Russell Sage

SAGE, Russell, financier, b. in Oneida county, N.Y., 4 Aug., 1816. He received a public-school education, and then engaged in mercantile pursuits in Troy. In 1841 he was elected an alderman, and he was re-elected to this office until 1848, also serving for seven years as treasurer of Rensselaer County. He was then elected to congress as a Whig, and served, with re-election, from 5 Dec., 1853, till 3 March, 1857.

Mr. Sage was the first person to advocate, on the floor of congress, the purchase of Mount Vernon by the government. Subsequently he settled in New York City and engaged in the business of selling "privileges " in Wall Street. At the same time he became interested in railroads, and secured stocks in western roads, notably the Milwaukee and St. Paul, of which he was president and vice-president for twelve years. By disposing of these investments, as the smaller roads were absorbed by trunk-lines, he became wealthy.

In late years he has been closely associated with Jay Gould in the management of the Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific, the Missouri Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas, the Delaware, Laekawanna and Western and the St. Louis and San Francisco railroads, the American cable company, the Western Union telegraph company and the Manhattan consolidated system of elevated rail­roads in New York city, in all of which corporations he is a director. Mr. Sage was for many years closely connected with the affairs of the Union Pacific road, of which he was a director. He has been a director and vice-president in the Importers and traders' national bank for the past twenty years, also a director in the Merchants' trust company and in the Fifth Avenue Bank of New York City.   In 1906 he died and  left his entire fortune of about $70 million to his wife, Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage (1828-1918), who subsequently devoted a major portion of these funds to philanthropy. In 1907 she established the Russell Sage Foundation, and in 1916 she founded Russell Sage College in Troy -- Edited AC  American Biography Copyright© 2001 by Virtualology^TM

SAGE, Russell, a Representative from New York; born in Shenandoah, Oneida County, N.Y., August 4, 1816; moved with his parents to Durhamville in 1818; attended the public schools; engaged in mercantile pursuits in Troy, N.Y.; treasurer of Rensselaer County 1844-1851; alderman of Troy 1845-1848; delegate to the Whig National Convention in 1848; elected as a Whig to the Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1853-March 3, 1857); was not a candidate for renomination in 1856; moved to New York City in 1863; became president and director of several railroad companies and financial institutions; died in Lawrence, Long Island, N.Y., July 22, 1906; interment in Oakwood Cemetery, Troy, N.Y. - - Biographical Data courtesy of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.