On This Day in Jekyll History…

July 24, 1850, Jekyll Island Club Member John Claflin was born.

John Claflin, Courtesy of the Jekyll Island Museum

Born in Brooklyn, New York, John Claflin was the third son of five boys to Horace Brigham Claflin and Agnes Sanger. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from City College of NY in 1869 and started an extensive trip around the world. Even in later life he continued to be a world traveler, onetime crossing South America from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans in 1877.

Due to early deaths of two older brothers, John was called home to enter his father’s wholesale dry goods firm, H. B. Claflin & Co, becoming a Junior Partner in 1872 and President in 1885, upon his father’s death. He managed the firm until 1914. Using a work ethic of ten months work and two months vacation (usually in the Rocky Mountains), Claflin expanded the firm in both manufacturing and retail stores and he expanded the variety of goods sold. Working through a bankruptcy in 1893, Claflin used his personal fortune to keep the firm running. Reorganizing the H.B. Claflin & Co he consolidated his interest in dry goods into three holding companies: Associated Merchants Co., United Mercantile Co., and United Dry Goods Co., with thirty retail subsidiaries. He used modern techniques in sales, introducing “ready-to-wear’”, advertising, customer service and profit sharing. The panic of 1907 created financial difficulties and in 1914 the H.B.Claflin & Co. went into receivership. Claflin’s wife previously bought up some of the debt with her own money. John turned over his private fortune to meet creditor claims, including some of his wife’s, even though by law this would have been protected. The firm never recovered and was later liquidated. By 1915 the Claflin’s had recovered enough through wise investment of the wife’s money to buy back their NJ and Adirondack homes. John’s business talents were such that he was a director of numerous banks and insurance companies.

In 1890, Claflin married Mrs. Elizabeth Hopkins (Stewart) Dunn whose daughter Wilhemine, he adopted. They had three daughters of their own: Elizabeth “Bessie” Stewart , Agnes Sanger, and Mary Stewart. Claflin and his partner Edward E. Eames were invited to Jekyll by John E. DuBignon and Newton Finney as prospective purchasers of the island. Instead, Claflin loaned DuBignon $10,000 to buy other parcels and DuBignon wound up selling to the syndicate that became the Jekyll Island Club. Both Claflin and Eames became charter members. Claflin resigned his membership in 1912 due to financial difficulty but rejoined in 1921. In 1924 he bought “Mistletoe Cottage” from the Porter estate. He died in 1938 at his estate, “Lindenwold” in Morristown, New Jersey. Claflin was the last charter member of Jekyll Island Club to pass away.

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Tags: jekyll island club era, jekyll island club members, jekyll island history, John Claflin
Posted in History comes Alive | No Comments »

By Andrea Marroquin

On April 7, 1909, far from the warm waters and sandy shores of Jekyll Island, Georgia, American explorer Robert E. Peary was bundled in furs and battling ice. But on that day just one century ago, thanks in part to several Jekyll Island Club Members in the Peary Arctic Club, he still felt the warm glow of success. In a diary showing signs of wear from the polar trail, Peary wrote “The Pole at last. The prize of 3 centuries, my goal for 20 years. Mine at last!” With these words Peary struck his claim as the first person in history to finally reach the geographic North Pole. With him was African-American explorer Matthew Alexander Henson as well as 4 Inuit men Ootah, Egingwah, Seegloo, and Ookeah.

The quest for the North Pole was part of the continuing search for a Northwest Passage to the Orient. Prior attempts had failed to reach the North Pole despite great sacrifices of money and life. Some 756 men had died trying to find it. Peary credited the success of his own Arctic explorations in part to his financial supporters in the Peary Arctic Club, many of whom were prominent Jekyll Island Club Members. It was they, according to Peary, “who furnished the sinews of war, without which nothing could have been accomplished.”

Just five miles away from where Peary posted his “five flags at the top of the world” sat Camp Morris K. Jesup, where Peary declared his igloo “The Most Northerly Human Habitation in the World.” The camp was named for Jekyll Island Club Member Morris Ketchum Jesup. The first president of the Peary Arctic Club, Jesup had contributed $25,000 towards the construction of the Arctic S.S. Roosevelt, the ship which had battled the ice between Greenland and Ellesmere Island to attain the record furthest point north ever reached by ship under her own steam. It was from this ship that Peary and his dogsled teams had embarked on their quest for the North Pole.

Peary had unloaded his ship and established a packing box village of supplies and equipment that protected the party against the loss of the SS. Roosevelt on the ice. This winter camp was named Hubbardville after Jekyll Island Club Member General Thomas Hamlin Hubbard, a Civil War veteran, lawyer and railroad director, who was also a President of the Peary Arctic Club. Peary had launched his dog sled drive for the Pole from this point.

Upon his return, Peary entrusted to General Hubbard the proof of his claims that he had reached the Pole. It was fortunate for Peary that he had influential backers. He soon learned that Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the Pole in 1908, although Cook was eventually discredited. Throughout the Peary-Cook controversy, Hubbard supported Peary, publishing a piece addressed “To Students of Arctic Exploration” with mathematical evidence suggesting that Peary had indeed passed within 1.6 miles of the North Pole. Peary gained the confidence of many in his own time, earning congratulations from President Roosevelt, who wrote “He has performed one of the greatest feats of our times; he has won high honor for himself and for his country.”
The National Geographic Society and The Royal Geographical Society acknowledged his success. In 1910, President Taft formally recognized Peary’s achievement. Peary was given the Thanks of Congress by a Special Act in 1911. On the anniversary of his journey a century later, some doubts remain whether Peary actually reached the North Pole. There was no one on the last stage of the journey to confirm his exact location. Some technical navigational issues could allow for some variation in his position. Experts do, however, agree that Peary and his companions put themselves at great risk and traveled hundreds of miles from safety to reach the close vicinity of the North Pole.

A number of Jekyll Island Club Members supported Peary’s Polar campaigns in addition to Jesup and Hubbard. Other Club Members who actively contributed to the Peary Arctic Club were F.G. Bourne, James J. Hill, Mrs. Morris K. Jesup, Moses Taylor Pyne, and J.H. Smith. Peary wrote several books about his Polar travels. They include Northward over the Great Ice and The North Pole. Matthew Henson also wrote an account of the journey entitled A Negro Explorer at the North Pole. The movie Glory and Honor by Kevin Hooks dramatizes the 1909 expedition to the North Pole.

Jekyll Island Club Members shaped the world in many ways, contributing to many significant events in their day. Call or visit the Jekyll Island Museum on Stable Road for information about its daily tours throughout Jekyll Island’s 240-acre National Historic Landmark District telling their stories, (912) 635-4036.

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Posted in April 2009, Beachscape | No Comments »

By Andrea Marroquin
 
 
Jekyll Island Club Member Cornelius Newton Bliss, one of the biggest dry goods merchants of New York, was frequently nominated for public office and just as frequently declined the honor, refusing opportunities to be elected governor and mayor of New York and even turning down the opportunity to be President McKinley’s running mate in the 1900 national elections before Theodore Roosevelt accepted the nomination.
 
 
Like Theodore Roosevelt, Cornelius Bliss was a proponent of preserving America’s public lands. Perhaps for this reason, Bliss, famous for refusing public office, did accept the position of 21st United States Secretary of the Interior in President McKinley’s cabinet from March 6, 1897 to February 19, 1899. In this capacity, Bliss focused his attentions, in part, on forest preservation.
“The preservation of public forests. . . is a matter of vital interest to the entire nation,” Bliss proclaimed in November of 1897, in those days before the birth of the United States Forest Service. In his care were an estimated 1,835,017,692 acres of public lands including 19 Forest Reserves which encompassed almost 19 million acres. Bliss reported to the President regarding the need for “adequate laws for their protection and the proper enforcement thereof, coupled with the inauguration of a comprehensive forest system.”
 
 
“It was my intention originally to establish a forest bureau in this department, but the inadequacy of the appropriation for the work precluded my carrying into effect such [a] plan,” Bliss lamented.
 
 
Bliss had a relatively modest proposal for a beginning Forest Bureau, which he described as a trained corps of 50-60 professional forest agents, supervisors, patrolmen, and assistants to patrol the reserves and enforce regulations. While he was unable to establish a Forest Bureau during his tenure in office owing to a lack of funds, he did go a long way towards establishing a vision for preserving the nation’s forest resources. He spoke of the benefits of such a plan to preserve timber, prevent forest fires, and save the country’s forests for future generations.
 
 
Perhaps his greatest legacy as Secretary of the Interior was made through his hiring of Gifford Pinchot, who was related to Jekyll Island Club Member Amos F. Eno. In 1898, Bliss chose Pinchot as Chief of the Division of Forestry to design an organization to manage the nation’s forests. Pinchot was the nation’s first native professional forester. Under Pinchot, the Bureau of Forestry eventually became known as the United States Forest Service.
 
 
Pinchot advocated the conservation of the nation’s Forest Reserves by planned use and renewal and coined the term “conservation ethic” as it applied to natural resources. It was Pinchot who established the mission of the U.S Forest Service “to provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the long run.” He would run the U.S. Forest Service until 1910.
 
 
Today, the United States possesses a system of 155 National Forests, scientifically managed for multiple uses, including recreation, timber, wilderness, minerals, water, grazing, fishing, and wildlife management. Thanks in part to the enthusiasm, planning, and vision of predecessors such as Cornelius Newton Bliss and Gifford Pinchot, the Forest Service recently celebrated its 100th Anniversary. It is now launching into a new century of service in the United States.
 
 
An active Jekyll Island Club Member, Bliss served on the Executive Committee overseeing Jekyll Island’s management for at least 17 years, from 1892 to 1909, and owned a private flat in the Jekyll Island Clubhouse Annex. Bliss also helped raise funds to build the Jekyll Island Club Stables, purchasing Stall Number Two.
 
 
The historic Club Stables, located on Stable Road, is now the home of the Jekyll Island Museum. It contains exhibits and a Museum Store and is the gateway for daily tours of Jekyll Island’s 240-acre National Historic Landmark District. Call or visit the Jekyll Island Museum at (912) 635-4036 for more information about its many famous Jekyll Island Club Members and its daily tours of Jekyll Island’s historic district.

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Posted in April 2009, Beachscape | No Comments »