Mary’s body was shipped via rail from Orlando to Washington,
DC, where she was buried alongside her husband, a legendary U. S. General:
William S. HARNEY. The two were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
The General’s wife hasn’t actually been mentioned before in
the story of central Florida, but in February, 1902, during Orlando’s gathering
of the Grand Army of the Republic, Ocala Daily News reported that a reception
was held, “for the venerable widow of General W. S. Harney, held at her “Ponce
Castle” residence.” Obviously meaning Pine Castle, whereabouts of her residence
raises at least one intriguing question, why was the General’s widow living in
the community named for the pine castle residence of Will Wallace Harney?
The two Harney’s, distant relatives, were never known to be
neighbors.
“Some 3 years ago,” said General Harney’s 1889 obituary, “he married
his housekeeper. His marriage was strenuously opposed by his children, and they
attempted to have it set aside and a guardian appointed for him. In this they
failed.” General Harney had resided, and even married, at St. Louis, MO. He
died though May 9, 1889, at Orlando, Florida.
Born Mary CROMWELL on 24 January, 1826 at Frederick County,
MD, Mary relocated to St. Louis with her siblings and widowed mother. At age
40, Mary married Paschal St. Cyr, a widower and father of eight.
By 1880, Widow Mary St. Cyr was a mother of an 11 year old
daughter, and went to work as the housekeeper for the retired General William
Selby Harney. Mary lived with the general in 1880, both at his main St. Louis residence,
and the General’s historic Harney summer mansion at Crawford County, Missouri.
On
the 12th of November, 1884, the 84 year old General married his 58
year old “housekeeper.”
On November 16, 1888, Marie St. Cyr, the general’s
step-daughter, bought 20 acres near Sanford. A half century after first
stepping foot in the wilds of Mosquito County, General William S. Harney
returned, to live in the town of Rutledge, founded by Florida’s General Joseph
Finegan. A ghost town today, Rutledge was 20 miles west of Lake Harney, the
lake named in the 1840s for William S. Harney.
Marie, the general’s step-daughter, married Harry L. Beeman,
of Orlando’s San Juan Hotel fame. Historian Blackman said the Beeman’s “built
their residence on Gore Avenue.” The general’s widow also lived here until her
1907 death.
According to Orlando historian Gore, Mrs. Beeman built a
bandstand on a vacant lot near the hotel, and historian C. E. Howard told of
Gotha’s Henry Nehrling naming one of his exceptional hybrid Caladium’s the,
“Mrs. H. L. Beeman.”
A resident of #cflParadise for nearly 20 years, it appears safe
to say that the General’s wife was far more than merely a housekeeper.
Tomorrow: Mrs. Milton’s Lake Jessamine Church
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