Widener II, Peter Arrell Brown

Biography

Peter Arrell Brown Widener II was the son of Joseph Early Widener [1871/1872-1943], one of three sons of Peter Arrell Brown Widener I [1834-1915] and his wife Hannah Josephine Dunton [c. 1836-1896]. The son of a bricklayer, the elder Peter went to public schools in Philadelphia, began his career as a butcher's assistant, and eventually rose to power and fortune in the railroad and trolley-car industries. Of the three sons of Peter A.B. Widener I, only Joseph survived his father. The eldest son, Henry K. Widener, died of typhoid at age 15, and the middle son, George Dunton Widener, died aboard the Titanic in 1912 along with his own son Harry Elkins Widener. Joseph Widener was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and at Harvard. Although the business of his life was the administration of the Widener estate, he was also active in racing circles, at one point being the largest individual stockholder of Belmont Park and owning stables at his Pennsylvania estate, in Chantilly, France, and in Kentucky. Joseph Widener was married to Ella Pancoast [d. 1929] of Philadelphia and had two children, Peter II and Josephine (Fifi), later Mrs. Aksel Wichfeld. Peter II was also educated at Harvard and shared his father's passion for thoroughbred racing and breeding. He enlisted in the army during the first world war and served in the American Expeditionary Force overseas. Peter II married Gertrude T. Douglas Peabody and had a son, Peter Arrell Brown Widener III, and a daughter, Ella Anna. He wrote Without Drums, an autobiography that was published in 1940. The Widener estate, Lynnewood Hall, was located in Elkins Park outside Philadelphia and housed an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, decorative art and porcelains, which was ultimately donated to the National Gallery in 1942, through Joseph Widener.

Bibliography

1948

New York Times. April 21, 1948 [obituary]

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