The Surf Queen

Emma Abendschoen began her life as a Brooklyn Emma Woodhouse - and went on to become the Rockaway Beach version of Emma Bovary.

To paraphrase Jane Austen: Emma Abendschoen, handsome, athletic and strong-willed, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. Very little, that is to say, until Alwin Mabius (and some other gentlemen) came into her life.

She was an athletic young woman of 21 - an expert swimmer, living in Sea Cliff, Queens, on the eve of her marriage in 1891. She had "posed as the queen of the surf at Rockaway," the Brooklyn Eagle noted: "In fact, so graceful have been her exploits in toying with the ocean that no swimmer of her sex could approach her by many yards." And she was a charmer on land, too: a wonderful dancer, she "led the grand march" at a Rockaway police benefit ball. And she was flirtatious, too. She lived with her divorced mother Mary, who ran a dry goods shop in Sea Cliff.

Alwin Mabius was a Brooklyn jeweler in his early thirties, more than a decade older than Emma. They probably met when Alwin took a short holiday in Rockaway: many people in New York did, as the railways made it easy to get there from the city. On March 18, 1891, Alwin and Emma were married from her mother's house in Sea Cliff. Emma returned with Alwin to his flat at 712 Sackett Street, Brooklyn, to begin her married life.

That lasted all of six weeks. One night Alwin came home from the jewelry store and found Emma gone. Emma kept in touch with Alwin (through letters and telegraphs only) and said she was renting a cottage at Sea Cliff. That also lasted six weeks, after which she told people at Sea Cliff that she was going to Europe with her husband.

She wasn't, of course.

Alwin went down to the cottage on July 24 to investigate. The furniture was gone as well as Emma - all of it except the piano, and a bureau. Too bad Emma didn't go through the bureau drawers before she left, though. Alwin found a big bundle of spicy letters in the bureau - all addressed to Emma. And they weren't from him. They were from "men well known in Brooklyn, Rockaway and other sections of the island." Alwin heard that Emma was down at Rockaway for the summer, so he then took a little trip there. Almost the first person he ran into was Emma.

"She turned white as a ghost," Alwin told an Eagle reporter. So he went home and began a suit for absolute divorce. Among the persons distressed by the divorce suit (and the gossip) were the members of the Rockaway police force - for one of Emma's suitors was Sergeant John F. Clancy.
And the Eagle published a sensational sampling of the bureau-drawer letters, including Clancy's.

Clancy wrote that he didn't get Emma's letter until late because "the folks neglected to send me the letter" but would she please let him know when they can meet up. Not on July 4th, though, for that was his "bissey day" but if she comes down to the beach they would have a good time. He had been "very bissey in the Jack the Peeper case."*

Another suitor was a Mr. Kroll, a commercial traveler (salesman) who wrote odd letters expressing sympathy for Alwin Mabius and speaking of Kroll's child and his late wife's headstone. The Eagle printed two of Kroll's letters. He sounds confused and sad, for though he speaks of Emma's "lovely photo" in his bedroom he then writes:

I was anticipating having a nice quit [sic] time with you, but my hopes mostly always go wrong...Don't ask me to come any Saturday or Sunday, as I know this is the only time your husband can see you and will not stand in his way. He may properly be in future be your only true friend, so be good to him, for I do believe he dearly loves you. Try and make him happy, poor soul.

In another letter, Kroll tries to break things off with Emma [the spelling is Kroll's]:

When are you coming to New York. I fear it will lead to trouble if I call on you any more in future. I don't beleive you are awere of the risk you are runen by my callen at Your house.

Jack Allen (perhaps Jack the Peeper?) was Emma' favorite boyfriend. He was a little harder to manage than Clancy or Kroll. Emma wrote to Jack asking him to please come back to her. They would open a little store together, or anything he wanted [spelling is Emma's]:

...you know what our past has been and it always looked as though you loved me: why at once have you turned against me so?...What am I to do? Travel as far as posobel for a place or to come back and take a little store and you be my friend again or what is it to be.

Meanwhile Emma had some strong words for Alwin. The letter, quoted in the Eagle in full, is quite amazing. She blames him not only for what he has done (such as complain to her family) but for all of her shenanigans as well. If only he would send her on the Grand Tour, everything would be swell [the spelling is Emma's]:

You can never win my love by talking behind my back. You told my father quite enough about me so that there is trouble in the family...I told you to pay my trip to Europe for a sail and I then would come and be a wife to you, but not a word did you write of that but a lot of crazy talk...If you should oferd to send me to Europe I should of thought of you as good and kind but you said "no come down" an I spose be your slave, instead of a man saying "go and it will be a good nice trip for you." You are not a sensible man or you would work your plans in a nice way, do what you thought would make me happy for the Summer months...Hold your head up and say "I will be good to her while she is mean." She may turn and love me again. Still ever your true wife, EMMA."

As the Eagle noted, Alwin did not want to be good to Emma while she was mean. He was granted an absolute divorce from her in November 1891 - after only eight months of marriage. Aurelia Gillet of 325 East 85th Street, Manhattan, testified. She was Emma's servant in Sea Cliff. She said that Emma got a lot of letters "from Jack Allen, Martin Harris and other men." Aurelia also said that the men visited "very often" and that Emma went away with Jack Allen about twice a week and stayed overnight.

Alwin left Brooklyn sometime in the 1890s and ended up in New Orleans; later on, he lived in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. He married 20 year old Therese Muller, who was half his age, in New Orleans on February 28, 1901.

As for Emma, I don't know (yet) what happened to her. And I promise to write about Jack the Peeper in a future post.

SOURCES

Newspapers:

"A Surf Queen," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug. 24, 1891, p. 4.
"Mabius Will Be Divorced," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov. 1, 1891, p. 15.
"The Queen of the Surf," New York Times, Aug. 25, 1891, p. 8.

Census and Directories:

George and Mary Abendschoen were both living in the 18th Ward of Brooklyn in 1880. Mary (age 45, b Baden) is listed as divorced, quite plainly; George (age 45, b Baden) calls himself a Bachelor, but given that they are in the same ward and the surname is uncommon, I am going to go with the theory that they are Emma's estranged parents. Emma was living with Mary in 1880, age 10, born in New York.

George Abendschoen household, 1880 US Census, Brooklyn Ward 18, Kings, NY; Series T9, Roll 852, #174/375, p. 147 [7 Beaver St, just s. of Flushing Ave. near Bushwick]

Mary Abendschoen household, 1880 US Census, Brooklyn Ward 18, Kings, NY; Series T9, Roll 852, # 14/20, p. 195. [56 Troutman St, near the intersection of Myrtle/Bushwick]

George Abendschoen in 1878 Lain's Brooklyn City Directory, digitized here at Brooklyn Genealogy Information Page. His home address is 104 Suydam St, 2 blocks from 56 Troutman where Mary and Emma were living in 1880. Mary not listed in 1878 directory. Neither listed in 1879-80.

Alwin Mabius household, 1900 US Census, New Orleans City 2nd Precinct Ward 16, New Orleans, LA; Roll T-629_576, #69/73, p. 4A. [Watchmaker, 39y, b Germany, imm. 1879]

Alwin Mabius household, 1910 US Census, Bay St. Louis Ward 2, Hancock, MS; #32/32, Roll T624_739, pp. 15B-16. [Watch Maker, repair shop, age 50, imm. 1880, 2nd marriage, married 10y to wife Theresa 30y b LA, parents b Germany]

New Orleans, Louisiana Marriage Records Index at Ancestry Library Edition: Alvin Mabius married to Theresa Muller, Feb. 28, 1901, Vol. 22, p. 848.

Images:

Boardwalk at Rockaway Beach, ca 1890-1900, NYCL Digital Gallery
Sheet music cover, "Don't Go In the Water, Daughter" (1908), NYCL Digital Gallery