Bula in 1916
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The Crokers of Glencairn
Richard Croker was a noted New York "Tammany Hall" Democratic Party politician, he resigned from his position of leadership in Tammany in 1901. He ran the fourth avenue tunnelling gang. Running on the Tammany Hall slate in 1874, Croker was elected coroner, but he allegedly shot and killed an opponent in an election day brawl. Charged with murder, the subsequent trial ended with a hung jury, and he was never retried. He was an alderman from 1868 to 1870, a coroner from 1873 to 1876. He moved to Harrison, New York by 1880, then he was the New York City Fire Commissioner in 1883 and 1887, and City Chamberlain from 1889 to 1890.
It was said that Croker received bribe money from the owners of brothels, saloons and illegal gambling dens. He survived attacks on the Tammany Hall Society corruption, an organization which had been founded in 1879 as a benevolent society for illiterate immigrants, but quickly became a corrupt power-base of the American Irish. He became a wealthy man, at one time his wealth was believed to be in the region of 30 million dollars. He always maintained that his wealth was amassed with prudent property deals. He operated a stable of thoroughbred racehorses in the United States and in the UK. He moved to the UK in 1901 and bought The Moat House in Wantage, Berkshire but the local gentry found him uncouth and he wasn’t accepted socially. Croker was born 1841 in Cork but the family immigrated to the USA in 1846. He moved back to Ireland in 1904 purchased Glencairn and set about remodelling it. While waiting on his house to be finished he stayed at the Shelbourne before renting Glenbourne House on the Ballyogan Road.
In 1907, his Irish trained horse Orby won the Epsom Derby. Although resident in Ireland, he spent many of the years between 1904 and 1922, travelling. The funeral of Richard Croker took place on 5 May 1922 and his body was buried in the grounds of Glencairn House. The London Times reported that “The body was clothed in evening dress, and before the coffin was closed Mrs Croker desired the mourners to look at her husband's face for the last time. The coffin was covered with a pall made of natural violets and evergreen.” Arthur Griffith and Oliver St John Gogarty were two of the pall bearers.
In 1939, before the house was sold by the family, his body was exhumed and interred with his “housekeeper” Stella Bowman in Kilgobbin graveyard, the plan being that his body would eventually be buried in the USA but this never happened. The memorial to Stella is a large cross, his headstone just a small slab at the base of the cross. There were rumours that Stella was more than his house keeper. She died in 1914 aged just 47 from cancer at St Vincent’s Private Hospital which at that time was located on Lower Leeson Street. This was the same year his estranged wife died and when he married for a second time. Stella was certainly more than a house keeper and travelled with him as his niece. When he gave a fund raising concert in Glencairn in 1906, she sang “Il Bacio” and “Queen of the Night” both very difficult soprano operatic pieces to help raise funds in order to supply Sandyford with a district nurse.
His very simple Will resulted in a highly publicised lawsuit in which his son Richard junior and his daughter Ethel unsuccessfully claimed that their father's second marriage was invalid for bigamy, in that their stepmother was at the relevant time married to another man. They were, however, unable to produce any credible evidence that this other man, a gentleman by the name of Marona ever existed.
In the end Croker's wife Bula was proved heir to the estate worth over 3 million with a bequest to his daughter Florence of 10K, being the only one of his children who ever cared for him.
Eyre Coote Croker married Frances Laura Welsted
born circa 1820 born Ballywalter, Cork
died 1881 1827 died 10 Aug 1894
Cork New York
Eyre Coote Croker son of Brigade-Major Henry Croker of Quartertown House and Harriett Dillon, married
Frances Laura Welsted, daughter of John Welsted and Bridget Hawkes at St Nicholas Cork in November 1827.
They had eight children and emigrated to the United States circa 1846 and bought and bought a tract of land
at Bloomingdale Road, which became part of Central Park.
1 Richard Welsted Croker born 24 Nov 1840 at Cork, by his own admission, (passport application).
He moved to the USA in 1846. He married Elizabeth Frazier in 1873 and according to his son
Richard, they separated in 1894. He was an alderman from 1868-70, a Coroner of New York
County, New York from 1873-76. He had moved to Harrison, New York by 1880 and was the
New York City Fire Commissioner in 1883 and 1884, and city Chamberlain in 1889-90. His
passion was breeding race horses and he moved to England in 1900 but the Jockey Club
refused his request to train at Newmarket, their prerogative at the time. He moved to Ireland in
1904 where he was received with open arms. Elizabeth died on 6 Sept 1914 at Berne,
Switzerland.
1 Richard Samuel Croker born 30 Mar 1876 married Mary Brophy on 12 March 1898. They
lived at 113 East 40th street, Manhattan. They had no children.
2 Francis H (Frank) Croker born 15 Sep 1877 in the Bronx. He raced cars, boats and
motorcycles. He took part in the Vanderbilt cup race on Long Island in 1904 and the same
year he established new amateur records for all distances from one to twelve miles. He was
testing his Simplex car on Ormond Beach near Daytona, Florida with his mechanic Alexander
Raoul on 21 Jan 1905. A motorcyclist swerved in front of his car and he lost control, the car
ended up in the sea. Alexander was killed instantly and Frank died the following day. He
died intestate leaving an estate of over 400K dollars mainly in stocks and bonds.
3 Joseph Croker born 1880 died before he was ten.
4 Herbert Vincent (Bertie) Croker born c1882 died 12 May 1905 on a train in Kansas, he was
due to marry his fiancée Jeannette Horton later that month. His death was thought to be
caused by a opium overdose.
5 Florence Genevieve Croker born 7 Oct 1884 is reputed to have eloped with Count San
Marino in 1904 but by 1913 we find her married to a Mr Morris and using the name
Morris in 1922.
6 Howard F Croker born 5 May 1886 in New York married Gertrude White on 1 May 1915.
7 Ethel J Croker born 16 July 1888 in New York was rumoured to be engaged to her brother
in law – Count Joseph Massiomo San Marino in 1905 but in 1916 she married Thomas
Francis White and lived at Cedarhurst Long Island.
Richard secondly married Bula Benton Edmondson from Oklahoma. News reporters speculated
that they were to marry in Nov 1914. Her baptism in to the RC church is registered on
12 Nov 1914 but a marriage between the two in March 1914 at St Agnes’s Manhattan NY is noted
in the register. She was 23 and he was 74.
Bula was the daughter of Michael Smith Edmondson and Florence Williams aka Miss Laura
Delmar. Her grandfather was A B Edmondson of North Carolina, a Captain in the southern army
during the civil war who moved to Georgia then Texas, eventually settling in Oklahoma. Bula was
born 17 Feb 1884 at Beatty's Prairie, Cherokee Nation West, Muskogee County, Oklahoma and
described herself as Cherokee and, the niece of Congressman William W Hastings. She was a
singer, a lecturer on Indian culture and had ridden a horse at New York's Hippodrome.
Richard died 29 Apr 1922 at Glencairn and was buried at Glencairn. His pall bearers included
Arthur Griffith, Alfie Byrne and Oliver St John Gogarty. In 1939 his body was exhumed and he was
re-buried with his housekeeper Stella in Kilgobbin cemetery. After Richards death Bula studied
law at Trinity College, this would help her with the 15 year battle to inherit her husband’s estate,
as prior to his death, three of his children sought an injunction against their father on the basis
that they were likely to be deprived of their due inheritance because he had fallen entirely under
the influence of their stepmother.
Richard owned a house with 10,000 feet of Palm Beach ocean frontage, this was know as 'The
Wigwam' and was transferred to Bula, who arranged with an agent to sell off in lots in 1937.
She ran for congress in a bid to unseat J Mark Wicox, but was unsuccessful. She died at Palm
Beach on 16 Mar 1957 having spent her final years mounting expeditions to look for buried
treasure.
2 E Croker
1 R V Croker was the Superintendent Engineer of the New York Department.
1 Florence Franklin Croker only daughter died aged 19 in 1907 at New Jersey.
© June Bow & Karen Poff - February 2017
Richard Croker was a noted New York "Tammany Hall" Democratic Party politician, he resigned from his position of leadership in Tammany in 1901. He ran the fourth avenue tunnelling gang. Running on the Tammany Hall slate in 1874, Croker was elected coroner, but he allegedly shot and killed an opponent in an election day brawl. Charged with murder, the subsequent trial ended with a hung jury, and he was never retried. He was an alderman from 1868 to 1870, a coroner from 1873 to 1876. He moved to Harrison, New York by 1880, then he was the New York City Fire Commissioner in 1883 and 1887, and City Chamberlain from 1889 to 1890.
It was said that Croker received bribe money from the owners of brothels, saloons and illegal gambling dens. He survived attacks on the Tammany Hall Society corruption, an organization which had been founded in 1879 as a benevolent society for illiterate immigrants, but quickly became a corrupt power-base of the American Irish. He became a wealthy man, at one time his wealth was believed to be in the region of 30 million dollars. He always maintained that his wealth was amassed with prudent property deals. He operated a stable of thoroughbred racehorses in the United States and in the UK. He moved to the UK in 1901 and bought The Moat House in Wantage, Berkshire but the local gentry found him uncouth and he wasn’t accepted socially. Croker was born 1841 in Cork but the family immigrated to the USA in 1846. He moved back to Ireland in 1904 purchased Glencairn and set about remodelling it. While waiting on his house to be finished he stayed at the Shelbourne before renting Glenbourne House on the Ballyogan Road.
In 1907, his Irish trained horse Orby won the Epsom Derby. Although resident in Ireland, he spent many of the years between 1904 and 1922, travelling. The funeral of Richard Croker took place on 5 May 1922 and his body was buried in the grounds of Glencairn House. The London Times reported that “The body was clothed in evening dress, and before the coffin was closed Mrs Croker desired the mourners to look at her husband's face for the last time. The coffin was covered with a pall made of natural violets and evergreen.” Arthur Griffith and Oliver St John Gogarty were two of the pall bearers.
In 1939, before the house was sold by the family, his body was exhumed and interred with his “housekeeper” Stella Bowman in Kilgobbin graveyard, the plan being that his body would eventually be buried in the USA but this never happened. The memorial to Stella is a large cross, his headstone just a small slab at the base of the cross. There were rumours that Stella was more than his house keeper. She died in 1914 aged just 47 from cancer at St Vincent’s Private Hospital which at that time was located on Lower Leeson Street. This was the same year his estranged wife died and when he married for a second time. Stella was certainly more than a house keeper and travelled with him as his niece. When he gave a fund raising concert in Glencairn in 1906, she sang “Il Bacio” and “Queen of the Night” both very difficult soprano operatic pieces to help raise funds in order to supply Sandyford with a district nurse.
His very simple Will resulted in a highly publicised lawsuit in which his son Richard junior and his daughter Ethel unsuccessfully claimed that their father's second marriage was invalid for bigamy, in that their stepmother was at the relevant time married to another man. They were, however, unable to produce any credible evidence that this other man, a gentleman by the name of Marona ever existed.
In the end Croker's wife Bula was proved heir to the estate worth over 3 million with a bequest to his daughter Florence of 10K, being the only one of his children who ever cared for him.
Eyre Coote Croker married Frances Laura Welsted
born circa 1820 born Ballywalter, Cork
died 1881 1827 died 10 Aug 1894
Cork New York
Eyre Coote Croker son of Brigade-Major Henry Croker of Quartertown House and Harriett Dillon, married
Frances Laura Welsted, daughter of John Welsted and Bridget Hawkes at St Nicholas Cork in November 1827.
They had eight children and emigrated to the United States circa 1846 and bought and bought a tract of land
at Bloomingdale Road, which became part of Central Park.
1 Richard Welsted Croker born 24 Nov 1840 at Cork, by his own admission, (passport application).
He moved to the USA in 1846. He married Elizabeth Frazier in 1873 and according to his son
Richard, they separated in 1894. He was an alderman from 1868-70, a Coroner of New York
County, New York from 1873-76. He had moved to Harrison, New York by 1880 and was the
New York City Fire Commissioner in 1883 and 1884, and city Chamberlain in 1889-90. His
passion was breeding race horses and he moved to England in 1900 but the Jockey Club
refused his request to train at Newmarket, their prerogative at the time. He moved to Ireland in
1904 where he was received with open arms. Elizabeth died on 6 Sept 1914 at Berne,
Switzerland.
1 Richard Samuel Croker born 30 Mar 1876 married Mary Brophy on 12 March 1898. They
lived at 113 East 40th street, Manhattan. They had no children.
2 Francis H (Frank) Croker born 15 Sep 1877 in the Bronx. He raced cars, boats and
motorcycles. He took part in the Vanderbilt cup race on Long Island in 1904 and the same
year he established new amateur records for all distances from one to twelve miles. He was
testing his Simplex car on Ormond Beach near Daytona, Florida with his mechanic Alexander
Raoul on 21 Jan 1905. A motorcyclist swerved in front of his car and he lost control, the car
ended up in the sea. Alexander was killed instantly and Frank died the following day. He
died intestate leaving an estate of over 400K dollars mainly in stocks and bonds.
3 Joseph Croker born 1880 died before he was ten.
4 Herbert Vincent (Bertie) Croker born c1882 died 12 May 1905 on a train in Kansas, he was
due to marry his fiancée Jeannette Horton later that month. His death was thought to be
caused by a opium overdose.
5 Florence Genevieve Croker born 7 Oct 1884 is reputed to have eloped with Count San
Marino in 1904 but by 1913 we find her married to a Mr Morris and using the name
Morris in 1922.
6 Howard F Croker born 5 May 1886 in New York married Gertrude White on 1 May 1915.
7 Ethel J Croker born 16 July 1888 in New York was rumoured to be engaged to her brother
in law – Count Joseph Massiomo San Marino in 1905 but in 1916 she married Thomas
Francis White and lived at Cedarhurst Long Island.
Richard secondly married Bula Benton Edmondson from Oklahoma. News reporters speculated
that they were to marry in Nov 1914. Her baptism in to the RC church is registered on
12 Nov 1914 but a marriage between the two in March 1914 at St Agnes’s Manhattan NY is noted
in the register. She was 23 and he was 74.
Bula was the daughter of Michael Smith Edmondson and Florence Williams aka Miss Laura
Delmar. Her grandfather was A B Edmondson of North Carolina, a Captain in the southern army
during the civil war who moved to Georgia then Texas, eventually settling in Oklahoma. Bula was
born 17 Feb 1884 at Beatty's Prairie, Cherokee Nation West, Muskogee County, Oklahoma and
described herself as Cherokee and, the niece of Congressman William W Hastings. She was a
singer, a lecturer on Indian culture and had ridden a horse at New York's Hippodrome.
Richard died 29 Apr 1922 at Glencairn and was buried at Glencairn. His pall bearers included
Arthur Griffith, Alfie Byrne and Oliver St John Gogarty. In 1939 his body was exhumed and he was
re-buried with his housekeeper Stella in Kilgobbin cemetery. After Richards death Bula studied
law at Trinity College, this would help her with the 15 year battle to inherit her husband’s estate,
as prior to his death, three of his children sought an injunction against their father on the basis
that they were likely to be deprived of their due inheritance because he had fallen entirely under
the influence of their stepmother.
Richard owned a house with 10,000 feet of Palm Beach ocean frontage, this was know as 'The
Wigwam' and was transferred to Bula, who arranged with an agent to sell off in lots in 1937.
She ran for congress in a bid to unseat J Mark Wicox, but was unsuccessful. She died at Palm
Beach on 16 Mar 1957 having spent her final years mounting expeditions to look for buried
treasure.
2 E Croker
1 R V Croker was the Superintendent Engineer of the New York Department.
1 Florence Franklin Croker only daughter died aged 19 in 1907 at New Jersey.
© June Bow & Karen Poff - February 2017