The true story of Kate Bedell, her two husbands, and the events that shaped their lives

By Marie E. Velardi
Last Updated:October 31, 2010

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PROLOGUE

The demure old lady pictured in the photograph above was one of the pioneers of Rockaway Beach, New York. She was also a central figure in a romantic scandal that reveals much about the people and culture of that place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Kate Bedell Jones Seaman was neither a hero nor a saint, but she was a natural survivor who found strength in family and hard work, faced hardship with resolve, and met all sorts of interesting characters along the way - not the least of which were her two husbands, Sam Jones and Rolly Seaman. 

Her tale is a micro-history of early Rockaway Beach as well, touching upon some of the early events that shaped its development and led to its eventual decline.  It's a family history, too, but rather than cluttering the narrative with a lot of genealogical detail, I've included an appendix at the end of the story. So, if you want to know the exact date of a person's birth, marriage or death, or you're confused about who's related to whom, you might find answer there.  You can also refer to the Benjamin P. Bedell family tree.

 

I.  KATE AND SAM

Kate's story begins more than 150 years ago. She was born Catharine A. Bedell on May 2, 1856 in Near Rockaway, Long Island NY, in the area now known as Rockville Centre.  Kate's parents were Benjamin P. Bedell and Cornelia Foster, both of English stock and bearing surnames that belonged to very early settlers of Queens County. Her mother Cornelia was born in 1832, one of nine children of Jacob Foster (1794-1841), a butcher and grocer who conducted business in Springfield, Jamaica NY. Much less is known about the parentage of Kate's father, Benjamin Bedell. All we know for certain is he was a resident of "Rockaway" at the time of his marriage to Cornelia on October 22, 1851. The ceremony was officiated by Rev. E.O. Bates, the pastor of the Methodist-Episcopal Church of Lawrence, Queens (now Nassau) County NY.  

Benjamin Bedell supported his young family as a farmer until he died of cancer in March 1860 after a three-month illness, leaving Cornelia with 3 or 4 children under the age of ten and a small plot of land worth $500. He was 30-32 years old at the time of his death, and little Kate was not yet four. It was just the first of many losses Kate would sustain over the next 75 years.

Soon thereafter, Kate and her siblings, Alfred Curtis and Mary L. Bedell (and possibly a second brother, William), were sent to live with relatives.  Their mother Cornelia, in the only recourse available to a young widow without means, remarried a year later, in March 1861, to one Benjamin Rhinehart.  The couple's only child and Kate's half-sister, Elizabeth Jane Rhinehart, nicknamed "Libby", was born in Far Rockaway NY in June 1862.  Cornelia's marriage to Mr. Rhinehart was very short-lived, however, and by 1865-66 she had a third husband, her widowed brother-in-law Robert Craft, a farmer almost 20 years her senior. It was undoubtedly a marriage of mutual need rather than a love match, but it provided young Kate with a stable home for the next 7 or 8 years. As far as we can tell, she resided with her mother on the Craft farm in Westville (now Inwood, Nassau County NY) until her marriage to Samuel Jones in 1873.

Samuel Jones was born in 1849 in the township of Little Egg Harbor in Burlington (now Ocean) County, New Jersey. His father was Asa Jones, a sailor and "waterman" of Welsh lineage born in West Creek, Monmouth (now Ocean) County NJ. Sam's mother was Mary Jane Falkinburg, the daughter of sea captain Samuel Falkinburg of Little Egg Harbor.

Sam's parents left New Jersey and took up residence in Manhattan around 1870.  As far as we can tell, Sam's mother remained in the city while her husband and older sons spread out to find work. Sam was already on Long Island by 1873, when he married Kate Bedell, and in Rockaway Beach in early 1877. His father Asa and brother Timothy joined him there within a year or two. In the census of 1880, Asa, Timothy and Asa Jones Jr. were listed as boarding house lodgers in Rockaway Beach. The Jones men among the many laborers who built the colossal, 1000-room Rockaway Beach Hotel (a.k.a., the "Hotel Imperial"), the largest structure ever erected in the Rockaways, then or since.

We don't know exactly how Sam and Kate met or how long their courtship lasted. At the time of their marriage, Sam was was 24 years old; Kate was 17 and likely with child. They were wed on September 22, 1873 at the Lawrence Methodist-Episcopal Church.  Within three years of their marriage, Kate gave birth to two children: Julia, born in May 1874 and Robert, born in August 1876. Both were born in Inwood.

The Joneses moved to Rockaway Beach (called Oceanus back then) in early 1877 when Robert was six months old. The village was experiencing its first adolescent growth spurts at the time. Although Far Rockaway had Euro-American residents by 1690 (the Cornell family, who lived where St. John's Hospital now stands, were the first permanent settlers of European stock), the western end of the peninsula was considered unfit for year-round habitation until the 1850s.  When Kate was born in 1856, it was said to be little more than a collection of fishing shacks and an old hotel.  By the early 1870s, however, the year-round population of "The Beach" had swelled to almost 1,000 people, and its cool Atlantic Ocean breezes began attracting flocks of Summer visitors who came by rail and steamboat to seek relief from the sweltering and overpopulated city. Laborers and entrepreneurs came, too, like Rowland J. Seaman, a Civil War veteran who moved from Brooklyn to The Beach in 1872. His life, as we shall see, was to cross with both Kate's and Sam's in ways none of them could have foretold.

Sadly for Kate, her marriage to Sam didn't fare very well.  The Jones household is conspicuously absent from the 1880 federal census, a possible sign of a distressed or unstable family.  But as bad as things may have been at the time, they were about to get considerably worse.

 

II.  THE MAN WHO WOULDN'T DIE

Sam Jones, although once a Deputy Sheriff of Queens County, was far from being a model citizen, as the following ghastly incident attests.  The account is abstracted from several newsaper articles, mostly published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

On Sunday night, July 8th, 1883, a man identified as "ex-policeman Samuel Jones, of Rockaway"  almost killed a woman named Mrs. Cooper in a fight over the proceeds of a "five-ball racket" game held at his home at the Beach.  The game was run by the victim's husband, Charles Cooper, a New York City con-man who had hired Sam as a "capper" -- a shill who lured other bettors into the game by pretending to win.  

When the time came to pay Sam for his services (both men were drunk by this time), Cooper threw a wad of bills down on the table. Mrs. Cooper (her first name appears in different articles as Malinda and Elizabeth) warned Sam not to snatch uo all the money or her husband would "knock her down" when he was sober the next day.  Sam allegedly seized her in a drunken rage and threw her out of the house and off the porch, causing her to fall on a wooden stake protruding from the ground. Neither Sam nor her husband did anything to help her.

Bleeding profusely, Mrs. Cooper crawled back to Sam's place to seek aid. She asked some women for cloth to use bandages, which they supplied. Sam, hearing the exchange, came running in, grabbed Mrs. Cooper by the neck and threw her out onto the beach. Nobody came to her aid this time, either -- the witnesses were probably too drunk or too terrified of Sam to intervene. Mrs. Cooper lay in the sand until the next morning, when she managed to drag herself to the bath house of the Grand Union Hotel.  The owner took her in and called a doctor. However, it wasn't until 8 p.m. Monday evening that Mrs. Coooper was finally transported to St. Catherine's Hospital in Bushwick in serious condition.  She was accompanied by her husband Charles, who according to a Brooklyn police officer who overheard him, was extemely eager to keep the victim quiet. 

'Shut up; We want no trouble  Jones is a good fellow. ... 'I don't want anything at all said about this matter;. I want it kept quiet; Jones is a good fellow;  be was drunk or he would not have done it '  (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 14, 1883)

Sam and Charles Cooper were reportedly arrested on Thursday, July 12th, 1883, and held for $2,000 bail each on the mistaken assumption that Mrs. Cooper was about to die and make them murderers.  What happened afterwards was not recorded in the local newspapers -- quite possibly because nothing happened.  It's likely that Charles Cooper finally convinced his wife to drop the charges, and the incident was swept under the rug. Drunken brawls and beating up women weren't terribly serious crimes in those days unless someone died.

For his part, Sam must have had friends in high places (corrupt ones, we assume)  because he was once again working for the Rockaway police the  following Summer. Sam's good luck didn't last very long, however. On the 3rd of August 1884 he was hit by a locomotive at Holland's railroad station (present-day Beach 92th Street). 

"Constable Samuel Jones, of Rockaway Beach, while standing at the railroad track at Holland's Station Sunday night, was struck down by a locomotive. [Note: the tracks were at ground level then.]  He was picked up unconscious.  His skull was fractured and he received other injuries of a fatal character. " (New York Times, August 4, 1884, p. 8)

In an equally ominous article entitled "Fatally Injured on the Railroad", the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (August 4, 1884, p. 4) pronounced "the injuries will cause his death". Neither newspaper printed a retraction when, six weeks later, Samuel Jones was back on his feet and raising hell.  We can only surmise he was clipped by the train as it chugged into the station rather than struck with full force, and that his "fractured skull" was merely a concussion. Either that, or he was simply too ornery to die.

Sam's close encounter with death failed to transform him into a better man. . Among those who didn't celebrate his miraculous recovery was his wife Kate, who accused him of being "very unkind to her" after the accident.  In light of his violent assault on Mrs. Cooper the previous year, Kate Jones had good reasons for hating and fearing her husband - and in fact may have already developed a plan to escape him  Neighborhood gossips whispered about her close friendship with a wealthy and prominent businessman, and Sam's children "told him strange stories" about her daytime activities.  Now, with plenty of time on his hands during his recovery, Sam began to be consumed by suspicions about his wife -- suspicions that turned out to be entirely justified.

 

 

 

 III.  ROWLAND J. SEAMAN - BUILDER OF THE BEACH

In the Summer of 1883, when the Cooper assault took place, Kate Bedell Jones was working as a clerk in the bathing house of the Ocean House hotel.  Her employer, Rowland J. Seaman - known to his friends as "Rolly" - took pity on the "much abused woman" (as he later referred to her), and it was probably then and there that their relationship took root. Kate, age 27, was not a great beauty - an unkind newspaper reporter later described her as a "tall and stately but not by any means handsome blonde."  Nonetheless, she captured the heart of the middle-aged hotel manager, who at 40 years of age, was still single despite his material success.

In truth, Rolly Seaman was everything Sam Jones was not. He was a Civil War veteran wounded in the service of his country; a prominent and reputable builder and inn-keeper; a charter member and assistant chief of the Oceanus Hook and Ladder Company; a trustee of the Rockaway Beach Board of Education; commander of the John Corning Post of the General Army of the Republic (a veterans' organization); an active player in local Republican politics, and much more.  Not surprisingly, his name appears in Bellot's History of the Rockaways as one of the men responsible for the early development of Rockaway Beach.

 Born in Lawrence, Long Island NY on October 21, 1842 to David Seaman and Catherine Rowland, Rolly (like Kate) had lost his father at a young age, and went to live with his grandfather in Northport, Long Island until he was eighteen years old.  At age 19, he enlisted in the Army of the Potomac, 4th Infantry, E Company, which was engaged in the Civil War battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.  On September 17, 1862 he was shot in the right ankle during the Battle of Antietam -- the bloodiest single-day battle on American soil.  He returned to active duty after seven weeks with the bullet still lodged in his ankle, where it remained for the rest of his life.  In late Spring 1863, having been promoted to Full Corporal, he was honorably discharged after three years of valorous service. 

Originally trained as a carpenter and ship builder, the bullet in his ankle made it impossible for him to pursue his pre-war occupation. After working as a grocery clerk and hotel keeper in Gravesend (Coney Island), Brooklyn, he relocated in 1872 to Rockaway Beach, where he became acquainted with wealthy and important men, among them the notable builders and resort developers Augustus Failing, Michael P. Holland Jr., James Remsen, William Wainwright and William Scheer. Through their influence, and his own skill and ingenuity, Rowland secured  important contracts that earned his reputation as "the principal builder of Rockaway Beach".  In 1874, for example, James Remsen appointed him superintendent in charge of renovating and expanding the original Seaside House hotel (see drawing above). In 1882, he was put in charge of building the first house in Arverne, which (Bellot informs us) was the home of developer William Scheer on present-day Beach 73rd Street.  In 1883, Rowland was managing two inns at The Beach, the Rocky Mountain House and the Ocean House, where he first came into close contact with Kate Bedell Jones.

Kate and Rolly's fond friendship was probably the worst-kept secret in Rockaway Beach, but Sam didn't act on his suspicions until the idle weeks of his recovery from the locomotive accident gave him time to devise a trap.

 

 

IV.  THE TRAP

Thanks to a newspaper interview with his older brother, Constable Timothy F. Jones of Rockaway Beach, we have some insight into Sam's state of mind as he saw his marriage fall apart.  Tim related this tale to a Brooklyn Eagle reporter:

THREE TAPS
What a Suspicious Husband Heard at His Door

He Confronts His Wife's Alleged Admirer and Invited Him to Enter--The Two Men Hold a Conference and the Husband Disappears--A Scandal at Rockaway

"Samuel Jones, an ex-Deputy Sheriff of this place [Rockaway Beach], has disappeared, but there is no mystery about it. He announced to his wife, a tall and stately but not by any means handsome blonde, that the friendship which she entertained for Rolly Seaman, proprietor of the Ocean House, was of so ardent a kind that he could no longer submit to it, and he would go away. He is understood to be in Philadelphia, where he had friends.

A reporter talked with Constable Tim Jones, the aggrieved man's brother, who lives here.

"Yes", said Tim, "my brother has gone away because of the scandal about his wife and Seaman. Seaman employed my brother's wife as a clerk in his bathing office a year ago and soon thereafter the gossips were discussing their relations. My brother maintained an even temper under the most aggravated circumstances and waited for something in the shape of proof to justify an accusation. His children told him strange stories. It was arranged one night recently that Sam should pretend to be going away for a couple of days. He got into his house, however, and at about the usual hour at which Mr. Seaman had been accustomed to call my brother took a seat in the parlor and awaited him.  Presently there came three studied knocks on the door and Sam stepped up and opened it.  As he had expected, there stood Rolly Seaman. Sam invited him in, but Seaman backed off the stoop and went away.

"What excuse did Seaman offer for making the call?"

"The very poor one", said Mr. Jones, "that he had hears that Sam had come home and he wished to know if it were true.  What business was it of his?"

Before going away from the beach Samuel Jones is reported to have said to a friend: "If Seaman had come into my house, I doubt if he would have gone out alive".

Tim Jones states that his brother Samuel called on Seaman the next day and asked the latter as a personal favor never to so much as notice Mrs. Jones again, adding that he (Jones) desired to avoid trouble. The reply which Seaman is alleged to have made was that if Jones made any threat to do him harm he would have Jones locked up. The fear that he might do some rash act was the motive which promoted Jones to go away.

Jones and his wife are said to have had a fierce quarrel before he quitted his home, and she told him and "Rolly Seaman was a gentleman and she would be taken care of.

Mr. Seaman could not be found by the reporter, but a friend of his said: "The scandal is an old story. There is no truth in it. Seaman may have been kind to Mrs. Jones when she needed help after her husband was hurt on the railroad, but he has not been guilty of any wrong."

The scandal is the talk of the beach to-day."
(Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 22, 1884, p. 4)

Tim's tale was no doubt partly true, but Sam had not disappeared for "fear he might do some rash act."  He had disappeared because he had already done something rash, and there was a warrant out for his arrest. Several newspapers published the other side of the story the following day.  

ACCUSING A WEALTHY BUILDER

"Samuel Jones, an ex-Deputy Sheriff of Queens County, recently accused Rowland Seaman, a wealthy builder and prominent citizen of Queens County, of holding improper relations with his wife.  Mr. Seaman denied the charge and denounced Jones as a loafer.  Seaman being the bigger man, Jones took it good-naturedly until a week ago last Sunday, when he met his wife at the skating rink, at Rockaway Beach.  It was the first time he had seen her in a month, and he approached her and wanted to make it up with her.  She spurned his attentions, and was leaving the building, when he assaulted her.  Officer Kavanaugh, of the Long Island Railroad, ejected him from the building.  As he was descending the stairs, he met Mr. Seaman and struck him a violent blow in the face, knocking him down the steps, dislocating his right ankle.  He then disappeared.  The next morning Mr. Seaman procured a warrant for his arrest.  Constable Wright did not succeed in finding Jones until yesterday afternoon, when he traced him to his mother's house on Second-avenue, New-York.  He arrested him and locked him up in the Queens County Jail, at Long Island City. He will be taken to Freeport tomorrow and arraigned before Justice Smith." (New York Times, September 23, 1884, p. 8)

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Sept. 23, 1884, p. 4) reported much the same thing, and The Sun added a dramatic final quote from Kate:

"Mrs. Jones said to a reporter yesterday 'Yes I know that loafer of a husband of mine has said ugly things about me but I don't mind  him. I've had to work hard for two years to support him and his two children.  Mr. Seaman has been a good friend of his and it is outrageous that be should circulate such vile stories about us. I shall never live with him again. I intend to have him arrested for abandonment.'" (The Sun, September 23, 1884, p. 1)
 

"I shall never live with him again." And with that, the Jones marriage was finished once and for all.
 

V.  THE GREAT FIRE

Kate was right about Rolly Seaman: he did take care of her and her two children. The next record we have of the couple is an entry in the February 1892 New York State census, which finds them living together at Rowland's Rockaway Beach hotel without benefit of marriage. Given the draconian divorce laws of the time, they had little choice in the matter. The only normally accepted grounds for divorce was proven abandonment or adultery, but Kate herself was the guilty party in the eyes of the law. She could not initiate a divorce and it's very unlikely that Samuel Jones had either the money or inclination to formally dissolve the marriage.  Neighbors were probably aware of her marital history with the troublesome Jones and must have sympathized with her dilemma. Rolly was a bulwark of the community as was Kate's brother Alfred Curtis Bedell, and their solid reputations were probably enough to dampen the blows of any unfriendly gossip. Even so, it would be four more years before Kate and Rolly felt safe enough to get married.

Kate and Rowland had no children of their own, but both Julia and Robert Jones seem to have had a good relationship with their unofficial step-father.  Julia, who had married Charles T. Pinkham of Bangor, Maine in 1890, gave birth to a son in June 1892 and named him Rowland Seaman Pinkham in Rolly's honor. Robert Jones, who was only ten years old when Kate left Sam, apparently thrived in Rolly's household, and went on to become an active and productive member of the community.

1892 was the year of another memorable event -- this one nearly disastrous to the couple and many of their neighbors.  On the 20th of September, "The Great Seaside Fire", as it became known, destroyed some seventy five buildings in the four-block area between present-day Beach 102nd and Beach 106th streets. Among the first to be destroyed were Rowland J. Seaman's properties. 

"Fire was discovered 10 o'clock this morning in the Seaside museum on Seaside avenue, Rockaway, and it was soon beyond control of the local firemen ... the second building to take fire was Murray and Datz's Hotel near the ocean, and in rapid succession the flames spread to Huber's hotel, Kingsland's casino, Rowland Seaman's hotel and restaurants, Garrison's Bakery and soon nearly every building in Seaside was in flames." (The Wave: 100th Anniversary edition, p. 6)

Kate's six-year old nephew, Alfred James Bedell, one of the many residents of The Beach who witnessed the fire, wrote about it in his journal more than 80 years later:

"In 1893 [sic, Sept. 1892] the whole of Sea Side burned and we all were dismissed [from school] and went to the fire.  It spread so fast ... I remember the smoke and flames all about us, it was a miracle we were not killed." 

In fact, only one person perished in "The Great Fire", but many lost their shirts.  Rowland had insured (rather, underinsured) his hotel for only $1,000; the actual loss amounted to $10,000. a fortune in those days. Nevertheless he rebuilt within 8-9 months, as did many other Rockaway entrepreneurs, because Seaside was simply too lucrative to leave in ruins. Historical hindsight even admits that the fire proved beneficial as a whole -- the new Seaside that emerged was bigger, brighter and bolder than ever before. The area's first boardwalk, which spanned the oceanfront from Seaside eastward to the Holland section of Rockaway Beach, was erected after the fire and attracted many new businesses and visitors.

Another unexpected benefit if the destruction of Seaside was the birth of the first official newspaper of the Rockaway Peninsula.  The day after the conflagration, a single-page flyer was circulated in the village with the headline "Wave of Fire Strikes Rockaway Beach". The headline soon evolved into the name of the paper.  The Wave, born in the crucible of The Great Fire of 1892, has always remembered its roots and remains the official newspaper of The Beach in the 21st century. 
 

 

 

VI.  THE COLONNADE

Out of the ashes of the Great Fire rose the Colonnade Hotel (also spelled Colonade), located at Seaside Avenue (now Beach 103rd St.) and Rockaway Beach Boulevard.  The forty-room inn was surrounded by a number of major tourist attractions, including Murray's Dance Pavilion, the Wainwright Bathhouse, Morrison's Theatre (where Charlie Chaplain reportedly made his American debut), and the 1300-foot Iron Pier.  On a good Summer weekend The Beach was flooded with tens of thousands of visitors, most of whom traveled there by steamboat or train. The Colonnade, and other hotels like it, stood at the pinnacle of Rockaway Beach's long-forgotten glory when it rivaled, and some would say outshone, Coney Island as the playground of the middle and working classes. This description of the hotel appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle.

"The Colonnade Hotel, kept by Rowland Seaman, on Seaside Avenue, is a handsome three story structure, with a cupola and turrets and a broad and shady veranda which affords a superb view of the ever changing ocean and of the gayety along the shore, which is a feature of Summer life in Rockaway. The house is open all year round and is, therefore, a more substantial structure than some of the seaside hotels for hot weather guest only. It has at all times ample accommodations for transient guests but pays special attention to permanent boarders during the summer season, when Rockaway is at its best and gayest and when the clam and the soft shell crab are in their glory." (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 13, 1897, p. 17)

Rowland and Kate operated this hotel amidst the circus-like atmosphere of fin de siècle Rockaway Beach. In 1896, Rowland declared his intention to retire from the building business, presumably to concentrate on hotel-keeping.  That same year, they finally decided to marry, notwithstanding the fact that Kate was still legally wed to Samuel Jones. In order to avoid charges of bigamy, they slipped away to Jersey City and provided false information on their marriage license.  Rowland, for instance, signed his name as "John Rowland Seaman".  Catharine used her maiden name Bedell and falsely attested this was to be her first marriage. The ceremony took place on November 7, 1896. The bride was 40 years of age, and the groom age 54. 

 

Hopefully the couple enjoyed some peace and happiness after their wedding because less than two years later Kate and Rowland's lives took a sorrowful turn. On September 29, 1898, Kate's 24 year old daughter Julia Jones Pinkham died at the Colonnade Hotel of typhoid fever. Her obituary reads:

"Julia Adelaide,  wife of Charles D. [sic, T.] Pinkham and daughter of Mrs. Rowland Seaman, died at 3 o’clock  Thursday morning, at the home of her mother, the Colonade Hotel, Sea Side.  Mrs. Pinkham was twenty-four years of age and for the greater part of her life was a resident of the Beach. She came down to the Beach early this spring.  About two months ago she became ill but no serious results were entertained until about two weeks ago. Then typhoid fever set in and she gradually grew worse. Change for the better occurred last Sunday and hopes for her recovery were entertained, but midnight Wednesday, she had a relapse and passed peaceably away.  She leaves a little son six years old to share the sorrow with her husband.  Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon at 1 o’clock in the Congregational Church and interment will be made in Trinity churchyard at Woodmere." (The Wave,  Saturday, Oct. 1, 1898, p.1)

Kate and Rowland departed the Colonnade within six months of Julia's death (probably selling it to Wainwright and Smith, its final owners) and sought other ventures. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, Rowland was about to commence work on a new road house at Eldert Avenue (now Beach 87th St.) in January 1899.  Sometime around May 1899, he leased Sam Myer's Pier House at Pier Avenue (Beach 105th St.). In February 1900, the Long Island Star reported he had closed a contract to build a seaside sanitarium in Rockaway Park.  None of these projects materialized, though. The Colonnade Hotel remained standing until June 1902, when it was consumed by fire, just as Rolly and Kate's life together was coming to an end.

 

 

 

VII.  THE MARRIAGE THAT NEVER WAS

The fortunes of Rockaway Beach grew exponentially at the turn of the 20th century.  Its ultimate attraction, the amusement park that was later called Rockaway Playland, opened with great fanfare in 1901. In contrast, Rowland J. Seaman's fortunes took a rapid downturn as his health became increasingly precarious.  He had always alleged the bullet lodged in his ankle was the cause of numerous health problems, including rheumatism, heart and kidney disease, throat and eye disease, piles, and even malaria.  Now in his late fifties, his strength was finally exhausted.

Rowland's Civil War disability pension originally provided for $2.00 per month but he later succeeded in having it increased to $6.00.  In late 1901 and early 1902, his doctor recommended the rate be increased to $10.00 per month because his patient's rapidly deteriorating condition made it impossible for him to earn a living. The last record we have of Rowland J. Seaman during his lifetime is a medical affidavit dated October 21, 1902, which was grim in its lack of detail.  He was soon moved upstate to the Soldiers and Sailors Home in Bath, New York, where he died on August 15, 1903 of "cerebral softening", meaning a brain hemorrhage or stroke.  Rowland was 61 years of age at his death. His body was transported from Bath to the Meserole Funeral Parlor in Inwood for burial in Trinity Churchyard, where his step-daughter Julia has been laid to rest five years earlier.

Kate claimed that nothing remained of Rolly's estate at this death, his one-time wealth dissolved by prolonged illness.  There were few financial safety nets in those days. Social Security was still more than three decades in the future, and medical and life insurance was virtually unheard of.  Her best hope for relief was to secure a Civil War widow's pension and, to this end, she engaged the services of a Washington, D.C. law firm. In her first application to the United States government in 1903, Kate provided a slightly modified version of her marital history, in which she contended she had been abandoned by her first husband.

"I was married to Samuel A. Jones prior to my marriage to Rowland J. Seaman; said Samuel A. Jones is to the best of my knowledge and believe [sic, he is] alive this Eleventh day of December 1903.  Said Samuel A. Jones left me 23 years ago [i.e., 1880/81], and I do not know anything about him for said past 23 years."

As we know, her statement was not exactly true. The couple was still living together, however unhappily, until 1884 when Kate decided she had had enough. In any event, her claim was rejected on the grounds that Rowland's death was not the direct result of his war injury. However, Kate's inability to prove she was Rolly's legal widow certainly didn't aid her cause. An internal memo of the U.S. Pension Bureau, dated February 1, 1907, revealed the government's official opinion of her marital status:

"It is rather doubtful whether the claimant is the legal widow of soldier as former husband who left claimant about 1881 is still alive and the claimant makes no allegations of divorce."

Kate pursued the pension she felt she deserved until 1918 but in the end, despite her persistence, she failed to obtain any benefits from Uncle Sam.
 

 

VIII.  KATE REDUX

In the years following Rolly's death, Kate lived with her son Robert ("Bob") Jones, still single and working as an electrician at the time.  Their addresses included 25 North Fairview Avenue (now Beach 84th St., her final home with Rolly) and 21 South Bayview (Beach 90th St.). The latter dwelling was a house in the Holland section of Rockaway Beach situated just a few doors away from the home of her older brother, Alfred Curtis Bedell.

Kate's household soon admitted a new member -- her teenaged grandson (Julia's son), Rowland Seaman Pinkham, who had previously resided in Manhattan with his father, Charles T. Pinkham. Young Rowland came to live with Kate by 1910, after his father remarried. Rowland hated his step-mother (he always said she did not want him) and objected so fiercely to her presence that he left home, declared Kate his adoptive mother, and became known thereafter as Rowland Seaman. His usual nickname, "Pinky", was the only relict of his discarded surname. 

While these transitional events were taking place, circa 1904-1909, Kate was about 50 years of age, which practically constituted senior citizenship in those days, especially for females.  A woman of lesser mettle might have become permanently dependent on her son or grandson and faded into obscure widowhood, but Kate defied the odds and began her life anew by the sweat of her own brow, putting to work the knowledge and experience of inn-keeping she acquired from her second husband.

We're don't know how Kate returned to financial stability - perhaps relatives or friends helped her at first - but by 1910 she was operating a boarding house at 399 Rockaway Beach Boulevard, which she owned with a mortgage. Evidence that her business was a success was recorded in the 1910 census. In April of that year (well before the prime Summer season) she has 18 boarders and one domestic servant. Her household included her now 34-year old son Bob, who was then employed as a carpenter; her teenaged grandson Rowland, working as a plumber's apprentice; and her 78-year old mother, Mrs. Cornelia Craft.

Kate's family and community kept her busy. She belonged to the Eastern Star, a sororial order affiliated with the Freemasons, the Ladies Aid Society of the First Congregational Church of Rockaway Beach, and the Republican Club of the Rockaways. In 1912, she served as president of Post No. 204 of the Woman's Relief Corps, an organization dedicated to helping aged and needy Civil War veterans and their families -- a cause close to her heart. Kate's household grew even larger that same year, when her son Bob Jones married at age 36. He and his wife Anna I. Martin (a Brooklyn girl) gave Kate her second grandchild, Catherine Ann Jones, a couple of years later.

Kate's 20 year old grandson Rowland wed Irene Langridge in April 1913, but the marriage lasted a mere two weeks before the young man moved back home, enticed by Kate's promise of a car and a house if only he would dump his teenaged bride. (He got the car right away, but only half a house in her will.) The family survived World War I intact. Rowland joined the Army in October 1917, and served as a mechanic and driver with the 49th Aero Squadron in France. He was honorably discharged at the rank of Corporal in March 1919, going on to become a Sergeant in the U.S. National Guard.  In September 1919, Kate's mother Cornelia died at age 87, having outlived her three husbands and three of her seven children. It was from Cornelia, no doubt, that Kate learned her strong survival skills.

By 1925, Kate, then approaching 60, had relocated from 399 Boulevard to 88-07 Beach Channel Drive (at Beach 88th Street) in the Hammels section of Rockaway Beach. She had scaled down her boarding house business to accommodate working men only, whom she preferred as customers to transient beachgoers.  Kate served her boarders breakfast in the morning, laundered their clothes and bed linens in the afternoon, and prepared dinner for them each evening.  She called the place "Ellsworth Cottage", possbily in honor of Rev. Ellsworth Richardson of the First Congregational Church of Rockaway Beach. The clergyman may have also been the namesake of her son Robert Ellsworth Jones and her great-grandson Robert Ellsworth Seaman.

Extra income came from a plumbing supply store next to the boarding house and a bungalow behind it, which she rented to her grandson Rowland for $35 per month, according to the 1930 census.

 

IX.  A RESPECTABLE WOMAN

The twilight of Kate's life brought her several great-grandchildren. Her grandson Rowland married again in 1925, this time to his second cousin and Kate's grandniece, Elsie R. Bedell. (Kate objected to the union, but to no avail.) The couple had five children, all born in Rockaway Beach between 1926 and 1935. One of them, the former Vivian M. Seaman, now in her 80s, is probably the last person alive to remember Kate. She recalls her as "a tough old bird" who was "very business-like" and "worked very hard".  But Kate had a good heart beneath the toughness, often inviting the little ones to the boarding house for a pancake breakfast.  Kate's son Bob Jones stands out in Vivian's memory as "a big, husky man who was kind to children". 

There were inevitable losses as time took its toll on members of Kate's aging generation. In 1932 her older brother Alfred Curtis Bedell, a much-admired man of many talents, died of lumbar pneumonia at age 79.  

What remained of Old Rockaway was quickly dying as well. The Depression hit the Rockaways hard, and there's no denying it had lost much its former lustre, but its beaches were still crowded every Summer with working-class people from all over New York City, including the Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrant families who constituted more and more of the peninsula's year-round population.  In 1935, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses announced plans to raze Seaside - he called it a "slum" - in order to make way for an suburban development project that proved to be an empty pipe dream.  The Holland and Hammel sections of Rockaway Beach were soon sentenced to a similar fate. 

Almost as if on cue, Kate took leave of the world that was so radically changing around her.  In early February 1935 she slipped on the ice outside her home and fractured her femur.  Less than six weeks later, on March 29th 1935, Kate Bedell Jones Seaman was dead at age 78 from heart disease.  She was buried in the cemetery of Trinity Episcopal Church in Hewlett NY, next to her second husband Rowland J. Seaman.  

How much Kate came to be liked and respected was reflected in her obituary.  

"Another old resident of the Beach was removed by death Friday, when Mrs. Catharine A. Seaman died at the Rockaway Beach Hospital.  Mrs. Seaman had been confined to the hospital for the past two months following a fall on the ice in which she suffered a broken hip bone. She was 78 years old and her advanced age is given as the reason for the complications that ensued her death.

Mrs. Seaman was born in Manhattan [sic, Rockville Centre, L.I.] but had lived on the Beach for more than 50 years. She and her husband conducted hotels here in various sections for years and were well known to many, not only from the Rockaways but from other parts of the city as well.  In later years she resided at 88-07 Boulevard.

Mrs, Seaman was highly respected and her death will be sincerely regretted by a wide circle of friends, with many of whom she had been associated in the work of various organizations. She belonged to Olympia Chapter, No. 584, O.E.S., the Republican Club of the Rockaways, the Harvey Republican Club and the Ladies Aid Society of the First Congregational church.

She is survived by a son Robert E. Jones and two grandchildren, Roland [sic, Rowland] Seaman and Catherine Jones.

Funeral services were conducted by the Rev. John C. Green at the First Congregational church Monday afternoon with services by the Eastern Star following.

Interment was in Trinity Churchyard, Hewlett, under the direction of Minnie E. Snyder, of the Elmer J. Snyder Funeral Parlors, Inc."
(The Wave, April 4, 1935. p. 8.)

Also surviving Kate was her older sister Mary (Bedell) Wehlen of Far Rockaway, who died a year later at 82 years of age, her younger half-sister Libby (Rhinehart) Dalton, and four great-grandchildren, Richard, Vivian, Robert and Elsie Seaman.

Her will, written on January 14, 1929 and probated on July 11, 1938, divided her entire estate, including the boarding house, the bungalow and all their contents, between her son Robert E. Jones and her grandson Rowland Seaman (named Rowland Pinkham Seaman Jones in the will). There were a few notable exceptions. Kate gave her "friend", the Rev. John C. Green, pastor of the First Congregational Church, a gift of $100. Her grandaughter Catherine Jones received some "old jewelry" - a ring and a broach.  Her great-granddaughter Vivian Seaman (named Vivian Seaman Jones in the will) was bequeathed a "lavalliere", an ornate Victorian pendant.

Kate's son Bob Jones, who had worked for the the New York City Fire Department and the Long Island Rail Road Power Authority, lived almost two decades more, passing away in 1954 at age 77 in Kate's former boarding house at Beach 88th Street.  Her granddaughter Catherine Jones married, had a family and lived until 1993. Grandson Rowland "Pinky" Seaman became a licensed electrician, and was reputed to be the best electrical contractor in town.  He passed away in Far Rockaway in 1973 at age 81, leaving behind 4 children and 13 grandchildren, including the author of this piece.  My mother first told me about Kate and her boarding house years ago, but it wasn't until recently that I  came to "know" the woman and appreciate her life.

X.  EPILOGUE - SAM'S STORY

Samuel Jones didn't disappear from the face of the Earth after Kate left him. Despite his arrest for assaulting Rowland Seaman, he continued working as a police officer until at least 1886. On August 26th of that year, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that Sam and Chief Kavanaugh of the Rockaway police had been attacked and severely injured by a gang of roughs at Holland railroad station a few nights before  By 1890, however, he had fully reinvented himself as "Captain Sam Jones", boat pilot.  It was a plausible second career given his boyhood in Little Egg Harbor and his descent from a long line of Jersey waterman and sailors on both sides of his family, but not necessarily a safer one, as we shall see.

About 1893, having not bothered to divorce Kate, he married - or perhaps simply shacked up with - Sarah a.k.a "Sadie" (surname possibly McKean/McKeon). She was a young woman half his age, born December 1873, and thus only six months older than his daughter Julia. Sam and Sadie moved to the Bushwick section of Brooklyn before 1898, though he continued working out of Rockaway and most likely maintained living quarters there as well.  

Sam's name appeared in newspapers throughout the state of New York in connection with the sinking of the charter yacht Seminole in Rockaway Inlet on July 4th, 1901. On board was a holiday fishing party of six from a local brewery and several crewmen including Captain Sam Jones, the hired pilot.  Returning to Rockaway Beach about 8:30 p.m., there seemed to be a problem with the boat's engines and two of the crew were sent to investigate. Suddenly, a naptha tank exploded, setting the Seminole afire. Sam ordered the passengers into a dinghy but decided the crew should stay aboard to save the yacht, which was worth a small fortune to its owners, William and Warner Bjur. The flames were unstoppable, however, so the men cut a hole in the bottom of the boat's hull to flood and sink her, then dove into the water. One crewman was seriously burned in the explosion but all hands and passengers survived.

For all his egregious flaws, Sam Jones showed courage befitting a captain that day, though the loss of the Seminole could not have advanced his career.  It was also the second time he managed to cheat death, but not for much longer. The last public record  of Sam and Sadie Jones is the June 1905 New York State census.  The childless couple lived at 193 South Third Street along the Gowanus Canal, the same address recorded as his residence on the day of his death two years later. Sam drew his last breath in Bushwick Hospital on August 17, 1907, at age 58. The cause of his demise was "cerebral apoplexy", i.e., a stroke. His body was released to undertaker James Snyder of Rockaway Beach. Sam's brother Timothy, who was then living in Washington, D.C., returned to Rockaway with two of his sons. Besides Tim, Sam had at least five other living siblings - Albert, Julia (Mrs. James Sinsabaugh), Addie (Mrs. Edward Fray), George and Walter - who may have come to pay their last respects as well. There was no church funeral. A burial service was performed over his grave in Lawrence Cemetery, Nassau County NY, where his father Asa Jones had been interred 13 years earlier.

Sam's only surviving child, Robert E. Jones, may have attended too (we can only speculate)  but it's fairly safe to assume that Kate was a no-show. The following weekend The Wave published a three-sentence obituary at the bottom of page 1 for  "Captain Daniel Jones" who "sold books" [sic, rented boats.]  The only correct part was Robert's name and address. Whether it was sloppy journalism or an intentionally falsified obituary (Kate had at least two relatives who worked for the newspaper around the turn of the century) will never be known for sure. What is certain is that Kate, now free of the ghosts of the past, went on to live and work for another 27 years, making sure people remembered her name and the positive things she had done.

FINIS

 


 

ADDITIONAL SOURCES
 

The following sources were used in addition to contemporary newspaper articles, the United States censuses of 1850-1930, the New York State censuses of 1892, 1905 and 1925, the birth, marriage and death indexes of New York City and State, and various city directories.

Bedell, Alfred James, 1885-1979. [Journal and genealogical notes].  Madalin, Dutchess County, NY: 197?. Handwritten notes, 19p. Original manuscript in the possession of Joyce (Edwards) Shroeder of Long Island, New York.

Bellot, Alfred H.. History of the Rockaways: from the year 1685 to 1917 : being a complete record and review of events of historical importance during that period in the Rockaway peninsula, comprising the villages of Hewlett, Woodmere, Cedarhurst, Lawrence, Inwood, Far Rockaway, Arverne, Rockaway Beach, Belle Harbor, Neponsit and Rockaway Point. Far Rockaway, N.Y.: Bellot's Histories, 1917.

[Biographical sketch of] Amaziah Foster. In Portrait and biographical record of Queens County (Long Island) New York. Containing portraits and biographical sketches of ... citizens of the county... New York and Chicago, Chapman Publishing Co., 1896, p. 642-643.

[Biographical sketch of] Rowland Seaman. In Portrait and biographical record of Queens County (Long Island) New York. Containing portraits and biographical sketches of ... citizens of the county... New York and Chicago, Chapman Publishing Co., 1896, p. 560.  Read it here.

Blackman, Leah. History of Little Egg Harbor Township, Burlington County, N.J. from its first settlement to the present time... Tuckerton, N.J., 1880.

Lucev, Emil R, Sr. The Rockaways (Postcard History Series). Charleston SC, Chicago IL, Portsmouth NH, San Francisco CA: Arcadia Publishing, c2007.

New York Public Library. NYPL Digital Gallery. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/

Queens County Surrogate Court, Jamaica, New York. [Probate papers of] Catherine A. Seaman. File 2545/1938. 

Queens County Surrogate Court, Jamaica, New York. [Probate papers of] Robert Ellsworth Jones. File 1681/1954.

Records of the Lawrence Methodist Church in Woodmere/Woodsburgh. Photocopied by Pegee Nelson and transcribed by Linda Clark. Available at longislandgenealogy.com.

Seyfried, Vincent and William Asadorian. Old Rockaway, New York, in early photographs. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, c2000.

United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Civil War pension file of Rowland J. Seaman, E 4, N.Y. Inf. (application numbers 330911 and 793450). Washington, D.C., 1879-1918.

The Wave: 100th anniversary collector's edition. Rockaway Beach, NY: The Wave, July 24, 1993.

 

 

GENEALOGICAL APPENDIX Return to top of page List of people with their relationship to the author and dates of birth, marriage and death See also The Bedell Family Tree
Catharine A. "Kate" Bedell	Great-Great Grandmother - Daughter of Benjamin P. Bedell (1828/1830-1860) and Cornelia Foster - Born 2 May 1856 in Near Rockaway, Queens County NY - Married 22 September 1873 to Samuel A. Jones in Lawrence, Queens County NY - Married 7 November 1896 to Rowland J. Seaman in Jersey City, Hudson County NJ - Died 29 March 1935 in Rockaway Beach, Queens County NY - Buried in Trinity Church cemetery, Hewlett, Nassau County NY
Samuel Jones Kate's first husband	Great-Great Grandfather - Son of Asa Jones (1817/1818-1894) and Mary Jane Falkinburg (1821-1899) - Born 7 March 1849 in Tuckerton, Little Egg Harbor township, Burlington Co. NJ - Married 22 September 1873 to Catharine A. Bedell in Lawrence, Queens County NY. Probable second marriage to Sadie, circa 1893. - Died 17 Aug 1907 in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.. - Buried in Lawrence Methodist Cemetery, Lawrence, Nassau County NY.
Rowland J. "Rolly" Seaman Kate's second husband	Great-Great Step-Grandfather - Son of David Seaman and Catherine Rowland - Born 21 October 1842 in Lawrence, Queens County NY - Married 7 November 1896 to Catharine A. Bedell in Jersey City, Hudson County NJ - Died 15 August 1903 in Bath, Steuben County NY - Buried in Trinity Church cemetery, Hewlett, Nassau County NY
Cornelia Foster (Mrs. Benjamin P. Bedell; Mrs. Benjamin Rhinehart; Mrs. Robert Craft) Kate's mother	Great-Great-Great Grandmother - Daughter of Jacob Foster (1796-1841) and Elizabeth (1798-1870) - Born 22 February 1832, in Queens County NY - Married 22 October 1851 to Benjamin P. Bedell at Rockaway, Queens County NY - Married 10 March 1861 to Benjamin Rhinehart at Trinity Church in Woodsburgh (Woodmere/Hewlett), Queens County NY - Married 1865/66 to Robert Craft of Westville (Inwood), Queens County NY - Died 8 September 1919 in Broad Channel, Jamaica, Queens County NY - Buried in Rockville Cemetery, Lynbrook, Nassau County NY (no grave marker survives)
Robert Ellsworth "Bob" Jones Kate's son	Great Grand Uncle - Son of Samuel A. Jones and Catharine A. Bedell - Born 8 August 1876 in Westville (Inwood), Queens County NY - Married 7 April 1912 to Anna I. Martin in Rockaway Beach, Queens County NY - Had a daughter, Catherine Ann Jones, born about 1913 - Died 6 March 1954, prob. in Queens County NY - Buried in Trinity Church cemetery, Hewlett, Nassau County NY
Julia Adelaide Jones (Mrs. Charles T. Pinkham) Kate's daughter	Great Grandmother - Daughter of Samuel A. Jones and Catharine A. Bedell - Born May 1874 in Westville (Inwood), Queens County NY - Married about 1890 to Charles T. Pinkham - Died 29 September 1898 in Rockaway Beach, Queens County NY - Buried in Trinity Church cemetery, Hewlett, Nassau County NY
Rowland Seaman Pinkham (a.k.a. Rowland Pinkham Seaman Jones. Best known as Rowland Seaman) Kate's grandson	Grandfather - Son of Julia A. Jones and Charles T. Pinkham. - Born 22 June 1892 in South Woodhaven (Ozone Park), Queens County NY - Married 18 April 1913 to Irene Langridge in Brooklyn, Kings County NY. - Married 28 October 1925 to Elsie R. Bedell in Rockaway Beach, Queens County NY - Died 27 December 1973 in Far Rockaway, Queens County NY - Buried in Long Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, Suffolk County NY
Timothy F. Jones Sam Jones' older brother	Great-Great Grand Uncle -Son of Asa Jones (1817/1818-1894) and Mary Jane Falkinburg (1821-1899) - Born September 1844, probably in Little Egg Harbor township, Burlington County NJ - Married to Lidie M. Herbert of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania about 1870, possibly in Delaware. - Died 24 April 1923 in Brooklyn, Kings County NY - Buried in Lawrence Methodist Cemetery, Lawrence, Nassau County NY
Alfred Curtis Bedell Kate's older brother	Great-Great Grand Uncle/Great-Great Grandfather - Son of Benjamin P. Bedell (1828/1830-1860) and Cornelia Foster - Born 22 November 1852 (range 1851-1853) in Near Rockaway, Queens County NY - Married Georgianna Shaw on 4 July 1873 in Lawrence, Queens County NY - Died 1 April 1932 in Rockaway Beach, Queens County NY - Buried in Trinity Church cemetery, Hewlett, Nassau County NY
Mary L. Bedell (Mrs. Charles Wehlen) Kate's older sister	Great-Great Grand Aunt - Daughter of Benjamin P. Bedell (1828/1830-1860) and Cornelia Foster - Born about 1854 in Queens County NY - Married Charles Wehlen, a construction engineer, about 1879 - Died 19 October 1936 in Far Rockaway, Queens County NY - Buried in Lutheran Cemetery, Middle Village, Queens County NY
Elizabeth Jane "Libby" Rhinehart (Mrs. James Dalton) Kate's younger half-sister	Great-Great Grand Aunt - Daughter of Benjamin Rhinehart and Cornelia Foster - Born 28 June 1862 in Far Rockaway, Queens County NY - Married Patrick Kelly in 1878/79 - Married James Dalton about 1900 - Died after 1936 (date and place unknown)

 

 

Copyright © 2008-2010 by Marie E. Velardi.
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