Covers the early days of the location of the Grant Cottage State Historic Site and the Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility including the last few years of the life of Ulysses S. Grant.

1. A History of Mt. McGregor
Part I:
“Lest We Forget”
Joseph Knapp, the Grand Army of the Republic, Grant
Cottage, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company

2. {
“I feel the air
very fine here.
This must
become a great
sanitorium
before many
years.”
U. S. Grant
Mt. McGregor, 1885

3. Grant’s Tomb Dedication Booklet
Compliments of
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
April 27, 1897

4. 1863
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is started by a group
of New York City businessmen who raise $100,000 (1.8 million
in today’s dollars) to found the National Life and Limb
Insurance Company. The company insured Civil War sailors
and soldiers against disabilities due to wartime wounds,
accidents, and sickness.

5. March 24, 1868
The company becomes known as
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
and shifts focus to the life insurance business.
The first Metropolitan Home Office Building
at 243 Broadway, New York City.

6. 1872 – 1891
Joseph F. Knapp holds the position of
president of the Metropolitan. Knapp
is also a very well-known
philanthropist and an influential
supporter of the New York Division
of the Civil War veteran organization,
the Grand Army of the Republic.
(GAR)

7. Knapp has a special interest in the GAR’s U. S. Grant Post 327,
Brooklyn, NY. Among Knapp’s friends is General Ulysses S. Grant
who is an honored guest at GAR functions held at Knapp’s Bedford
Avenue home in Brooklyn.

8. Members of U. S. Grant
Post 327 would provide an
honor guard for General
Grant’s funeral in 1885.
Among them is George W.
Brush, M.D., a recipient of
the Congressional Medal of
Honor and Henry W.
Knight who helped carry
President Lincoln from
Ford’s Theatre to the
Petersen boarding house
(April 14, 1865).

9. 1879
Knapp brings the European idea of
“industrial” or “workingmen’s”
insurance to the United States. This
form of insurance is issued in small
amounts on which premiums are
collected weekly or monthly at the
policyholder’s home.

10. 1880
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
policyholders number in excess of 250,000.

11. Former President and Civil War General U. S. Grant returns from his world
tour an international celebrity. He settles in New York City with his wife, Julia,
to be near their children. Grant is convinced to invest his money and prestige in the
Wall Street firm of Grant & Ward.

12. May 6, 1884
The firm of Grant & Ward fails as the result of an elaborate Ponzi scheme
perpetrated by Grant’s business partner Ferdinand Ward. The Grant family finds
itself not only impoverished but in debt. Though the General has no knowledge
of the swindle, he feels a responsibility to pay creditors and to find a way to
regain his family’s financial stability. He decides to become an author.
(Pictured above left to right; U.S. Grant, U.S. Grant, Jr., and Ferdinand Ward)

13. March 1, 1885
The New York Times
announces that General
Grant is dying of throat
cancer. Attention and
sympathy at home and
abroad becomes focused
on his race with death to
complete his memoirs. The
first international death
watch begins.

14. Daily newspapers print reports on the
General’s condition. Crowds gather outside
the Grant home on East 66th Street to offer their
respect and support.

15. June 16, 1885
On the advice of Grant’s physicians, the
General accepts family friend Joseph Drexel’s
offer to use his summer cottage on Mt.
McGregor located in New York’s Adirondack
foothills. Record high temperatures in New
York City have caused a swift deterioration in
Grant’s condition. It is hoped the cooler, drier
air of Mt. McGregor will prolong the General’s
life. Reporters and crowds of well-wishers
follow.

16. The General dies on July 23rd, 1885 – three days after completing his
memoirs. America goes into mourning. Grant’s funeral in New York
City on August 8th will be the largest public event in the city’s history
until the Armistice of World War I.

17. On the day of Grant’s death,
discussions begin on what to do with
the cottage. The cottage’s owner,
Joseph Drexel, authorizes a
statement “that the cottage will
never again be occupied by any
family or persons.” The New York
Times reports, “It has been proposed
that the cottage will be deeded to the
government” and that “a fence
should be put around it, and that it
be preserved about as the Grant
family leaves it.”

18. July 25, 1885
Honoring the March request of Commander Henry
M. Calvert of the GAR Brooklyn Post 327, New
York GAR Commander H.C. Hall signs special
order 118 authorizing the previously unnamed
Post 327 to assume the name of “U.S. Grant Post.”
The order is co-signed by Assistant Adjutant
General O.P. Clarke.
Commander Henry M. Calvert

19. March 1886
Drexel first offers the Cottage to the federal government. A bill is sent to the
Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. The Chair of this committee refers
the bill to a hostile subcommittee, and it is never allowed to come to a vote.

20. Photo courtesy of Saratoga Springs History Museum
In spite of the government’s inaction on taking ownership of the
Cottage, thousands of battle scarred veterans and their families visit
the site as an act of personal and collective healing. An 1890 New York
Times article estimates that close to 250,000 people have come to Mt.
McGregor to pay their respects by the time the Cottage opens as a
museum in that year.

21. Hoping that Grant’s death on Mt.
McGregor “would make the
place,” landowner and promoter,
W.J. Arkell finds that “it killed the
place” instead. He observes that
visitors “took off their hats and
walked around on tiptoes,
looking for something I could
never find.”

22. 1887
Joseph Drexel approaches the
National GAR to take Drexel
Cottage. As the GAR was not
created to hold or administer real
estate, approval by the New York
State Legislature is needed –
Drexel dies before approval is
achieved.

23. February 19, 1889
The Mount McGregor Memorial Association is incorporated by the New York
State Legislature and accepts title of the Cottage (and a small surrounding
area of the grounds). No maintenance funds are provided for the site now
known as “Grant Cottage”.

24. 1889
The Iowa delegate who wore
this 1889 National Encampment
badge voted on the issue
of the caretaker’s salary for
Grant Cottage
The National GAR Encampment approves $600 ($15,100
in today’s dollars) for the Grant Cottage caretaker’s
salary. In addition, funds are donated to purchase and
install a furnace for Grant Cottage by GAR Comrade J.
Wesley Smith.

25. Utica attorney and GAR official Oliver
Pendleton (O.P.) Clarke is urged by his
physicians and friends to take the
caretaker’s position in hopes that Clarke
would regain some measure of his health
(lost as a prisoner-of-war in the infamous
Camp Sumter at Andersonville, Georgia).

26. 1890
Grant Cottage opens as a museum.
Tours are conducted by GAR
Comrade O.P. Clarke, caretaker
(and his wife, Martha Josephine
Kelsey Clarke). He will remain
caretaker until his death in 1917.

27. 1891
The National GAR again
approaches the federal
government to take
responsibility for Grant
Cottage without success.

28. John R. Hegeman (left)
and Joseph Palmer
Knapp (right).
1892
Following the death of his father on September 14, 1891, Joseph Palmer Knapp
joins the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company’s Board of Directors. Also
upon the elder Knapp’s death, his long-time friend and former Vice President
John R. Hegeman becomes the third president of the Metropolitan.

29. Courtesy of Jean Woutersz, Wilton Town Historian
1892 – 1917
O.P. Clarke supplements his caretaker’s salary within this time period by
assisting New York State Senator Edgar T. Brackett with legal work while
the Senator runs his law practice without any formal partners. Senator
Brackett’s law office is located in Saratoga Springs City Hall.

30. 1893
The National GAR develops a plan for the support and maintenance of Grant
Cottage. It takes the form of a small “head tax” on each GAR member.

31. 1894
The New York State GAR
takes over funding the Mt.
McGregor Memorial
Association trust (via head tax
on New York State GAR
veterans), as renewed attempts
to interest Congress or the
New York State Legislature in
taking responsibility for Grant
Cottage are again
unsuccessful.

32. May 14, 1896
A bill to appropriate $1,000 ($27,000 in today’s dollars) per year for the
maintenance and support of Grant Cottage, to be paid to the Mt.
McGregor Memorial Association, passes the New York State
Legislature.

33. 1909 – 1910
The Metropolitan becomes the
nation’s largest life insurer. During
this period, the Metropolitan makes
the decision to build a sanitarium for
it’s employees suffering from
tuberculosis. A search begins for a
suitable building site.

34. New York State Senator Edgar T. Brackett successfully lobbies
Metropolitan officials to build the sanitarium complex on Mt. McGregor.

35. Photos courtesy of the Orton Collection
December 1910
The Metropolitan purchases the property surrounding Grant Cottage
(approximately 1200 acres) and begins construction on a tuberculosis sanitarium
for its affected employees. The facility begins taking patients in 1913.

36. 1914
A young Japanese immigrant,
Suye Narita, arrives at the
sanitarium on Mt. McGregor for
treatment of her tuberculosis.
She is successfully treated by Dr.
Howk, the physician in charge at
the facility. Suye will live with
the Clarkes at Grant Cottage as
their adopted daughter until
their deaths, and work at the
sanitarium as a librarian and coeditor of the “Metropolitan
Optimist.”
Photo courtesy of the Orton Collection

37. 1916
A stone marker affixed with a Grant memorial plaque is erected in front of the
eastern elevation of Grant Cottage by the New York Division of the Sons of
Union Veterans of the Civil War. New York Governor Charles S. Whitman is a
speaker at the dedication.

38. 1917
Martha Clarke, wife of O.P.
Clarke, convinces the GAR to
allow her to become Grant
Cottage’s caretaker following the
death of her husband.
Photo courtesy of the Upham Collection

39. 1930
The Metropolitan is insuring every fifth man, woman, and child in the
United States. The company finances the construction of the Empire
State Building in 1929 and provides the capital to build Rockefeller
Center in 1931.

40. 1941
Martha Clark dies. Suye Narita
(later Gambino upon her
marriage in 1950) becomes the
next caretaker. She will remain
the live-in caretaker until her
death in 1984.
Photo courtesy of the Upham Collection

41. Photo courtesy of Jean Woutersz
1945
New York State purchases the buildings and
grounds of the sanitarium for what would become
the Mt. McGregor Sate Veteran Rest Camp. Over
the next 14 years 35,000 veterans will be guests at
the camp. One Pacific theatre World War II veteran,
Anthony Gambino, will stay at the facility to recover
from tuberculosis and malaria. Gambino marries
Narita and the mountain will remain a part of his
life until his death in 1986.
Photo courtesy of the Orton Collection

42. 1957
The Mt. McGregor Memorial
Association is dissolved, and
New York State takes title of
Grant Cottage under the auspices
of the State Education
Department. The Cottage will
remain under the administration
of the State Education
Department until 1966 when the
New York State Historic Trust is
established under the director of
State Parks.
Photo courtesy of the Orton Collection
The same year, Governor Averell
Harriman proposes repurposing
the rest camp as a mental
hospital. There is such strong
opposition to the idea among
veteran organizations that
“Harriman retired in some
confusion.”

43. 1960
Early in Governor Nelson
Rockefeller’s administration, the
old sanitarium/rest camp
property is repurposed as an
annex to the Rome State School
for the Mentally Retarded (later
renamed the Wilton School).

44. Photo courtesy of the Orton Collection
February 18, 1971
Grant cottage is added to the National Register of Historic Places.

45. Photo courtesy of the Orton Collection
April 1971
William Tyrrell, chief of historic sites trust management for the New York State
Historic Trust, announces he will close Grant Cottage as it “seemed to be a way
of reducing expenditures.” Though officially closed, Suye Gambino continues
to live upstairs in the Cottage and to give tours when visitors knock.

46. Photo courtesy of the Orton Collection
1973
Grant Cottage reopens under the administration of the newly created New
York State Offices of Parks and Recreation. The Sons of Union Veterans of the
Civil War (SUV) place a flagpole at the Eastern Overlook and continue the
tradition of holding an annual May memorial ceremony on the grounds. The
SUV is a fraternal organization founded in 1881. They became the legal
successors to the GAR when they were incorporated by an Act of Congress in
1954. Their mission is to preserve the history and legacy of Civil War

47. Photo courtesy of the Orton Collection
1976
The old sanitarium property is yet again repurposed – this time as the Mt.
McGregor Work Camp – part of the New York State Department of
Corrections (minimum security). By 1981 medium security prisoners are
also house at the prison.

48. End of Part I
By Melissa Trombley-Prosch and Jarrod Prescott
Edited by Jonathan Duda

49. Acknowledgements
Images used in Part I are from the Trombley-Prosch Collection
(including 1889 GAR National Encampment badge, Library of
Congress photographs, Gilman photographs - interior & exterior
views of Grant Cottage, Harpers Weekly and Frank Leslie images)
unless otherwise noted.
Additional images from the Orton & Upham Collections, Saratoga
Springs History Museum, Jean Woutersz (Wilton Town Historian).
Thanks to Michael Prosch, Matt Trombley, Jean Woutersz, and Jerry
Orton for their project assistance.