William Lamon Harkness (August 8, 1858 – May 10, 1919) was an American businessman and inheritor of a large share of

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

Early life

William Lamon Harkness was born in

Bellevue, Ohio Bellevue ( ) is a city in Erie, Huron, Seneca, and Sandusky counties in the U.S. state of Ohio, located 61 miles southwest of Cleveland and 45 miles southeast of Toledo. The population was 8,202 at the 2010 census. The National Arbor Day Found ...

, the son of

Daniel M. Harkness Daniel M. Harkness (September 26, 1822 – August 5, 1896) was an American merchant and businessman in Ohio. He played a role in the formation of Standard Oil in Ohio. His older half-brother Stephen V. Harkness and younger half-brother Henry M. ...

, who was the half-brother of both

Henry Flagler Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founde ...

and Stephen V. Harkness, both founders of

, and his wife Isabella Harkness. Upon his father Daniel's death in 1896, he inherited a large share in

, a company in which his father had been an early shareholder. He is also a cousin of noted philanthropist

Edward Harkness Edward Stephen Harkness (January 22, 1874 – January 29, 1940) was an American philanthropist. Given privately and through his family's Commonwealth Fund, Harkness' gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Nort ...

who also benefitted from his father's involvement with

.Western Reserve Historical Society Publication, Issue 102, pg 26 He attended Bellevue Public Schools in

and The Brooks Military School in Cleveland. In 1881, Harkness graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Life

In 1896, he moved from Cleveland, Ohio to a home at 12 East 53rd Street in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He also owned a country home, Dosoris, at Glen Cove on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. A

yachtsman A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

and sportsman, he was a member of The Union Club of Cleveland, The

Metropolitan Club The Metropolitan Club of New York is a private social club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded as a gentlemen's club in 1891 for men only, but it was one of the first major clubs in New York to admit women, t ...

New York,

New York Yacht Club The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. ...

, the

Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club The Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club is one of the older yacht clubs in the Western Hemisphere, ranking 18th after the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, New York Yacht Club, Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, Mobile Yacht Club, Pass Christian Yacht Club, ...

and

Piping Rock Club Piping Rock Club is a country club in Matinecock, New York. It falls within the ZIP Code boundaries of Locust Valley, New York. History The Piping Rock clubhouse was designed by American designer Guy Lowell and built in 1911. Lowell based his ...

In August 1911, while in command of his

steam yacht A steam yacht is a class of luxury or commercial yacht with primary or secondary steam propulsion in addition to the sails usually carried by yachts. Origin of the name The English steamboat entrepreneur George Dodd (1783–1827) used the term ...

''Gunilda'' on

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

, he ran her aground, due to his failure in recognising a requirement for a pilot and then compounding the matter by not hiring tugs at the appropriate time. She would sink in days. He put in a claim against the ship's insurer,

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gov ...

for about $132,000 dollars, and received $100,000 compensation.

Philanthropy

Shortly before his death, Harkness donated $400,000 to Yale University. The William L. Harkness Hall at Yale University was completed in 1927 as the gift of Mr. W.L. Harkness, B.A. 1881, and his family. It is a

Collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...

building of Aquia sandstone with Ohio sandstone trim and contains offices and lecture & recitation rooms for the French, German, and Music departments.

William Adams Delano William Adams Delano (January 21, 1874 – January 12, 1960), an American architect, was a partner with Chester Holmes Aldrich in the firm of Delano & Aldrich. The firm worked in the Beaux-Arts tradition for elite clients in New York City, Long I ...

was the architect.

Personal life

Harkness was married to Edith Hale (1863–1947), daughter of Edwin B. Hale, a prominent banker from Cleveland. Together, they were the parents of: * Louise Hale Harkness (b. 1897), who married

David Sinton Ingalls David Sinton Ingalls (January 28, 1899 – April 26, 1985) was the US Navy's only flying ace of World War I, with six credited victories; thus he was the first ace in U. S. Navy history. Early life Ingalls was born on January 28, 1899, in Clev ...

(1899–1985) in 1922. His mother, Jane Taft, was the niece of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

. He was the grandson of railroad executive

Melville E. Ingalls Melville Ezra Ingalls (1842–1914), commonly abbreviated M. E. Ingalls, was a Massachusetts state legislator who went on to become president of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (the Big Four Railroad). Career Ingalls was ...

, and great-grandson of industrialist

David Sinton David Sinton (26 June 1808 – 31 August 1900) was an Irish-born American pig-iron industrialist, born in County Armagh, Ireland, who became one of the wealthiest people in America. Early life Sinton was the son of linen manufacturer John Sinton ...

. * William Hale Harkness (1900–1954), who married Elisabeth Grant in 1932, and later on October 1, 1947, he married Rebekah Semple West Pierce (1915–1982). Harkness died in New York City in 1919 and was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York. He left an estate of $53,439,437, which would be approximately $ in dollars, of which $37,272,254 was stock in

. He left half of his estate including his houses at 12 West 53rd in New York and Dosoris at Glen Cove, NY to his wife Rebecca (Betty) Harkness. The remaining half was divided between his daughter Louise Hale Harkness and his son William Hale Harkness.

References

Sources

Shipwreck Gunilda Dive
* Klein, Henry H. ''Dynastic America and Those Who Own It'' (1921) reprint 2003 Kessinger Publishing. {{DEFAULTSORT:Harkness, William L. 1858 births 1915 deaths Yale University alumni Businesspeople from Cleveland People from Bellevue, Ohio William L. Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) People from Turtle Bay, Manhattan People from Glen Cove, New York