News Of Long Ago - "Evelyn Nesbit Makes The Two Worst Mistakes Of Her Life..."

News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian

(I have been writing about the story of the descendants of Judge J. Lawrence Smith and of the story of his daughter Bessie who married Stanford White.  Last week’s article was about the murder of Stanford White and the events that led up to that fateful night of June 25, 1906. This article tries to answer the question of why Harry Thaw murdered Stanford White in cold blood five years after White seduced Evelyn Nesbit in the fall of 1901.)

“Evelyn Nesbit makes the two worst mistakes of her life….”

One of the most bizarre events in the saga of Evelyn Nesbit’s life took place on April 5, 1905 when Evelyn married Harry Thaw, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania millionaire whom she heartily disliked.  Evelyn had first met Harry Thaw while having tea at Reckler’s in January of 1902 when he attempted to impress Evelyn with his money and devotion by sending her flowers, notes, and cash. When she met him, Evelyn would later recall, “he appeared to be in his thirties” and “he was tall, with coarse black hair combed almost straight back, and he was clean shaven.  He had a short, wide nose, and Evelyn thought his eyes had a wild look – ‘he glared’ – she said.  There was something about him that was frightening.”  She didn’t want anything more to do with him, and yet three years later she became his wife.  (Michael Macdonald Mooney, Evelyn Nesbit and Stanford White , William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1976, pp. 78-79.)   

Harry Thaw managed to weasel his way into Evelyn Nesbit’s life following the seven months she spent in seclusion at the “DeMille School” in Ramapo Hills, New Jersey.  Stanford White had arranged for Evelyn’s enrollment in the exclusive school for 15 girls in October of 1902 when he discovered that Evelyn might be pregnant.  She remained at the school – out of sight and out of mind – until she had an operation for appendicitis seven months later.  The doctors who attended her, at Stanford White’s request, all agreed that Evelyn experienced an attack of ‘acute appendicitis’ and none of them recalled the birth of a child. It took a long time for Evelyn to recover from the operation and Stanford White had Evelyn moved to a private sanatorium in New York City.  Throughout her ordeal, as she was recovering in the hospital and at the sanatorium, Harry Thaw who had won his way into Mrs. Nesbit’s good graces by insisting that he was “madly in love” with Evelyn, visited her faithfully.  He was always kind and solicitous, and saw to it that her every wish was granted.  When she was well enough to leave the sanatorium, Harry suggested that she take a trip to Paris to recuperate fully, and when she had regained her strength, he would take her on a grand tour of Europe.  Harry would pay for everything.  (Michael Macdonald Mooney, op. cit., pp. 93-94.)

Evelyn convinced her mother to accompany her on the trip and so in May of 1903 the two women sailed for London aboard the “S.S. New York.”  Harry followed on another liner but arrived in London in time to secure hotel accommodations.  After spending several weeks in London, Evelyn and Harry, with Mrs. Nesbit in tow, went on to Paris where Harry booked them into an apartment on the Avenue Matignon.   In Paris, Evelyn and her mother enjoyed touring and seeing the many attractions that Paris had to offer.  They went shopping in the finest stores in Paris, buying whatever they wanted and Harry picked up the bills.  They visited the Louvre, and took drives through the Bois de Boulogne, and ate at the best restaurants, eating the finest cuisine, and Harry paid the tab.  When they tired of Paris, they went back to London to enjoy the sights and attractions that London had to offer.  In London, Evelyn and her mother argued over continuing the trip with Harry and Mrs. Nesbit decided to stay in London.  Harry assured Mrs. Nesbit that when he and Evelyn got back to Paris, he would find a chaperone to accompany them on the rest of their trip.  Of course that never happened, and when Evelyn and Harry returned to Paris, Harry arranged for them to stay in adjoining suites at the Ritz Hotel.  (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, Riverhead Books, New York, 2008, p. 207-211.)    

It was while they were staying in the Ritz that Evelyn “made the worst mistake of her life.”  Harry had been badgering Evelyn to marry him, and she had turned him down.  In Paris, away from “the unreasonable Mamma,” Harry pressed his suit.  One evening, Harry simply stated “I want you to marry me!”  And when Evelyn refused to answer him immediately, he insisted that he “must know the truth.”  To which Evelyn replied, “I cannot marry you.”  “Why not?”  Harry wanted to know.  “Do you not love me?” he asked.  “Evelyn hemmed and hawed and hemmed, then began slowly and deliberately, saying, ‘Because.’”  This of course sent Harry into orbit and he “ran his hands violently through his hair” and waited.  “After months and months of Harry’s hounding and challenging her to explain her stonewalling,” Evelyn gave in and she proceeded to tell Harry “everything” about Stanford White.  (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., pp. 213-217.)

“Once she started, she found she could not stop: ‘I told him all that had happened since the very beginning.’“  And “the tale of her ruination” took her most of the night to tell since she told it “slowly and with great deliberation, unintentionally fanning Harry’s already smoldering torment.  It was a difficult story to tell, not only because she remained with White after his disgraceful seduction of her, but she feared what Harry’s reaction would be after she confirmed his worst fears.”  And Harry’s reaction proved to be truly meteoric.  He “sobbed hysterically,” he “began to paw at his cheeks,” he “walked up and down the room, gesticulating as he muttered,” he began “to wring his hands,” gnash his teeth, and pull his hair.  He berated “Evelyn’s mother of horrifying negligence and sinful abuse” and damned Stanford White for being a vicious sexual predator.  Throughout this tirade, Evelyn held he breath, “waiting instinctively for the sword of Damocles to come down on her pretty neck in retribution for her own shameful behavior in her affair with Stanny.”  But that retribution did not happen that night. (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., pp. 217-221.)

Mrs. Nesbit, “stranded” in London for “almost a week,” decided to take “matters into her own hands” and “she cabled Stanford White for money to come home.”  He wired her the funds to return to New York and “so Mama Nesbit left her teenage daughter” in Europe “in the hands of a man she knew could easily come unhinged and was prone to violence.”  Evelyn, now completely dependent upon Harry Thaw, “decided to make the best of the situation” and she continued on Harry’s frenetic and expensive tour of Europe.  They went to “the birthplace of Joan of Arc” at Domremy, France, then to Holland, “up the Rhine to Munich,” then on to Innsbruck, Austria, and then “to a bona fide castle in Tyrol.” (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., pp. 219-221.)  

“Wherever they travelled, Harry maintained separate rooms, in accordance with proper custom and a show of respectful decency.”  He did this until he rented a castle, the Schloss-Katzenstein, in the Tyrolean Alps for three weeks.   There they each had separate rooms in the huge Gothic castle of cold stones and dimly lit passageways.  They had been there several days, when after a day spent in strenuous sightseeing, they returned to the castle.  Harry dismissed the serving staff for the night and the young couple had the castle to themselves.  After eating a dinner that had been prepared for them, Evelyn said that she was retiring for the night and went off to the room that had been prepared for her.  Exhausted, she climbed into bed, tucked her head under her pillow, and fell asleep almost immediately. (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., p. 222.)  

Evelyn was awakened fifteen minutes later, when a  “bug-eyed, seething, and startlingly naked Harry,” exposed in the bluish white light cast into the room from her open door, came up to the bed, “threw the pillow and covers aside and woke Evelyn with an angry, slashing blow across her legs with a leather riding crop.  A startled Evelyn sprang up with a scream, whereupon Harry tore furiously at her nightgown.”  Then he ripped off her underclothes with one hand while he whipped her repeatedly with the riding crop. “Evelyn pleaded with Harry to stop, but the more she protested and tried to fend off his blows, the harder he came at her, railing about sinfulness and shameful indecency.”  He kept on attacking her until suddenly he stopped, perhaps to catch his breath.  Then he flipped Evelyn on her back, held her down with the riding whip across her shoulders and proceeded to rape her.  (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., p. 223.)

The entire assault was over in the span of seven minutes, and after shouting incoherently at her for several more minutes, “Harry turned and left the room as suddenly as he had entered, without saying another word.”  He “locked the door behind him.”  This was the man who professed to be madly in love with Evelyn and wanted her to marry him.  He was mad alright. “The next day and for the next two weeks, Evelyn simply sat pale and still in her room, as if turned into a pillar of salt.” (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., p. 224-225.) 

“At the end of the third week, a desolate Evelyn was informed they were leaving the castle.”  Harry then loaded Evelyn and her luggage into a car and they continued on his planned European tour.  “Harry took her to Zurich, where she immediately asked to see a doctor.”  Harry obliged and took her to see a doctor he obviously used in the past, and the doctor found that she was recovering satisfactorily from her appendicitis operation.  He said nothing about the ugly bruises, cuts and welts that covered her legs and back.  The tour went with stops in Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, and finally back to Paris.  “A solemn and at times virtually catatonic Evelyn spoke very little” during the trip.  “She was only half-aware of the magnificent scenery that passed before her eyes from a string of carriages, railroad cars, and rented autos.”  She spent much of the time crying.  (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., p. 226.)

When Harry and Evelyn returned to Paris, they paid a call upon Elizabeth Marbury who had an estate in Versailles.  By an incredible stroke of luck, Evelyn encountered several people she had met back in New York.  When Evelyn “broke down and told them her mortifying story of Harry’s sadism,” they came to her rescue and took her with them on the ocean liner back to New York.  Harry provided money for her ticket and accommodations.  She had, at long last, escaped his clutches. (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., p. 227.)

When Evelyn arrived back in New York on October 24, 1903, there was no one there to greet her and she disembarked and found a room at the Savoy which she paid for using money that Harry Thaw had given her.  Evelyn didn’t know what to do and she realized that she needed to go back to work.  “Within a week of her return, while riding down Fifth Avenue in a hansom cab,” Stanford White passed Evelyn.”  Shortly after that “chance passing,” White called her and Evelyn “agreed to meet him at her hotel.”  As soon as he entered her room, “Stanny grabbed her face and tried to kiss her.”  Evelyn “rebuffed him.”  Making him sit down, Evelyn asked him about her mother and whether she was ill since White had told her that he needed to talk to her about “a life and death situation.”  It turned out that the situation he was concerned about was Harry Thaw.  “‘Don’t you know he takes morphine?’ White asked her.  ‘Why would you go around with a man who is not even a gentleman?  You must have nothing more to do with him.’”  Evelyn certainly didn’t need to be told that.  Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., p. 231.) 

“White told her in no uncertain terms that she needed to hide from Thaw and cut all ties” and she did that finding ways to elude Thaw and his hired detectives.  White helped Evelyn find a way to return to the stage and set her up for auditions in “a new Shubert production, “The Girl from Dixie,” and “she was offered a minor but featured part” in the show.  (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., p. 231.)       

“Little by little, Evelyn began to learn disturbing things about Harry that she had not known before” her experience with Harry had given her intimate knowledge of “his perverted propensities.”  To protect her from further harassment by Thaw, Stanford White arranged for Evelyn “to swear to Thaw’s cruelty in an affidavit” that she made in the offices of a lawyer named Abe Hummel.  Hummel also gathered up some of Harry’s love letters that he had written to Evelyn and these documents gave Stanford White all he needed to keep Harry Thaw away from Evelyn, and all he needed to keep Harry from revealing all that Evelyn had told him about White’s own rape of Evelyn.  (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., pp. 232-233.)    

Harry Thaw continued to pursue Evelyn months after he returned from Europe.  She managed to hide from him for a while, “but inevitably, with the help of his ubiquitous private detectives, Harry was able to discover her whereabouts and he asked over the phone to meet with her.”  Incredibly she agreed to meet with him in her hotel room, but she refused to meet with him alone.  When she met with him, Harry brought along a lawyer named Thorton Warren, who simply vouched for everything Harry said.  Evelyn was understandably cool to Harry and wouldn’t let him touch her.  She looked up at him. “’I don’t know what to say to you,’ she said, her voice breaking with distress.  ‘I have heard such dreadful, dreadful things about you that I feel I can never speak to you again.’”  She then proceeded to tell Harry “about going to Hummel’s office” and “the statements she had made about their time in Europe.”  She went on to tell him the dreadful things she had heard about him “beating young girls, scalding them in tubs, and taking cocaine and morphine.”  Harry listened attentively.  Then he stood up “shaking his head” and said to her: “Poor little Evelyn.”  He went on to say “that everything she heard was a lie.”  Harry went on to question Hummel’s motives in getting Evelyn to make an affidavit and noted that “it was well known that any woman who wanted to initiate “’a blackmailing suit against some rich man always went to Hummel.’”  (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op.cit., p. 236-237.)  

By the time Harry left, Evelyn was totally confused and she began to question everything she had been told about Harry.   In the weeks that followed his visit, Harry “used ‘every subterfuge’ to get back into Evelyn’s good graces.”  He called to “check on her health,” he suggested she give up her acting career, and he agreed to pay any salary she was receiving if she did so.  He was “so solicitous of her welfare” that it led “’seventeen-and-three-quarters-year-old’ Evelyn” to make “the second biggest mistake of her life.  She began a tentative process of reconciliation with Harry, in spite of his atrocious sexual assault of her, his bouts of uncontrollable wrath, his awful battery, and all the reports she had heard about his most vicious proclivities.”  (Paula Uruburu, American Eve, op. cit., pp. 238-239.)      

Evelyn’s reconciliation with Harry led inevitably to her marriage to the playboy millionaire of the Pittsburgh Thaws, but that is more of the story that will have to wait until next week….

Smithtown Dish - Small Bites Of Foodie News

Smithtown Dish – small bites of foodie news

By Nancy Vallarella

Stop in at Great Hollow Middle School, 150 Southern Blvd., Nesconset this Saturday for the 6^th Annual Holiday Breakfast & Boutique sponsored by Maureen’s Kitchen. Visit with Santa, have breakfast and get some holiday shopping accomplished. Holiday multitasking at its finest! Hosted by The Smithtown Children’s Foundation the event will run from 9am - 1pm.

On Sunday, buffet style brunch is available at The Garden Grill in Smithtown; free gift and picture with Santa.  Adults are $26 which includes unlimited mimosas.

December 15 – February 23 the Winter Farmer’s Market goes indoors at the Suffolk YJCC in Commack. It will be open on Sundays from 9am to 1pm.  If you have a local product you would like to sell at the market contact Bernadette Martin @ligreenmarket.com.

Letter To Editor - Befriending Humanity

Befriending Humanity

      Simplistic as it may sound, uncomplicated as it should be, the ultimate answer to the solving of the many problems current in the world is for humanity to recognize that we are all members of the same one human family, and through this recognition, seeking to be in fellowship with one another.  Failure to recognize this fundamental truth has historically led to the problems that have plagued humanity and which continue to plague us today.

     Scientifically, there is only one species of man: Homo sapiens, a species comprised of a rich myriad of external differences, among them: skin color, religious belief, and ethnicity.  While these external differences are what beautifies our one human family, sadly, rather than being a cause for unity, people have tragically made these differences reasons to hate and distrust one another.

     Manmade barriers like racism, prejudice, fear, and bigotry have kept the people of humanity divided and at odds with one another, manifesting themselves in the problems to be found in the world, problems far too numerous to mention.

     While it is important that we recognize with our minds this truth of the oneness of humanity, more importantly, we need to recognize it with our hearts.  For such recognition is what will lead to the tearing down of these walls of separation, and to  replacing them with bridges of unity, the result of which will be the lessening of the problems existing today, not only here in the United Sates, but the whole world.

     If fish of different colors can swim together, and birds of different colors can fly together, why can’t we, with our rich myriad differences, yet boundless similarities, be in fellowship with one another?  After all, should we not be wiser and more noble than fish and birds? 

     This call for the recognition of the oneness of humanity does not equate to turning a blind eye to the many injustices and cruelties in the world today, nor pollyannaishly denying the existence of such.  This recognition, though, will lead to these injustices being addressed and being conducive to acts of injustice and cruelty from even occurring.

     As people come to recognize the essential oneness of humanity, and thus coming together in fellowship with their neighbors, near and far, the thought of hurting one another, let alone the commitment of such acts, will be abhorrent, and far less common.

     At the heart of this recognition is transformation: Transformation on a personal level; transformation on a societal level; and transformation on a global level.  It is a reciprocal relationship amongst these three levels, each one influencing the others.  Reciprocal in nature as it may be, while an individual can influence others, as well as society and the world at large, the only one one has control over is oneself.

     The sooner we come to recognize and appreciate how we are all members of the same one human family, and through this recognition, embracing the diversity that comprises and beautifies humanity, where these numerous social problems will be no more, the sooner this day will come to be.  While it may not be in our lifetime, let us start working on it today to make this most glorious day come about.

Respectfully submitted,

Marc Hensen

Public Information Officer

Baha’is of Smithtown

What's Cookin'? Smithtown - Turkey's Encore Appearance

What’s Cookin’?  -  Smithtown

By Nancy Vallarella

Turkey’s Encore Appearance

That plump breasted Thanksgiving turkey with glistening crisp skin now sits in the refrigerator, a shell of its former self.  It is hard to find the passion for food so soon after Thanksgiving but meals must be prepared. People will once again resume eating. 

If you are just plum turkeyed out, the good news is many leftover turkey recipes lend well to freezing.  If you are concerned about refreezing a cooked frozen turkey… don’t be.  As long as the turkey was thawed and cooked properly, it is fine to refreeze that turkey.  Leftover turkey recipes that incorporate liquids work really well when frozen. Having a main course or homemade soup on hand for a cold rainy or snowy night is like having gold in your freezer.

Refrigerated leftover turkey is good for 3 – 4 day. Start reinventing now! 

Turkey Swiss PaniniRee Drummond a.k.a.”The Pioneer Women” lists leftover turkey recipes on her blog thepioneerwomen.com.  From old school Turkey Pot Pie and Turkey Tetrazzini to more current items like Turkey Swiss Panini and Turkey Spring Rolls, Ree walks you through. 

Turkey - Kale SoupThe leftover turkey recipe I am most excited about comes from Alice Waters’, The Art of Simple Food. Turkey Soup with Kale is a simple union of lean protein and this year’s super food.  The recipe can be found on Smithtown Matters Food Page. 

If you haven’t gotten on the kale train to date, jump on board. Kale is the reigning vegetable of 2013. This queen of cruciferous vegetable comes in many varieties. Green, blue white, rainbow, curly, Tuscan, Russian, the list continues.   Recipes in the cookbook, Fifty Shades of Kale include Kale Chocolate Chip Cookies and Kale Mojitos.  The author Drew Ramsey, a psychiatrist declares, “People who start incorporating kale into their life feel happier and healthier and lighter. There is nothing sexier than a sharp brain on top of a lean body. And kale really delivers that more than any other vegetable on the planet.” 

Sweet Potato Walnut Streusel Biscuits If you have turkey dinner sides to reinvent, take a look at Elegant Eating’s facebook page for wonderful Sweet Potato Walnut Streusel Biscuits.  Also on facebook, What’s Cookin’? Smithtown has a great solution for leftover mashed potatoes that can be frozen in portion controlled servings. 

Turkey Soup with Kale by Chef Alice Waters   Makes 3 quarts Ingredients 1 roasted turkey carcass 1 bunch  kale, leaves torn from the stems and chopped coarse For Stock: 1/2 onion, peeled 1/2 carrot, peeled 1/2 stalk celery 6 sprigs thyme 3 sprigs parsley 1 bay leaf 3 quarts water For Soup: 2 tablespoons olive oil Add and cook, over medium heat, until very tender: 1 1/2 onions, peeled and diced 1 1/2 carrots, peeled and diced 1 1/2 stalks celery, diced 1 teaspoon salt Directions Pick all the meat from 1 roasted turkey carcass Coarsely chop and set aside. Break up the carcass and put in large stockpot with the Stock Ingredients . Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, skim well, and cook for 2 hours. Meanwhile, heat,all of the Soup Ingredients in a large soup pot. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add Kale. Cook until tender, about 5 to 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. Place a colander over the pot of diced vegetables and strain the turkey stock directly into the soup pot. Add the turkey meat and kale, taste for seasoning and serve hot. Variations: • Sautéed mushrooms (porcini are my favorite) added just before serving give a luxurious flavor and texture to this humble soup. • Some of the kale can be sautéed with garlic and hot pepper and floated atop the soup on a slice of toasted bread.  • Add cooked rice or pasta just before serving. • Fry a little diced pancetta in the soup pot before adding the diced vegetables

News of Long Ago - "Stanford White's Burial In St. James"

News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian

(I have been writing about the descendants of Judge John Lawrence Smith.  My most recent articles have been about Stanford White, Bessie Smith’s husband, and his affair with Evelyn Nesbit.  Last week’s article was about Evelyn Nesbit’s marriage to Harry Thaw and the events that led up to Stanford White’s murder on June 25, 1906. This article traces the aftermath of Stanford White’s murder.)   

“Stanford White’s burial in St. James….”

When Stanford White was murdered on June 25, 1906, the story made newspaper headlines around the world.  And when it became clear that a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania millionaire named Harry K. Thaw had shot him because, Thaw claimed, White had been responsible for the “ruination” of many young girls, the story became sensational.  The story of the murder became even more sensational when Harry Thaw revealed that his wife Evelyn Nesbit had been one of the young girls that White had seduced.  

There was never any question about Harry Thaw’s guilt, hundreds of people in the Madison Square Garden Casino Theater had witnessed the shooting, had seen Thaw’s arrest, and he gave statements to the press and police indicating that he shot Stanford White because the famous architect “deserved it” for ruining young girls.  Newspapers began calling the murder “The Crime of the Century” and coverage of the murder, the events that led up to it, the lengthy trials that followed with all their revelations, made sure that the murder did indeed become the Trial of the Century.

For Stanford White’s wife and son, his murder and the sensationalism surrounding it became an ordeal that they endured for the rest of their lives.  For Lawrence Grant White, Stanford’s only heir, the ordeal began the night his father was killed.  Lawrence had been with his father earlier in the evening when they had gone to dinner at the Café Martin.  Following their dinner, Lawrence and his Harvard classmate Leroy King had gone off to see a “George M. Cohan revue at the new Amsterdam” Theater.  Stanford White had decided to go watch the closing numbers of the musical “Mamzelle Champagne” that was playing at the Madison Square Garden Casino Theater.  So Lawrence was not with his father when he was shot that night.  Larry had just returned home to “his family’s townhouse on Gramercy Park at East Twenty-first Street,” when “near midnight” he received a phone call from Madison Square Garden” that “informed him of his father’s death.”  He immediately went to the Casino Theater.  (Michael MacDonald Mooney, Evelyn Nesbit and Stanford White, Love and Death in the Gilded Age, William Murrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1976, p. 231.)

Asked to identify his father’s body, Lawrence was escorted to the table where his father had been sitting and was now lying on the floor, “covered with a dressing gown soaked and stiffening with clotted gore.”  Nineteen-year-old Larry must have been “traumatized” by the experience and then mystified when he was asked about Harry Thaw, “a man he had never seen” and never “heard his father speak of.”  Sometime after seeing his father’s “unbearably still body” on the floor, Larry decided to retrieve his father’s electric hansom from his parking garage at Madison Square Garden and proceeded to drive home to Box Hill in St. James.  “He crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, went north to the Jericho Road, then east to Smithtown and to North Country Road.  It was about 2 A.M. when he finally arrived” at Box Hill in St. James.  (Michael MacDonald Mooney, op. cit., p. 231.)

“He roused his mother and told her his father had been shot.”  Bessie Smith White “seemed to take the news calmly.  She did not ask for details.…  His mother lay on her bed, just staring.”  Early “the next morning, Lawrence drove her to the city” and to the house on Gramercy Park.  “By the time they arrived, there were crowds of newspaper reporters waiting” and “they demanded to see the woman ‘Harry Thaw had made a widow.’”  The media circus surrounding the murder had begun.  (Michael MacDonald Mooney, op. cit., p. 231.)

“On Tuesday afternoon Mrs. White announced through” her husband’s partner “Charles McKIm that funeral services would be held on Thursday at Saint Bartholomew’s at Madison and Forty-fourth Street and the Reverend Leighton I. Parks would officiate.”  But on Wednesday, “the family announced that plans had been changed” and the funeral services “would be held at the Episcopal church in St. James, Long Island, where Mrs. White’s family maintained pews.”  And so at 8 a.m. Thursday morning, “a hearse and two carriages drew up to the door” of the Smith family home at Gramercy Park, Stanford White’s casket was loaded into the hearse, and “Mrs. White’s relations” climbed into the carriages.  “Mr. James Clinch Smith, brother of Mrs. White; Charles S. Butler, nephew of Mrs. White; Mr. and Mrs. Connolly, cousins of Mrs. White; Mr. and Mrs. Barent Lefferts, a daughter of Mrs. Kate Wetherill, another sister of Mrs. White” rode in the carriages.  “The hearse and its two carriages were driven to the East Thirty-fourth Street ferry, then passed to the Long Island side, where a special train was waiting. The casket was placed aboard the train in a combination baggage-smoker, banked by floral tributes, and the car occupied by members of the family. Some 200 hundred friends” of the Whites “filled three day coaches, and when steam was up, the train departed Long Island City, at about 9:15 A.M.  Mrs. Stanford White was not aboard because her son Lawrence had driven her from the city by auto to avoid reporters.”  (Michael MacDonald Mooney, op. cit., pp. 233-234.)

The funeral train arrived at the St. James railroad station about 10:30 where it was met by “about fifty people from the village.”  Local Undertaker Clinton Darling “and six assistants lifted the casket from the train to a hearse, and the funeral cortege started for the” St. James Episcopal Church.  At the corner of Lake Avenue and North Country Road, Lawrence White, driving Mrs. White, wheeled the electric hansom into line at the head of the procession.  “Behind them the road was crowded with every kind of conveyance – hackneys and carriages and autos driven up from the summer colonies in Southampton, or Westbury, or Wheatley Hills.” (Michael MacDonald Mooney, op. cit., p. 234.)

In the Episcopal Church “more than two hundred fifty friends were crowded into straight-backed rows, six pressed into pews designed for five.  Flowers hung everywhere –wreaths of roses, orchids, sweet peas, and calla lilies.  They were set against the simple altar and hung along the plain painted walls and were even suspended from the organ loft at the rear.  From the loft a choir of fourteen voices from Saint Bartholomew’s led the hymns. The Reverend Park, assisted by the Reverend Holden, archdeacon of Saint James, read the services of the dead.  There was no sermon or eulogy.” (Michael MacDonald Mooney, op. cit., p. 234.)

Once the simple service was over, “the six undertaker’s men did their part as pallbearers, hoisting the casket to their shoulders, and the procession formed” for the march to the gravesite in the cemetery.  “The march led from the church down a vista shaded on both sides by rows of yew trees.”  The procession stopped at the freshly dug grave which “stood ready to receive the casket.  At Mrs. White’s request there was no pile of earth visible beside the six foot trench.  The gravediggers had carried it away, concealing the earth behind the privet at the graveyard’s edge.  They had placed evergreen boughs over the discolored soil beside the pit.  When the procession had assembled beside the grave, the coffin was let down into its place, ‘Dust to Dust, Ashes to Ashes’ was said, and a few handfuls of dirt were tossed to complete the ceremony.  The choir led the mourners away, singing ‘Abide with me.’”  (Michael MacDonald Mooney, op. cit., pp. 234-235.)

As the mourners departed, “Mrs. White and her son, Lawrence, lingered a while, as did James Breese and Charles McKIm.  They stood near the head of the open grave, beside a stripling Scotch pine that had been planted there.  Then they too turned back toward the church.  Three gravediggers appeared and bent to their spades.  Stanford White was fifty-two.”  (Michael MacDonald Mooney, op. cit., p. 235.)

Stanford White’s life had come to a shocking end.  It would take a long time for the shock and horror that young Lawrence Grant White experienced the night his father was killed to fade into painful suppressed memory.  In an autobiography that Lawrence White wrote for his children in 1932, he made this comment:  “My father’s tragic death at the end of my sophomore year [at Harvard] changed all our plans.”  That is the only reference he made to the tragedy of that night in his autobiography.  Clearly the memories of that night of June 25, 1906 were still painful and still being suppressed 26 years later.  But you will have to wait until next week to find out how Stanford White’s death “changed all our plans.” (Lawrence Grant White, Memoirs of Lawrence Grant White, 1932, Volume I, “Before the War, 1887-1914,” on file in the Long Island Room of the Smithtown Library.)