Odd,Old News: Dinner Was Served and Astor Won his Wager

[Fieldbrook Giant, undated, A.W. Ericson. Photo fron the HSU Library, Special Collections, Humboldt Room]

The stories of the death of the Fieldbrook Giant and its heart-warming return to life as cloned baby trees due to the efforts of Steven D’Agati were previously covered on the Redheaded Blackbelt, but questions remained for which we now have some answers. And more questions.

To review…. aristocrat William W. Astor allegedly made a wager over the potential seating capacity of a California redwood slab table that led to his ordering a cross-section of the old-growth redwood Fieldbrook Giant to be shipped from Eureka to England. Exactly what happened to the Fieldbrook Giant slab once it arrived at Astor’s Cliveden country estate seemed to be a mystery, though an inquiry in 1944 found that it was seated atop a steep bank overlooking the Thames. The official claim was that the table was purchased as a curiosity, and not as a potential table. News accounts of the details of the bet varied widely, the outcome was unknown, and stories may have been suppressed as at least one article was retracted under legal threat.

However the long arm of aristocratic influence on the press didn’t reach across the pond, and in October of 1898 a San Francisco Bulletin article announced that Astor had indeed just recently served food for 26 guests (plus Astor) around the redwood slab table, thus winning $25,000. The amazing saga of the Fieldbrook Giant(s of all sizes) continues to grow.

ASTORS TREE TABLE

THE SECTION OF MAD RIVER REDWOOD WINS HIM THE WAGER

Daily Humboldt Standard, October 19, 1898

The San Francisco Bulletin of October 16 publishes the sequel to the story of the William Waldorf Astor’s odd wager to the winning of which Humboldt county has contributed. The sequel comes in the shape of a dispatch from London, England, under the date of Oct. 15th, which appears with the following display heading: “Nobility at Astor’s Redwood.—Millionaire Dines Members of the British Aristocracy—He Thereby Won A Wager of $25,000 From General Williams—The Table Was a Cross Section of a California Giant Redwood– Astor Had It Brought Around the Horn at Great Expense—So Large That It Could Not Be Taken Into the House and Had to Be Set Up In the Woods”.

Following is the text of the dispatch to the Bulletin relating to the successful ending of Astor’s Wager:

  “London, Oct. 15.—William Waldorf Astor won his wager of $25,000 last night by giving the long-expected dinner to Twenty seven persons seated around a table made from a single cross section of a great California redwood tree. Nearly two years ago Astor Had a discussion with General Owen Williams about the size Of California trees, the Englishman not believing that they grew to such enormous size as Astor asserted. The result was a wager by the American millionaire that he would give a dinner to twenty-seven persons who could dine comfortably around a trunk from California.

  “At great expense, Astor had a section of a giant tree sent to him from California. It measured 81 feet in circumference. When the tree arrived in England it was taken to Cliveden, the beautiful country place that Astor has upon the Thames near Henly. There it was partially buried in a part of the park known as the “Half-Moon”. What the object was in burying it is not known, but it was left for months partially underground. Four weeks ago a section of the tree was turned over to a firm at Aylesbury, who smoothed off the surface and polished it highly.

  “As it was impossible to get the table into the house, a large tent was erected over it in a little glad in the Half-Moon wood. The ground was strewn with fresh ferns to make a natural carpet, and there was spread on the polished surface, but it was prettily decorated with wild flowers by young Miss Astor, while beautiful candelabra cast a soft light over the silver plate and china. Chinese lanterns hung from the great doorway of Cliveden to the marquee and the glad was gaily illuminated.

  “Most of the guests had been at Cliveden for a week, while the others came from Taplow Court, where Lady Louise Grenfel is having a house party.

   “Tea was served in the great hall at Cliveden during the afternoon, and soon after 6 o’clock the march to the strange dining table in the glade began. As the guests entered the marquee there were many exclamations of wonder and delight.

   Mr. Astor presided with his twenty-six guests seated in a circle around the tree. They were a bit crowded and facetious guests remarked that Astor invited the thinnest people he knew.

  The guests were: General Owen Williams of Tranby Croft notoriety, who made the bet; Lady Louise Grenfel, Captain Grenfel, Marquis of Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, Lord George Hamiliton, Hon. W.F. smith, Mrs. Smith, Lady Randolph Churchill, Drummond McGregor, F. Wykeman Martin, Mrs. Wykeman Martin, Miss Martin, A.H. Grenfel, Miss Williams, Mrs. Reuben Sasson, Sir Watkin Wynn, Hon W. Lyttleton, Colonel St. George, Earl of Desart, Vicar of Taplow, Lord Athlumney, Captain Lambton, Lord Castletown, Hamilton Stubber, and Miss Chisolm. The menu was hand-painted, representing a redwood tree with a course on the trunk. Dinner was served from a small kitchen erected in the wood nearby. Mr. Astor had the Duchess of Abercorn on his right and Mrs. Smith on his left. The Dukes of Cambridge and Teack were to have attended but were detained at the last moment. General Williams paid the bet. After dinner the guests went back to the great Cliveden House for the evening, as the weather was somewhat chilly”. 

    The section of redwood tree referred to was obtained by Mr. Astor’s agent in New York, through an order placed with a lumber firm in San Francisco, which in turn place the order with John Vance Mill& Lumber company of Eureka, in whose woods on Lindsay creek, the tree was cut which furnished a clear section 15 feet 6 inches in diameter & three feet thick. Special appliances had to be provided for getting the huge piece of timber out of the woods & down to the water where it was loaded on the steam “National City” which took it to San Francisco, arriving there in May 1897. From the steamer it was transferred directly to the hold of the German ship “Maria Hackfield” then loading in the stream at San Francisco with redwood lumber for London & on that vessel it left Sand Francisco for its voyage around Cape Horn, May 18, & arrived in London October 16, 1897. The story of this unique specimen of our great redwood forests, the odd use to which it was to be put and the celebrity of its owner attracted considerable attention from the press on both sides of the Atlantic and through the pictures, real and fanciful, it has become familiar through the civilized world.

 

Earlier Odd and Old News:

There are many more, but here are the most recent:

• Old Jack to the Rescue in Briceland
• “Bible” Studies at the Buhne Building in Eureka
• Justice for Garberville Cowboys in 1892