Provenance:

Edwin Hawley, Babylon and New York, New York;

Emma Cornelia “Dolly” Sturges (1875-1926), aka Margaret Cameron, Edwin Hawley's ward;

thence by decent to the present owners.

Note:

Edwin Hawley (1850-1912) was born in Chatham, New York to Ezra Hawley (1818-1897) and Anna Knapp Hawley (1818-1873), both of Chatham, New York. Edwin came from modest means. In the 1850 Census, Ezra is listed as being a Tinker engaged in miscellaneous repair services, but by 1880, his occupation is listed as Sheriff. According to Edwin’s obituary, published in the New York Times on February 2, 1912, he was a self-made man. His first job was working for the Rock Island Railroad’s local freight department. The Times obituary states “he was only the office boy, but he soon became popular because he never talked more than he had to and he never told anybody anything about himself or about anybody else”. Once asked by a journalist for comment, he replied that talking was distasteful, and “that he hated any attempt to make him talk”.

Hawley was listed as the Director of forty-one companies, including: American Exchange Bank, British Columbia Copper Company, California Electric Generating Company, Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad, Colorado & Southern Railway, Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, Colorado & Midland Railway, Des Moines & Fort Dodge, Great Western Power, Guaranty Trust Company, Interborough Rapid Transit Company, International Banking Corporation, Mercantile Trust Company, Newport News & Shipbuilding & Dry Dock, Pittsburgh & Shawmut Railroad, St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, United States Light and Heating Company, United States Realty and Improvement Company, Western Pacific, and Western Power Company.

At the time of his death, the New York Times obituary lists his assumed worth to be anywhere from $40,000,000 to $60,000,000. Having devoted his life to his profession, Hawley never married and had no children, so the settlement of his estate was of great interest, particularly to his “heirs-at-law”, including two brothers, two sisters and three children of a deceased third sister. However, a New York Times article from March 14, 1912, a little over one month after his death notice was published, described how the estate was dispersed, particularly how Miss Margaret Cameron was to receive an annual income of $25,000. Miss Cameron had been described as Mr. Hawley’s niece, his protegee, his housekeeper and his ward. Not only did Miss Cameron receive an annual salary, but the article describes how she became the sole and undisputed owner of Mr. Hawley’s homes on the Upper East Side and in Babylon, including their contents of furnishings, books, pictures, horses and motor cars.    

Miss Margaret Cameron was not her birth name; it was one that she established to help shield her identity from her past. She was born Emma Sturges, in Homestead, New Jersey, the daughter of a jeweler bearing the same last name. Her parents had separated and, in a time of financial stress, her mother contacted Edwin Hawley, a childhood friend from Chatham, New York, to taker her under his wing. Miss Cameron was just fifteen years old at the time and was immediately well cared for by Mr. Hawley, who saw that she was well-educated. She became a permanent fixture at Hawley’s Babylon estate, so much so that at the time of Edwin’s passing, the staff of the estate treated her as the rightful heir, even before judgement was passed. Miss Cameron had one sister and it is through that sister these lots descended in the family to the present owners.

Dimension of case: height 21 1/2 x width 34 x depth 12 1/4 inches.

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