Since the time of the revolution there have been only five owners - William Van Wyck of Fishkill, Mary G. Taft of Cornwall, Francis Bannerman of Brooklyn, New York and The Jackson Hole Preserve (Rockefeller Foundation), who donated the island to the people of the State of New York. (Taconic Region of New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.)

Francis Bannerman (Frank) was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1857 and came to the United States to live in Brooklyn, at the age of three. His father took up the business of selling goods at Navy auction. Young Frank, while still in school, began to collect scrap from the harbor, then full of sailing ships. He was so successful at this that it soon became a business. At the end of the Civil War he increased his wares by buying surplus stock at government auctions. This source continued even after the Spanish American War. In 1872, on a buying trip to Ireland, he met and married Helen Boyce. Subsequently they had three sons; Francis Vll and David Boyce joined him in the business, and Walter became a doctor.

The business, known everywhere as "Bannerman's" was founded in 1865 in Brooklyn. As more and more material was acquired, it moved several times, it finally arrived at 501 Broadway, in Manhattan. From the Spanish War so much equipment and ammunition was bought that the laws of the city forced them to look for storage outside the city limits.

Previous Page Next Page

Site Designed and Maintained by
Erik Gliedman

All images copyrighted 2002