Winthrop Rutherfurd ~ APT Traditional Cache

Geocache Identification Permit Approval Number:ASP20190930123
Permit Expires on:09/30/22

The Winthrop Rutherfurd cache is located along the Allamuchy Pond Trail which is located along the grounds of Rutherfurd Hall, one of the last extant large country estates in New Jersey.

Winthrop Rutherfurd (1862-1944) and his wife, Alice Morton Rutherfurd (1879-1917), commissioned the building of Rutherfurd Hall. Winthrop Rutherfurd was a successful New York attorney, property owner and socialite. He was the son of Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, who became famous for spectacular early photographs of the moon, the great grandson of John Rutherfurd, a U.S. senator, and the brother of Stuyvesant Rutherfurd, a wealthy landowner and heir to the Stuyvesant fortune.

In 1902, Winthrop married Alice Morton, the daughter of vice president Levi P. Morton, who served under President Benjamin Harrison from 1889 to 1893. Winthrop and Alice hadsix children and summered at Rutherfurd Hall until Alice’s untimely death at age 38 in 1917.

In 1920, Winthrop married Lucy Page Mercer (1891-1948). Lucy had been a social secretary to Eleanor Roosevelt when she began a long term affair with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who became the 32nd president of the United States. After marrying, Lucy and Winthrop had a daughter together. Lucy’s longtime association with FDR continued and is a fascinating story. She was with him at his death in 1945.

The Rutherfurd - Stuyvesant geocache series give an in depth history of this important and distinguished american family and the gilded age in NJ. There are two locations showcased in the geotrail. The Stuyvesant Mansion and Rutherfurd Mansion located within Tranquility Farms massive estate was divided by the construction on interstate 80.