Edward Randolphus Johnes (1813-1877)

He was born at Morristown, New Jersey to a family long settled at Southampton on Long Island. He was a wholesale dry goods merchant with cotton and linen manufacturing interests in Newburgh and offices on Cedar Street in New York City. In 1844, at Newburgh, he married Mary, daughter of one of Newburgh's most prominent merchants, Hiram Bennett. By 1859, Edward had bought Echo Lawn from George A. Elliot and gave the house its present appearance. In the early 1860s, he was a Member of Newburgh's Board of Education. He was the father of two surviving children: (1) Charles A. Jones (died unmarried), "able, successful, popular and generous" and, (2) Mrs Mary Bennett (Johnes) Knowlton, and through her he was the grandfather of the Mrs Natalie K. Blair, "the earliest woman collector of Americana of the first rank".