Woodbury Kane

Woodbury Kane (February 8, 1859 – December 5, 1905) was a yachtsman and bon vivant, and member of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. A director of the Metropolitan Register Company, Kane served aboard the Columbia in the 1899 America's Cup race. He also was a noted hunter of big game, both in North America and South Africa. He was a member of the New York Yacht Club (for many years serving on the club's America's Cup committee), the Metropolitan Club, the Knickerbocker Club, the Racquet Court Club, the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, the Meadowbrook Hunt Club, the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club, the Larchmont Club, and the Yacht and Country Club. Early life Kane was born on February 8, 1859, in Newport, Rhode Island. He was one of eight children born to Oliver Delancey Kane (1816–1874) and his wife Louisa (née Langdon) Kane (1821–1894). Among his siblings were brothers were Colonel Delancey Astor Kane, and John Innes Kane, and S. Nicholson Kane. His sisters were Louisa Dorothea Kane, Emily Astor (née Kane) Jay, and Sybil Kent Kane. He was a cousin of Lt. Col. John Jacob Astor IV. Woodbury entered Harvard College in the autumn of 1878; during university he was a member of the Hasty Pudding and Porcellian Clubs and other organizations. While at Harvard he became a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt. At Harvard, he played football and was considered an expert at cricket, tennis, and polo. He had a most charming personality, and his well-bred manner, his elegance of carriage and movement, his lithe and erect figure, and the zest with which he entered into tennis, football, boxing, and running races, together with his courtesy and good humor, made him conspicuous among his classmates.