{"id":15173,"date":"2023-05-30T18:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T22:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/?p=15173"},"modified":"2024-10-28T17:52:36","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T21:52:36","slug":"bridgeports-most-mysterious-millionaire-founder-of-ap-george-francis-gilman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/business-and-commerce\/bridgeports-most-mysterious-millionaire-founder-of-ap-george-francis-gilman\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridgeport\u2019s Most Mysterious Millionaire Founder of A&P George Francis Gilman"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carolyn Ivanoff<\/strong><\/p>\n

George Francis Gilman was a man recognizable to Bridgeporters, especially those in Black Rock.\u00a0 He was the wealthiest man in Fairfield County.\u00a0 When he retired from his legendary career as a tea importer to Bridgeport in 1878, he purchased a prominent 1762 colonial estate in Black Rock.\u00a0 Gilman was known for his expansive entertaining of famous celebrities, actresses, and the \u201cupper crust\u201d He and his wife were childless but had adopted a nephew.\u00a0 Mrs. Gilman passed away in 1891. After his wife\u2019s death, Mr. Gilman no longer included the first families of Bridgeport in his entertaining, preferring to ignore them.\u00a0 He distanced himself from his adopted nephew, and he isolated himself thoroughly from local and familial relationships, but continued to host extravagant parties for actresses, artists, and the elite of the age. \u00a0On November 7, 1894, after a lavish ball, the house went up in flames suddenly and spectacularly.\u00a0 Gilman, his guests, and his servants narrowly escaped, and several of New York\u2019s privileged saved themselves by jumping from the windows in their night clothes or the expensive costumes they had worn to the ball.\u00a0 Gilman\u2019s priceless art collection was destroyed, the entire home and contents lost.\u00a0 This extremely rich man replaced the stately old colonial home with a huge manor house.\u00a0 The mansion was placed well back from the road.\u00a0 Gilman insured that anyone walking the property could not see into his windows placing them well up.\u00a0 There were no doorbells or knockers on any of the entrances.\u00a0 The twenty room mansion had bathrooms placed between every other room. He built the house with day-labor which was expensive but provided the locals with good paying jobs.\u00a0 The end result was spectacular on the inside, but the outside was solid and non-descript.<\/p>\n

Gilman loved horses. His stables were lavish and legendary, as were the various vehicles, especially his big Tally Ho coach and his many elaborate coupes.\u00a0 It was a common sight to see his head coachman Walter Lee conveying celebrities who were entertained by Mr. Gilman between the Bridgeport train station and the Black Rock mansion.\u00a0 Gilman minded his own business and expected others to do so as well.\u00a0 He was generous with his servants and employed sixty.\u00a0 He preferred immigrants whose English might not be the best.\u00a0 This protected his privacy.\u00a0 Many of them lived well and rent free on his property.\u00a0 When he traveled, he never closed the house keeping it ready at all times, and thus his servants were always employed. In the 1890s when unskilled labor might make slightly less than $10 a week, and a skilled laborer $15-$20 a week, Mr. Gilman paid his barber $2,000 a year to come to the house and shave him daily.<\/p>\n

His cigar bill was $3,000 a year.\u00a0 He was sometimes called the \u201cCoffee King\u201d by Bridgeporters and he generously donated to many charities without fanfare or publicity. George Francis Gilman was a well-dressed, genteel man who garnered great curiosity in the community, but he took great pains to protect his privacy.\u00a0 After his death, his peculiar traits would be the stuff of headlines throughout the nation along with national speculation over who would inherit his millions.<\/p>\n

George Francis Gilman was born in Waterville, Maine in 1826, son of a wealthy father, who was in the tanning business.\u00a0 In the 1850s George worked in the leather trade for his father in New York City.\u00a0 By 1858, George had his own warehouse.\u00a0 His father died in 1859 without a will and George and his battling brothers fought bitterly over their father\u2019s estate for the next thirty years.\u00a0 The year of his father\u2019s death, George decided to enter the more respectable tea business and left his tanning business interests to a brother to manage.\u00a0 Gilman & Company began as a tea and coffee wholesaler. The company did well until 1862 when Congress imposed import duties on tea and coffee to help pay for the Civil War. The coffee market then collapsed when the government became the primary purchaser to supply the army. That year, Gilman renamed the company, \u201cThe Great American Tea Company\u201d and diversified his products to tea, coffee, baking powder, spices and expanded into retail.\u00a0 Quickly, Gilman opened five stores and moved his office and warehouse to 51 Vesey Street in New York City.<\/p>\n

George Gilman was a marketing genius, referred to as the P.T. Barnum of tea and coffee, a comparison many Bridgeporters who knew, or had known Barnum, could relate to. Gilman pioneered many of the retail advertising concepts that are still used today.\u00a0 At first his business profited greatly by buying tea, coffee, spices, etc., in large volume, cutting out the middleman, and selling to customers at less than the prevailing prices. Gilman\u2019s employee, George Hartford, at first his bookkeeper, and then his partner, ran the company as Gilman developed new marketing strategies. \u00a0Gillman was a master of \u201cvisual\u201d advertising.\u00a0 Advertisements were run in church publications and rural newspapers.\u00a0 For teetotalers who frowned on the use of liquor and were major customers, large red Ts marked the front of his stores.\u00a0 White horses pulled his products through the streets in flashy red wagons. Self-appointed \u201cAgents\u201d were recruited to create clubs that placed combined group orders at a discount and then distributed orders to purchasers.\u00a0 Agents, club leaders, and customers received premiums, coupons that could be collected and redeemed for plates, pottery, pictures, prints and other featured giveaway items. With its stores, retail sales, and mail order businesses the company was wildly profitable. \u00a0By the end of the Civil War the company was expanding.\u00a0 In 1869, Gilman changed his company name again to The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, in honor of the completion of the transcontinental railroad, which he would use to launch stores into the mid-west.\u00a0 In 1876 the company reached the 100 store mark and successfully created the first chain store in the United States, three years before F. W. Woolworth opened his first successful “Woolworth’s Great Five Cent Store.”<\/p>\n

In 1871, the great Chicago fire devastated the city and left 100,000 people homeless.\u00a0 Gilman and Hartford saw opportunity in sending relief supplies to the city, and they also sent employees to help distribute them.\u00a0 After assisting with recovery from the fire, Chicago became home to the company\u2019s flagship store.\u00a0 Store fronts were exotic and eye catching, painted red and gold, with the large red T hanging in the front, illuminated with gas lights.\u00a0 Saturdays meant in-store customers might be treated to the music of live bands.\u00a0 The sumptuous store inte\"\"riors Gilman designed were Chinese inspired, with paneled and gilt walls, cockatoos greeted customers who cashed out their purchases at a pagoda-shaped golden sales desk.\u00a0 Despite its elaborate stores, the company\u2019s great success was due to its appeal to cost conscious customers.\u00a0 The company pioneered the \u201cclub plan\u201d discounts, bulk mail order sales, coupon and premium giveaways, private labels and house brands, inexpensive tea and coffee blends.\u00a0 In 1882 it introduced Eight O\u2019clock Breakfast Coffee which remained A&P\u2019s trademark brand through the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

In 1878, George Francis Gilman retired to his home in Bridgeport to live in luxury.\u00a0 George Hartford continued to conduct the day to day business of the company, but Gilman remained closely connected and kept his finger on the pulse of his empire. He may have been one of the first CEOs to work remotely. \u00a0Until just a few days before his death, he continued to receive daily reports from each of his 290 stores by telegraph at his Black Rock mansion.\u00a0 He knew how much each one of his stores made or lost each day.\u00a0 Each of his 290 stores was required to send him $1 a day in cash.\u00a0 He viewed 290 as his lucky number.\u00a0 He began his tea business at 290 Spring Street in New York City.\u00a0 His post office box was 290, and the address of his Bridgeport store was 290 Main Street.\u00a0 He insisted his stores nationwide not number more than 290.\u00a0 If a new store opened, one would have to close.\u00a0 290 was his magic number.<\/p>\n

During his retirement, Gilman continued to entertain on an excessive and luxurious scale.\u00a0 He continued to collect great art.\u00a0 When his barber\u2019s daughter proved to have artistic talent, he paid for her education and sent her to Europe to study.\u00a0 He surrounded himself with young people.\u00a0 He entertained celebrities, young actresses, Yale students, and the nation\u2019s elite at his Black Rock manor on an opulent manner.\u00a0 His eccentricities became more and more pronounced.\u00a0 No clocks were allowed to remind him of the passing of time, no mirrors, no telephones, he detested photographs of himself.\u00a0 If anyone was ill near him, they were banished from the house. He wanted nothing to remind him of death.\u00a0 He would not ride on a train transporting body. \u00a0If a funeral procession or hearse passed near him, his coachman was ordered to drive away from it. His house was always full of people, but he kept himself apart from his guests and servants. He had a great fear of assassination at the hands of his relatives.\u00a0 During the family war over his father\u2019s estate, after his father died without a will, he was confronted by his angry brothers on a New York City street and he never forgot it.\u00a0 He hated and feared his brothers, half-siblings, and relatives, and he was excessively paranoid and secretive about the true amount of his own vast wealth.<\/p>\n

On March 3, 1901, George Francis Gilman died of an attack of Bright\u2019s disease in his Black Rock mansion.\u00a0 Immediately his surviving siblings, half siblings, and others made claims upon his estate. The headlines in the Bridgeport and national papers asked, \u201cDid Gilman Leave a Will?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Soon, the headlines blared \u201cNo Will Found.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Speculation about the amount of his estate varied between $40 and $70 million; no one knew for sure. Relatives from as far away as the Philippines appeared to claim their share.\u00a0 They were opposed by several of Gilman\u2019s siblings and half-siblings.\u00a0 An actress, Mrs. Helen Blakeley Hall claimed to be his adopted daughter.\u00a0 The barber\u2019s daughter Gilman had educated made her own claims.\u00a0 After years of managing the stores and business, George Hartford had nothing on paper to prove his claim that he was Gilman\u2019s partner.\u00a0 The states of Connecticut and New York both fought for the right to probate the estate because they both wanted the inheritance taxes that would result from the proceedings.\u00a0 All of this played out in lurid national headlines.\u00a0 Gilman\u2019s eccentricities were dragged out and explored.\u00a0\u00a0 The personal lives of the claimants, especially the actress\u2019s claims, and divorce, were published in a soap opera-like saga in the nation\u2019s newspapers. Finally, in 1903 all claims except Mrs. Hall\u2019s were settled, but appeals went on. George H. Hartford was awarded all of the common stock and a large percentage of the preferred stock, giving him control of the company.\u00a0 He was able to purchase the remaining preferred stock from Gilman relatives. Under the leadership of Hartford and his sons, A&P, the company George Francis Gilman founded, would become one of the iconic grocery chains of the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

In 1915, Simon Lake, Bridgeport business magnate and inventor of several submarine types, bought Gilman\u2019s Black Rock property.\u00a0 He wanted to subdivide and convert Gilman\u2019s mansion into a hotel.\u00a0 When city ordinances prevented this, Lake turned it into a residential businessmen\u2019s club named \u201cThe Manor Club.\u201d \u00a0In 1917 the extensively renovated manor house and stable buildings were a temperance social club, with a restaurant, and a recreation park on the grounds, including a dining room with orchestra alcove, a skating rink, a saltwater swimming pool, tennis courts, bowling alley, billiard room, and dancefloor. This enterprise failed in 1921 and in 1925, Simon Lake\u2019s relative B. F. Champion created the Champs Farm Recreation Park. By 1934 the manor house had become a rest home, \u201cRest Haven\u201d and the recreation building housed a skating rink.\u00a0 On November 22, 1936, the Bridgeport Sunday Post ran an article, \u201cThe House that Premiums Built Will Fall\u201d Magnate Gilman\u2019s Mansion at Black Rock to Come Down<\/em>; the article called it a \u201cUnique Pile<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 In 1937 both buildings were razed, and the land was subdivided into building lots.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Above left:\u00a0 Gilman\u2019s mansion, later \u201cThe Manor Club\u201d and ending as \u201cRest Haven in the 1930s;<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Above: The Gilman stable, later the \u201cBlack Rock Shore and Country Club\u201d and \u201cChamp\u2019s Farm.\u201d (Bridgeport History Center)<\/p><\/div>\n

BIBLIOGRAPHY<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Bridgeport History Center Archives: <\/strong>\u00a0including the George Francis Gilman files and newspaper collections:\u00a0 The Bridgeport Farmer, The Bridgeport Herald, The Bridgeport Evening Post, The Sunday Bridgeport Post. <\/em><\/p>\n

Anderson, Avis, H., A&P The Story of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company<\/em><\/strong>, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2002.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Black Rock: A Bicentennial Picture Book<\/em><\/strong>\u2014A Visual History of the Old Seaport of Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1644 to 1976, Fairfield Graphics, Inc. 1976.<\/p>\n

Civil War Talk (Blog) The Great American Tea Company,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/civilwartalk.com\/threads\/the-great-american-tea-company.178300\/<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Justinius, Ivan, O., History of Black Rock, 1644-1955, <\/em><\/strong>Black Rock Civic and Business Men\u2019s Club, Antoniak Print Service, Bridgeport Conn., 1955. https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/historyofblackro00just\/page\/55\/mode\/1up<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Ukers, William, H. All About Tea, Vol. II, <\/em><\/strong>The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Company, New York, New York, 1935,<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.google.com\/books\/edition\/All_about_Tea\/viciAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=George+Francis+Gilman&pg=PA264&printsec=frontcover<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Library of Congress, Chronicling America, America’s historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Newspapers.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carolyn Ivanoff George Francis Gilman was a man recognizable to Bridgeporters, especially those in Black Rock.\u00a0 He was the wealthiest man in Fairfield County.\u00a0 When he retired from his legendary career as a tea importer to Bridgeport in 1878, he purchased a prominent 1762 colonial estate in Black Rock.\u00a0 Gilman was known for his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":15176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13,254],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-commerce","category-featured-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15173"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16023,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15173\/revisions\/16023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}