The Scandalous Divorce - Part V

Unbeknownst to Lillian, on April 15th at the U.S. Consulate in Callao, Peru, Minister Christiancy signed a bill of divorce, witnessed by the then U.S. Consul, R.T. Clayton.

Nearly a month later (May 13th), the Washington Post reported that the "long-threatened" divorce suit had been filed a day earlier in Equity Court, but it wasn't until May 28th that details were published:

HIS SUIT: Christiancy claimed he had been faithful as a husband and executed his duties; that no "live" child had issued from marriage. That on or about December 25th, 1879, Mrs. Christiancy had committed adultery at the DC-based St. James Hotel with a Mr. Edelberto Giro, according to the name he had signed on the hotel register--all this without the Senator’s knowledge or consent.

He also charged that both before and after she left him in Peru the previous November, Lillian had committed adultery with various other person on various other occasions.

HER COUNTER BILL:

About the only part of Mr. Christiancy's bill of suit that was truthful, answered Lillian, were the basic facts of their date of marriage and separate residences. No, she said, her husband did not keep his wedding vows or execute his duties and obligations as a husband, as he’d vowed.

As a matter of fact, she said she suffered from constant pain because of her husband's "wilfull neglect" in failing to provide adequate medical care during an "illness" which "prevented any issue from the marriage being born alive." Furthermore, she denied having cheated with Edel Giro at St. James Hotel -- or with anyone else.

Lillian claimed she had been forced to leave Peru because she feared for her life. She said though her husband was now earning $10,000 a year and owned valuable property in Michigan, he had not given her any financial support.

Her statement detailed his alleged abuse: In March of 1877, while in Lansing, he struck her and she fell on the floor--and that her own mother had witnessed the event.

In August of 1878, Lillian said that her doctor had ordered her to take a trip to Healing Springs in Bath County, Virginia (the present-day Homestead Resort). There, she claimed that her husband had conspired to put her in " a false and suspicious position" with one or more male guests at the spa.

On the 28th or 29th of December, 1878, said Lillian, Isaac hit her against a door and threatened that if she ever tried to leave her, he would bribe witnesses to impugn her character.

Finally, Lillian charged that in Peru during late September of 1879, while under influence of opium and liquor, her husband threatened to kill her, saying "If I had a revolver, I’d blow your brains out right now." He then choked her so hard that his hands left impressions on her throat. She ran out of their house and stayed in the yard until someone could accompany her into the house. That night, she was forced to stay in a hotel.

The next day, her husband apologized so fiercely that she decided to return to the Legation house. But the next morning, he came to her bedside and abused [read: raped] her in a "most shameful and indecent manner," bruising her arms, and she was consequently suffering from a great pain in her side. Again, a month later, he attacked her, using vile language. Lillian claimed she ran to the sitting room. He followed and tried to choke her. She screamed, and "someone" came in and escorted her from the house.

She also stated that Christiancy had failed to get her medical attention during the separate premature deliveries of two babies. As a result, she was permanently injured.

In her cross suit, Lillian was not only asking for divorce, but also alimony. A motion was filed about giving her an allowance and paying for her legal feels and would be heard the following Tuesday in court.

Christiancy's attorney, E. Chase Ingersoll, did not contest this request, but stipulated that his client was only willing to support her in the manner in which she had been living before they met.

Lillian's attorney, John Oliver, said no, that Lillian was entitled to live according to her husband's standard of living.

Finally, the Post reported that Mr. Christiancy was considering filing an additional bill outlining further infidelities on the part of his wife, which the Senator had kindly dropped from the original bill, wanting to spare her embarrassment. His attorney suggested that if the plaintiff were to name names, these would be considered particeps criminis—that is, accomplices to a crime.


©Cecily Hilleary, 2009.

The Scandelous Divorce, Part IV

March 1880 saw the beginning of a media war hitherto unparalleled; rarely was the public allowed such an intimate and titillating view into the workings of a bad marriage. Reporters, encouraged by increased circulation, scrambled to interview not only Lillian, but all her family and friends, as well as members of Minister Christiancy's camp. The ex-Senator remained in Peru where he was, in theory, preoccupied with the newly-erupted War of the Pacific. However, he managed to send regular dispatches back to Washington on the war between himself and his estranged wife.

March 19th, a day after news of the divorce leaked to the Washington papers, the New York Times published its own account of the marriage gone bad; "A remarkable story, if true," read the byline.

A day earlier, Christiancy had suggested his wife had been unfaithful to him. Now, Lillian made an explosive counter-allegation: That the former Senator had actually sold his Senate seat to his former political rival, Zachariah Chandler.

Lillian's Story:

It was the Fall of 1878, said Lillian. The couple were still living in Lansing where her husband, Isaac, was first beginning to entertain thoughts of leaving the Senate and accepting a diplomatic post abroad. Zachariah Chandler paid a call to their home.

Chandler had served as Mayor of Detroit from 1851-52 and had served as Senator for three terms until defeated by Christiancy in 1874.

Lillian claimed that her husband and his guest withdrew to another room and began a conversation that her stepson Victor overheard and later related to her.

At that meeting, Chandler told the old Senator he had gone to Washington to speak with President Rutherford B. Hayes, and that the "matter pending between them was all right." Chandler said that the President was offering Christiancy posts in either Peru or Central America--possibly even Japan. Chandler, said Lillian, advised Christiancy to accept Central America, where life was so quiet that Christiancy would not be tempted to spend his money.

The two gentlemen paced as they talked. In a long conversation, they discussed routes and alternatives for travel; finally, they got around to discussing money--a lump sum that Chandler would pay Christiancy as a "bonus for his retirement." Lillian said they did not discuss an amount but that it was clear that whatever it was, they had already agreed on it. Christiancy told Chandler to send the money to his adult son Henry, then living in Detroit. Finally, Mr. Christiancy said, “Then we shall call this a settlement and asked Chandler to pledge "that no other human soul" would ever hear about the matter. Unaware that Victor was still eavesdropping from the adjacent room, Chandler answered, "No, how can they?"

According to Lillian, Christiancy had physically abused her almost from the start of their marriage. Early on, while they were still in Washington, the couple had lived across the street from Lillian's mother. Once, after the couple had words over his sons, Lillian went across the street to spend the night at her mother's house. This apparently enraged the Senator so much that he put his hands around her throat, choked her, then locked her into her bedroom.

Another time, said Lillian, after an argument over a cleaning women he had hired for her, the Senator struck her and knocked her over.

But the real abuse supposedly began in Peru, when the Senator read a letter which his son Victor had written Lillian and realized that both his son and wife knew about his deal with Zachariah Chandler. Old Isaac, said she, went ballistic--he threatened her, he struck her, he monitored her every move, afraid that she would tell someone his dirty secret.

Events culminated, said she, one day at the legation, when her husband struck her in front of a visitor, Mr. George Haight. He was jealous of Haight, said Lillian, believing the latter paid far too much attention to his wife.

Lillian left the residence that day. Christiancy refused to pay for her passage home, so she borrowed money from some friends and sailed back to the United States. Since that time, she said, her husband hadn't given her a penny.

She would have filed for divorce first, she said, but her lawyer, a Mr. Davidge, told her she was not entitled to, since she had continued living with violence, thus condoning it.

Lillian said she had hoped everything would settle down and the couple could get a quiet and amicable divorce. But now that "Senator Christiancy's friends have begun an attack upon her," she had no choice but to defend her honor.

Attacks and counter-attacks peppered national newspapers for a week:

March 22, 1880, The Oshkosh Daily: Ex-Senator Christiancy's son Victor says Lillian's story about his having overheard the conversation between his father and Senator Chandler was a lie; furthermore, Mr. Christiancy has evidence that will most certainly earn him his divorce.

March 22,1880, The Bangor Daily Whig and Courier: Reports from Washington say that Lillian's friends say Christiancy is an "opium eater" and "wife beater." His friends say she tells these public stories to gain sympathy before he can get to town with proof of her infidelity and obtain a divorce. Christiancy denies selling his Senate seat to Chandler. Though he admits that it is true--Chandler did buy some real estate from him, knowing about Christiancy’s "pecuniary embarrassments."

March 27, 1880, Atchinson Kansas' Little Globe: Mrs. Christiancy is a "wicked and vindictive little vixen." But at the same time, wonders whether there isn't some truth to the Senate scandal. ..."we are willing to bet that if the truth were known, she has done no more lying than her husband and step-son."

March 27, The New York Times: News of Mrs. Christiancy's statements have already reached Mr. Christiancy, who eagerly tells his version of the events leading to his wife's departure from Peru. His friends tell the press that when his wife first came to Peru, she arrived "under the protection" of Mr. George Haight, a family man who resided in Peru. Christiancy thanked Mr. Haight for watching over his wife and told him to drop by the legation any time.

Haight, as a matter of fact, did. Frequently. Too frequently for Mr. Christiancy's tastes, paying altogether too much attention to his wife. Christiancy admitted that he "did have a scene did have a scene with his wife," but only after having walked into his parlour to find his wife in Haight’s arms. He also confessed to another "
"scene" when he found a letter written by his son Victor to his wife, happened when he found a letter from Victor, his son, to his wife, in which son "expressed himself more ardently than a step son should."

Oh, no! cried Mrs. Christiancy. Here's how it really happened. She and Mr. Haight had been sitting at a round table in the legation salon. Lillian reached across Mr. Haight's resting arm for a book, when all of a sudden, the minister entered the room, grew angry and created "the memorable knock-down scene."

Lillian admitted there had been a letter from Victor, but said that it only contained a reference to the Chandler payoff. She admitted that yes, Victor had expressed his great admiration of her, but denied that she had ever encouraged him.

As for her relationship to Mr. Haight, she insisted it would bear up to "close scrutiny." She had met him on the steamer while en route to Peru. As she travelled without a maid or companion (e.g., Christiancy had been too cheap to pay for one), she was vulnerable to the unwanted attentions of a certain insolent "Spaniard." Mr. Haight had merely stepped in to protect her. She claimed that her husband was merely jealous of his young wife.

©Cecily Hilleary, 2009.

The Scandalous Divorce, Part III

In summer of 1876, Christiancy took his wife to live in his former home in Lansing, Michigan, where they would remain for two years. Living with them were Christiancy’s five sons—-four of whom were already grown. The fifth son, George, then thirteen years old, became fond of her, she would later say. But the older four had drinking problems and battled each other constantly.

Aside from an "inexperienced servant girl" of fifteen, Mrs. Christiancy had no domestic help and had to do all the cooking, cleaning and mending. She begged her husband to move them into a separate house. He promised to do so.

Early in 1878, Christiancy began to hint that he was "indifferent" to his seat as a Senator and would gladly give it up if offered a position in the foreign service. His friends in Lansing stated publicly that he was in ill health and believed that a tropical climate might be beneficial. But those closest to him knew about his marital woes and believed he wanted to get as far from Washington as he could in tear his wife away from her assorted suitors--and avoid public disgrace.

In the early weeks of 1879, rumors hit the press that Senator Christiancy was set to resign and accept a post as Ambassador to Peru. It was widely assumed that ex-Senator, ex mayor of Detroit, ex-Secretary of the Interior (under Ullyses Grant) Zachariah Chandler would take his seat in the Senate—a seat he’d lost to Christiancy four years earlier.

Newspapers reported that Christiancy had been offered posts in either Berlin or Lima—he told reporters in early February that though he hadn’t yet made up his mind, he tended to favor the drier climate of Peru to that of Germany. “We are led to believe,” quipped a New York Times reporter, ‘that Lima is even a drier spot than the United States Senate Chamber.

Christiancy formally resigned the senate on February 10th, and the election of a new Senator was set for the following Tuesday. Interestingly, he denied to an interviewer the possibility that his decision to resign had been influenced by Chandler or anyone else. In fact, he stressed, he had gone out of his way to avoid talking to Chandler or any other member of the legislature, “in order that I might not be accused of tampering with their votes or influence.” He was going for the reasons he’d earlier stated: A change of climate that might be influential to his ailing health—and a higher salary.

His failing health had been noted: In its 17 January, 1879 issue, the Atlanta Constitution said he was growing very old, very fast. The paper noted he paced the floor behind Senators’ chairs, hands clasped under his coat tails--“They say there is trouble on the old man’s mind.”

Ah, yes, money. As a Senator, Christiancy was earning $7,500 a year. As an envoy to Peru, he would earn another $2,500 a year—bringing his total earnings to $10,000.

22 Feb. 1879, the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern reported that Mrs. Christiancy had been seen at the British minister’s the Thursday night before. The writer's impression was that she was very sweet and looked much younger than her age: "She wore a plain black silk. It is said that old Romeo Christiancy is awfully stingy and won't let his young wife have a cent to spend. Perhaps he has concluded that she married him for his money and is therefore giving her a terrible punishing. She looks as if she hates him. I dare say she does—for in such mercenary matches, when the financial prop gives way the fabric of connubial happiness must "go best"--there’s no help for it."

A month later, the former Senator was on his way by the steamer Colon to Panama; in July 1879, Mrs. Christiancy set sail on the same steamer to join her husband.

Four months later, Mrs. Christiancy left Peru and returned to Washington without her husband and moved back into her mother's house at 4th and D Streets, NW. Publicly, she blamed her return on the war between Peru and Chile. The so-called War of the Pacific, which began in 1879, was a conflict between Chile and the joint forces of Bolivia and Peru arising from disputes over the control of territory that was rich in the valuable mineral saltpeter.

On March 18,1880, the Washington Post published an article hinting that ex-Senator Christiancy and his wife were fighting a war of their own, "arising from incompatibility of temper and the disparity of their ages."

The article went on to say that certain actions on the part of Mrs. Christiancy were raising eyebrows, and that her husband, the Minister, would shortly be coming back to America himself--having "good and sufficient grounds to file for divorce against his wife.

Given the right of reply, Lillian was indignant and told the press that her husband was merely trying to forestall her own action for divorce; that he had been cruel to her in their marriage and when she could no longer take it, she left, in spite of her husband's threats to "crush her."

This was the beginning of a media storm that would shock and titillate readers across the nation for the next three and a half years. Stay tuned for Part IV.

©Cecily Hilleary, 2009. Photo, courtesy of Bob Edwards and the Canal Zone Cyber Museum, http://www.czimages.com/default.htm.

The Scandalous Divorce of Isaac Christiancy, Part II

The tongues of rumor, not just in Washington but across the nation, were wagging. No one could quite accept that the marriage between Senator Christiancy and his young bride, Lillian Lugenbeel, was a love-match.

Perhaps no paper had more fun mocking the May-December marriage than the Atlanta Constitution: "Now when Senator Christiancy comes home and slings his hat in a corner and asks for his 'ootsey tootsie wifey pifey,' the nurse says 'Shoo, don't make a noise, she’s teething!"

Within a week or two of the marriage, The Atlanta Constitution summed up general sentiments: "Senator Christiancy has six children, but every woman knows that his new wife will get every cent of his millions. They are acquainted with each other, these women."

It also jabbed at Lillian's family: "Her 'stalwart' relatives in the state are tired of all the publicity."

It also reported that a certain young Georgia man who Lillian had jilted to marry Christiancy was planning on hanging around Washington until she became a widow and "got her thirds." And it quipped, "Now when Senator Christiancy comes home and slings his hat in a corner and asks for his 'ootsey tootsie wifey pifey,' the nurse says 'Shoo, don't make a noise, she’s teething!"

Across the country, other papers were having a field day:

TheHelena Independent quipped, "Mrs. Christiancy frequently remarks to the Senator that he looks quite young, quite young. At first, this was rather pleasant; but the old gentleman begins to think it ought to be a recognized fact instead of a bit of special information; and has already intimated as much."

The Oshkosh Daily northwestern reported that Mrs. Christiancy had been seen at the British Ambassador's residence a few nights earlier: "It is said that old Romeo Christiancy is awfully stingy and won't let his young wife have a cent to spend," reads the notice. "Perhaps he has concluded that she married him for his money and is therefore giving her a terrible punishing. She looks as if she hates him. I dare say she does—for in such mercenary matches, when the financial prop gives way, the fabric of connubial happiness must 'go best'-- there’s no help for it.'

Alas, according to one author, Washington was gay--"and in this round of inconsiderate pleasure the young wife found some respite from her care, and partial compensation for the mouldy, musty caresses she was compelled to receive...

Within a month after their marriage, the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern reported that the lovely Ms. Lugenbeel had been seen at Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art wearing a plum colored suit “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Light kid gloves and a white felt hat trimmed with white feathers and long streamers completed the ensemble. The paper reported that the Senator wasn’t present that evening. Instead, Mrs. Christiancy strolled arm in arm with her brother, "promenading and never stopping to look at any of the pictures! She was remarkably talkative and vivacious to her brother, "which," the writer asked, "is rather an unusual thing, is it not?"

©Cecily Hilleary, 2009.

Apology

Quondam Washington recently suffered a series of mishaps which have necessitated her taking an absence from research...She would like to reassure her readers she will return, stronger than ever, with more stories from the Capital Past...

The Scandalous Divorce of Isaac Christiancy - Part I

It wasn’t as if anyone took the marriage seriously from the beginning. He—-Isaac Christiancy--was a sixty-four year old Senator, ex- state supreme court justice, widow and father of anywhere from six to ten children, depending on what sources you read. She—Lillie Lugenbell—was a pretty, blonde clerk at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, only twenty years old and, by later accounts, prone to bouts of giddiness and depression—and ultimately lunacy.

They married in a small, private ceremony in the place where she boarded—which just happened to be the same place where the old Senator resided. The wedding was witnessed by Fellow Michigan Senator Thomas Ferry and a Miss Belle Linthicum, and officiated by a Reverend Dr. Sunderland.

The way Lillie told it, their marriage was going swimmingly—at least for the first few minutes of it.

But let’s go back in time and set the stage for what would become one of Washington’s juiciest scandals…


Issac Peckham Christiancy was born in March, 1812, in Johnstown, NY, the son of a New York pioneer who died when Christiancy was only 13. From then on, young Isaac had to work and support the family; he did so by teaching and studying law.

He studied law and moved to Michigan when he was about 24, where he was admitted to the bar. From 1841 to 1846, he served as a prosecuting attorney for Monroe County, Michigan. In 1849, Christiancy was elected to the state senate. From there, he was elected Chief Justice of the Michigan State Supreme Court. Biographers credit him with being instrumental in forming the state’s Republican party and with being an outspoken abolitionist.

In November of 1839, he married Miss Elizabeth McCloskey, nine years his junior. The 1870 census shows him to be a 58 year old justice, living a respectable family life in Monroe County. He and Elizabeth had seven children, with total property worth $40,000.

Elizabeth died in December of 1874 in Lansing. A year later, the widower was elected a US Senator for the term ending in 1881. So Mr. Christiancy, now 63 years old, went to Washington. He took his seat March 4th, 1875.

And that was the beginning of his great undoing.

Within months of his arrival, his wife only nine months in the grave, Christiancy became acquainted with a pretty, blonde, 20-year old clerk at the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, Lillian Lugenbeel. Christiancy’s friends would later testify that when he met her, he complimented her by saying that if he were a younger man, he would “pay her attention.” Lillie then wrote him a letter, supposing his compliment was a marriage proposal, as did her mother. The difference in their ages was a concern. Christiancy stated he had tried to talk her out of marriage, but she had insisted it didn’t matter. The aging Senator finally consented to a wedding, not wanting his “careless flattery” to lead to a suit for breach of promise.

And so they were married on February 8, 1876, a few weeks after meeting, in a small ceremony in the boarding house where they both resided, the Reverend Byron Sunderland officiating. Fellow Michigan Senator Thomas Ferry stood up as best man and one of Lillie’s girlfriends as maid of honor. The couple set forth for a honeymoon in New York.

They made it only as far as Philadelphia, where they stopped to spend their wedding night. There, Christiancy later said, Lillie hadn’t even taken off her hat when she declared she had a confession to make:

It seems that she had a former lover who had turned up on the morning of her wedding. Suddenly, said Lillie, she realized she was still in love with the other man. Her wedding vows to old Christiancy had therefore been “perjury.” After being married only a few hours, she declared she wanted a divorce.

“…Upon,” Christiancy later said, “my telling her that there was no ground for a divorce and that none could be had, she screamed like a maniac.”

How the remainder of the wedding night passed—and whether or not they continued their honeymoon—remains lost to history. It can safely be assumed the marriage was not consummated.

The couple returned to Washington, where Mrs. Constancy began seeing the other man, a Mr. Frank Y. Anderson of Mobile, Alabama. She was also reputed to have a “fondness” for a Mr. Sam Register of Baltimore.What was a girl to do?

More to come...
©Cecily Hilleary, 2009.

Pictures from: Mysteries and Miseries of America's Great Cities Embracing New York, Washington City, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and New Orleans, by James William Buel. Historical Publishing Company (St. Louis and Philadelphia), 1883.

Recognize This Man? Coming Soon!

There's no fool like an old fool...Quondam Washington will take us back to one of 19th century Washington's juiciest scandals...it's the stuff you won't find in the history books. Stay tuned...