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Writer's pictureDon Schueler

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

Updated: Oct 28, 2023



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.



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

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.

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