John Ross Delafield (1874-1964) and Violetta Susan Elizabeth White Delafield (1875-1949)

John Ross Delafield was born in Fieldson, the Bronx, in 1874 to Maturin Livingston Delafield and Mary Coleman Livingston Delafield. Both of his parents were members of eminent New York State families. He received degrees from Princeton University (1896), Harvard Law School (1899) and was then admitted to the New York Bar. After marrying Violetta S. E. White in 1904 (he previously served as her lawyer), Delafield went on to have a prominent career in New York where his main focus was on corporate and trial law. In addition, Delafield held several positions in the U.S. Military. While not a combat veteran, Delafield served in and eventually commanded New York’s Veteran Corps of Artillery (VCANY) in 1916. He went on to serve in the New York National Guard (1917); sat on the Committee on National Defense (1917-1918); was commissioned a colonel in the Ordinance Department of the Army (1919); and was later appointed chairman of the Board of Contract Adjustment of the War Department. In 1920, he was honorably discharged from the army with the rank of colonel. Delafield actively participated in military organizations for the rest of his life. He was the first president of the Reserve Officers Association (ROA) and he was promoted to brigadier general of Ordnance Reserves in 1923. Eventually he served as Commander-in-Chief of the Military Order of the World War (MOWW) from 1930 to 1933.

In 1914, during Delafield’s military career, his father, Maturin, gave him sole claim to Montgomery Place. In 1917, after his father’s passing, Delafield began his ownership of Montgomery Place; however, his great uncle, Carleton Hunt, would retain life tenancy at the estate until his death in 1921. Carleton’s sister Julia Barton Hunt had lived at Montgomery Place and had managed the property since the death of Carleton’s twin Louise Livingston Hunt in 1914. Upon Carleton’s death, Julia Barton Hunt was offered life tenancy by John Ross Delafield, but refused, choosing to move to New York City where she lived until her death in 1939.

The Delafields made Montgomery Place their country home in 1922 following the death of their daughter Janet. They immediately embarked on renovations to the mansion and made many improvements to the estate and outbuildings.

Violetta White Delafield was an American botanist, scientific illustrator, and mycologist. Born in Florence, Italy to American expatriates Louisa Lawrence Wetmore and John Jay White, Violetta spent her youth in Europe. By 1890, she and her family returned to the U.S. and lived in New York City. At the start of the 20th century, she was an active researcher at the New York Botanical Garden and Acadia National Park in Maine. As an independent scholar, Violetta was credited with the discovery of multiple species of fungi and published several papers on mycology, her primary field of scholarship. A prolific illustrator for years, Violetta’s watercolor illustrations of over 600 fungi from the 1890s through the 1920s remain outstanding examples of mycological fieldwork.

After her marriage in 1904, Violetta committed more time to horticultural work and landscape design. An active member of the Garden Club of America, she redesigned the rose garden at Montgomery place and added several new gardens to the estate, including the rough garden and the ellipse. In addition to designing and maintaining the gardens, Violetta designed the “Wayside Stand” for the 1935 Dutchess County Fair which was later used and incorporated into a roadside fruit stand to serve produce from the orchard to the growing number of automobile travelers. This stand remains operational on Route 9G in Red Hook, NY.

Violetta and John Ross Delafield had four children together. John White (1905-1985) outlived both parents; Richard Montgomery (1909-1945), died of pneumonia on the Pacific front during World War II; Janet (1914-1922) died from an ear infection in the years before antibiotics; and Sylvia (1916-1916) died as an infant. Violetta died in New York City from emphysema on May 1, 1949. A year later, Delafield married Elsie Lush Funkhouser. In 1964, John Ross Delafield died at the age of eighty-nine. He was survived by his wife Elsie Lush Funkhouser and his son John White Delafield.

In 1986, on the death of John White Delafield, his son John Dennis Delafield transferred the property to Historic Hudson Valley who cared for and interpreted the property for thirty years. Bard College acquired Montgomery Place in 2016.