Richard Watson Gilder

GILDER, Richard Watson. b. Bordentown, New Jersey, 8 February 1844; d. New York City, 18 November 1909. The son of William Henry Gilder, a Methodist minister, and Jane Nutt, he was educated at a girls’ seminary founded at Bordentown by his father which was moved to Flushing, New York, when Richard was a small child. He began the study of law, but at the age of 19 he enlisted on the Union side in the Civil War. His father, chaplain to the 40th Regiment of New York Volunteers, died on active service, and Richard was forced to give up the study of law. He became a journalist, first on the Advertiser (Newark, New Jersey), and then on the Newark Register, which he co-founded. In 1870 he became...