A Brooklyn Juliet, Part 1: "A Very Unfortunate Affair"

"...it was true, that it is a very unfortunate affair, and appeared so especially to him, as he had known the Hicks family for a long time."

--James M. Hopper, quoted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 1887.

Sarah Hicks was born in Brooklyn in 1863, the fourth child of eight born to Andrew Jackson and Kate (Pelletreau) Hicks. She was the first cousin of my great grandfather Charles Garrett Hicks, who was seven years her senior. One of the ironies of her short life was that she was an actress, for her real life story was as sensational and tragic as any of the plays that she acted in.

Sarah and her sister Marion (b 1859) became amateur actresses, as did many young people in Brooklyn in the 1870s and 1880s (several Barnett cousins acted too); there were many amateur acting companies in the city, and their productions were reviewed and taken seriously, too.

Sarah - also known as Sadie or Sallie - was thought to be a good actress, but poor Marion was not. In December 1883, the Eagle reviewed "Down By the Sea," a "comedy-drama," remarking that "Miss Sadie Hicks...displayed qualities which would make her acceptable on the professional stage. Miss Marion Hicks as the fisherman's daughter rather overacted her part...[and needs] a little more repose of manner."

Sarah and Marion belonged to the Melpomene Dramatic & Social Union in 1884-85. By late 1884, Sarah had also joined the Gilbert Dramatic Society. In November 1884 the Eagle wrote that the Gilbert was lucky to have Sadie Hicks: "The Gilbert is fortunate in securing the services of this little lady who in time will become proficient in the dramatic art." In February 1886 she was singled out again for her "fresh and modest manner," and her lack of affectation.

At the same time that she was acting, Sarah was qualifying to teach school. She was appointed to teach in September 1886 at P.S. 5, where she had a "Tots" class of little girls. She was a good teacher and made "rapid progress," said the principal, Mr. Gallagher. He said that "she made a friend of everybody who had occasion to meet her. Her pupils adored her...I must admit [thought] that at times she appeared to be distraught and acted as though her thoughts were fixed on something far away." Indeed they were. Sarah's life was not going well for her by the mid-1880s, and she had fallen into a severe melancholia - what we now call depression. The New York Times reporter later called it "partial nervous prostration."

The reason for Sarah's unhappiness seems to come straight out of the sort of melodramas that she acted in, but it was absolutely real. Sarah had two suitors, one that she liked (perhaps one of the actors in her dramatic society) - and one that her father Andrew preferred. The Eagle said that the suitor Sarah liked "had incurred her father's displeasure" - but unfortunately they do not specify how he might have done that. And unfortunately for Sarah, her father was as stern and difficult as a stock-character patriarch.

Andrew Jackson "Jack" Hicks had a personality along the lines of those his brothers Lemuel (the temperamental photographer) and Daniel (the man whose son Charles accused of trying to kill Charles - in the same year, 1887, in fact). Not an easygoing person by any means. He was a Jack of all trades, so to speak, who was in different years a pencil case manufacturer, a clerk, a coal dealer, an advertising agent, and - most gloriously, for him - the Supervisor of the 11th Ward of Brooklyn, in the mid-1860s. In 1876, he got into a spot of trouble, while working as a clerk at the Registrar of Arrears, with reference to fudging some election results and possibly taking a bribe for $500 (the subject of a future post, perhaps). It is worth noting here that his lengthy remarks about this case (entitled "Mr. Hicks Vindicates Himself") are both highly indignant and lacking in any remorse. Not the sort of man who would handle a problem with his daughter particularly well.

When Andrew wanted something to happen - or not happen - he liked to see that he got his way. He was adamant about his preference for one of Sarah's gentleman friends. Sarah "was compelled to resort to strategy to meet him. On several occasions her father detected her in her behavior, and family rows resulted. He insisted that she should marry the man of his selection. The girl refused, and her father ordered her to refuse to receive her lover."

She began to meet her suitor going to and from school at this point. Andrew discovered this and began to escort her to and from school himself. "This became so annoying," the Eagle reporter writes, "that Miss Hicks finally refused to continue her labors, and spent most of her time at the home of her brother-in-law, Mr. Masterson." (This would be sometime between January and July of 1887; Marion had married Frank Masterson by July, when they took a trip together as man and wife, and the 1900 census indicates that they had married in that year.)

By July 1887 Sarah was so unhappy that she asked for and was granted a medical leave from teaching school, because of "poor health." She was due back at work in January 1888. She spent the summer of 1887 at Manhasset (the young Mastersons were at Red Bank, New Jersey). Sarah was probably sent to stay with an older aunt who lived in this area, Jane (Hicks) Peters (b 1817).

September 1887 found Sarah still very "melancholic" according to her sister Marion. She was under the care of a Dr. Mielke. By this time, Sarah had moved out of her parents' house entirely and was living with Marion and Frank Masterson at 108 Vernon Avenue, Brooklyn. She was not working, and was not acting much. However, she was due back at School No. 5 on January 1st - and was slated to play the role of Mrs. Benjamin Bibbs in the Gilbert's pre-Christmas production of the comedy "A Quiet Family," which was to open on December 21st.

And then a week and a half before Christmas, something happened...

Tomorrow: A Brooklyn Juliet, Part 2

Sources

"Gossip: A Little Soreness in the Eleventh Ward," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov. 15, 1876, p. 4.
"Melpomene," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 27, 1883, p. 2.
"The Social World," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov. 9, 1884, p. 2.
"The Gilbert," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 7, 1886, p. 4.
"About Brooklyn People," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 11, 1887, p. 2.

[Note: the remaining sources will be cited in Part 2, in order not to reveal the end of the story]

Image from NYPL Digital Gallery -

Notes: Printed on border: "1. The old family bible and other sacred relics. 2. A New England kitchen in days of yore. 3. Old style headgear. 4. The 'Old Guard of New York' at the Centennial reception. 5. A spinning jenny. Brooklyn, L.I. -- The 'Centennial reception' at the Academy of Music, in aid of the 'Brooklyn Maternity,' Tuesday Evening, November 9th." Written on border: "Nov. 27, 1875"
Source Note:From Leslie's monthly magazine. (New York : F. Leslie, 1904-1905.) .
Collection Guide:The Picture Collection of the New York Public Library
Digital Image ID:800692
Digital Record ID:709094
Digital Record Published:10-28-2005; updated 1-16-2008
NYPL Call Number:PC NEW YC-Broo-18