Lillian Fletcher McCredy

“ Society eyebrows were raised when the staggeringly-wealthy James Buchanan Duke announced his engagement to the 40-year old widow, Lillian McCredy, in 1904. The couple had known one another only briefly and, while Mrs. McCredy was prominent socially, a marriage so quickly seemed rash.

Duke, at 48 years of age, had amassed millions; mostly through the tobacco business begun by his father in Durham, North Carolina. James and his brother Benjamin had gone on to found the American Tobacco Company.

On November 29, 1904 the pair was married. They immediately sailed off for Europe for a honeymoon of several months. The marital bliss would be short-lived.

Whispered rumors over Limoges tea cups insinuated that Lillian was “seeing” a man, Major Frank T. Huntoon, even before the newlyweds returned home. Huntoon was the President of a mineral water company located at No. 11 West 25th Street, whom The New York Times said “is well known as a man about town.”

Sensing betrayal, Duke hired private investigators to follow both his wife and Huntoon. The investigations produced the undeniable evidence of an affair and Duke sued his wife for divorce. The two-timing Lillian received $500,000 settlement—a paltry sum when Duke’s fortune was estimated to be approximately $60 million at the time.” (About Me Tom Miller), Facebook, The Gilded Age Society, May 12, 2021