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Edward Mandell House

Male 1858 - 1938  (79 years)


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  • Name Edward Mandell House  [1, 2, 3
    Birth Abt 1854  Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Birth Abt 1857  Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [5, 6
    Birth Abt 1858  Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Birth Jul 1858  Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [7
    Born 26 Jul 1858  Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Gender Male 
    Residence 1 Jun 1860  3rd ward. Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Occupation 1 Jun 1870  [5
    Attends school 
    Residence 1 Jun 1870  4th Ward, Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    Education 1877  Cornell University, Ithaca, Tompkins, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Occupation 1 Jun 1900  [7
    Landowner 
    Residence 1 Jun 1900  1704 N 16th Street, Austin, Travis, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [7
    Occupation 15 Apr 1910  [6
    Farmer 
    Residence 15 Apr 1910  1704 N 16th Street, Austin, Travis, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [6
    Emigration 25 Aug 1921  Liverpool, Lancashire Find all individuals with events at this location  [8
    • Ship: Empress of France
      Into Place: Québec, Canada
    Name Edward House  [4
    Name Edward M House  [5, 6, 7, 8
    Name Edward W House  [9
    Residence 1 Apr 1930  School for the deaf, Austin, Travis, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [9
    Died 28 Mar 1938  New York, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 3
    Buried Abt Apr 1938  Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    Notes 
    • See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_M._House and http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=15123180
      1924 passport application shows him to have been 5'8" tall with grey hair and hazel eyes

      Text of Wikipedia article:
      Edward Mandell House (July 26, 1858 - March 28, 1938) was a renowned American diplomat, politician, and presidential advisor. Commonly known by the title of Colonel House, although he had no military experience, he had enormous personal influence with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson as his foreign policy advisor throughout World War I.

      Early years
      Edward House was born July 26, 1858 in Houston, Texas. He was the son of Houston mayor Thomas William House, Sr., a gunrunner during the Civil War who amassed a fortune. House was educated in Southern prep schools.
      Cornell University
      House went on to study at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 1877. He was a member of Alpha Delta Phi, a fraternity with its roots as a Literary society founded at Hamilton College in 1832. He was forced to drop out of Cornell when his father died.
      He married Loulie Hunter on 4 August 1881.
      Political career
      On his return to Texas, House ran his family's business. He eventually sold the cotton plantations, and invested in banking. House moved to New York City about 1902.
      In 1912, House published anonymously a novel called Philip Dru: Administrator, in which the title character, Dru, leads the democratic western U.S. in a civil war against the plutocratic East, becoming the dictator of America. Dru as dictator imposes a series of reforms which resemble the Bull Moose platform of 1912 and then vanishes.
      He became active in Texas politics and served as an advisor to President Woodrow Wilson, particularly in the area of foreign affairs. House functioned as Wilson's chief negotiator in Europe during the negotiations for peace (1917-1919), and as chief deputy for Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference.
      House helped to make four men governor of Texas: James S. Hogg (1892), Charles A. Culberson (1894), Joseph D. Sayers (1898), and S. W. T. Lanham (1902). After the election House acted as unofficial advisor to each governor. Hogg gave House the title "Colonel" by promoting House to his staff.
      Woodrow Wilson
      House became a close friend and supporter of New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson in 1911, and helped him win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912. He became an intimate of Wilson and helped set up his administration. House was offered the cabinet position of his choice (except for Secretary of State which was already pledged to William Jennings Bryan) but declined, choosing instead "to serve wherever and whenever possible." House was even provided living quarters within the White House. After Wilson's first wife died in 1914, the President was even closer to House. However, Wilson's second wife, Edith, of whom he had commissioned the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury (1862-1947) to paint a portrait in 1916, disliked House, and his position weakened.
      In the 1916 presidential election House declined any public role, but was Wilson's top campaign advisor. Hodgson says he, "he planned its structure; set its tone; guided its finance; chose speakers, tactics, and strategy; and, not least, handled the campaign's greatest asset and greatest potential liability: its brilliant but temperamental candidate."
      Diplomacy
      House threw himself into world affairs, promoting Wilson's goal of brokering a peace to end World War I. He spent much of 1915 and 1916 in Europe, trying to negotiate peace through diplomacy. He was enthusiastic but lacked deep insight into European affairs and was misled by British diplomats. After the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915, tension escalated with Germany and U.S. neutrality was precarious. House decided the war was an epic battle between democracy and autocracy; he argued the United States ought to help Britain and France win a limited Allied victory. However, Wilson still insisted on neutrality.
      House played a major role in shaping wartime diplomacy. Wilson had House assemble "The Inquiry"-a team of academic experts to devise efficient postwar solutions to all the world's problems. In September 1918, Wilson gave House the responsibility for preparing a constitution for a League of Nations. In October 1918, when Germany petitioned for peace based on the Fourteen Points, Wilson charged House with working out details of an armistice with the Allies.
      Paris Conference 1919
      House helped Wilson outline his Fourteen Points, and worked with the president on the drafting of the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations. House served on the League of Nations Commission on Mandates with Lord Milner and Lord Robert Cecil of Great Britain, M. Simon of France, Viscount Chinda of Japan, Guglielmo Marconi for Italy, and George Louis Beer as adviser. On May 30, 1919 House participated in a meeting in Paris, which laid the groundwork for establishment of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Throughout 1919, House urged Wilson to work with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge to achieve ratification of the Versailles Treaty.
      However, the conference revealed serious policy disagreements between Wilson and House. Even worse were personality conflicts. Wilson had become much more intolerant and systematically broke with one after another of his closest advisors. When Wilson returned home in February 1919, House took his place on the Council of Ten where he negotiated compromises unacceptable to Wilson. In mid-March 1919, Wilson returned to Paris and lost confidence in House, relegating him to the sidelines.
      In the 1920s, House strongly supported U.S. membership in the League of Nations and the World Court, the Permanent Court of International Justice.
      In 1932, House supported Franklin D. Roosevelt without joining the inner circle. Although he became disillusioned with the New Deal, he did not express his reservations in public.
      Death and legacy
      House died on March 28, 1938 in New York City, following a bout with pleurisy. He is buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. House Park, a high school football stadium in Austin, Texas, stands on House's former horse pasture. The small farming community of Emhouse, TX in North Central Navarro County was renamed from Lyford in his honor (he served as the superintendent of the rail road company that owned the right-of-way for the line that passes through the town).
      In 1944, Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Fox film, Wilson, Charles Halton portrayed Colonel House.
    Person ID I77634  ONS
    Last Modified 3 Dec 2022 

    Father Thomas William House,   b. 4 Mar 1814, Stoke St Gregory, Somerset Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 17 Jan 1880, San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 65 years) 
    Mother Mary Elizabeth Shearn,   b. 9 Sep 1822, Bath, Somerset Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 28 Jan 1870, Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 47 years) 
    Married 6 Oct 1840  Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [3, 10
    Family ID F21954  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Loulie Hunter,   b. 15 Jan 1859, Louisiana, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 26 Dec 1940  (Age 81 years) 
    Married 4 Aug 1881  [1
    Children 
     1. Mona House,   b. Apr 1882, Italy Find all individuals with events at this location
    +2. Janet House,   b. 17 Apr 1887, Austin, Travis, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Jan 1977, New York, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 89 years)
    Family ID F21951  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - Abt 1854 - Texas, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBirth - Abt 1857 - Texas, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBirth - Abt 1858 - Texas, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBirth - Jul 1858 - Texas, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBorn - 26 Jul 1858 - Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsEmigration - 25 Aug 1921 - Liverpool, Lancashire Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDied - 28 Mar 1938 - New York, New York, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBuried - Abt Apr 1938 - Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Harris, Texas, USA Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 
    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Sources 
    1. [S89] Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_M._House.

    2. [S1021] Ancestry.com Passport application.

    3. [S568] Find a Grave, www.findagrave.com, www.findagrave.com.

    4. [S180] 1860 Census - US.

    5. [S181] 1870 Census - US.

    6. [S160] 1910 Census - US.

    7. [S183] 1900 Census - US.

    8. [S242] Ancestry.com Migration records, www.ancestry.com.

    9. [S7] 1930 Census - US.

    10. [S1311] Texas marriage index, ancestry.com & familysearch.org, www.ancestry.com.