Rhinelander was born in New York City on February 12, 1828. He was the only son of four children born to Frederic William Rhinelander and Mary Lucretia "Lucy Ann" Rhinelander. Among his sisters was Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander, who married George Frederic Jones ; Mary Elizabeth Rhinelander, who married Thomas Haines Newbold ; and Eliza Lucille Rhinelander, who married William Edgar. His paternal grandparents were William Rhinelander and Mary Rhinelander, and his uncles included Philip Rhinelander, a member of the U.S. Congress, William Christopher Rhinelander, and New York City Alderman John Robert Rhinelander. His paternal grandmother was the daughter of Col. Robert, an officer under Gen. George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. His mother was the twelfth and last child of Major General Ebenezer Stevens and his second wife, Lucretia Sands Stevens. Among his maternal uncles were banker John Austin Stevens, and surgeon Alexander Hodgdon Stevens. From his grandmother's first marriage, he was a cousin of the banker Samuel Stevens Sands. Rhinelander's great-great grandfather, Philip Jacob Rhinelander, was a German-born French Huguenot who immigrated to the United States in 1686 following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, settling in the newly formed French Huguenot community of New Rochelle, where he amassed considerable property holdings which became the basis for the Rhinelander family's wealth. Rhinelander graduated from Columbia University in 1847.
Career
In 1876, Rhinelander began serving as president of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad, which was originally organized in 1856 but was taken over by its Eastern bondholders at which point Rhinelander and his cousin Samuel Stevens Sands were added to the Board and Rhinelander was chosen as president. As of 1879, the Railroad owned 188.1 miles of road. By 1889, his son, F. W. Rhinelander Jr., had joined the railroad as assistant to the president and was based in Milwaukee.
Rhinelander was a founding trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1871 along with Theodore Roosevelt Sr., William Cullen Bryant, Andrew Haswell Green, Alexander Turney Stewart, and John A. Dix. He traveled extensively in Europe seeking to secure "new works of art and to study techniques of organization and preservation at museums and galleries." He was responsible for securing the helmet of Jeanne d'Arc, the Pompeian room, the portrait of the Princess de Condé by Nicolas de Largillière After the death of Museum president, Henry Gurdon Marquand, in 1902, Rhinelander, who had been vice-president of the Museum since 1892, became the president. He served in this role until his death in 1904. After his death, the banker and philanthropist J. Pierpont Morgan became president of the Met and served until his death in 1913.
Personal life
On November 5, 1851, Rhinelander was married to Frances Davenport Skinner. Frances was a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Harvey Skinner and Frances Louisa Skinner. The Rhinelanders had a home in New York City and had a French Second Empire style home at 10 Redwood Street in Newport, Rhode Island, built by John Hubbard Sturgis build between 1863 and 1864. Together, they were the parents of eight children, including:
Mary Frederica Rhinelander, who married William Cabell Rives III, a grandson of William Cabell Rives.
Frances Davenport Rhinelander, who married Rev. William Morgan-Jones of Cardiff, Wales in 1900.
Ethel Ledyard Rhinelander, who married LeRoy King in 1881.
Frederic William Rhinelander, who married Constance Satterlee, daughter of Bishop Henry Y. Satterlee.
In 1881, the town of Pelican Rapids in Oneida County, Wisconsin was renamed to Rhinelander, Wisconsin after Rhinelander, in an attempt to induce the railroad to extend a spur to the location to further their lumbering business. The Railroad reached the town in 1882.
