Fernando Yznaga

Fernando Alfonso Yznaga del Valle (October 16, 1850 – March 6, 1901) was a Cuban American banker who was one of the best-known men of New York and foreign society and club life.

[4] In addition to plantations in Cuba and Louisiana, his parents owned properties in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.

[7][8] His maternal grandfather, Samuel Clements, was a steamboat captain who owned Ravenswood Place, a plantation in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, which his mother inherited upon their death.

[9] Through his sister Consuelo, he was uncle to William Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester and two nieces, known as May and Nell, who both died of consumption before marrying.

Yznaga was "an excelled businessman" and made his fortune at the firm, working there for twenty years until his death in 1901.

At the time, she was living with her father, a designer of carpets for Higgins Mills, in a boarding house and "her face was her fortune."