According to Rev. Henry Cooke, Anna McMeens (Jay Cooke's housekeeper) left the family "a patent chair...which she lauded to the skies as better by far than a hammock. It was a swinging chair....one day the Gibraltar Island "Historian" [Rev. Henry Cooke] thought how pleasant it would be to recline and snore away a delightful half hour... in that patent chair. HE RECLINED. His shouts for aid were heard over at Put-in-Bay."