Joshua Seney Cosden was born on 8 July 1881 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was raised in modest circumstances and began working as a drugstore clerk while still a young man. In 1903 he married Ottilie Fowitz. Soon afterward he left Baltimore to seek opportunity in the oil fields of Oklahoma, arriving during the early years of rapid development that transformed small towns into centers of production. He began with manual labor, driving teams and working as a rigger, learning drill

Carolyn Mary Skelly was born on December 2, 1905, in Marion, Grant County, Indiana, the elder daughter of William Grove Skelly and Gertrude Elizabeth Frank Skelly. When she was born, her father had not yet reached the level of wealth that later defined the family. As his oil interests expanded, the family relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he built a large home that became their primary residence. Carolyn was educated at Mrs. Merrill's School in Mamaroneck, New York, a fashi

Claradon Court was built on Bellevue Avenue in Newport between 1903 and 1904 for Edward Collings Knight Jr., a Philadelphia native who had been part of Newport’s summer colony for more than thirty years. Born in Philadelphia on December 14, 1863, he was the son of Edward Collings Knight Sr. and Anna Maria McGill Knight. Edward Collings Knight Jr. He pursued a business career that combined interests in sugar manufacturing and railroads, and for many years was associated with

William Douglas Sloane was born on February 29, 1844, in New York City, New York County, New York. He was the third son of William Sloane and Euphemia Douglas, natives of Kilmarnock, Scotland, who emigrated to the United States and established a successful carpet and furnishing business. He was raised in a household closely associated with commerce and skilled craftsmanship, influences that shaped his lifelong involvement in business and philanthropy. At the age of fifteen, S