Who Was Edward Berwind?

Edward Berwind himself might have been happier if the goddesses had held battleships, coal breakers, or Davy lamps.  Berwind attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and served in the Navy from 1865-1875, including time as a naval aide to President U. S. Grant.  After leaving the Navy he went into the coal business with his brother, Charles.  He applied J. P. Morgan’s model for integrated business to the coal industry, from mining through distribution, and became the leading supplier of coal to the Navy and to shipping lines out of New York.  He was one of the wealthiest men of the Gilded Age, with houses at Newport (“The Elms,” also designed by Trumbauer) and in New York.