201
About Damoreau s Wife.
House s paragraph about Alf went the rounds in
the papers. Damoreau slaves as usual, ha-
ving relapsed into his former state of conjugal
subjugation; W. Waud favored me with a history
of his wife, which may be true enough. She has
never been in Europe; the story of her Italian
birth having no more foundation than this: her
father was an Italian named Nolcini, her mother
a low Irishwoman, his mistress, while both were
residents in Boston. Madame has a legitimate
brother, a chemist, who repudiates all acquaintance
with her and lives at Newburyport, Mass. The
mysterious stories about the Russian consul wait-
ing upon her and informing her that she was heir
to a large fortune, her aristocratic tour through
the south, her return to mingle with the wealth
and aristocracy of Boston, her subsequent berea-
vent of fortune and position by the appearance
of a nearer heir also mysteriously announced
by the aforesaid consul all these interesting
stories, retailed to me with perfect faith by
Damoreau, are simply lies. The woman was
taught needlework at some Roman Catholic semi-
nary, and probably cared for, to some extent, by
her father. As to her marriage with Prideaux,
Waud knows nothing. (I think I have heard
it disputed that she was married, and asserted| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seventeen: page two hundred and fourteen |
| Description: | Describes a conversation with William Waud about Mrs. Damoreau. |
| Date: | 1861-09-27 |
| Subject: | Damoreau, Beatrice (Prideaux); Damoreau, Charles (Brown); Gunn, Thomas Butler; House; Marriage; Nolcini; Prideaux; Waud, Alfred; Waud, William; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-06-15 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seventeen |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of the scene in New York at the commencement of the Civil War; his visits to military camps in and around New York City as a reporter for ""The New York Evening Post;"" boarding house living; a bridal reception at the Edwards family's residence in honor of the marriage of Sally Edwards and Thomas Nast; a visit to the Heylyn and Rogers families in Rochester; and his trip to Paris, Ontario, to visit George Bolton and the Conworths. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marriage; Military; Publishers and publishing; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Paris, Ontario, Canada ; Rochester, New York |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
