Sage, Russell, capitalist, born in Shenandoah, Oneida county, N.Y., Aug. 4, 1816. Attended school winters; began as an errand boy in a grocery store, became a retail and then a wholesale grocer, and was meantime alderman, treasurer of Renselaer county, and member of Congress; removed to New York in 1863, and entered Wall street, where he amassed a fortune of $80,000,000, chiefly in railroads. He died, July 22, 1906.
His widow, MARGARET OLIVIA SLOCUM SAGE, born in Syracuse, N.Y., Sept. 8, 1828, spent several years in teaching, marrried Mr. Sage in 1869, and after his death made large gifts for various purposes, disposing of $16,000,000 within three years. Her largest benefactions where $10,000,000 to the Sage Foundation, for improving social and living conditions, and $1,000,000 each to the Renselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Emma Willard School, both at Troy, N.Y.
Entry from
Everybody's Cyclopedia,
1912.