Walkabout: Of Sailing Ships and the Affairs of Men, Part 2

Read Part 1 of this story.

In 1904, multi-millionaire shoe manufacturer John Henry Hanan, late of Park Slope, launched The Edithia, “the largest, most powerful gasoline yacht in the world”, according to the New York Times. The 114 foot pleasure craft was kitted out with an upper deck dining saloon and pantry, which was connected by a lift to the galley below. On the lower deck forward were the quarters for officers and crew, amidships the engine room, and aft, the Hanan’s stateroom.

The main saloon had two berths and a single stateroom, three lavatories and a full bathroom. The yacht was furnished in mahagony and other fine woods, with all the suitable accoutrements for luxury on the seas. The Edithia was launched from the boatyards in Nyack, NY, where it was built, and was christened by Mrs. Edith Hanan, for whom the ship had been named. Edith Hanan, the happy co-captain, had only been Mrs. Hanan for a year. Before 1903 she had been Mrs. Edith Evelyn Briggs Smith-Thompson, of Newport, Rhode Island. Before that, she had been the subject of a lawsuit brought against her by none other than John H. Hanan.

John Hanan’s rise to riches is chronicled in Part One of this story. His shoe manufacturing businesses and seats on the boards of several banks and investment companies, had assured his position as a very wealthy man during the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th century. This money had paid for a posh new residence at 118 Eighth Avenue in Park Slope, designed by C.P.H. Gilbert on a large lot at the corner of Carroll Street and Eighth Avenue, for his wife Henrietta and their two sons. The money also paid for Hanan’s toys: fast racing yachts, motorcars, polo horses, and as it turned out, ladies not his wife. In 1898, after a very public and embarrassing lawsuit, and outing by a spurned mistress named Mrs. Beulah Dutton, John Hanan had some ‘splaining to do at home.

The lawsuit, which involved Mrs. Dutton and $150K worth of jewelry promised, but not received, also revealed that Mr. Hanan was not only stepping out with Beulah, but that he also had another girlfriend on the side, a lady named Edith Evelyn Thompson, the recipient of the promised swag. Poor man, juggling three ladies can be confusing, but having gotten rid of the pesky Beulah Dutton by settling the lawsuit in 1898, Hanan could concentrate on other things. Like yachting, of course.

Having traded his first motor yacht, the Embla, for Brooklyn Heights real estate in 1894, John Hanan bought another yacht called the Sagamore, which he took on a sailing trip to the West Indies in 1899. In April, on his way back to the States from Cuba, with a group of guests, he had the opportunity to rescue the shipwrecked passengers and crew of the British ship, Caspian, 60 miles out of Bermuda.

The sailing ship had floundered in a hurricane squall, slowly breaking up in the 9 days it took to be rescued. Several other boats had passed them, but didn’t see them during that time. Fortunately, the Caspian had sufficient food and water on board. Rescued were the captain of the ship and his wife and child, and six crewmen. John Hanan and his crew came back to the United States heroes.

Upon his return, Hanan decided to get his jewelry back from Edith Evelyn Briggs Smith. Mrs. Smith had been married to Charles Talbot Smith, a Newport millionaire. He died. She then began seeing the married Mr. Hanan, who gave her jewelry and other gifts, but no wedding ring. So she married a Brooklyn Heights businessman named Joseph Thompson, Jr. about the same time the Beulah Dutton scandal erupted. Her new husband was probably not too happy with the information that was revealed during the scandal and their marriage ended in divorce, lasting less than a year. Amazingly, she divorced him.

Meanwhile, Hanan had filed suit against Edith Thompson, in an attempt to get his expensive jewelry, real estate, and other gifts back from her. The papers were full of the details of the cases, including John Hanan’s assertions that both of his other women had “hypnotized him,” causing him to lose his senses. The publicity and evidence that came out in the papers was the last straw for Mrs. Henrietta Hanan. They separated. Friends of John Hanan advised him to drop the suit against Edith Thompson, probably warning him that anything that came out could be used against him, so he dropped the suit against her, and decided to sue his wife for divorce instead.

Now a resident of Narragansett, RI, Hanan files papers to begin divorce proceedings against Henrietta in April of 1902. There were no details released as to his reason for the divorce, but it was expected that Mrs. Hanan would counter-sue. She remained in the family home at 118 Eighth Avenue, in Park Slope, with her sons and servants telling reporters she was too ill to respond to requests for interviews or comments. Yet she defended the suit, and won, counter-suing him in turn. The courts granted her a divorce in 1903. She received title to the house, with Hanan agreeing to pay the taxes and maintenance on the house for as long as she lived, along with an undisclosed amount of money.

Earlier, in November of 1902, Hanan almost died in a fall, slipping off a pier in Narragansett. He hit his head and was pulled unconscious from the water. He would make a full recovery, and began to woo Edith Evelyn Smith in earnest. The ink was barely dry on the court papers when they were married on April 16, 1903 in Narragansett. They kept their home there, and also settled into a large home at 1073 Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan.

The marital controversy doesn’t end there, however. It turns out that they actually got married before the ink was dry: the divorce decree was actually signed in December, 1903. Apparently the divorce was finalized in January, and the final papers could have been signed in April, the month they got married, but they forgot to obtain them, so they weren’t signed until that December. Must have been the excitement over the wedding plans. The New York Times devoted a juicy article about the whole business.

After the wedding, Edith and John Hanan enjoyed years of wedded bliss. They were social lions in Newport, and their yachts, social excursions, parties, and fabulous doings were fodder for the New York Times society and sports pages for many years. John Hanan’s sons, who took over his shoe businesses, were also yachtsmen and socialites. John Hanan began to be referred to as “Commodore” Hanan, due to his position in several yacht clubs. He also was a member of the Automobile Club of America and the Royal Automobile Club of London, at the beginning of the sport of racing, when fast cars were only afforded to the rich. He also had polo ponies, and enjoyed the sport as played in the fields of Newport and Long Island.

Edith made the headlines as a victim of a group of jewel thieves who plagued Newport in the summer of 1913. The Hanan’s, along with many other prominent families, had their homes broken into and robbed of expensive jewelry. She lost over 50 pieces, all stolen from a special hidden drawer in her boudoir.

Servants in all the homes were blamed for the thefts, but none of the jewelry was recovered until 1914, when pieces turned up in Paris and Amsterdam. Arrested was an elegant woman who spoke four languages, mingling easily with the high society crowd in Newport. It was believed she had easily been able to move amongst the ladies of society, picking up information that was given to accomplices who actually robbed the houses when their owners were out. Mrs. Hanan recovered much of her diamonds and pearls.

Henrietta Hanan, who seems to have been forgotten by everyone except her sons, died only four years after divorcing John Hanan. In April of 1907, she returned to Brooklyn after spending the winter in Puerto Rico. She was sick for only five days, and died. She is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

On January 11, 1920, Edith Evelyn Briggs Smith-Tompkins Hanan died at her home on Fifth Avenue, after a protracted illness brought on by a nervous breakdown. Two weeks later, New York City was plagued by a horrible influenza outbreak which spared neither rich nor poor. Charles Talbot Smith Hanan, Edith’s 28 year old son by her first husband, died at the Fifth Avenue home on January 20th. His wife also lay sick, as did his mother’s three sisters, also staying at the house.

John Hanan himself had been the first to fall ill, and on August 25th, 1920, the 71 year old “capitalist and shoe manufacturer”, as the Times eulogized him, died at 1073 Fifth Avenue. When the estate was settled, he left behind over 1.6 million dollars, after deducting the half million dollars he owed in taxes. His two sons, who lost their father, step-mother, and an adopted half-brother, all in the space of a few months, inherited the business and the estate. John Henry Hanan is also buried in Green-Wood Cemetery. I wonder if long- suffering Henrietta is anywhere near him.