Reginald Hart

The plot outlined with an iron fence in the foreground of this photo is that of the Stanton family. A few feet beyond it, in the middle of the photo, is the large, plain obelisk that belongs to the Hart family. Strangely, three of the Harts' graves seem to have been marked with pairs of two footstones each (shown with arrows in the photo above) - that is, two footstones instead of a headstone and a footstone. There should be a total of six, but there are only five. Each footstone is marked with its owners' initials.

This is the side of the Hart obelisk that I cleaned today:

Reginald Hart outlived the rest of his family by quite a few years. Though he died before 1914, the transcription taken that year doesn't list him. Instead, it lists:

Joseph P. Hart, died 1848 age 64
N. Coleman Hart, died 1861 age 25
Nancy Hart, wife of Joseph, died 1821 age 26
R. Stewart Hart, died 1861 age 22

The Hart brothers (N., R., and Reginald) were not, in fact, the sons of Joseph and Nancy Hart, but of Robert S. Hart, a lawyer and county judge, and his wife Harriet Wing Russell. Robert was the son of Nathaniel Coleman Hart and his Irish-born wife Susannah Stewart. I am actually unsure of how Joseph and Nancy Hart are related to the rest of the Harts.

N. Coleman Hart was Nathaniel, named for Robert's father. He studied at Columbia College and Amherst College, learned how to practice law from his father, and was admitted to the bar in 1857 at the age of 22. In 1860, Nathaniel lived with his parents; his brother R[obert] Stewart Hart, who was a law student; and his 14-year-old brother Reginald.

 

1860 US Federal Census

Nathaniel died in New York City of scarlet fever on June 4, 1861. His brother Robert died on June 24 of measles, having enlisted in the 17th New York Infantry Regiment on May 7. Update, February 28, 2022: A poster alerted me to the sale of a portrait medallion of Robert Hart, sold today on eBay. The inscription on the back reads: "To R. Stewart Hart, who died June 24th, 1861, aged 22 years, this offering of affection is inscribed by his father Robert S. Hart."

The 1870 census shows Robert and Harriet Hart with their surviving son Reginald, who is incorrectly identified as Robert Hart.

1870 US Federal Census

Reginald Hart had in fact become a lawyer like his father and brothers. He graduated from Trinity College in New Haven and was admitted to the bar in 1870.

In 1872, Reginald was called to testify about the will of Horace Greeley, to which he had been a witness, in front of his father, Judge Hart. Apparently the case concerned whether or when Horace Greeley had gone insane. Reginald's testimony is printed in the New York Sun of December 19, 1872, which describes him as a "good-looking bachelor" (the article is called "Horace Greeley's Wills: Important Evidence of Thomas N Booker - He is satisfied that Mr. Greeley was insane as early as November 14 ..."). Reginald stated that he was "over twenty-one years of age. I don't suppose (blushing) that there is any need of my saying how old I am. I have been acquainted with Mr. Horace Greeley about twelve years, and know his handwriting."

On June 5, 1877, 31-year-old Reginald married 21-year-old Emma K. Farley, the daughter of William C. Farley, in New York. She died two years later. They don't seem to have had any children, and Reginald didn't remarry. That same year, his mother Harriet Wing Hart died. In 1880, the widowed father and son were living together, along with two servants.

1880 US Federal Census

Reginald suffered from tuberculosis in the mid-1880s, and spent the winter of '86-87 in Florida in hopes that the warm climate would improve his condition. According to the local newspaper of May 6, 1887, "[h]e was supposed to have returned last week, but was detained in Charleston, S.C., by the pressing hospitality of several of his friends, who wished him to be present at the unveiling of the Calhoun monument." This is most certainly the statue of John C. Calhoun that stands on Marion Square and was erected by the Charleston Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association. Though the monument wasn't finished until 1896, it was unveiled in an unfinished state on April 26, 1887.

Robert S. Hart died in December of 1887, at the age of 74. I have transcribed his lengthy obituary here.

In 1890, several prominent "business men and property owners," led by James Wood, gathered in the opera house to discuss how the town might be developed as a residential area. According to an article in the local newspaper,

the Harlem R. R. Co. had almost definitely decided to remove their round-house here from White Plains, and all their car-yards, &c., owing to the very generous offer of Mr. Reginald Hart to give to the R. R. Co. free of cost, all the land they wanted, east of the track, and at the rear of the Amerman [?] property. The railroad officials said that this offer had virtually settled the question, and they were to come up this week to look over the ground and see how much of it they wanted, and decide upon plans ... The announcement of Mr. Hart's generous offer was received with applause.

In 1899, the New York Tribune reported that Reginald Hart had presented a portrait of his father Robert Hart to the Board of Supervisors of Westchester County in White Plains: "Judge Hart was one of the old-time justices of Westchester, and his portrait, which is said to be an excellent one, will be placed in the Supreme Court room, which already contains portraits of Judges Jay, Dyckman, and Robertson."

Reginald Hart died in 1902 at the age of 57. 

1. Nathaniel Coleman Hart m. Susannah Stewart
1. Robert S. Hart (1813-1887) m. Harriet Wing Russell (1815-1879)
1. Nathaniel Coleman Hart (1835-1861)
2. Robert Stewart Hart (1839-1861)
3. Reginald Hart (1846-1902) m. Emma K. Farley (1856-1879) in 1877