Minerd.com Biography of William Isleworth and Jane Duff (Hayden) Quintard of New York

Jane Duff (Hayden) Quintard
(1867-1904)

At the age of 27, Jane served as a bridesmaid in the wedding of her sister Estella to Dr. Edward Quintard in 1894 and was mentioned in a related story in the New York Times. She must have admired her new brother-in-law, because just a year later, she married his brother.

On Nov. 19, 1895, when she was age 28, Jane wed William Isleworth Quintard (1869?-1899), who had been born in England when his parents, Edward Augustus and Mary (Skiddy) Quintard, were traveling. He was related through his mother to President Zachary Taylor. William's father was president of the Citizens' Savings Bank on the Bowery.

Union Club, New York

Rev. George H. Houghton, rector of the Church of the Transfiguration -- and the same man who had performed the earlier Hayden-Quintard wedding -- led the nuptials at the church, assisted by Bishop Potter. The best man was Appleton Clark, and the ushers were Miln Palmer, John A. Carter, Edwin Tatham and C. Allen Hayden (brother.) Maids of honor were Annabel Green and Mabel Elise Hayden (sister), and bridesmaids Mary Mongague Billings, Agnes Layng, Gertrude Quintard (sister in law) and Josephine Roset (of Chicago). The bride wore a gown of white satin trimmed with duchess lace, said the New York Times, and on her skirt were flounces of lace and garlands of orange blossoms. The maids of honor wore white faille, and carried bunches of pink roses, while the bridesmaids wore rose-colored gowns and black velvet hats, trimmed with ostrich feathers. For their honeymoon, they sailed to Europe on the steamship St. Louiswith stops planned for London and Paris.

The Quintards bore two daughters, Helen Quintard and Jane Quintard Clark. Their address in the late 1890s was at 180 West 59th Street in New York City.

Sadly, daughter Helen died in infancy on Feb. 24, 1897. Details are inscribed on a monument mounted on the inner, yellow brick wall of the Quintard mausoleum in Kensico Cemetery near White Plains, Westchester County, NY.

Following in his father's footsteps of finance, William was employed in his father's banking business and then at age 22 became a municipal bond broker. His offices over the years were located at 45-47 Wall Street and at Broad Street. Among his clients were water and education authorities in the cities of Boston, Allegheny (Pittsburgh) and Buffalo and Lockport, NY as well as the County of Knox, TN and the State of South Dakota, among many others.

Said the New York Times, "He was a member of the Union League and St. Nicholas Clubs and of the St. Nicholas Society. He was formerly a member of the Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club and of the American Yacht Club, and took an active interest in yachting." A year prior to marriage, William entered into controversy when his name was put up for leadership as treasurer of the American Yacht Club as one of a number of junior members who believed "that the club was run on too old-fashioned a plan and that ew blood was needed to stir things up," reported the Mamaroneck Paragraph.

The Union League cafe, left, and library - Harper's Weekly

Heartbreak struck the young family twice in 1899. That spring, William suffered a severe attack of pneumonia. "He never fully recovered," said the Times, and went to the family retreat in the Thousand Islands to recover. Then in late June, his father died at the age of 72 in New York.

Sadly, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, an illness without a cure at the time. With an abscess of the lungs, added to an intermittent fever, he died in the Fairy Island home of his in-laws on Sept. 20, 1899, when he was just 30 years of age. Following a funeral held at the Church of the Transfiguration, where he had been married just a few years earlier, mourners boarded a special railcar for transport to the interment in the Quintard family mausoleum in Kensico Cemetery. An obituary also appeared in the New York Tribune as well as the Montreal Star and Port Chester (NY) Journal.

William's death was the second major blow for Jane in two-and-a-half years of time. The work of the Grim Reaper left Jane a young widow with an infant daughter.

When the census was taken in 1900, widow Jennie lived with her parents and young daughter in Manhattan. She is known to have passed the time boating, and on the Fourth of July 1901, booked a day trip with two-year-old Jane on the Barbarossa.

Kensico Cemetery

Just a few weeks later, on July 17, 1901, while en route with her daughter and two nurses on the Montreal Express to Rutland, VT, Jane became ill on the Saratoga special train of the Hudson River Railroad. She had to leave the train at Poughkeepsie and was rushed by ambulance to a hospital. In reporting on the incident, the New York Times reported that Jane "had been suffering from nervous prostration for some time." The New York Sun said that she suffered a hemorrhage on the train and was taken to the Morgan House, where Dr. Carmalt was summoned for a consultation with other physicians. The Sun added that "Mrs. Quintard was resting easily and would continue her journey to-day."

Tragically, Jane did not regain her health over the remaining three years of her life. At the age of 36, she died on Aug. 26, 1904, in either New York or Columbus. Funeral obsequies were conducted in the very same Church of the Transfiguration where she had been married and her husband's funeral had been held. Her remains were placed at rest with her husband and baby daughter Helen in the Quintard mausoleum in Kensico Cemetery, near White Plains. An obituary also appeared in the New-York Tribune.

Their daughter Jane was left an orphan at the age of five, and immediately was taken into the home of relatives, most likely her Hayden grandparents.

Overwhelmed with grief, Jane's 65-year-old father told newspapers that he would erect a memorial cross at Fairyland. It would be illuminated at night, as was the custom in the Thousand Islands. A July 1916 article in the Watertown (NY) Daily Times disclosed that the cross would be placed in between the homes of William and his brother Charles.

The working of the cross is now being tried out in the Catskill mountains. There are 15 lights in this cross, which measures eighteen by ten feet. The lights will take current from a storage battery, which is easily charged from a small generator. The cross will arrive at Alexandria Bay within a fortnight and will be erected at once. This cross is the largest at the Thousand Islands, and when completed will be most illuminating and very beautiful.

The outcome of the project is not yet known, and it is not clear if the cross ever was erected.

The Haydens' summer home, Fairyland, where the memorial cross to Jane Quintard was to have been built following her untimely death.

In 1910, at the age of 11, the orphaned girl lived with her Hayden grandparents in Catskill, Greene County, NY. She later went to live with her uncle and aunt, Edward and Estella (Hayden) Quintard, in New York City. She spent a lot of time at the family's country home at Knollybrook.

In August 1919, when she was age 20, Jane wed Cyrus Clark Sr. (1898-1975), son of Howard F. Clark of Great Neck, Long Island, Nassau County, NY and grandson of Cyrus Clark of Riverside Drive, NY. Following a family tradition, the wedding was held at the Church of the Transfiguration in Norwalk, CT, led by Rev. Henry Lubeck of New York's Church of St. Timothy and Zion. Said the New York Times, the bride "wore a pearl-trimmed white satin gown with a court train." Attendants included Marian W. Kerr (maid of honor), Polly Mariner (of Milwaukee), Gertrude Hopper (of Englewood, NJ), Ruth and Alice Marden (of New York), Rosalie Clark (of Great Neck, Long Island) and Mrs. Allen Brehm (of Buffalo). The best man was Henry Thompson (of Wilmington, DE) while the ushers were Safford Quintard and Howard Coxe (of New York), Walter Clark (of Flushing), Frank Tweddell and Howard Clark (of Great Neck) and Edwin Adriance (of Englewood, NJ).

The Clarks became the parents of a trio of children -- Cyrus Clark Jr., Jane Q. Byers and Rosalie "Lee" Hayden Jones Sturgis.

Cyrus attended Princeton University. His education was interrupted by America's entry into World War I. Cyrus joined the Army and was sent overseas, where he "was an ambulance driver in France.... first for the French and then for the American Field Service."

Upon returning home after the war, Cyrus did not return to Princeton. Instead, he went to work for Burton Bros., a cotton merchant firm. Then, in 1925, he founded Cyrus Clark, Inc., an upholstery manufacturing band converter business. He was president of the company until the day he died, some five decades later.

They lived at 419 East Shore Road at Kings Point, Nassau County, and later at Great Neck, Nassau County. Jane was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), the Junior League and was a member of the Great Neck School Board. Cyrus enjoyed golf and for 15 years chaired to board of appeals of the village of Kings Point.

The day after Christmas 1946, Jane was named in a legal advertisement printed in the Catskill Examiner-Recorder as an heir-at-law of her late uncle, Cotton Allen Hayden. At the time, her address was given as 419 East Shore Road, Great Neck.

Jane passed away at the age of 72, following a heart attack, on Feb. 22, 1971. Her obituary was published in the Times and the Hartford Courant.

Cyrus outlived her by four years. He died at home at the age of 77, on July 29, 1975, "apparently of a heart attack," reported the Times. An obituary was published in the Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Son Cyrus Clark Jr. (1923-2006) was born in 1923. At the age of 23, he married Joan Fox ( ? - ? ), daughter of Ada (Thorne) Fox of Columbus, OH, on Aug. 30, 1946. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Dr. Wendell Phillips, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration. In covering the wedding, the New York Times said that the "reception was given for members of the families and intimate friends at Quintard Cottage, the Clark home here." Joan was a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, while Cyrus was a student at Hobart College who left school to join the Army during World War II. During the war, he served with the Eighth Air Force overseas as a flight engineer. After the war, he joined his father's textile firm, where he apparently spent the remainder of his career. The Clarks together bore two children -- Cyrus Clark III and Cynthia Clark. Cyrus Jr. died in November 2006 in Katonah, NY, at the age of 83, as reported in the Hobart and William Smith Colleges alumni publication.

Daughter Jane Quintard Clark (1925-2020) was born on Dec. 19, 1925 in Great Neck on Long Island, NY. She spent the summers of her youth at Knollybrook, the summer house of her great-uncle Dr. Edward Quintard in Norfolk, CT. Jane was a graduate of Great Neck High School and the Brearly School, and after attending Cornell University, was a 1948 graduate of Barnard College. She met her future husband in Norfolk, whose family owned a farm in the local Canaan Valley. When she was age 22, she married George "Edward" "Ted" Byers Jr. (April 16, 1921-2006), son of George Edward Byers Sr. of Canaan, CT. The wedding took place on June 26, 1948, at All Saints Protestant Episcopal Church at Great Neck, performed by Rev. Alexander McKechie. The three children born into this family were Jeannette Quintard Byers, George Edward "Geb" Byers III and Mary C. "Polly" Byers -- and made their home in Hamden and Norfolk, CT. "Successfully balancing work and family, Jane served as assistant director of the International Student Center of New Haven for many years, and subsequently became a popular ESOL (English for speakers of another language) teacher there," said the New Haven Register. "Her students, from all over the world, kept in touch with her for many years. She served on the executive committees of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Foote School Board of Directors, ISIS, and as president of the Whitney Center, as well as being a member of the North End Club, the Fortnightly and the Garden Club of New Haven for over 75 years. An enthusiastic promoter of New Haven, she wrote three editions of the successful book Enjoying New Haven, with her friend Ruth McClure." Jane enjoyed playing tennis and held memberships in the New Haven Lawn Club and the Norfolk Country Club. After long suffering with Parkinson's Disease, George passed away on March 2, 2006. His funeral was held at Yale University's Dwight Chapel. Jane outlived her spouse by nearly 14 years. She surrendered to the angel of death at age 94 on Jan. 2, 2020 as a patient in Yale New Haven Hospital. Interment of the remains was in Norfolk's Center Cemetery. The family requested that any memorial contributions be made to the New Haven Symphony Orchestra or Evergreen Woods Scholarship Committee.

Daughter Lee Hayden Quintard (1929- ? ) was born in 1929 and was married thrice. Her first spouse was Foxhall Parker "Foxy" Jones ( ? -2011), son of Arthur Russell Jones of Far Hills, NJ. The wedding took place on April 30, 1949 at the All Saints Protestant Episcopal Church at Great Neck, followed by a reception at the Creek Club in Locust Valley. Together, they became the parents of three -- Lee Parker "Parkie" Baker, Howland "Casey" Jones and Molly Westbrook Jones. The Times said Lee was a graduate of the Friends Academy and Pine Manor Junior College at Wellesley, MA. Foxhall was a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, having served in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. His first wartime deployment was in New Zealand as a demolitions expert. As a member of the 21st Regiment, he saw his first action on Guam and then was sent to Iwo Jima to reinforce the Allied invasion and secure the Motoyama airfield. He was wounded twice in the span of three weeks of battle and returned to Guam. Upon Japan's surrender, he was transferred to China for several months to guard the Tsiang Tao airport. Foxhall was an alumnus of Westminster School at Simsbury, CT, and the University of Virginia. He became a book publishing representative with Harper & Row, Inc., in New York, later known as Harper/Collins Publishing House. Said the Lakeville Journal, "He spent 35 years as a bookseller, traveling to all corners of the northeast, where he sold books to independent bookstores. He made countless lifelong friends in his travels, and often there was a little extra time for a round of golf and/or a meal. One bookseller always looked forward to Foxy’s visits because 'he was one of the few honest booksellers that actually read many of the books and would share his opinions about which books he thought would sell in that particular store.' It was one of those rare jobs where he got to do what he loved: talk about books, meet interesting people, sneak in a little golf and travel the northeast." He also was an avid golfer and a member of the Sharon Country Club for more than 25 years, including a seat on its board of directors. After a divorce, Lee was married again twice, to (?) Sturgis and to (?) Buckhout. Former husband Foxhall wed several more times, including to Anne Strong and finally in 1974 to Kitty (Crain) Benedict (1934-2024). Sadly, at the age of 85, he passed away on Feb. 27, 2011.

Union League sketches originally published in Harper's Weekly, March 15, 1890. Quintard mausoleum photographs courtesy of Linda Burton Kochanov.