C.F. Bishop and the Autoneige that conquered Berkshires’ snowy hills By Bernard A. Drew LENOX, Mass.
Most Gilded Age Berkshire cottagers scattered south or overseas in the cold months. Cortlandt Field Bishop, on the contrary, embraced snow. He named his last mansion Winter Palace, after all. Bishop (1870-1935) and his younger brother, David Wolfe Bishop Jr. (1875-1911), were handsome, sharp, educated, adventurous and energetic. David eventually established his primary residence in France. Cortlandt was sometimes in Europe, sometimes New York, often in Lenox. American automakers were in their infancies in the early 1900s. Early Duryeas, Appersons and Waverlys weren’t always reliable. Impatient cottagers who traveled abroad purchased motors and brought them back with them. The Bishops, in the vanguard of automobile enthusiasts, brought back from France the first motorized vehicles seen in Lenox — each had an 1898 De Dion-Bouton three-wheeler “run by a motor of one and 1.75-horsepower generated by benzine vapor exploded by an electric spark,” The Pittsfield Journal wrote. “There is a tank for the benzine in which 12 quarts can be stored. This capacity is capable of running the machine 100 miles over smooth roads or 75 miles over hilly and rough roads, such as abound about Lenox. The mobile will climb a 10 degree hill with great ra-
Cortlandt Field Bishop frequently traveled to Europe, where, among other interests, he published the Paris Times. Photo: Library of Congress
pidity. The motor is started by the pedals.” The Bishop siblings, heirs to real estate and tobacco fortunes, knew no obstacle in their enjoyment of life — except posted speed limits. They were a bane on the roads of Lenox. Soon, each had a 30-horsepower Panhard et Levassor runabout in the Lenox garage at the family estate, Interlaken. David liked to race his “White Ghost,” or his Société Mors, nicknamed “Red Devil.” David Bishop, the scorcher (a term for those who drove at high rates of speed, often recklessly), redeemed his reputation somewhat when, during a heavy snowstorm one Decem-
52 | UPCOUNTRY MAGAZINE | January/February 2020
ber, he “assisted the selectmen clearing and opening the roads yesterday, using his Panchard [sic] automobile which won the endurance race from New York to Buffalo last September,” the North Adams Transcript wrote. Cortlandt, an off-and-on force in Lenox all his life, was outspoken, strong-willed, often brash in the midst of his eccentricities. On one occasion, “after he had almost collided with Mrs. William [Emily Vanderbilt] Sloane as she drove for church, Mr. Sloane asked him reprovingly what would he have done, had he killed her? To which he promptly rejoined: ‘I would at once have written you out a check for $5,000,’”
neighbor Olive A. Colton recalled. Sloane didn’t appreciate Bishop’s humor. Though Bishop cherished ripping through the countryside in virile French machines and had not a few discussions with police and fines from judges, he was less a scorcher, more a quester and promoter. He sought to conquer all roads, all mountains, all deserts, in all nations, in all conditions. He explored Berkshire, Litchfield, Conn. and Bennington, Vt. back roads in various of his petrolettes. Cortlandt blended several estates to amass the largest land holding in Lenox — not to mention, he bought and sold apartment and office buildings in Manhattan; owned and merged the American Art Association and Anderson Galleries (now Parke-Bernet Galleries); and published the Paris Times (1924-1929). He organized the Aero Club of America’s first international balloon race in this country: contestants flew from Pittsfield in 1906. Bishop married Amy Bend (1870-1957) in 1899, and thus began her life on the road with her husband. In the vicinity of Naples, Italy, in 1902, they encountered hostile villagers, who attacked them with long and heavy clubs. Horseless Age wrote, “Both Mr. Bishop and his wife were somewhat severely bruised, and as the automobile was only traveling at the rate of 3 or 4 miles an hour, and no one was touched or imped-
