The Ordeal of Mary Emma Swem, Part Two: The House Devil

It was in the late summer of 1881 that Mary Emma Swem‘s trials began - or rather, got much much worse. She had already lost her mother, and now her father Albert. Her aunt could not look after her and her brother and sister - and her own five children, too.

Enter Mrs. Fredericka Gress of 369 Bergen Street, “a stout, richly dressed, excitable German woman.” I don’t know how they knew her, but they did. Mrs. Gress did not speak English well, but she made herself clear: she would take Mary Emma to be her own daughter, as she “had no children living.” She says she offered to take Mary Emma’s lame sibling too but this does not seem to have happened.

So Mary Emma went to live at Bergen Street in September 1881. Mrs. Gress promised Leah Swem that Mamie was to do no work but have music lessons and go to school and be just like a daughter to the Gresses.

But nothing turned out the way the Swems had hoped it would. And the signs of trouble were evident very early in 1882.

Rachel Van Duyne said that when she visited in January 1882 everything seemed fine. In March Mamie had a black eye, though, and when she asked about it Mrs. Gress spoke for Mamie and said she had fallen downstairs. On Rachel’s next visit Mrs. Gress said that Mamie was crying because she was upset about the way Mr. Gress treated Mrs. Gress. Mrs. Gress did admit to Rachel that she’d whipped Mamie once, because she was a very bad child, but she wouldn’t do it again. Then on the next visit, Mrs. Gress took it all back and said she had been lying, she’d never whipped Mamie at all.

Mrs. Gress frequently struck Mary Emma with a stick or cane. When Mary Emma’s piano practice was not to her liking, when she “lost a key at Manhattan Beach,” when Mrs. Gress felt angry in the middle of the night, she hit or kicked her “adoptive daughter.” (I am not sure who testified to this, possibly Mr. Gress).

Several of the neighbours testified that they had heard and indeed tried to stop Mrs. Gress. Miss Reeve said that she didn’t know the Gresses personally, but heard a woman with a German accent and “using bad language,” abusing a child at 5 am on a Sunday morning in June 1882. This was Annie Reeve, then 46 years old, a single schoolteacher living with her sister’s family at 380 Dean Street.

Miss Lucy Harksen did more than listen. She was the Gresses’ next door neighbor at 371 Bergen, living with her widowed mother and older brother. She and her mother had already had trouble with the Gress family, she said: “ill feeling had existed between part of the [Harksen] family and Mrs. Gress for over six years…witness did not want to speak with Mrs. Gress because she had slandered her mother and herself [and] caused trouble between herself and a schoolmate who came to live in Mrs. Gress’ house.” (I don’t know what that was all about, but I am surprised that anyone wanted to live in Mrs. Gress’ house).

Miss Harksen went and rang the door bell and told Mrs. Gress to stop abusing poor Mary Emma. Mrs. Gress said she should mind her own business. Miss Harksen threatened to call a policeman.

Several other neighbours had heard the abuse going on all through the summer of 1882. Some of them dragged chairs out to their fences to stand on so they could look in and see Mrs. Gress beating Mary Emma. Mrs Houseman of 384 Dean Street was one of them, and she also threatened to get the police. Mrs. Gress shouted that she would kill Mrs. Houseman if she did so.
Mr. Poole of 382 Dean Street, “who lived nearly in the rear of Mrs. Gress’ house,” also heard and saw the abuse. He “very forcibly told the woman to desist, and she did.” Temporarily, at least. He said that this happened in August 1882.

The neighbours went to Mr. Alexander W. Russell, who was the clerk for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children - a new organization, which had been begun in New York City only six years before, in 1875. Mr. Russell called upon the Gress house immediately. This was in June 1882 - and yet (as Miss Harksen points out in her testimony) “the child remained with Mrs. Gress until November.”

Mr. Russell was allowed to interview Mary Emma alone in the front parlor, with Mrs. Gress sitting in the back parlor. Mr. Russell said that f she could tell him what was happening, he could take her away and she would not have to live with Mrs Gress anymore. Poor Mary Emma cried, but did not want to complain. She was worried that her aunt could not take her back. And so she stayed on.

But eventually her aunt came through for her. Leah Swem saw the black eye on Mary Emma - I don‘t know when this was, the Eagle does not make it clear. Mrs. Gress said it was the result of an accident. On another visit, probably in the fall of 1882, Leah saw that Mary’s hair had been pulled out and that she was crying. Mr. Gress told Leah that there had been trouble between Mary and Mrs. Gress. He told her to take Mary away - and Leah did.

Mrs. Gress came to Leah’s house to get Mary back claiming that she would spend “thousands of dollars” to get her back again, but Leah said no, the neighbours had told her what had been going on. Rachel Van Duyne was appointed Mary‘s official guardian in November 1882.

There were people who testified that Mrs. Gress was nice to Mamie. They seem to have based this on seeing them in the street or in some sort of public venue. Her piano teacher, Charles Rando, for example. He is called “German” in the Eagle, as if to underline a possible allegiance with the Gresses, but the census shows that he was Italian, 47 years old, a music teacher living with his wife and five children at 291 Park Avenue. He never saw her being mistreated, he said. Mrs. Gress was nice and Mamie never said anything about abuse; furthermore, she “progressed slowly in her music.”

Two other German witnesses, and dressmaker Teresa Mahon, said that Mrs. Gress was very affectionate and nice to Mamie, and they saw no marks on her, which directly contradicts all the other witnesses.

Their testimonies reminded me of the old German proverb; “Street angel, house devil." And if there was ever a house devil, surely Fredericka Gress was one of the worst.

Finally Mrs. Gress herself took the stand, with an interpreter at her side. She “testified as to the “acquisition” of Mary Swem as a member of her family.” She bought Mamie $30 worth of clothes, she “treated the child as her own,” and only “whipped her when she was careless.” She never hit her with a cane or gave her a black eye or made her sleep in the basement. It was actually Mr. Gress who wanted to send Mamie away for being difficult, not her. And she never put her in a closet. And never “had any trouble until the neighbours interfered…it made [her] sick when Mamie went away to her people; it made her sick eight days.”

After deliberating for 40 minutes the jury awarded Mary Emma Swem $1800 damages for assault and battery. She had asked for $2500, having sued for these damages through her present guardian, Rachel Van Duyne.

There are so many questions that come to mind as this story unfold in the Eagle. The primary ones are (a) why did the Swems choose Mrs. Gress to adopt Mary Emma, how did they know her? And why did they think that she would be a good guardian? For Mrs. Gress had been a difficult, argumentative person for a long time before this - her neighbours paint a vivid picture of a woman who was noisy and terrifying to live near.

My second question is related to this: why on earth did it take all of these people so long to get Mary Emma Swem out of that horrific situation? Mrs. Gress made it plain to many, many people that she was a criminally brutal abuser. Why did Leah and Rachel believe her and leave Mamie there? The neighbours did their best, I think, but could not Mr. Russell have probed a little further and taken action in June? And what finally brought Mary Emma to safety? The coverage of the story does not say what had changed by November to get her out of 369 Bergen Street, and it is unlikely that we’ll ever know.

Another question concerns the lawsuit - Mary Emma was 14 years old in 1883, and had sued the Gresses with the help of “her guardian” - Rachel van Duyne. Whose idea had it been to sue, and why? This was an unusual proceeding for that time.

One last question arises from an aside in one of the Eagle articles: “She {Mary Emma] has a stepmother, but does not know where she is.” This confirms my speculation that Josephine Swem was not the mother of the three oldest children - the very ones who must have been living with Leah Swem. I haven’t yet discovered where Josephine was, but she doesn’t appear to have been in Brooklyn or in Glen Cove.

Mary Emma lived with Rachel Van Duyne until the latter’s death in 1906; and she never married. In 1900 Mary E. Swem was living with Rachel at 314 Pulaski Street, Brooklyn, working in a candy store. By 1930, still unmarried, she was living quietly in Daytona Beach, Florida. I hope that she had a peaceful and a happier life after the terrible trials she suffered in 1882.

I tried to get an image of the actual block of Bergen Street that the Gresses lived on from Google maps - you can see a photo of it. There are three story attached rowhouses on both sides of the street, all the way down the block. But you are not allowed to download a shot of this, so I couldn't.

Sources

“Beating: The Woman Who Did It Muleted [sic] $1,800.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Mar, 6, 1883, p. 4.

“Beating: A Brooklyn Woman Sued For Cruelty to a Child.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Mar. 5, 1883, p. 4.

Lain’s Brooklyn City Directory, 1882-83:
Gress, Matthew, mfr N.Y., h 369 Bergen (p. 440)
Harksen, A.M., wid. Hans P. h 371 Bergen (p. 470)
Houseman Theodore printer, h 384 Dean (p. 537)
Mahon Theresa, dressmaker, 496 Atlantic (p. 802)
Rando, Charles music teacher [one word], h 291 Park Ave. (p. 989)
Russell, Alexander W., agt S.P.C.C. 204 Montague, h 17 Douglass (p. 992)

1880 Census, Brooklyn, Kings Co., NY:

William Williamson household [Annie Reeve], 380 Dean Street: T9_855, FHL 1254855, p. 11.1000, ED 221, Image 0024.

Charles Rando household, 291 Park Avenue: T9_843, FHL 1254843, p. 78.2000, ED 48, Image 0494.

Ann M. Harksen household, 371 Bergen Street: T9_855, FHL 1254855, p. 7.1000, ED 221, Image 0016.

“Marcus Grace” [Matthew Gress] household, 369 Bergen Street: same reference numbers as Harksen household.


1900 Census, Brooklyn Ward 21, Kings Co., NY, 314 Pulaski Street; Roll 1058, Book 2, p. 264A, Rachel Van Duyne household.

1930 Census, Daytona Beach, Volusia Co., FLA, 607 River View Blvd, Dis. 31 [need ref here, will edit]