"The Four Hundred"
McAllister coined the phrase "The Four Hundred" by declaring that there were "only 400 people in fashionable New York Society."[16] According to him, this was the number of people in New York who really mattered; the people who felt at ease in the ballrooms of high society ("If you go outside that number," he warned, "you strike people who are either not at ease in a ballroom or else make other people not at ease."). The number was popularly supposed to be the capacity of Mrs William Backhouse Astor Jr.'s ballroom.[17][18] The lavish parties were held at the Astor mansion.[19]
On February 16, 1892, McAllister named the official list of The Four Hundred in The New York Times.[20] The Four Million, the title of a book by O. Henry, was a reaction to this phrase, expressing O. Henry's opinion that every human being in New York was worthy of notice.[15]
Society of Patriarchs
In 1872, McAllister founded the "Society of Patriarchs" which was a group of 25 gentlemen from New York Society.[21] The group of 25 were "representative men of worth, respectability, and responsibility."[21] Beginning with the 1885–1886 season,[22][23] the Patriarchs threw a ball each year, known as the Patriarchs Ball, which each member was entitled to invite four ladies and five gentlemen to, thereby establishing the invitees as fit for society.[24] The first Patriarchs Ball was held at Delmonico's,[22] with the Balls, which were difficult to obtain invitations to, receiving significant press coverage.[25][26][27][28] The Patriarchs Ball inspired similar balls, including the Ihpetonga Ball, which was considered "the most important social event of the season in Brooklyn."[29]
The Society dissolved two years after McAllister's death in 1897 due to a lack of interest.[21]
Personal life
On 15 March 1853, McAllister married a Georgia born heiress who was then living in Madison, New Jersey, Sarah Taintor Gibbons (1829–1909), the daughter of William Gibbons (1794–1852) and Abigail Louisa (née Taintor) Gibbons (1791–1844).[30][31][32] Her grandfather was politician, lawyer, and steamboat owner Thomas Gibbons.[3][b] Her father built the Gibbons Mansion in Madison, New Jersey, which her brother sold to Daniel Drew after their father's death, and which Drew donated to found Drew Theological Seminary (now known as Drew University).[33]
Together, Ward and Sarah were the parents of:[1]
Louise Ward McAllister (1854–1923),[34][35] who in 1920 married A. Nelson Lewis, a linguist who owned the 600 acre "old Lewis estate" at Havre de Grace, Maryland that had been in the family since 1806.[36] She was engaged to George Barclay Ward (1845–1906)[37] at the time of his death in 1907.[38][c] Ward McAllister Jr. (1855–1908), an 1880 Harvard Law School graduate,[39][40] who became a San Francisco lawyer who served as the first Federal district judge of the Territory of Alaska,[41][42] beginning in 1884 and was responsible for the arrest of Sheldon Jackson.[43][44][45][d] Heyward Hall McAllister (1859–1925),[42] who married Janie Champion Garmany (b. 1867)[46] of Savannah in 1892.[47] In what became a minor scandal when it was made public, the couple was secretly wed first in 1884, then in 1887,[48] and lastly in 1892.[49] They later divorced[50] and he married Melanie Jeanne Renke (d. 1939),[51] who was born in France and did not speak English, in 1908.[42][e]
Death
Ward McAllister died while dining alone, and in social disgrace for his writings, at New York's Union Club, in January 1895.[15] His funeral, held on February 5, 1895, was well attended by many society figures of the day, including Chauncey Depew and Cornelius Vanderbilt II.[52] McAllister is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.[53][54]
In 1907, Sarah was described as having been an invalid for 25 years.[38]
In popular culture
Ward McAllister is portrayed by Nathan Lane in the American television series The Gilded Age.
