds again," The New York Times, August 31, 1914.
  19. ^ "George Brooke, of town, will sail on Saturday for Cherbourg to be gone six weeks or two months. He will take the steamship Oceanic." The Reading Eagle, July 31, 1914. Page 19.
  20. ^ "Newlyweds at Birdsboro," The Reading Eagle, September 1, 1914.
  21. ^ "Mrs. W. E. Carter and George Brooke wed," The New York Sun, September 1, 1914.
  22. ^ "Birdsboro woman to entertain for daughter," The Reading Eagle, October 12, 1916.
  23. ^ "Dinner-dance for Miss Lucile Carter," The Reading Eagle, November 8, 1916.
  24. ^ "$1,000 fire at Radnor home of George Brooke," The Reading Eagle, December 13, 1916.
  25. ^ The fire started in the house's furnace, where wood was being burned due to a coal shortage. Damage was estimated at $50,000. Meiser, p. 225.
  26. ^ "Historical society hopes to stall plan to demolish mansion," Reading Eagle, June 13, 2005.
  27. ^ American Elite and Sociologist: A Distinct Cyclopedia of Twenty Thousand of American's Best Families (1927), p. 94
  28. ^ Rob Brinkley, "The woman who brought contemporary art (and Picasso) to Dallas," The Dallas Morning News, March 28, 2012.
  29. ^ "Elizabeth Blake Obituary," The Dallas Morning News, August 14, 2016.
  30. ^ "Obituary: Mrs. George Brooke". The New York Times. October 27, 1934.
  31. ^ "Elizabeth Brooke and Thomas Phipps elopement announced," The Reading Eagle, June 1, 1936.

External links

  • Lucile Carter at Encyclopedia Titanica

lucile, carter, lucile, stewart, carter, brooke, née, polk, october, 1875, october, 1934, american, socialite, wife, william, ernest, carter, extremely, wealthy, american, inherited, fortune, from, father, couple, their, children, survived, titanic, disaster, . Lucile Stewart Carter Brooke nee Polk October 8 1875 October 26 1934 was an American socialite and the wife of William Ernest Carter an extremely wealthy American who inherited a fortune from his father The couple and their two children survived the RMS Titanic disaster after the ship struck an iceberg and sank on April 15 1912 She was said to be one of the heroines of the tragedy as she with some of the other socially elite women assisted in the rowing of one of the Titanic s lifeboats Lucile CarterLucile Carter circa 1900BornLucile Stewart Polk 1875 10 08 October 8 1875Baltimore Maryland USDiedOctober 26 1934 1934 10 26 aged 59 Ithan Pennsylvania USResting placeSt Michael s Cemetery Birdsboro PennsylvaniaSpouse s 1 William Ernest Carter 1875 1940 m 1896 div 1914 wbr 2 George Brooke Jr 1867 1963 m 1914 1934 wbr Children3 Contents 1 Early life 2 Marriage 3 On board the Titanic 4 Later years 4 1 Second marriage 5 Death 6 Gallery 7 See also 8 References 9 External linksEarly life Edit Sketch of Lucile Stewart Polk in the social pages of a Baltimore newspaper in 1892 when she was aged 17 Lucile Stewart Polk was born in 1875 in Baltimore Maryland Her father was William Stewart Polk 1828 1917 and her mother was Louisa Ellen nee Anderson Carter s father was a partner in the very successful insurance brokerage firm Hopper Polk and Purnell of Baltimore 1 and was fairly wealthy Many of the newspaper reports noted that he was a descendant of President James K Polk 2 Before her marriage Carter was mentioned often in the social pages of the Baltimore newspapers The picture on the left is a sketch of her in the newspaper Baltimore American in 1892 when she was aged 17 3 Marriage EditOn January 29 1896 she married William Ernest Carter 4 He was the son of William Thornton Carter 1827 1893 who had made a vast fortune in the coal industry and was said to be one of the most extensive and successful coal operators in America 5 Carter s husband inherited much of this fortune and the couple led a very privileged lifestyle They had two children Lucile Polk Carter born in 1897 and William Thornton Carter II born in 1900 who were also passengers on the Titanic and survived After their marriage the couple was frequently mentioned in the social pages Lucile was often noted for her striking clothes The following is an extract from one of the newspapers Mrs William E Carter of Philadelphia a beauty of pronounced type has been startling Newport with flaming costumes In an accordion plaited Eton suit of red and with a red hat a red parasol red slippers and silk stockings of the same shade her Dresden china colouring seems even lovelier than when she wears less striking costumes 6 Carter was also very athletic and quite daring One newspaper commented that she was the first woman to play polo riding astride and the first woman to drive a four in hand which is a carriage with four horses through crowded Thames Street in Baltimore 7 In about 1907 the Carter family went to live in Europe They annually returned to the United States and lived in their mansion in Bryn Mawr during the summer with visits to Newport 8 It was on one of those return trips that they booked their passage on the RMS Titanic On board the Titanic Edit The RMS Titanic lifeboat 6 being rowed toward the RMS Carpathia similar to lifeboat 4 the one rowed by Lucile Carter The Carters boarded the Titanic at Southampton Accompanying the couple were their two children Lucile Carter s maid Auguste Serepeca William Carter s manservant Alexander Cairns and the chauffeur Charles Aldworth 9 On the voyage William Carter brought on board his 25 horsepower Renault Towncar They occupied First Class Cabins B96 98 The original story told in the press regarding the Carter family s experience of their ordeal was that William Carter came to the cabin and escorted his family to lifeboat 4 He then left this area with the other men who had taken their wives to this boat These men were John Astor George Widener and John Thayer 10 William Carter escaped from the Titanic on collapsible lifeboat C along with Bruce Ismay but the other three men were lost on the liner Carter gave details of what happened when she and her two children boarded Lifeboat 4 Her statement was as follows When I went over the side with my children and got in the boat there were no seamen in it Then came a few men but there were oars with no one to use them The boat had been filled with passengers and there was nothing else for me to do but to take an oar We could see now that the time of the ship had come She was sinking and we were warned by cries from the men above to pull away from the ship quickly Mrs Thayer wife of the vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad was in my boat and she too took an oar It was cold and we had no time to clothe ourselves with warm overcoats The rowing warmed me We started to pull away from the ship We could see the dim outlines of the decks above but we could not recognize anybody 11 She was acclaimed by the press later to have been one of the heroic women who rowed the heavy lifeboats Later years EditFollowing their rescue by the RMS Carpathia the family returned to Gwenda their mansion in Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania 12 Less than two years later in January 1914 Carter filed for divorce 13 The divorce was granted on May 30 although no details were made public at the time 14 The following year it was sensationally revealed by the newspapers that the grounds for the divorce had been cruel and barbarous treatment Carter s sworn statement revealed that William Carter had not accompanied her and the children to Lifeboat 4 to ensure their safety We sailed for America on the Titanic When the Titanic struck my husband came to our stateroom and said Get up and dress yourself and the children I never saw him again until I arrived at the Carpathia at 8 o clock the next morning when I saw him leaning on the rail All he said was that he had had a jolly good breakfast and that he never thought I would make it 15 Second marriage Edit At a Philadelphia dinner party given by Mr amp Mrs Edward Brooke Carter met the host s brother George Brooke Jr 16 a wealthy banker and steel manufacturer 17 and a bachelor in his mid 40s With her divorce finalized Carter and her daughter departed for Europe in June 1914 intending to stay for a year 18 Edward Brooke his wife and four children also spent that summer in Europe brother George was to join them in August 19 When World War I broke out at the end of July Carter and her daughter were caught in Paris George Brooke arrived in London and tried to get to Paris but wartime travel restrictions made it impossible Instead he arranged passage for Carter and her daughter to England Rather than waiting until they returned to the United States the couple married in London on August 16 1914 with Brooke s brother and family and Carter s daughter in attendance 20 The whole group sailed almost immediately back to the United States on board the Olympic the sister ship of the Titanic 21 For the first two years of their marriage the couple divided their time between a city house in Philadelphia a country house in Birdsboro Pennsylvania Brookewood that Brooke had inherited from his late parents and a rented summer cottage in Newport Rhode Island In Fall 1916 they rented a Radnor Pennsylvania mansion Rock Rose Carter s daughter Lucile made her Philadelphia society debut while they were living at Rock Rose 22 23 but their stay was marred by a December 12 fire 24 The following December the Brookes gathered in Birdsboro to celebrate Christmas In the early hours of Christmas Day 1917 Brooke Carter and the children were roused from their beds by a fire that destroyed Brookewood 25 The couple bought a country house outside Birdsboro Clingan that had belonged to a Brooke cousin 26 and Isle Field in Ithan Pennsylvania on Philadelphia s Main Line which they renamed Almondbury House 27 Brooke and Carter had one child together a daughter named Elizabeth Muhlenberg Brooke born April 14 1916 Later known as Elizabeth Betty Brooke Blake she was living in Dallas Texas as of April 2012 28 and died in Newport Rhode Island on August 8 2016 29 Death EditCarter died of a heart attack on October 26 1934 at Almondbury House 30 George Brooke sold the mansion and moved to an apartment in Haverford Pennsylvania 31 He died twenty nine years later They are buried together in St Michael s Cemetery in Birdsboro Gallery Edit Birdsboro in 1890 Garden pavilion at Rock Rose Radnor Pennsylvania Zantzinger Borie and Medary architects Almonbury House originally Isle Field Ithan Pennsylvania Horace Trumbauer architect See also EditPassengers of the RMS TitanicReferences Edit The Washington Times September 08 1917 p 3 The Times Dispatch Richmond April 19 1912 Page 9 Baltimore American October 16 1892 p 9 29 Jan 1896 Page 7 The Baltimore Sun at Newspapers com Newspapers com Retrieved 2017 04 16 Carter C M R 1909 John Redington of Topsfield Massachusetts and some of his descendants with notes on the Wales family p 24 Palestine Daily Herald July 23 1904 p 6 The Reading Eagle June 18 1914 p 11 Toledo Blade April 25 1912 p 8 Encyclopaedia Titanica Mowbray J H 1912 Sinking of the Titanic Eyewitness Accounts p 126 Mowbray J H 1912 Sinking of the Titanic Eyewitness Accounts p 55 Scroll down to Dwelling for Mr W E Carter Archived 2013 10 20 at the Wayback Machine from Bryn Mawr College Wife sues W E Carter The New York Times January 31 1914 Mrs Carter has divorce The New York Tribune May 30 1914 Keowee Courier January 27 1915 p 5 George M Meiser XI The Passing Scene Volume 13 Historical Society of Berks County 2005 p 225 George Brooke Jr Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography Volume 3 1914 pp 1002 03 Mrs Carter weds again The New York Times August 31 1914 George Brooke of town will sail on Saturday for Cherbourg to be gone six weeks or two months He will take the steamship Oceanic The Reading Eagle July 31 1914 Page 19 Newlyweds at Birdsboro The Reading Eagle September 1 1914 Mrs W E Carter and George Brooke wed The New York Sun September 1 1914 Birdsboro woman to entertain for daughter The Reading Eagle October 12 1916 Dinner dance for Miss Lucile Carter The Reading Eagle November 8 1916 1 000 fire at Radnor home of George Brooke The Reading Eagle December 13 1916 The fire started in the house s furnace where wood was being burned due to a coal shortage Damage was estimated at 50 000 Meiser p 225 Historical society hopes to stall plan to demolish mansion Reading Eagle June 13 2005 American Elite and Sociologist A Distinct Cyclopedia of Twenty Thousand of American s Best Families 1927 p 94 Rob Brinkley The woman who brought contemporary art and Picasso to Dallas The Dallas Morning News March 28 2012 Elizabeth Blake Obituary The Dallas Morning News August 14 2016 Obituary Mrs George Brooke The New York Times October 27 1934 Elizabeth Brooke and Thomas Phipps elopement announced The Reading Eagle June 1 1936 External links EditLucile Carter at Encyclopedia Titanica Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Lucile Carter amp oldid 1145109247, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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