Hoagland Gates Childhood

Born on August 13, 1892, Hoagland Gates grew up ensconced in the insular and privileged world of New York society. His parents were Charles Otis Gates and Elizabeth K. Hoagland Gates.  Elizabeth’s father Cornelius Neven Hoagland had established a family fortune by cofounding the Royal Baking Powder Company and her husband Charles, served as the company’s President. Young Hoagland’s early years were divided between time spent in the family mansion on Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and summers at his father’s palatial county estate on the Long Island Sound in Glenn Cove, N.Y.  When he was old enough, Hoagland was enrolled in the prestigious Hill School, a preparatory boarding school in Pottstown, PA. This was followed by two years at Yale University but he apparently left in 1911 while still a sophomore.