When I researched Reginald Hart back in 2013, I was able to find out many details about his life: he was born in 1846, the son of Robert S. Hart and Harriet Wing Russell; his brother Nathaniel studied law at Columbia and graduated from Amherst College, and died at age 25 in 1861; his brother Robert died of measles while serving in the 17th New York Infantry Regiment in the Civil War; he graduated from Trinity College in New Haven and became a lawyer like his brother and father; he was a friend of Horace Greeley; he married 21-year-old Emma K. Farley in 1877, only to be widowed two years later; he suffered from tuberculosis, which he treated by occasional trips to warmer climates; as a widower, he lived with his father, and then after his father's death in 1887, with two servants, Elizabeth and Maggie Mann, until his death in 1902 at the age of 57. You can read the full account here, and the obituary of Reginald's father here.
What I didn't know - until I read Reginald Hart's probate records - is that Reginald, widowed and childless, left the vast majority of his small fortune to Elizabeth Mann, his servant and companion of more than twenty years. To be more specific, Reginald left his fortune to three people, none of them relatives. The first was William H. Brown of Mount Kisco, to whom he left $545. The second was Evelyn J. Brown of Mount Kisco, to whom he left $691. And the third was Elizabeth Mann, to whom he left the remainder of his estate, valued at $15,491.38. Elizabeth Mann was also Reginald's executor; Evelyn and William Brown were her niece and nephew.
What was the nature of the relationship between Elizabeth Mann and Reginald Hart? Was she simply a loyal servant or was she his common-law wife?
I can't say for sure, but what I do know is that Elizabeth Mann was born around 1849 in Ireland, and is first recorded living with the Harts in the 1880 census. She was five years younger than Reginald Hart, and would have been about 53 when he died. She may have known his wife Emma, but she probably did not. The probate records mention that she has known Reginald for "twenty years," suggesting that she first came into his life around 1880, not long after Emma died. Elizabeth seems to have never married; she is consistently listed as "single" in the census. Her niece and nephew were forty years younger and also unmarried, and are recorded as living with her in her house at 101 Carpenter Avenue in 1910 and 1920.
Interestingly, in the 1910 census Evelyn Brown is listed as an artist. Reginald Hart left her "my paints, paint box, brushes, and easel." In 1920 she was working in a drug store.
William Brown worked as a clerk in the post office in 1910 and as a salesman for a hair dresser in 1920.
The only other evidence I have found is this notice in the Mount Kisco Recorder from December 16, 1887:
As we last week stated, on the day of his death, Judge Hart went to the city, attended the funeral of John H. Johnson, and accompanied the remains to the grave in Oakwood Cemetery. He seemed in his usual health in the evening, and retired soon after ten. Shortly afterward groans were heard by his faithful housekeeper, Lizzie Mann, who had been Mrs. Hart's attendant, and who, with her cousin, Mary Pierson, enjoyed Judge Hart's entire confidence. They hastened to his aid, but in a few moments he was dead. His heart had failed in its functions, and he passed away without apparent pain.
Will of Reginald Hart
I Reginald Hart of the village of Mount Kisco, town of Bedford in the county of Westchester and state of New York, do publish and declare this my last will and testament in manner following, that is to say,
First: I give and bequeath to William Mann Brown, nephew of Elizabeth Mann, five hundred dollars, my gold watch and chain (the watch being number 33915 made by Augusta Sallzman), my double barrel gun, cane and loading apparatus, my fishing rod, line, and reel.
Second: I give and bequeath to Evelyn Jane Brown, niece of Elizabeth Mann, six hundred dollars, the gold watch and chain formerly worn by my mother, my paints, paint box, brushes, and easel.
Third: I give and bequeath to Elizabeth Mann the sum of seventy-five dollars in trust to purchase a gold watch for Evelyn Jane Brown, such watch to be purchased as soon as possible after the probate of this will.
Fourth: All the rest, residue, and remainder of my property, real, personal, and mixed, I give, devise, and bequeath to Elizabeth Mann, commonly called Lizzie Mann, whom I hereby nominate and appoint sole executor of this my last will and testament hereby revoking all former wills by me made.
In witness thereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twelfth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and one.
Reginald Hart
Witnesses: Howard F. Bailey, Mount Kisco, NY; Frederick J. Carpenter, Mount Kisco, NY
Estate Inventory
Personal Estate
- Antom Leibler note ($22 / worthless)
- Cash in bank ($906.56)
- Award due from City of New York ($3581.08)
- Old law books ($100)
- Six silver tablespoons ($6)
- Six silver forks ($2)
- One gold watch and chain ($30)
- Furniture and Household Effects
- Two black walnut bedsteads ($10)
- Two black walnut bureaus ($12)
- Black walnut bookcase ($10)
- Two black walnut chairs ($1)
- Three old couches ($6)
- One old piano ($30)
- Lady's watch and chain ($15)
- Gun case and loading apparatus ($10)
- Fishing rod, reel, and line ($5)
- Paints and brushes ($1)
- 75 yards carpet 35 years old ($15)
- One dining table and six chairs ($5)
Real Estate
Real estate consists of house and about five acres of land in village of Mount Kisco.
- Situated on road leading from Mount Kisco to Bedford Station and on avenue running southerly from said road ($12,000)
- A tract of nine cares in swamp south of village of Mount Kisco in town of New Castle ($100)
- One hundred and fifty acres of land in town of Pawling, Putnam County ($1200)
- Strip of land ten feet wide running around a small vacant lot in the back part of town of Bedford on road leading from Bedford Station to Bedford Village ($10)
1. I always thought that TB was a sure and fast killer until modern antibiotics came along. Emily Bronte died only three months after supposedly contracting it from her brother, and Anne died five months after supposedly contracting it from Emily. I wonder how Reginald managed to survive so long. Could it have been a misdiagnosis?
ReplyDelete2. It's notable that he left nothing to Maggie Mann.
3. He seems to have been a bit fixated on watches. He left his own to Lizzie's nephew and his mother's to Lizzie's niece, but then gives $75 in trust for the purpose of buying her another one as soon as possible. Why two and why the hurry?
4. If he passed away 'without apparent pain,' why was he groaning?
1. As I understand it (having studied it briefly in my physical anthropology class), TB is kind of variable. Most people who are infected are asymptomatic and a lot can carry on, even with symptoms, for years. TB can also infect other parts of the body, such as bone (which is why it was relevant in a physical anthro class). Of course misdiagnoses are always possible, especially in the 19th century, but Reginald's doctors probably did see a lot of TB.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Brontes, I'm not sure if this is true of TB, but a lot of infectious diseases are more virulent when contracted from a close relative because the disease has "learned" how to infiltrate a genetically similar immune system.
2. Yes, although Maggie was only living with the Harts in the 1880 census, and isn't mentioned in the 1887 obituary. It's possible she had moved on and was no longer in contact with the Harts, or that she died.
3. I don't know, and the whole thing is very confusing. Perhaps the old watch was more of an heirloom and the new watch would be more functional?
4. I guess it's sort of a convention in obituaries to say the deceased died without pain, but you're right. It seems unlikely that the editor had a good sense of how much pain he was or wasn't in, and just wrote that line out of respect to Judge Hart's survivors.
This reminds me of a sad story from my own family. My paternal grandfather contracted pulmonary TB and died long before I was born. He, his wife and their three children lived in a typical working class dwelling - a two up/two down terraced house - and my aunt told me that my grandmother confined him to one of the bedrooms and locked the door. She nursed him and fed him, but she wouldn't let him out for fear of infecting the children. My aunt said they used to hear him crying in his room, presumably knowing that he would soon die and never see his children again.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother came from a clan called the Turners who were hill farmers in the Staffordshire Moorlands, and whose women were a tough and practical breed known for dominating their menfolk. It was her father who disappeared one day and sent a letter from Liverpool saying he was on his way to America. They're about the only bit of my family I know anything about.
Sorry to hijack your blog with a personal reminiscence.
That is a sad story. I can't really blame your grandmother for locking him in, but what a sad way to live. People who could afford it used to send their relatives with TB to sanatoria; it was presumably for them to get better, but given that effective treatments didn't really exist, it makes me wonder whether it was more of a way to avoid contagion while allowing the patients to have some sort of social activity. Much like lepers in leper colonies, only there was nothing of the stigma associated with leprosy (on the contrary, TB was seen as "romantic" in the 19th century). Ironically, leprosy is not very contagious.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried tracking down your great-grandfather in the US (obviously he'd be dead by now, but in records)?
I think I'd like the Turner women. They sound like the Hamblins in my family.
Seems to me that tracking people down requires intelligence, resourcefulness and perseverance. Not being overly endowed with any of those qualities, no I haven't. Besides, I don't know when my great grandfather's flight from marital oppression happened, and he might never have gone to America anyway. He might have stayed in Liverpool and sent the letter as a smokescreen.
ReplyDeleteAnd another 'besides.' Such family as I am aware of in the generations preceding mine was riddled with illegitimacy, bad blood, divorce and general estrangement, so I never developed much of a sense of family. My curiosity was naturally piqued by the man's disappearance and a couple of the circumstances giving rise to it, but I never felt any need to find out what happened to him.