Background
Suit was born in Bladensburg, Maryland, the son of innkeeper Fielder Suit.
Suit was born in Bladensburg, Maryland, the son of innkeeper Fielder Suit.
At age 14 he left home and traveled first to Keokuk, Iowa, and then to Louisville, Kentucky. In Kentucky Suit became involved in distilling whiskey, eventually owning a distillery and making his fortune. During this time he became an honorary Kentucky colonel and was known as Colonel Suit from that time onward.
In August 1862 Suit donated a set of regimental flags to the Chicago Board of Trade, which were presented to what became the First Board of Trade Regiment, or 72nd Illinois Infantry.
The flags were labeled "Presented by South T Suit, of Louisville Kentucky, to the First Board of Trade Regiment", and were carried by the regiment through the war, it is believed they were burned in the Chicago Fire. Suit left Louisville and moved to New York City, where he obtained a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
A son was born in 1861, but the marriage proved contentious. In 1867, Suit moved back to Maryland with his family, and purchased a more than 300-acre (12 km2) estate near Washington, District of Columbia The property, which became known as Suitland, is now the town of Suitland, Maryland.
Suit set up a new distillery nearby under the name "South.T. Suit" and invested in railroads.
The estate was visited by United States. Presidents Ulysses South. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes, and was the scene of negotiations to settle the Alabama Claims. From 1873 to 1877 Suit was a Maryland state senator
In 1876 the Suitland mansion was destroyed by fire, causing Suit to declare bankruptcy. While Suit recovered his properties and finances, the Suitland house was never rebuilt.
At about this time, Suit met Rosa Pelham at the spa in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
She was the daughter of United States. Representative Charles Pelham of Alabama. They soon had three children. The Suits were regular visitors to Berkeley Springs.
In 1885, they started construction of their own private residence there: the Samuel Taylor Suit Cottage or "Berkeley Castle".
The family took up residence in August 1887. Suit died on October 1, 1888, at his residence on New Jersey Avenue in Washington.
He is buried in Saint Barnabas Cemetery, Oxfordshire Hill, Maryland
"Berkeley Castle" was not complete at the time of Samuel"s death, but Rosa completed the house in the 1890s. She sold the Suitland estate in 1902 to pay debts.
The castle was sold in 1913.