The Ordeal of Mary Emma Swem, Part One: Family Background

This is a story of the terrible abuse suffered by one of my great-grandfather's cousins in 1881-2 in Brooklyn. It would be more accurate to call her the cousin of his first cousin. But the families were close, and they all knew each other. As I was researching this story, I noticed a pattern of informal adoption in the Barnett-Swem family group, which in all cases but this one appears to have been successful.

1. Family Background: Barnetts and Swems

Mary Barnett and her five surviving children (the eldest, Hannah, had died before the family emigrated from London, England) had settled in Brooklyn around 1848. There were four girls and one boy: Rachel (b 1830), Elizabeth (b about 1832), Mary Ann (b 1835), Leah (b about 1837) and David (b about 1839).

By the summer of 1850, the two youngest Barnetts were no longer living with their mother and sisters. David had been sent to boarding school in Vermont (which I want to write more about in another post), and Leah had been sent to live with the family of Christopher J. Swem, a cooper and sometime vinegar manufacturer, living at , and his wife Margaret. The Swems had three children: Edwin ( Albert (b about 1840), and Adelaide (b 1842).

I don’t know what the original connection between the two families was, or why Leah was living with Christopher and Margaret (Ashley) Swem in 1850. It seems to have been a sort of informal adoption. Christopher and Margaret had 3 living children as of 1850: Edwin, Albert, and Adelaide.

Leah lived with the Swems until she married Edwin about 1862. There were other informal adoptions in the Barnett-Swem family group. Adelaide Swem, Leah and Edwin’s daughter, lived mostly with David and Susannah Barnett.

2. Those Involved In the Events of 1881-2

Mary Emma Swem (b about 1870) was the daughter of Edwin Swem’s brother Albert. Albert Swem most likely married about 1866 to an unknown first wife, mother of Henry, Mary Emma and Marion.

Albert married Josephine White in 1876. She was probably the daughter of James and Emma White of New Jersey, who had moved to Brooklyn. Albert’s son Henry was born (according to the 1880 census) about 1867. Josephine was mother at least of the two youngest children, Marion and Alberta.

In 1880 they were living in Glen Cove, part of Oyster Bay, then in Queens County. (You may recall that this was where the Alt-Müllers were also living in 1880 - it is even possible that the families knew each other, or that Dr. Alt-Müller was the Swems’ doctor).

Sometime between 1880 and 1881, Albert Swem died. Josephine, who lived until 1897, did not want to or was not able to care for all the children. In 1881 the oldest child, Henry, was 13 or 14. Mary Emma was probably about 11 (the Eagle says she was 13 or 14, but the census has her aged 10 in 1880). The younger children were Margaret age 8, Marion age 4, and Alberta, who was not quite 18 months old.

Leah (Barnett) Swem took in three of them, including Mary Emma. But Leah had five children of her own to look after and it was too much for her. So after a certain amount of family discussion, Leah turned to Matthew and Fredericka Gress.

Matthew Gress was born at Essingen, Wurrtemberg in 1836, and emigrated to the US in 1854. He was naturalized in 1860. He is called a “Manufacturer of Cages” in the 1880 census, though in other documents he calls himself a Wood Trimmer - a kind of carpenter, in other words In 1881 he was 45 years old and lived at 369 Bergen Street with his formidable wife, Fredericka.

Fredericka Gress was 40 years old in 1881, also German-born. I don’t know when or where Matthew and Fredericka married. They had no children. Fredericka’s character will be made very clear in tomorrow’s Part Two, but suffice it to say that she was the sort of person who should never have been let near a child - and probably not near Matthew, either (that will become evident in Part 3).

Leah Barnett Swem was Mary Emma’s aunt (and my ggg aunt), age 44 in 1881. She was living in Oyster Bay with her husband Edwin, also 44, a gas fitter, and 4 of her 5 children ranging in age from 3 to 17. Her second-eldest child Adelaide, age 14, was living with Leah’s brother David and would live with the Barnetts until her marriage 10 years later.

Rachel Barnett Van Duyne was Leah’s oldest living sister, a widow age 51 with three daughters between the ages of 25 and 31. She lived in Brooklyn, and enters the story peripherally.

Several neighbours got involved too, and we will meet them tomorrow - several who claimed that Mrs. Gress treated Mary very nicely, and those who said otherwise. As well there hovers in the background a mysterious Mr. Russell - of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

For some unknown reason - perhaps they were friends, and Fredericka had not let her public face slip in front of the Swems - Leah allowed Mrs.Gress to adopt Mary Emma as a sort of daughter/servant - just as Leah had been to the Swem family. Leah may have been desperate - she had been injured in a streetcar accident in 1872, and may not have fully recovered. It is very hard to look after 8 children even if one is perfectly well.

And Leah must also have thought that it would be good for Mary Emma - almost like being an only child. My grandmother lived for a year, in the 1890s, away from he parents, because they were having trouble supporting their 5 children. But my grandmother went to her mother’s parents, the Reeds, who adored her - she had a lovely time.

But for Mary Emma, things did not go well.

Tomorrow: What Happened on Bergen Street, and A Lawsuit

Sources

Passport Applications for Matthew Gress of 24 May 1897 and of 9 May 1900, from US Passport Applications 1795- 1925, Ancestry.com

1880 Brooklyn , Kings Co., NY: FHL 1254855, T9-0855, p. 7A, [transcript reads “Marcus Grace”].

1880 Oyster Bay, Queens Co., NY [P.O. Glen Cove]: FHL 1254919, T9-0919, p. 419A, Albert Swem household.

1880 Oyster Bay, Queens Co., NY [P.O. Glen Cove]: FHL 1254919, T9-0919, p. 414D, Edwin Swem household.

1880 Brooklyn, Kings Co., NY: FHL 1254854, T9-0854, p. 433D, Mary Balbo household [Rachel Van Duyne and her two unmarried daughters lived here].

1870 Brooklyn Wd 7, Kings Co., NY: 1343/2042, Image 525, Christopher Swem household [includes son Edwin and wife ‘Leavinia’ i.e. Leah Swem age 32, b England and children].

1860 Brooklyn Wd 7 District 2, Kings Co., NY, Christopher Swem household [includes Leah Barnett age 22, b England].

1850 Brooklyn Wd 11, Kings Co., NY, Image 65, Garrett Van Dyne [Van Duyne] household [the elder Mary Barnett and daughters Mary A. and Elizabeth lived here].

1850 Brooklyn Wd 5, Kings Co., NY: p. 4 Christopher Swem household [includes Leah ‘Barnet’ age 13, b England].

1850 Manchester, Bennington Co., VT: p. 131, Image 257, James Anderson household [David Barnett age 10 b England boarding here].

“Unconscious to the End,” [David Barnett obituary], Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 24, 1899: “He passed the last year or two of his studies [before beginning study of the law at age 16, or about 1855] at Wickham's Seminary, at Manchester, Vt.”

"Elbert Swen" marriage to Josephine White, Sept. 19, 1876, Certificate # 1611 Kings Co., NY: in new York City Grooms Index, Italiangen.org [http://www.italiangen.org/NYCmarriageresults.asp?kind=exact&Esurname=swen&Efirst=elbert&CertNbr=&StartYear=&EndYear=&B1=Submit]

Image from NYPL Digital Gallery, of Bergen Street at 5th Avenue, Brooklyn. The Gress house at No. 369 was located near here, between 4th and 5th Avenues (this picture was taken early in the 20th century).