Lightning Strikes the Beach House
1902 glider experiment of the Wright Brothers in the Kitty Hawk NC dunes.
The Wright Brothers flew for 12 seconds in a powered aeroplane at Kitty Hawk NC. Michael Barrett was arrested for selling liquor at Big Sea Day. Sea Girt was losing its patience. There were more spectators and vendors than farmers at the great August event. A September hurricane ravaged the coast and carried away the Belmar Boardwalk.
Another storm came down particularly hard on a former Second Lady.
Mrs. Ester “Jennie” Tuttle Hobart was watching a lightning storm at the Beach House from the window of her suite. The wind rose, and the sea, which lapped at the foot of the building grew fierce. Spray whipped up onto the long deck of the Commodore’s old home. The sky darkened and the clouds hung low over the ocean. There was a bright flash and a bang. Jennie’s window was struck. Six bolts in rapid succession hit all around the Beach House. The glass shattered, and the sill splintered in two. Mrs. Hobart was a bit shocked but unhurt. She was relieved to have no cuts and no injuries. One could say she was lucky, except for her recent past.
Jennie Hobart before being struck by lightning in Sea Girt
Jennie had been the Second Lady of the United States. Her husband Garrett Hobart, born in Long Branch, and raised in Marlboro NJ was Vice President for the first term of William McKinley. He had been one of the top lawyers in the state, apprenticing under Jennie’s father Socrates Tuttle, the most prominent attorney in Patterson. He was a corporate lawyer and at age 30 head of the NJ General Assembly. A power player in the state, he also had business interests in New York. When McKinley ran in 1896, Hobart was selected his running mate.
As a trusted advisor to the President, Hobart was a fixture in the Senate Chamber, and well-liked on both sides of the aisle. He most certainly would ride along with McKinley through a second term. Jennie was also well-liked, however she was often slighted by DC social circles. Lady Paunceforte, wife of the long-serving British ‘Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary” insisted she should be second only to the First Lady on invitations, creating an embarrassing situation for many hostesses who feared retaliation.
Lady Pauceforte (left) and her four daughters were the top social call in DC for many years. While Presidents came and went, the Knighted Pauceforte served the British Crown, and Queen Victoria since 1875. His wife ceded only to the First Lady.
While they were running for reelection, Hobart developed a heart ailment in 1899, and he did not survive to be elected again. Teddy Roosevelt was thrust into the VP slot and became President when McKinley was shot by an anarchist while shaking hands at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition just after his second inauguration in 1901. Mrs. Hobart’s opportunity to be First Lady would slip through her fingers.
Teddy never imagined the presidency. He wrote to Henry Cabot Lodge, a mentor, “To consider the Presidency in any way as a possibility would be foolish. American politics are kaleidoscopic, and long before the next five years are out, the kaleidoscope is certain to have been many times shaken and some new men to have turned up.”
Jennie was held in high regard. Her father’s reputation and now hers, had her welcomed in polite society in Patterson, but without her husband, the widow commanded very little social power.
One communication between her and the President. Jennie Hobart asked President Roosevelt in 1904 about a diplomatic appointment for Henry Hays Morgan. The request came from Morgan’s wife to Jennie. President asked the former second lady to inform Morgan’s wife, Viscountess Isabel Delphine Kilpatrick Morgan, that he will try to do as Morgan wishes, but, “I cannot promise anything” as he did not know the different applicants for appointment and promotion. Morgan served as a diplomat to Hamburg, Buenos Aires, and eight other countries in his career.
Jennie lived quietly in her hometown of Patterson until she died in 1941, regularly visiting the Jersey Shore.