Where did such wealth come from? It started with hard work, ingenuity and unfettered ambition. One of these miners in in Bannack, Mont. He's on the right, William Andrews Clark, Huguette's father. Newell family photo Share Back to slideshow navigation Advertise. A contemporary wrote, "There is craft in his stereotyped smile and icicles in his handshake.

He is about as magnetic as last year's bird's nest. After two years panning for gold, Clark turned to selling goods he hauled by wagon through the Rockies. Clark made his greatest fortune in the Southwest. His United Verde copper mine, in Jerome, Ariz. The trading post of Las Vegas was a stop on his rail line.

Here he speaks to a crowd in Las Vegas from his Pullman car in Las Vegas today is in Clark County, named for him. Clark's desire was a title: Montana denied him time after time, a battle called the War of the Copper Kings. Who knows how a feud flared between Democrats: Marcus Daly, left, a Catholic who loved racehorses, and Clark, a Presbyterian who loved art.

Legislators picked senators; newspapers made legislators; all were for sale. An aide said, "We'll put the old man in the Senate, or the poorhouse. He had to resign. Clark said publicly, "I propose to leave to my children a legacy, worth more than gold, that of an unblemished name. Clark's men tried one more audacity: On the day he resigned, they tricked the governor into traveling outside Montana. His lieutenant filled the vacancy — with Clark!

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When the governor returned, again Clark was out. Finally, he was elected in Though he retired after one term, for the rest of his life he insisted on being "Senator Clark. Mark Twain had a few other names for Senator Clark. Clark's first wife, Kate, died in , leaving him four grown children. In , while in the Senate, Clark announced that he had taken a second wife in France three years earlier, and that the couple already had a 2-year-old daughter.

At the time of the supposed marriage, he was 62, and wife Anna was No proof of the wedding date has been found.


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The Butte Miner Share Back to slideshow navigation. She came to him as a teenager for support. Clark sent her from Butte to boarding school, then to Paris, where she studied the harp. He visited by steamship.

A photo narrative of Sen. William Andrews Clark and his daughter, Huguette

They had two daughters: All this was news to Clark's children from his first marriage, who were older than his young wife. One older daughter wrote that, while she was "greatly grieved and dreadfully disappointed, we must all stand by our dear father. It had rooms, four art galleries, Turkish baths, a vaulted rotunda 36 feet high, and its own railroad line to bring in coal.

All for a family of four. It was known as "Clark's Folly. The mansion's treasures included this Louis XVI salon, a marble statue of Eve by Rodin, oak ceilings from Sherwood Forest, and the grandest American collection of European paintings, lace and tapestries. Once his chosen artworks were installed in the house, Clark bought few more.

If he acquired any more paintings, he wrote, he would have to remove something. Writer Wallace Irwin set it all to verse: Hiked for New York, where his money he blew, bildin' a palace on Fift' Avenoo. Build me a house that'll holler the loudest. None of your slab-sided, plain mossyleums! Gimme the treasures of art Build it new-fangled, scalloped and angled, fine like a weddin' cake garnished with pills. Gents, do your duty, trot out your beauty.

The Clarks: an American story of wealth, scandal and mystery

Gimme my money's worth, I'll pay the bills. Roof was Egyptian, gables caniptian. Whole grand effect when completed was — hell. Clark's wife was rarely seen in public. He wrote of Anna, "Mrs. Clark did not care for social distinction, nor the obligations that would entail upon my public life.

Huguette, not pictured, was just 5, starting her collection of dolls from France. The Clark family traveled often to Paris. A ship's registry from sets birthdates for the family: William Andrews Clark, age 75, Connellsville, Pa. At home, they had 10 servants and a French chef. Clark and daughters visit Columbia Gardens, which he built in Butte.

It was about Through the '20s, society pages chronicled the debutante. William Andrews Clark of Fifth Avenue, entertained a party of girl friends yesterday at Sherry's. Skirts had to be 3 inches below the knee. William Andrews Clark died in his house on Fifth Avenue on March 2, , at age 86, with his wife and children by his side. He lay in honor in his own gallery, as his paintings looked down. President Coolidge sent flowers.

Clark's will called for a "decent and Christian burial in accordance with my condition in life, without undue pomp or ceremony. His neighbors now are Woolworth, Macy, Pulitzer — all better remembered. Clark had promised his daughters from his first marriage that Anna would not inherit the New York City mansion. It was sold in for less than half what it cost to build, and was torn down for apartments. Many other houses on Millionaire's Row fell, including the Astor and Vanderbilt palaces. The Gilded Age had passed. Huguette, 18, also received an allowance for three years: To the art, Clark attached conditions.

The Metropolitan Museum could have it, if it kept it all in a separate Clark gallery forever. The art went to his second choice, the Corcoran in D. His wife and daughters paid for a Clark wing to hold it. The museum found that some of the paintings were misattributed; this Corot was authentic.

Clark bequeathed this advice as well: Clark's descendants say he should be remembered as a Horatio Alger hero, a boy from a log cabin who conquered the worlds of finance, politics and art. Bettering the condition of others wasn't his concern. Clark cut timber on federal land, and he benefitted from Arizona's "deportations" of union men who were kidnapped and driven out of state.

Criticized for the sulfurous smoke and denuded landscape from his mines, he said, "Those who succeed us can well take care of themselves.

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Others prefer "industrial statesmen. Clark," wrote historian Michael Malone, "but due to his own excesses, history has been unkind. Huguette, not pictured, was just 5, starting her collection of dolls from France. The Clark family traveled often to Paris. A ship's registry from sets birthdates for the family: William Andrews Clark, age 75, Connellsville, Pa. At home, they had 10 servants and a French chef. Clark and daughters visit Columbia Gardens, which he built in Butte. It was about Through the '20s, society pages chronicled the debutante.

William Andrews Clark of Fifth Avenue, entertained a party of girl friends yesterday at Sherry's. Skirts had to be 3 inches below the knee. William Andrews Clark died in his house on Fifth Avenue on March 2, , at age 86, with his wife and children by his side. He lay in honor in his own gallery, as his paintings looked down. President Coolidge sent flowers. Clark's will called for a "decent and Christian burial in accordance with my condition in life, without undue pomp or ceremony. His neighbors now are Woolworth, Macy, Pulitzer — all better remembered.

Clark had promised his daughters from his first marriage that Anna would not inherit the New York City mansion. It was sold in for less than half what it cost to build, and was torn down for apartments. Many other houses on Millionaire's Row fell, including the Astor and Vanderbilt palaces. The Gilded Age had passed. Huguette, 18, also received an allowance for three years: To the art, Clark attached conditions. The Metropolitan Museum could have it, if it kept it all in a separate Clark gallery forever. The art went to his second choice, the Corcoran in D.

His wife and daughters paid for a Clark wing to hold it. The museum found that some of the paintings were misattributed; this Corot was authentic. Clark bequeathed this advice as well: Clark's descendants say he should be remembered as a Horatio Alger hero, a boy from a log cabin who conquered the worlds of finance, politics and art. Bettering the condition of others wasn't his concern. Clark cut timber on federal land, and he benefitted from Arizona's "deportations" of union men who were kidnapped and driven out of state.

Criticized for the sulfurous smoke and denuded landscape from his mines, he said, "Those who succeed us can well take care of themselves. Others prefer "industrial statesmen. Clark," wrote historian Michael Malone, "but due to his own excesses, history has been unkind. After her father's death, Huguette Clark practiced music and art; seven paintings she created were shown at the Corcoran. In , she became engaged to William Gower, a law student whose father had worked for Clark.

The groom was 23, the bride The couple moved into the elegant apartment on Fifth Avenue, with her mother in the same building. It lasted two years. To establish Nevada residency for a divorce in , she moved to Reno for the summer with her mother and six servants. With the papers signed, mother and daughter took a cruise to Hawaii, then returned to the apartment in New York. This is the last known photograph of Huguette, cornered by a photographer on the day of her divorce in August In , an Irish nobleman denied reports that he would marry Huguette, then She dropped her seat at the opera, and slipped from the society pages.

After her mother died in , Huguette stopped visiting Bellosguardo. Vintage cars remained in the garage. A caretaker's stepdaughter, Joan Pollard, recalls, "It was immaculate, as if someone had just left for the weekend. She bought it in , and added the wing at top right. It has 22 rooms, nine bedrooms, nine baths, 11 fireplaces, a wine cellar, trunk room, elevator, and walk-in vault.

It has sat empty for 57 years, so the kitchens need updating. The only residents on 52 acres are the caretaker and his son, in twin cottages, and wild turkeys and deer. The property is silent except for a waterfall. Neighbors in this corner of town include Harry Connick Jr. Why would someone buy such a retreat, and never use it, but hold on to it for half a century? She wasn't just sitting in a room herself all her life.

She had a small group of friends, confidants and assistants, very small, probably fewer than five people. Her world was always very small; when Anna died, it just became smaller. Now , she may be in a nursing home or hospital. Relatives say they don't know, and fear that flowers and letters are discarded before they reach her. Her attorney, Wallace Bock, won't say. Devine said, "I think various family members have asked Mr. Bock for information, and he's always very respectful of his client and doesn't wish to reveal anything. Facing Central Park with curtains drawn, her Fifth Avenue apartments contain her mother's harp and Huguette's French dollhouses.

Only a few times in decades has the building's staff seen her, a thin woman retreating into the shadows. They say she's not there now. Her eighth-floor apartments contain two galleries, seven bedrooms, rooms for nine servants. Where will it go? Her attorney, Bock, said her hearing and eyesight have diminished with age — after all, she'll be in June — but her mind is clear, and he receives instructions from her frequently by phone.

He said he would not pass along a request for an interview. She doesn't care about publicity or reputation. Tracing the lives of William Andrews Clark and his Huguette, we are left with mysteries. What does she remember of "Papa"? Is she well cared for? What will she leave to the world? An American story of wealth, scandal, mystery Open in new window loading photos Click on the photo to continue.

Clark Memorial Library Share Back to slideshow navigation. Caretakers have labored at the Clark estate for generations — and not met Huguette Clark. The building staff have seen Huguette "u-GET" few times in 30 years. Newell family photo Share Back to slideshow navigation Advertise.

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The trading post of Las Vegas was a stop on his rail line. Montana denied him time after time, a battle called the War of the Copper Kings. Who knows how a feud flared between Democrats: Legislators picked senators; newspapers made legislators; all were for sale. The Butte Miner Share Back to slideshow navigation. The mansion's treasures included this Louis XVI salon, a marble statue of Eve by Rodin, oak ceilings from Sherwood Forest, and the grandest American collection of European paintings, lace and tapestries. Gimme the treasures of art Pictometry International Share Back to slideshow navigation Advertise.

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