Born in rural Maine, John Godfrey Moore moved to New York to make his fortune in railroad and banking.
He was cozy with Wall Street types, bankers, politicians, etc. He returned to Maine to build his Gilded Age getaway
lodge, a mansion he named “Far From The Wolf.” It is said he named it because it was far from the wolves of Wall Street. When we obtained the original guest log, we suggested it might have meant “Far From The Feds.”
Signed by artists and athletes, it also featured politicians and high-ranking Wall Streeters, at least two of whom were busted by the feds for anti-trust issues. It includes a man whose face was on the front of $100 bills for 55 years. It also incudes legendary robber barons and tycoons. Researching the book was fun as every name brought up a wiki page or an article in the New York Times circa 1900. His daughter inherited a fortune. She went to England to marry a nobleman and became Lady Lee, and acquired Checquers, later giving it to the English government to be used even today as a summer retreat for British leaders.
Some of the guests who autographed the log included:
William H. Duff, NY Stock Exchange
Booker T. Washington
Herbert L. Terrell, whiskey trust, indicted Sherman antitrust act
Telegraph, multimillionaire bankers and Wall Street tycoons
Prentice Shethen, who owned Electric Railway Company
Charles Warren, Pultizer prize winner
William Henry Phyfe, author and grandson of Duncan Phyfe
Henry D. More, railroad, tobacco and bank baron. Sued under the anti-trust act.
A Gilded Age Guest Registry
Wilfred Buckley, artist, author, clean-milk advocate Hector De Castro, wealthy Ottoman-born businessman and diplomat Thomas Beckett Reid, Speaker of the House, friend of presidents and Mark twain. A statue of Reid is in Portland, ME. Thomas Nash, artist of note Clement Griscom, American shipping magnate / financier, partner of J. Pierpont Morgan Charles Emory Smith, president of the republican party and Postmaster General
Edward Tuck, diplomat to Paris appointed by Lincoln; banker, philanthropist
Ida Ferguson, suffragette E. G. Merrill, chairman of the board of the Bank of New York A. Rene Moez, real estate mogul, Manhattan John Lynch, House of representatives John Jay Knox, powerful banker/politician; his face was on the $100 bill for 55 years
Joseph Stickney, millionaire who built Breton Woods William Welles Bosworth, architect who designed MIT and the Rockefeller home George Emory Daniels, who became first president of General Motors Authors Samuel Chapin Austin, Orton Porter Jackson, William Henry Funress III, author and explorer and the
most heavily tattooed man in the world (at the time) The value? Most dealers cut up something like this to sell the autographs individually to maximize profit. We will not do this for historical reasons. So we value this at a modest $800-$1,000.
CONTACT US to see why the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, USF,
the Shriners, The St. Petersburg Museum of History and MOSI
have trusted us to liquidate fine art and antiques.
Always buying rare and valuable items.
Cash or auction. We make house calls statewide.
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This is an archival article formerly written and is for informational purposes only. The valuations in this article have likely changed since it was first written.
