Mr. Russell Sage
Mrs. Olivia Sage
Mr. Russell Sage: Will I
Mr. Russell Sage: Will II
Mr. Russell Sage: Will III
   
   
Mr. Russell Sage
Mrs. Olivia Sage
Mr. Russell Sage: Will I
Mr. Russell Sage: Will II
Mr. Russell Sage: Will III
   
                 
   

Russell Sage was born on August 4, 1816, in Shenandoah in Oneida County, New York. He was an entrepreneur and quickly moved up in the world. He began as a grocery clerk, saved enough to purchase a grocery store and later started a shipping business for groceries and other commodities. After his marriage, at age 25, to Maria Winne, the daughter of a Troy businessman and local politician, he went on to become an Alderman and later served in the United States Congress. He became the director of various railroads and had a hand in the development of the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co. Mr. Sage derived his fortune, in part, from speculation on the New York Stock Market and as a moneylender.

He married Olivia two years after his first wife died of stomach cancer in 1867. The new Mrs. Sage was an avid newspaper reader whose keen interest in the social issues of the day would later inform her philanthropic work. Mrs. Sage’s penchant for philanthropy was not shared by her husband. Although Mr. Sage was sometimes prevailed upon to donate to certain causes, Olivia was not able to spend as much as she would have liked during his lifetime. Instead, she donated small sums of money and gave of her time. It might come as a surprise, then, that when Mr. Sage died on July 22, 1906, he left his wife the bulk of his fortune.
   
     
     
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