NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Molineux, Maria A. Alice Alice Alice Boston, Sept. 7, 1885 Dear Alice: I should be happy to have you come to spend the afternoon and evening with me on Thursday next. I have to go to the dentist in the morning, but shall expect to see you when I return, at twelve (12) o'clock. I am spending a few days in Salem now, but I see that I have dated my letters "Boston". Hoping to see you on Thursday, Yours in heart, M. A. Meal Binghamton Oct 6,1878 N.Y. Dear Alice I think it is about time to answer your letter of June 30, however you have no doubt been busy and probably if I had written you would not have answered and I might only have bored you, for I have had nothing to write about. However that may be - I hope you will be interested enough in my affairs, to sympathize with me in my troubles which are few but very heavy at present. To begin - you know that last spring my brother was sick and was sent up in the country for his health - well he didn't stay as long as Mr. Watson had decided upon in consequence of Mr. W's going to Europe, So Al came to New York in the latter part of July to take care of the store while his guardian was away. At that time he wrote me that he was perfectly well, and now a week ago last Thursday night I got a letter from him saying he was very ill - and was to sail for the south of France on Monday. You cannot imagine how I felt - It didn't take me long to put some things together and start for New York Friday night - at 11 o'clock - reached New York 7.15 in the morning - Al was at the depot to meet me - in answer to my telegram. I didn't fall upon his bosom and weep - but I felt like it - he hardly looked as if he could support himself. He was very glad to see me - We had a great deal to do to get him ready - Mr. Watson and I. for my boy couldn't do much but sit and look on. He sailed on Tuesday - and is to be gone six months. I let him go with-out a tear - while he was in eight, but it seemed as if my heart would break. Ah! Alice you can never know how hard it is to see anyone (dearer to you than [*Molineaux*] your own life, sailing away out of your reach - and knowing it is for life or death - and to be told [it] (or rather hear it whispered) It is the last hope, and now for two months I cannot know if he is better or worse. I try hard not to fret - hoping it will be better with him. Mr. Watson was almost in despair to have to let him go - and strong man as he is - he cried like any child when Al. said goodbye. Tell your Mamma I have a great deal more respect for Mr. Watson than I have ever had before. Alice, dear-Lou will think this is a strange letter and perhaps I am selfish in writing so to you - but I am so unhappy and could not help it. [*With much love to all, I am your friend. Ada.*] M A Molineux Dear Alice, On this season I think of the friends we no longer see and I wonder if they know what has happened here! After all the struggle of your parents and their comrades, when we all felt "sometime, in His Good Time" yet baffled worked on some of us say fainthearted, of a sudden that long denied gift arrived. And I think none of us but was a little surprised at the last. It seems a dream that we voted in Presidential Election in 1920! And also in city-Election. Thanks be to the pioneers! And thanks to you who carried on the work that dropped from their hands on the call to a higher plane. May the new year be full of blessings, hearth, peace, prosperity, is my prayer for you, Affectionately, Maria Ada Molineux 63 Ocean Street Lynn, Massachusetts 12/29/20 EASTER GREETINGS It's good to be alive to-day With Easter skies above With friendly flowers to nod and sway And kindly folks to love 2810 Napoleon Avenu New Orleans, Louisiana Just a loving posting as I am starting for Kansas City to speak to the Browning Daily. Shall return to N.O. in a week but not to Massachusetts until July. I hope you are in health and prospering. Love from Marie Ada Molineux 1930 Broadview Manor Wilton, Connecticut 6/10/28. Dear Alice, Although I would like to give you credit for sending me to see her, it seems unwise both for your sake and hers to stress your interest. She would be writing to you very constantly and also the fact of your vivid interest would stir her up when calm is what she needs. When she is 2. physically and nervously a little stronger; then we can tell her all the true story of her illness and of your especial efforts to help her. I am thankful you made it possible for me to see her and I am much relieved in mind as to her present and future and it has been an enormous help up hill for her to see me and unburden her mind to me and be reassured by me in regard to many points. Within the last three months she has gained very greatly and I think with the impetus my visit has given her, combined with the increasing warmth of the weather, she will go on gaining. I had a long, confidential talk with her own physician and am convinced that she has been more ill than she realises but has passed almost completely out of that stage and he has hopes of her being able later to stand the tests satisfactorily and 3. be put in possession of her property. There are documents collected and kept that would show that she was scattering her money in a way foreign to her nature and when questioned by the judge she asserted she had in a certain bank thousands of dollars when the judge had under his hand her cancelled cheques in quantity dissippating it. This she was not told for fear of over-excitement. Four doctors agreed she needed temporary protection and while some people agreed a disinterested party should have been made conservator, it is 4. decided to keep the affair in the family. The trouble goes back sixty or more years, the family never was united nor affectionate, even the mother complained neither her children nor her husband petted and spoiled her! The eldest daughter felt out of place, above the others and the others were jealous of her and every last one was anxious to get every cent of money possible by inheritance. There were so many discussions that She had little to do with any 5 member of the family of late years except this youngest brother. I have concluded he means all right and acts roughly (he is a political "boss") and has neither patience nor affection only a feeling of "family." She has a firm belief in annuities that never have I been able to disturb and that has increased. If she had her way now, she would sink everything in another annuity which of course would leave nothing to her heirs and must affect their point of view. What she has needed was sympathy and affection and understanding and she has been met with stark amazement and bewilderment when she quoted at long length from the Vedas, from Freud, Jung, Schopenhauer and others. I think her now as sane as ever she was but always she has been too self-centered and introspective. Evidently from the fall, two years ago each March, in Nassau, there was a slight brain lesion, a bit of presence that seems to be 6. clearing up, as well as the [same?] injury to the base of the spine. The doctor thinks she is doing well and she has confidence in him - as much as in anyone - and feels now it would be better to stay here awhile longer to be under his care altho' she wishes to go eventually to the Melrose (Wyoming?) Sanitarium. She has had courage put in to her by being assured she is likely after a while to be put in possession again of her property. She has been in such a state of fear, doubt, impiety, dread, suspense, that she has hardly 7. dared breathe, was afraid to go to sleep at night for fear of some [?puted] calamity. Last night, partly because I was here and had encouraged her she slept from mid-evening until she awoke in the early am! But regularly now she gets five or six hours, a great improvement. Her nerves were so scared that she was afraid of everything and suspicious of everything and everybody. 8. I have been putting bits together, accidental speeches of herself and everybody I met, collating and corroborating, taking nothing absolutely without reservations. But I think she should shut off from her mind as completely as possible the past and thus gain strength for now and later. And she should be tidied along without a lawyer until her nerves are stronger her physical condition nearer normal. A year ago she weighed 74 lbs; she she weighs 106 1/2, a splendid change. So I will not bother Mrs. Parritt any further, she accomplished much in many ways, made the people see an eye was upon them (altho' I think they meant well, only seem Germanly in [?] and superficial in grasp of the situation! I will write to tell you further later, if you wish. I have spent very little and shall have a lot to return. My head is a little tired with the whirl and since I am so near I conclude to go on to New York to see a friend for a few days before returning to Boston. Clare insists upon my being her guest here and the people say her brother said to let her have anything within reason. The charge is $6. a day! All meals on trays A lonely house but out in the wilds. I would go crazy here! That is, if I could lift my head from my pillow. Yours with love Marie Ada Molineux [*MA Molineux*] [*Marie Molineux*] Boston. Aug. 17, 1874. Dear Alice: Enclosed you will find some "lilac chains", which I hope will please you. Will you come in and spend Friday and Saturday of this week with me? Mother and Mamma join me in hoping that you will find it convenient to come. If any engagement prevents, please let me know of two or three days when you will be at liberty. I can safely promise that Arthur will not interrupt us, for he is in New Hampshire. Now please come Friday morning before ten o'clock and excuse this short letter from Yours affectionately, Mamie. Lilac Chains "Let'us make a necklace of the lilac flower. The sun will not be setting yet for full an hour; All that lilacs know of song, and stars and showers shall be surely threaded on this chain of ours. Beads of white and purple - pearls and amethyst - Rains have dripped upon them, happy winds have kissed; Slipping through our fingers on this pretty string, Sha'n't we catch the magic of the early spring? Catch the bluebird's whistle and the robin's cheer, Catch the trick of blooming with the blooming year, Catch the frolic spirit of the minds that bring Over miles of country bring hints of blooming? Amber may be fragrant, so is sandal-wood, But I wouldn't change them, even if I could; Alone! am I dreaming? Twenty years have passed Since I strung a necklace of the lilacs last! "Harpers Bazar" Have you read, "In mariage excentrique" by Luigi Geraldo? I think it would amuse you. Also, "La victoire du Mari," by Gaston de Varemes. You would find "Folle Avoine" by Mad. Grenile an interesting been so easy for an American as for a Frenchman to wind up the story. Hoping you will soon be yourself again in strength, I am Yours with love, Marie A. Molineux [*M A Molineux*] [*M*] MARIE ADA MOLINEUX 2605 PRYTANIA STREET NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Dear Alice, This is to say I hope your birthday will, is, full of pleasant surprises and expressions of appreciation and that the opening year will contain health and strength and comfort. The change to Cambridge rather surprises me can he think it a nice location. My dear friend Mrs. Locke is at 8 Plympton Street and enjoys the literary advantages so freely open to all interested. I fear your removal has over-fatigued you, for I realize the difficulties especially Jon said you would like to see the newsprint picture, so I enclose it. The eyes have not that intensity of stare nor such blueness about them. In the oils the colors are rather brilliant. We remain at this address for one more year. M.A.M. for one with so many interests as you and such a collection of material. But I hope you make it as easy for yourself as possible. It was kind of you to send me your tribute to your cousin. I remember her from the earlier days when I used to visit your household. One misses sorely those so intimately associated with the past but is glad of their release. And also one no longer has the loving cares to tax and pleasure one at the same time. New surroundings will be easier for you and I trust you will find them agreeable. It is very warm still here, but the nights are cooler. Lilian Whiting hopes to come here in December, but may not. With all good wishes I am yours most affectionately Maria Ada Molineux THE TIMES-PICAYUNE NEW ORLEANS STATES, SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 1936 RATURE an THE PORTRAIT of Dr. Marie Ada Molineux, Browning authority, by Nell Pomeroy O'Brien, which was recently added to the Browning library and collection at Baylor university, is shown above. THE TIMES-PICAYUNE NEW ORLEANS STATES, SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 1936 Named Manager of New Goodrich Store in City –Photo by the Times-Picayune. A.E. MILLER is the manager of Goodrich Silvertown Store No. 2, whose recent opening at 8242 Oak street, corner of Dante street, was announced Saturday by S.F. Chase, manager of the No. 1 store at 800 Camp street and supervisor of the new shop. The stores carry complete lines of Goodrich tires, tubes, batteries and accessories, using a budget plan with no money down. Eddie Blanchard is salesman for the new store. BIBLE SETS RECORD (By The Associated Press) Shanghai, June 13.–Missionary societies in China sold 83,389 Bibles last year, a new record, while more than 2,000,000 religious tracts were put into circulation. The China agency of the American Bible Society has distributed 75,000,000 volumes of Scripture in 60 years. CHEVROLET ENDS GREAEST NINETY DAYS ON RECORD Officials Announce Delivery of 389,556 Units in Three Months (Special to The Times-Picayune) Detroit, Mich., June 13–Chevrolet dealers rounded out the greatest three months in the history of the motor company by delivering 129,816 new cars and trucks in May, W. E. Holler, vice-president and general sales manager, announced today. May sales were the highest on record, exceeding those for the highest for the fifth month of the year, previous May, that of 1928, by 7379 units. The company's sales in April established a new all-time high for any month of any year, and the totals for March and for May approached that high point so closely as to concentrate within the past 90 days all three of Chevrolet's biggest months. Total sales for that period were 389,556 units, bringing the total for the year to date, from January 1, to 535,634. May used car sales by Chevrolet dealers set an all-time high of 229,223 units, Mr. Holler announced, resulting in a substantial decline in the stocks on hand and contributing to the outlook for heavy new unit volume in June. A.M. Molineux [*M*] Marblehead, Massachusetts 62 Nahant Street, Lynn Massachusetts. 9/27/30 Dear Alice, I send you my heartiest congratulations upon your completion of a labor of love, your biography of your mother. Her memory is one of my most cherished possessions and I am glad the present generation may learn of her life, trials, happinesses and successes and of how much we all now owe to her pioneering reform spirit. Yours affectionately Marie Ada Molineux no reply is needed. "TUCKER'S WHARF" Dear Alice, These are the facts as near as I have been able to gather them from Clare's letters. They came piecemeal and some only after I had suggested an idea or asked a question and not always are my queries answered. The conditions are enough to disturb her mind greatly with worry and helpless unhappiness , so I am not always troubled at some inconsequence shown in her letters. Just before I went to Europe in 1926 I saw her in New York and was shocked at the wreck but hoped she would improve. She had had a bad fall in Nassau and had come North for the summer and to plan her affairs. She had become fearfully deaf and had an old-fashioned ear-tube instead of one of the more successful modern appliances [ones]. She wished me to try to sell for her her Nassau cottage , but if I had any skill that way I could not use it when I was sailing in about twenty-four hours. While I was in Venice she wrote to ask if I would say longer and meet her and take her to Vienna to see Dr. Sigmund Freud for she thought Psycho-analysis would restore her health. I wrote I would if possible but I heard that Freud was dead and that there were doctors using his methods nearer than Vienna. I heard no more for some time . It seems that through Henry Buck and his wife , Prof. Buck's son , she took an apartment for awhile in New York , so she might be more comfortable than at the Martha Washington. Then she went to Connecticut where she often went , near her brother KingWilliam Mansfield , Head of the city , or rather town-government of Westport , who always had seemed friendly ; although the brothers and sisters never were particularly fond of her ; we used to think them jealous of her. I never have learned just how it happened that she stayed so long in Connecticut this time , but it looks as if she was not well in New York and her brother King William , suggested her goring where she had been in other years , to Dr. And Mrs. Cram. The winter was severe and she needs much heat and the Crams did not provide sufficient. One day ( she wrote me ) she was desperate and started out to walk , although her spine troubled her severely after her fall , in search of a warmer boarding-place and met her brother who suggested this Broadview Manor,in Wildon. So she went there. After awhile she found it not agreeable and last summer she wrote me after I had returned that she found herself in a terrible plight and it almost drove her crazy because she was under Court-orders and her brother was appointed Conservator of her property. She was to see the Judge on such a date and would I come on and go with her? The letter , as many of the first ones after I returned , was not posted in time for me to do anything and several letters never reached me . Now there seem to be no trouble about her correspondence with me , for I have written sharply about it , but for some time her letters to me and some of mine to her were never delivered or were mailed so long after writing that they caused her much anxiety and trouble. She was anxious to publish her Jahweh book properly and asked my help. I have interviewed publishers but 2. some had been primed already and others said there was possibility of a lawsuit with the firm that had started to publish and with whom she had had rightful indignatiin and with whom she had broken , receiving all the loose sheets and the like , before her last winter in Nassau. An old friend a Boston Lawyer , WilliamEWaterhouse , (I think it is 50 State Street ) came to see her and has written to her several wise letters but evidently is impressed by the smooth reasoning of her brother , however he does think she would be happier in some other sanatarium , such as the one in Melrose that is Vegetarian. She is a rabid vegetarian , for more exclusive than I am , and the ordinary table of such a Sanatarium as the one where she is does not give her proper food to suit her liking so they charge for extras , like Mellin's Food , and run up the charges for her board. As near as I can understand, the family has united to put her under control , because she bought one annuity (fourteen hundred dollars a year) and they were afraid she would alienate more of her capital and possibly will it away from them. The family now consists of a Brother Frank (in Pennsylvania , I think ) the daughter, (Mrs. Lester Chisholm of Melrose Highlands ) of her younger sister who has died recently of paralysis, and who (Mrs. Chisholm) was Conservator for her mother . At first Clare thought King William was the only mover in the affair but has concluded they combined , as I feel sure they must in order to get control of her. She has sent me a list of her property so far as she can remember , but her brother took forcibly all her papers and of course under the circumstances none of the banks will reply to her letters , except the Old Colony Trust that was very courteous and agreed it would be willing to take charge of her property for her , could she legally give it to [their] its care. She has enough but her brother says the income is not sufficient and he must dip into the principal to make her comfortable. He wrote me several letters but found me implacably on her side, so stopped. He is very suave . He is the intimate friend of the Judge. Before this affair I heard from people living in his neighborhood that he and a certain lawyer "ran the town" and not always for the comfort of the townspeople as a whole. She was born in Massachusetts , has property in the Bahamas ( unless he has sold it ) also in New Hampshire but I think now has no real estate in Masschusetts that being the state she would elect. She would like to get to Europe so as to be beyond the jurisdiction of her family and wished to accompany her and would make over property to me if I could take care of her. This would be impossible under the present conditions and she did not then realise her helplessness. She has gained in health and Dr. Cram signs a report that she is better and he promised he would see the Judge and try to free her when she had progressed somewhat further. Her brother says she has , according to the doctors , senile dementia , progressive. I see her as no different from earlier days , only weaker and sometimes dazed by the trouble. Because she is interested in Buddhism, in vegetarianism , in various reform movements her 3. mind is considered to be out of order by those who have diametrically opposed opinions. She tried to get hold of a Connecticut Lawyer , remended by the Old Colony , but without success ; I think she had no reply . But letters or any communications at first were subject to the hands of other people and just how much was ordered by her Conservator I cannot judge. I am sure that the laws of Connecticut would require a native lawyer conversant with them . Just what "domicile" or residence she can claim is a bit of a puzzle to me , but I should think she might apply to Massachusetts as the birth-state even if she has lived most of the time in the Bahamas where the warm climate has suited her. She says the list of her property turned in to the Court by her brother is far less than she is sure she possessed. If you see any way to help her I would gladly cooperate to the extent of my power. At first she begged me to come to see her , would pay my expenses , but I was so situated I could not at the time and also I could not go out of my own purse and felt sure she could not get any money to use for such a purpose. This is one of the times when I wish I could have saved more from the wreck or else had a larger income, but I have to count every cent and cannot do as I would although I look prosperous ! I need to earn , but as you know , the world has changed and what I can do is not on demand to any great extent. Please excuse this long letter but I felt you should have all the knowledge I have been able to glean. If she were free she could board within the annuity for I have several invalid friends who have no larger an income.And Mrs. Welsh , my friend here , would take her and do for her for that sum , but better still would be the Melrose sanitarium where she really would like to go. If there is anything I have not made plain I will be glad to explain. Yours affectionately Marie Ada Molineux 62 Nahant Street , Lynn , Massachusetts April 18 , 1938. I should have replied more promptly but was away from home. Marie Ada Molineux 62 Nahant Street Lynn,Massachusetts. No. 27. [*July 8/93 w col*] MISS MARIE ADA MOLINEUX, PH. D., of Boston, who has prepared a paper on Roman Archaeology at the request of the committee for the Philological Congress at Chicago, has been invited by its president, Sir Henry Gould, Bart., to become a Fellow of the Society of Science, Letters and Art, of London. This Society makes no distinction to the disfavor of women. DR. MOLINEUX, 82, DIES IN SOUTH [*Boston Herald*] Noted Authority on Robert Browning Lived Many Years in Boston [*5-16-38*] NEW ORLEANS. May 15 (AP)-- Dr. Marie Ada Molineux, 82, noted as an authority on the works of Robert Browning, died today of a heart attack in her apartment. Born in California, Dr. Molineux lived many years in Boston and had been a member and officer in the Boston Browning Society since 1885. She was a writer and lecturer on the English poet's writings. She has resided here since 1934. Dr. Molineux edited a Browning phrase book and several years ago presented a colection of manuscripts and first editions to Baylor University, Waco, Texas. She was interested also in bacteriology and during the World war was head of a pathological laboratory at a Lynn, Mass., hospital. Burial will be in Boston. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.