The Day Henry Flagler and Will Harkness returned to Bellevue, Ohio

The last time Henry Flagler visited Bellevue was in October 1903 with Will L. Harkness. It had been quite a while since Henry had come back to his roots there in Bellevue since he was so busy building Standard Oil and Florida. Henry's wife Mary, his parents, and her parents had already passed away along with his half-brother Daniel Harkness( and WIll's father). Henry had married for the third time to Mary Lily Kenan in 1901. His Florida mansion Whitehall had just been completed and Henry was busy building railroads and hotels in Florida. Also, Henry's Breakers Hotel had just burned down in June of that year! So, it was pretty unusual for Henry to take time out of that busy schedule to visit Bellevue. Will Harkness had just bought The Gunilda and would soon(in 1906) help fund the building of a new Bellevue Hospital.

Henry Flagler

Will Harkness

Snippet from Bellevue Gazette

Henry's old Gingerbread House, which Henry had built in 1859 for his wife Mary and which Will Harkness had inherited from his father Dan, was still standing. It would shortly be turned over to the City of Bellevue to be used as the new YMCA for the town in 1904. There are records showing that JD Rockefeller had visited the Flagler family there early on.

Henry Flagler's Gingerbread House as the YMCA

Sadly, in 1973 the YMCA aka "Flagler's Gingerbread House" was demolished. One can only wonder how much revenue this house would have brought to Bellevue if it had been saved and turned into the Henry Flagler Museum.

They also visited old friends and toured the town, following up with dinner at the Bourdette Hotel.

Bourdette Hotel, Bellevue, Ohio

Visiting the Graves of their parents

Per the Bellevue Gazette, Henry, and Will also visited the graves of their parents at Bellevue Cemetery. Henry was 73 and Will was 45 at the time of that visit. It was the last time Henry would visit Bellevue.

Note: In the 1970's Jeanne Flagler Mathews, Henry and Mary Flagler's granddaughter, had the bodies of Henry's parents Isaac and Elizabeth moved from Bellevue Cemetery to the Flagler family cemetery she had established outside of Hopewell Junction, NY. Expand the section below for more details on this.

Flaglers reunited in the family plot after 71 gravesites exhumed from13 other cemeteries

Anthony P. Musso

Special to Poughkeepsie Journal

A family cemetery established in 1976 sits along Frog Hollow Road, east of Route 216 in Green Haven, a hamlet in the Town of Beekman near Hopewell Junction. But upon closer examination of the dates noted on the numerous gravestones, it is curious that a number of the individuals interred there died in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Known as Flagler Cemetery, the grounds are occupied by members of the prominent family whose ancestor — Zachariah Flegler (the surname’s original spelling) — arrived in the New World in 1701.

“Many of the Flaglers were farmers during the 1800s, the most well-known being Henry Morrison Flager, who was born in Hopewell Junction,” said Town of Beekman Historian Patricia Goewey. “He moved to Ohio and around 1860 became acquainted with J.D. Rockefeller; together they founded Standard Oil Company.

Married three times due to the deaths of his first two wives, Zachariah died in 1720 and was buried on the family farm. Generations of the Flagler family in Dutchess County not interred on the farm were buried in other burial grounds in locales including Hopewell Junction, Arthursburg, Washington Hollow and Poughquag. (and Bellevue, Ohio)

In 1972, Jean Flagler Matthews, the youngest of three daughters born to Harry Harkness and Anne Louise Flagler, showed an interest in researching her family heritage. Her father Harry, the son of Standard Oil tycoon and Florida developer Henry Morrison Flagler, had always shown an interest in history and the performing arts.

A generous patron of both the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic Society Harry Flagler served as president of the latter organization. Matthews shared her father’s passion for history and became an active member of a number of local historical societies.

While Matthews inherited her father’s interests — she served as a member of the New York Philharmonic board of directors — after reading the book, “Old Gravestones of Dutchess County,” by J. Wilson Poucher — her interest in tracing her family’s history was piqued. Working with Poucher, she began to research county records and focused on the burial locations of many of her ancestors.

The duo excavated a portion of the then-Garlando Farm in Green Haven, property that included the site of the first Flagler burial ground, and located 20 gravestones, including the 1798 grave of Zaharias Flagler, Zachariah and Anna Elizabeth’s last child. That only stimulated further exploration at cemeteries throughout the county and Matthews created a lofty plan to create a family burial ground, where family members could rest together side by side at one site.

Local historian Thom Usher launched a project to clean up the Flagler site. “In 2009, I recruited a local Eagle Scout to help me clean the cemetery and paint the fence,” Usher said. “Most of the Flagler family is in Chicago and no one claimed responsibility or oversight of the burial ground.”

It took four years to gather the information, but by 1976 Matthews and Poucher had discovered 71 Flagler gravesites spread throughout 13 different cemeteries in Dutchess County. Matthews began to implement her dream by hiring James Foster of Patterson to handle the 71 exhumations and re-burials at the newly christened Flagler Cemetery. The Presbey-Leland Monument Company of Valhalla relocated individual gravestones and George Martin of Hopewell Junction was commissioned to build the cemetery’s fieldstone wall.

NOTE: In this general timeframe, Henry's parents remains were exhumed from Bellevue Cemetery in Bellevue, Ohio and moved to the Flagler Cemetery in New York. Despite the creation of this family cemetery and the existence of the Flagler Mausoleum in St. Augustine where Henry and his wife and daughter are interred, Henry and Mary's daughter Carrie, who died at the age of 3, is still interred in Bellevue. She is interred there with her maternal grandparents.

A distinctive wrought-iron entrance gate was designed by Karl Fisch and the half-acre cemetery was formally dedicated Oct. 9, 1976. Ironically, when Jean Flagler Matthews died in 1979, she was interred at Greenwood Union Cemetery in Rye, Westchester County. “Frequently, as family members pass on family cemeteries become abandoned,” Goewey said. “Because the cemetery is on private ground, it hasn’t been preserved through the years. That said, it is interesting to discover how cemeteries can uncover captivating plots and little-known stories of the dead and the living.”

A distinctive wrought-iron entrance gate was designed by Karl Fisch and the half-acre cemetery was formally dedicated Oct. 9, 1976. Ironically, when Jean Flagler Matthews died in 1979, she was interred at Greenwood Union Cemetery in Rye, Westchester County.

“Frequently, as family members pass on family cemeteries become abandoned,” Goewey said. “Because the cemetery is on private ground, it hasn’t been preserved through the years. That said it is interesting to discover how cemeteries can uncover captivating plots and little known stories of the dead and the living.”

Also, when Henry's wife Mary (who was born in Bellevue) passed away in 1881, they were living in New York City and she was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. In 1890, after his daughter Jenny and her child had passed away, Henry built a church and a Flagler Columbarium in St Augustine, Florida in her honor. He relocated Jenny, his granddaughter, and his wife Mary there at the Memorial Presbyterian Church and Columbarium. He is interred there as well.