William Bayard Cutting

Who was William Bayard Cutting?

William Bayard Cutting, a member of New York's merchant aristocracy, was an attorney, financier, real estate developer, sugar beet refiner and philanthropist. He was born to Fulton Cutting and Elise Justine Bayard and was the brother of financier Robert Fulton Cutting. He was trained at Columbia College, as a lawyer, in which capacity he assisted his grandfather, Robert Bayard, in the management of his railroad company. Cutting and his brother, Fulton, started the sugar beet industry in the United States in 1888. He was a builder of railroads, operated the ferries of New York City, and developed part of the south Brooklyn waterfront, Red Hook. He was an outdoorsman and a gardener of great ability. His grandfather, Robert Cutting, was Robert Fulton's partner in the ferry from Brooklyn to New York, and Bayard Cutting continued to operate the ferry system of New York City and the city of Brooklyn.

On April 26, 1877, he married Olivia Peyton Murray, the daughter of Bronson Murray of Murray Hill, New York. They had four children:

William Bayard Cutting, secretary to the US embassy to the Court of St. James's.