Like the families of the famous Great Camps in the Central Adirondacks, Andrew Lawrence Ireland and the Bayard Clarkes were prominent New Yorkers who built their mansions as a playground, a place to show off to friends and a way to display wealth while pretending to live simply. But unlike the other prominent families they are all but forgotten today, as the result of a family tragedy that ended their lineage.
Andrew Lawrence Ireland and the Bayard Clarkes owned Schroon Lake's largest island between 1846-1946. The Clarkes' wealth came from New York City real estate, originally farm land that, in the early 19th Century, was cut up into valuable city blocks. Their pedigrees go back to the Norman invasion of England and the Dutch settlement of New York. The Great Camp crowd probably had more wealth, but Ireland and the Clarkes may have regarded them as nouveau riche.
The large island at the north end of Schroon Lake contains 49 acres. It sits close to the east shore, facing Schroon Lake Village. Today the island is owned and operated by the Word of Life Fellowship. Its camp hosts Christian teenagers from around the country for week-long visits, over six summer weeks.
Andrew Lawrence Ireland and the Bayard Clarkes owned Schroon Lake's largest island between 1846-1946. The Clarkes' wealth came from New York City real estate, originally farm land that, in the early 19th Century, was cut up into valuable city blocks. Their pedigrees go back to the Norman invasion of England and the Dutch settlement of New York. The Great Camp crowd probably had more wealth, but Ireland and the Clarkes may have regarded them as nouveau riche.
The large island at the north end of Schroon Lake contains 49 acres. It sits close to the east shore, facing Schroon Lake Village. Today the island is owned and operated by the Word of Life Fellowship. Its camp hosts Christian teenagers from around the country for week-long visits, over six summer weeks.
Born in 1808, Andrew Ireland was descended from a Norman noble who fought for William the Conqueror and was rewarded with baronial estates. Andrew attended Hamilton College but left early to travel extensively at a time when few American tourist went abroad. His sometimes-boisterous group attracted notice as they visited Egypt and Turkey. Andrew later survived a deadly barge accident on the Danube.
Andrew purchased Magdalen Island in Schroon Lake in 1846, long before the Adirondack Railroad opened the eastern Adirondacks to tourist. He re-named it Isola Bella. He built a cruciform mansion and maintained carefully planted grounds from which the Hoffman Range and some High Peaks could be seen. As described by writer Benson Lossing in 1866, the house contained a library, statuary, bronzes, and a painting of the Irelands' ancestral home in England. Andrew also had a house in Schroon village and served a term as Town Supervisor.
Andrew purchased Magdalen Island in Schroon Lake in 1846, long before the Adirondack Railroad opened the eastern Adirondacks to tourist. He re-named it Isola Bella. He built a cruciform mansion and maintained carefully planted grounds from which the Hoffman Range and some High Peaks could be seen. As described by writer Benson Lossing in 1866, the house contained a library, statuary, bronzes, and a painting of the Irelands' ancestral home in England. Andrew also had a house in Schroon village and served a term as Town Supervisor.
The Saint Nicholas Society of New York was founded in 1835 by a group of prominent New York City gentlemen, including Washington Irving, as a membership organization the purpose of which is to preserve knowledge of the history and customs of New York City's Dutch forebears. It is one of the oldest societies in the United States. Membership is by invitation only and limited to those men who can demonstrate descent from a resident of New York State before 1785. (https://www.saintnicholassociety.org)
When in New York City, Andrew attended the St. Nicholas Society whose members must prove that their family lived in New York prior to 1785. He liked to regal members with Adirondack tall tales. One concerned his courageous Newfoundland dog, Pedro, who saved the lives of two men on Schroon Lake. It was in the late autumn, and two employees who had gone to Schroon Lake village were having trouble rowing their skiff back across the stormy lake. Ice was forming, and the men's hands were freezing around the oars. Those on the island could see the boat in distress but were unable to help. That's when brave Pedro brought an axe in his mouth to Andrew, who promptly send dog and axe into the lake to the foundering boat. The men warmed their hands on Pedro's thick coat and chopped a path through the ice. Pedro, swimming back to the the island, was then sent again to the boat with a bottle of cordial in his mouth. The axe and restorative enabled the men to return safely to the island, and Pedro was roundly praised. The story was so pleasing to the city dwellers that it made it its way into Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine.
We do not know what Andrew's cousin William did that caused his family to send him into oblivion. But it is clear that the socially prominent Irelands in New York were paying to keep William out of the way. Such people were called "remittance men," and William Ireland received payments from the family with the stipulation that he stay quietly in Schroon Lake. He lived in town but not exactly obscurity. He was seen every day, dressed as a gentleman, walking to the store that sold newspapers, buying his daily paper, and returning home again. His secret misstep followed him to the grave.
Andrew Lawrence Ireland, who never married, died in 1873. He is buried in the vault at Saint Mark's Church in The Bowery in New York City, where Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant is also interred. In 1866, in exchange for $18,000, ownership of Andrew's island went to his cousin Aletta Remsen Lawrence, whose husband was Col. Bayard Clarke. The Clarkes enjoyed their island summer home for nearly 80 years, using the Bogle boat facilities on Schroon village shore for much of that time.
We do not know what Andrew's cousin William did that caused his family to send him into oblivion. But it is clear that the socially prominent Irelands in New York were paying to keep William out of the way. Such people were called "remittance men," and William Ireland received payments from the family with the stipulation that he stay quietly in Schroon Lake. He lived in town but not exactly obscurity. He was seen every day, dressed as a gentleman, walking to the store that sold newspapers, buying his daily paper, and returning home again. His secret misstep followed him to the grave.
Andrew Lawrence Ireland, who never married, died in 1873. He is buried in the vault at Saint Mark's Church in The Bowery in New York City, where Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant is also interred. In 1866, in exchange for $18,000, ownership of Andrew's island went to his cousin Aletta Remsen Lawrence, whose husband was Col. Bayard Clarke. The Clarkes enjoyed their island summer home for nearly 80 years, using the Bogle boat facilities on Schroon village shore for much of that time.
Bayard Clarke was a well-traveled New York aristocrat who developed a love for the cavalry while serving as an attaché to the US ambassador to France. In the early 1840's he received commission with the 2nd Dragoon Regiment. He participated in the tragic Seminole Wars, in which the US government fought the native people of Florida and forcibly moved the surviving Seminoles to reservations in Oklahoma.
Bayard, whose wife Aletta came from a family of prominent Dutch settlers, was politically active in the tumultuous period before the Civil War, and in 1855 was elected to Congress from New York State's Westchester County. He became a leader in the American Party, popularly called the Know Nothings, who were both anti-slavery and anti-Catholic as a response to the 1.5 million Irish immigrants who had poured into the northeastern US to escape their country's potato famine. Bayard Clarke delivered a major anti-slavery speech in Congress in 1856. He helped organize the 1st NY Cavalry Regiment and was commissioned as a colonel.
The Adirondacks offered the Clarke family a place to relax and enjoy nature. The children spent their summers on the island and in the forests, going boating, hiking, and horseback riding. As they got older they played golf at the Schroon Lake course and went dining and dancing at the fashionable Leland House hotel. A well-known painting by Samuel Griggs - now in the collection of the Adirondack Experience - shows the Clarke daughters on a beach behind the island.
But tragedy shadowed the Clarkes. Two daughters among the six children were mentally disabled. For a socially prominent family in the 1800's the situation was unspeakable; the children were cared for at home, and no one discussed their condition. It was understood that the problem was hereditary. The prejudices of the times were reflected in Bayard Clarke's stern dictum: those Clarke children who were sane and sound were forbidden ever to marry. The offending trait must not be passed on. The Clarkes were active in New York City's high society, for many years. Like Andrew Lawrence Ireland before them, Bayard Clarke Sr. and Bayard Clarke Jr. belonged to the St. Nicholas Society. Daughters Aletta, Catherine, and Florence Clarke were active in promoting badminton, which their father introduced to the United States after a trip to England. Aletta was an advocate for highway safety and contributed funds to the National Safety Council. The sisters appeared at socially exclusive events in New York, and their activities were reported in the press. The "normal" members of the family were listed in The Social Register; the two daughter who were mentally disabled were not.
Schroon Lake residents firmly believed the Bayard Clarkes made their money in the thread business, but that WAS NOT the case. The Bayard Clarke family was established in New York City many years before the Coats & Clark company that manufactures thread was formed. Coats Thread Company thrived in England before opening factories in the US and merging in 1896. Note that the names are spelled differently.
However, the Bayard Clarkes did have some significant relatives, most notably Clement Clarke Moore, the author of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," better known as "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Clement, although considerably older, was Bayard Clarke's first cousin. The family owned a section of western Manhattan in what is todays Chelsea. It was peaceful farmland when Clement was young but early in the 1800's Manhattan's city fathers imposed the new grid system of streets, and the Clarkes found themselves in possession of dozens of valuable city blocks roughly between 8th Avenue and the Hudson River, running from 18th Street to 24th Street.
Bayard, whose wife Aletta came from a family of prominent Dutch settlers, was politically active in the tumultuous period before the Civil War, and in 1855 was elected to Congress from New York State's Westchester County. He became a leader in the American Party, popularly called the Know Nothings, who were both anti-slavery and anti-Catholic as a response to the 1.5 million Irish immigrants who had poured into the northeastern US to escape their country's potato famine. Bayard Clarke delivered a major anti-slavery speech in Congress in 1856. He helped organize the 1st NY Cavalry Regiment and was commissioned as a colonel.
The Adirondacks offered the Clarke family a place to relax and enjoy nature. The children spent their summers on the island and in the forests, going boating, hiking, and horseback riding. As they got older they played golf at the Schroon Lake course and went dining and dancing at the fashionable Leland House hotel. A well-known painting by Samuel Griggs - now in the collection of the Adirondack Experience - shows the Clarke daughters on a beach behind the island.
But tragedy shadowed the Clarkes. Two daughters among the six children were mentally disabled. For a socially prominent family in the 1800's the situation was unspeakable; the children were cared for at home, and no one discussed their condition. It was understood that the problem was hereditary. The prejudices of the times were reflected in Bayard Clarke's stern dictum: those Clarke children who were sane and sound were forbidden ever to marry. The offending trait must not be passed on. The Clarkes were active in New York City's high society, for many years. Like Andrew Lawrence Ireland before them, Bayard Clarke Sr. and Bayard Clarke Jr. belonged to the St. Nicholas Society. Daughters Aletta, Catherine, and Florence Clarke were active in promoting badminton, which their father introduced to the United States after a trip to England. Aletta was an advocate for highway safety and contributed funds to the National Safety Council. The sisters appeared at socially exclusive events in New York, and their activities were reported in the press. The "normal" members of the family were listed in The Social Register; the two daughter who were mentally disabled were not.
Schroon Lake residents firmly believed the Bayard Clarkes made their money in the thread business, but that WAS NOT the case. The Bayard Clarke family was established in New York City many years before the Coats & Clark company that manufactures thread was formed. Coats Thread Company thrived in England before opening factories in the US and merging in 1896. Note that the names are spelled differently.
However, the Bayard Clarkes did have some significant relatives, most notably Clement Clarke Moore, the author of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," better known as "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Clement, although considerably older, was Bayard Clarke's first cousin. The family owned a section of western Manhattan in what is todays Chelsea. It was peaceful farmland when Clement was young but early in the 1800's Manhattan's city fathers imposed the new grid system of streets, and the Clarkes found themselves in possession of dozens of valuable city blocks roughly between 8th Avenue and the Hudson River, running from 18th Street to 24th Street.
 Image of Clement Clarke Moore, 1st cousin of Baynard Clarke, and author of A Visit from St. Nicholas (aka Twas a Night Before Christmas). (Wikipedia) |  Cover of A Visit From St. Nicholas written by Clement Clarke Moore. Image from Wikipedia. |
A rendering of the mansion house of the Chelsea estate by Moore's daughter, Mary C. Ogden, made for the first color edition of A Visit from St. Nicholas (1855). (Wikipedia)
Clement Clarke Moore was a professional of classical languages at Columbia College and professor of biblical learning at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church. He gave the Seminary the land it currently occupies in Chelsea, on 9th Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets.
Like their cousin, the Bayard Clarkes were devoted Episcopalians. Their money helped build St. Andrew's Church on Leland Avenue in Schroon Lake Village. In 1914 a Halloween reveler dropped a light cigar in dry leaves, causing the Leland House hotel to burn to the ground and St. Andrew's Church to burn with it. The hotel was re-built for the 1915 season, and the church was re-built at the south end of the Village, operating today within the Adirondack Mission of the Diocese of Albany. Bayard Clarke and his son served on the Vestry. Florence Clarke and her sisters once held a fund-raising party in New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel to benefit St. Andrew's Church. When Bishop William Croswell Doane made a pastoral visit to the Adirondacks in 1870, he spent the night at the Clarke's mansion on the island.
Like their cousin, the Bayard Clarkes were devoted Episcopalians. Their money helped build St. Andrew's Church on Leland Avenue in Schroon Lake Village. In 1914 a Halloween reveler dropped a light cigar in dry leaves, causing the Leland House hotel to burn to the ground and St. Andrew's Church to burn with it. The hotel was re-built for the 1915 season, and the church was re-built at the south end of the Village, operating today within the Adirondack Mission of the Diocese of Albany. Bayard Clarke and his son served on the Vestry. Florence Clarke and her sisters once held a fund-raising party in New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel to benefit St. Andrew's Church. When Bishop William Croswell Doane made a pastoral visit to the Adirondacks in 1870, he spent the night at the Clarke's mansion on the island.
 Bishop William Croswell Doane Image, Wikipedia |  Current St. Andrews Church in Schroon Lake on Route 9 South of the Village, this was built the replacement for the original St. Andrews that stood next to the former Leland Hotel that burned the 1st time in 1914.  Original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where St. Andrews Fundraiser was held. (Image from Wikipedia) |
Some Schroon Lakers recalled a visit from Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt to Clarke Island. How the governor, badly crippled with polio, could have gotten in and out of Florence Clarke's speedboat is a puzzle. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY has no record of connections between the Clarke and Roosevelt families.
Florence Clarke, the last of the childless siblings, died in 1951. Spending her final years in a nursing home, she could no longer visit her beloved island. When evangelist Jack Wyrtzen approached her in 1945 with a plan to use the property for his fledgling Word of Life ministries, she agreed to sell it for $25,000.
The only remnant of the Bayard Clarke family in Schroon Lake today is their mausoleum, standing tall in the Protestant cemetery off the Hoffman Road. The six burial chambers inside are unmarked. With Bayard Clarke Sr., his wife Aletta, Bayard Jr. and Florence all buried elsewhere, some of these may be the tombs of the troubled Clarke children who grew up sheltered and in anonymity.
Florence Clarke, the last of the childless siblings, died in 1951. Spending her final years in a nursing home, she could no longer visit her beloved island. When evangelist Jack Wyrtzen approached her in 1945 with a plan to use the property for his fledgling Word of Life ministries, she agreed to sell it for $25,000.
The only remnant of the Bayard Clarke family in Schroon Lake today is their mausoleum, standing tall in the Protestant cemetery off the Hoffman Road. The six burial chambers inside are unmarked. With Bayard Clarke Sr., his wife Aletta, Bayard Jr. and Florence all buried elsewhere, some of these may be the tombs of the troubled Clarke children who grew up sheltered and in anonymity.
The Clarke Family mausoleum located within the Protestant Cemetery of Hoffman Rd. in Schroon, Lake NY.
But the island remains, appearing from Schroon village much as it did when the Clarkes were in residence, with the white boathouse near the center. The trees at the north end, felled by the destructive hurricane of 1950, have grown back. Schroon's Chamber of Commerce, using Word of Life boats, take tourists on trips around the lake and island. Any Clarke spirits remaining today must acknowledge the presence of the Word of Life teenagers who come to the island for week-long visits. Their exuberance may remind them of their own joyful days in summer paradise.
~ Ann Breen Metcalf, Author 08/18/2022
* Special thanks to Lillian Noxon Richardson for her valuable information. Thanks also to the late Louise Hargraves, Paul Stapley, and Marie Cheney Breen.
~ Ann Breen Metcalf, Author 08/18/2022
* Special thanks to Lillian Noxon Richardson for her valuable information. Thanks also to the late Louise Hargraves, Paul Stapley, and Marie Cheney Breen.
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