Written in pencil on the reverse:
Delia V. P. Shields
Photographer:
K. W. BENICZKY
PHOTOGRAPHER
No. 2 New Chambers St.,
COR. CHATHAM ST.
N.Y.
Delia Van Pelt, born April 17, 1844 in Kings Co., New York was descended from one of first Dutch families to settle in New Utrecht. Delia was the 5th of the 6 children born to John Lott Van Pelt and his wife Anna Maria Cortelyou.
The children of John Lott Van Pelt and Anna Maria Cortelyou were:
- Jacob Lefferts Van Pelt born May 9, 1836. A recluse and bachelor. It was said that as a young man Jacob was jilted by the girl he loved and afterwards refused to have anything to do with anyone and preferred to keep to himself. His friends and acquaintances respected his desire to be left alone and kept their distance. For many years he lived in the old farm house at 86th St. and DeBruyn’s Lane. He confided in no one and little was known of his private life. He left a fortune in money and real estate to be divided among the children of his brother John and sister Mary when he died of heart failure at age 71.
- Townsend Cortelyou Van Pelt was born Nov., 1837; married Maria Elizabeth Ditmars on Oct. 24, 1866. After his marriage he took up residence in the ancestral home. At the time the old Van Pelt manor house was a simple house. Townsend Van Pelt added a second story, a well, and other modern conveniences. He was the last “lord” of the manor. He deeded Van Pelt Manor to the city on his death.
- Mary L. Van Pelt born circa 1840 married Jeremiah Van Brunt of New Utrecht
- Anna Cortelyou Van Pelt born April 23, 1841 - married George Shields Dec. 27, 1898
- Delia C. Van Pelt born April 17, 1844 - wife of George Shields; died Nov. 3, 1875, age 31
- John Vanderbilt Van Pelt born March 7, 1847 married Josephine G. Miller Sep. 17, 1858, died age 56, Feb. 17, 1904.
1st … Why had she died so young?,
and 2nd … Were Delia and her sister Anna married to the same George Shields?
Census records indicate that both of the parents of George Shields were born in Scotland but George himself was born circa 1825 - 28 in Washington county, New York; coming later to Manhattan and engaging in the wholesale butcher business at Washington Market. I find only the one mention of George Shields being involved in the butcher business. In the early 1860s he moved to Bath Beach, purchased several pieces of property in the Bath Beach / New Utrecht area and was afterwards known as a wealthy property owner and hotel proprietor. Sometime around 1866 he married Miss Delia Van Pelt.
When I find George and Delia Shields in the 1870 census, George's occupation is listed as “Hotel Keeper,” and in 1871, under Summer Resorts in a local paper, is an ad for the newly renovated and refurbished Bath Hotel, George Shields, Proprietor. He was also noted as the owner and proprietor of the old Avon Beach Hotel where he had built several cottages; making his home in one of them.
George Shields and Delia Van Pelt had 2 sons:
- William C. Shields born 1868 Kings Co., New York became a large property owner and bath house proprietor.
- John “Jack” Van Pelt Shields - born 1872 in old Bath Beach, Brooklyn (Kings Co., NY) was the well known proprietor of Jack’s Tavern at Bellmore. He married Ann Albert and died at age 42 from injuries received in an automobile accident more than a year before.
Obituary
Died.
Shields - At Bath, Wednesday, November 3, Delia, wife of George Shields. Funeral services on Saturday at 2 P. M., at her late residence.
Delia Van Pelt (31), wife of George Shields was buried in New Utrecht Cemetery, Bensonhurst, Kings County, New York.
I found the answer to my 2nd question; Were Delia and Anna married to the same man? in a newspaper article in the Carroll Herald dated Feb. 22, 1899
ROMANCE OF BATH BEACH
There were other articles written about the love story and marriage of George Shields and Delia’s sister Anna C.; articles that were more factual and less dramatic but the basic story line remained the same.
A couple of years after Delia’s death George asked her sister, Anna C., an attractive, well to do woman in her 30s, to marry him, but she refused, saying her first duty was to her mother who was weak and ailing. Anna told George that as long as her mother lived she would marry no one.
True to her word, Anna never married and she cared for her mother until her mother's death on December 14, 1898. At the time of her mother's passing George Shields was in his 70s and Anna was 57. They were married in a simple ceremony, less than 2 weeks later on December 27, 1898.
About his marriage George is quoted as saying, “Oh yes, I know the folks are staring and talking. They may talk, and the boys and girls, God Bless them, may laugh at us and call us a pair of old fools. But, you see, they don’t know what it is to wait 24 years for a woman or a man you love. At 70 years I’ve found rest at last.”
On May 28, 1908, George Shields, one of the largest property owners in the Bath Beach and Bensonhurst sections of Brooklyn, died at his home of heart disease, following pneumonia.
Anna Cortelyou Van Pelt Shields, widow of George Shields died May 25, 1915 at Flatbush, Kings County, New York.
Sources:
Descendents of Wolphert Gerretse Van Kouwenhoven
Historical Sketch of the Zabriskie Homestead
Rumored Bath Beach Wedding - Brooklyn Eagle - Wednesday, December 18, 1895
Mr. Shields Weds Again - Brooklyn Eagle - Dec. 28, 1898
ROMANCE OF BATH BEACH - The Carroll Herald - Feb. 22, 1899
NEPHEWS AND NIECES GET VAN PELT ESTATE - Brooklyn Standard Union, June 13, 1907
George Shields Obituary - New York Daily Tribune - Friday May 29, 1908
Bellmore Hotel Man (John Shields) Succumbs at Mercy Hospital - Nassau Post - April 8, 1914
Friends of Historic New Utrecht
History of Long Island by Peter Ross
Findagrave
Family Search
