Spencer Trask
Financier, Philanthropist, Patron of the Arts, Crusader, Co-founder of Yaddo
Spencer Trask was born September 18, 1844, in Brooklyn, New York.
Soon after graduating from Princeton University, in 1868 he joined with two friends to co-found their own brokerage house. He married Katrina Nichol in 1874.
Spencer partnered with George Foster Peabody to establish the financial firm of Spencer Trask and Company. Trask's principal financial investments included electrical utilities, railroads, and newspapers.
Spencer’s commitment to Saratoga and strong sense of Victorian propriety is also apparent in his exhaustive efforts to isolate the town’s gambling interests and eliminate what Spencer considered to be impure business practices.
In the spring of 1891, while Spencer was suffering from pneumonia, the Trasks received word that their mansion in Saratoga was completely destroyed by fire. The cornerstone for a new 55-room mansion was laid less than four months after the fire, and the second mansion – Yaddo – was completed in 1893.
Spencer was adamant that the new mansion would provide a final escape from the successive tragedies of the deaths of all four of his children. In 1900, he and Katrina founded Yaddo with a vision of nurturing the talents of writers, painters, composers, and other creative artists.
On December 31, 1909, amid New Year's Eve celebrations at Yaddo, Spencer was called to New York on behalf of the Saratoga Reservation Commission. Near Croton, Trask's private railroad car was hit and crushed by an express freight train. Spencer was the only fatality.