The Gress Divorce Case, 1885

Mary Emma Swem won her 1882 case against Mrs. Fredericka Gress, who paid $1800 damages to Mary Emma for the abuse she suffered as Mrs. Gress’ adopted daughter. Mrs. Gress was in more trouble three years later, when her husband Matthew took the then-unusual step of suing her for a limited divorce (essentially a legal separation). He was also asking for alimony and his legal fees to be paid by her.

Mr. Gress called his wife “a woman with a violent temper” who had assaulted him many times, and denied that he had ever mistreated her. In his affidavit to Brooklyn City Court, Gress claimed that

…she is a strong and powerful woman, weighing about 200 pounds, and had a hot temper and ungovernable disposition. In fits of anger she lost her temper and committed acts of violence on him. He further says that although he is a strong and powerful man, he is unable to protect himself from the repeated assaults of the defendant.

Several witnesses testified to the unhappy marriage of the Gresses in their “beautiful house at 369 Bergen Street," among them one Joseph W. Holmes - who strangely enough lived at 80 Livingston Street - Mary Ann (Barnett) Hicks’ boarding house. He had once lived with the Gresses, and said that "they were constantly quarrelling."

A Dr. Frank W. Rockwell testified that Mrs. Gress “suffered from nervous prostration,” although it seems that rather than suffering from it, she created it in the people around her. Matthew Gress paints a terrifying picture of a harridan who

…was in the habit of taking up anything she could lay her hand on and throwing it at him. On one occasion she threw a fork at him and it stuck in his right hand, the handle breaking off. She also threw a knife at him and beat him with his cane. On Decoration day the defendant threatened to kill him with a hatchet, and she succeeded in hitting him on the thigh with it.

He goes on to mention that not only did she mistreat him but also “a little girl who she took into the house who afterward sued her” - Mary Emma, whose affidavit was read out at the divorce trial. Mary Emma said that Mrs. Gress would, in between periods of abuse, take her to Coney Island and Prospect Park. It seems that Mrs. Gress swung between extremes of affection and temper with Mary Emma and with Matthew, and probably had what in this era we would consider to be some sort of mental illness of a bipolar nature.

Matthew Gress told the court that he and Fredericka had only been married since August 1880, though they had lived together “for seventeen years before he married her,” though she had taken his name by 1870 at least, when they are listed in the census as husband and wife. They had lived in Brooklyn since about 1875, and he thought she was about 45 years old, four years younger than him. If it was “almost impossible to live with her,” it begs the question, why did he stay with her for so long, and why did he link himself to her legally if he knew what she was like?

And why buy her a horse and carriage, and let her “have seven bank books in her possession which belonged to him [Matthew Gress].” The Eagle found the story amusing. Both articles include in the headlines the fact that “a six foot husband” or “six feet of complaining man” said that he was the victim of “ill treatment.” They portray her as a Marie Dressler type, comically frightening to her mild spouse. But the truth of the matter was that she was a mentally ill woman with a violent streak, unable to cope with the people closest to her - and they were unable to cope with her.

I found Matthew Gress living alone in Queens in the 1900 and 1910 censuses. He called himself a widower, though Fredericka was still alive in 1900. A woman called “Frederke Gress”, a married housewife age 59, born 1841 in Germany, was living in Amityville, Suffolk Co., NY - a patient in the “Long Island Home (Private Insane Asylum).” The Long Island Home is still in operation, and a history of the place can be found here.

If that Fredericka is the same person as the “Fredericka Gress age 50,” she died in Manhattan on June 4, 1902 [NYC Death Index, #17136]

Image from NYPL Digital Gallery of the Kings County Municipal Court (City Court) in 1898.

For the background on the Gress case:

The Ordeal of Mary Emma Swem, Part One

The Ordeal of Mary Emma Swem, Part Two


Sources

“Six Feet of Complaining Man,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan. 9, 1885, p. 4.

“Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Gress,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan. 16, 1885, p. 4.

1900 Census, Babylon twp, Amityville Village, Suffolk Co., NY: ED 0737, Sheet 6A, Ref. # 46, GSU 1241165, Image 00134. The census states that “Frederke Gress” emigrated in 1871, which would be incorrect for Matthew Gress’s wife, but all the other information seems correct, including year of birth which tallies with 1880 census [FHL 1254855, T9-0855, p. 7A, Brooklyn, Kings Co., NY: Marcus Grace 44y b Germany Mfr Cages, and Fredericka Grace 39y (b ca 1841) b Germany.]

1870 Census, New York City Ward 10 District 9, New York Co, NY: M593_985, p. 379, Image 147: Matthew “Preis” 34y, Turner in Wood, b Wurttemberg; wife Friedericka 30y, Keeping House, $5000 pers., b Baden. Note the amount of money Fredericka has - where did she get such an amount of money?

1900 Census, Queens Co., NY, Ward 4 District 672, 467 Old South Road; ED 672, sheet 33B, Ref. #96, GSU 1241149, Image 00592: Mathew Gress, b Oct 1837, 62 y, widowed, married 25 yrs., b Germany, Imm. 1854 Na, Occ Landlord.

1910 Census, Queens Co., NY, Ward 4, District 1243, Jaegers Lane [next road to Old South Lane] Roll T624-1068, p. 20A, Image 787: Matthew Gress, 73y Im 1854, Na, b Germany, Own Income. Living with housekeeper and nurse, both German-born.

Italiangen.com. NYC Death Index, Manhattan, Certificate # 17136, Fredericka Gress, d June 4, 1902, age 50 [sic?]

http://www.longislandhome.org/history.php

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/184/4/287-a14 -See here for a fascinating picture drawn by John Gilmour (1881-1931) who spent time in the Long Island Home; the director of that place, Dr. Wilsey, appears on the far left of the drawing.