It’s been almost five years since I first told you the story of my great granduncle Thomas Benson Warner, an older brother of my great grandfather, Harold Warner. I told you how Tom seemed to drift from job to job, moving back and forth between Toronto and New York City, how his first wife Maria died tragically young, and how his right hand was crushed in a trainwreck (a life-altering injury for a typesetter, as Tom was).
The story’s ending is heartbreaking. For those of you who don’t know it, you can read it here.
Now I’ve found some new information that makes Tom and Maria’s story seem even sadder.
What We Knew and Didn’t Know
We already knew that Tom had married a young German girl named Maria Hantz. It was in Manhattan, on New Year’s Eve of 1891–1892, and he was 27. She was just 23. We knew that Maria (“Mary” as her friends called her) contracted tuberculosis in 1894, was hospitalized for five weeks in 1895, and died that same year. She was four months short of her 28th birthday.
We didn’t know, until now, that Maria must have been strikingly beautiful. She was a dancer in the theatrical halls of New York and went by the stage name of “Marie Hantz.” We also didn’t know that she left her husband, less than 15 months after her wedding, in favour of an actor and playwright named William L. McGrath. According to the New York Times, she and McGrath scandalously spent five weeks living together at the Broadway Hotel.
Little remains of McGrath’s legacy as a playwright, beyond a few online references to his comic play, “An Irishman’s Love.” It debuted in 1889 and had its New York City premiere in January 1891. It featured “grand scenic and mechanical effects,” along with “singing, dancing, Irish bagpipes,” and “Cotton the Irish clown and his wonderful trained donkeys.”
A Plea for Forgiveness
Maria and Tom had been separated for two years before he filed for divorce. By that time she was dying. When the case came before Judge Dugro of the Superior Court of New York in June 1895, the press was moved to report on her tragic circumstances.
Here is how a reporter from the New York Sun described the situation.
Mrs. Thomas B. Warner lies dying in a mean little room at 214 Avenue A, with no wish except that death may come before she is overtaken with the ignominy of a divorced woman.
Mrs. Warner left her husband, Thomas B. Warner, two years ago, for a variety actor named McGrath.
She learned soon enough to rue her misstep most bitterly. Neglect and improper treatment made her a victim of disease, and she is now in the last throes of consumption. The injured husband, in the meantime, had taken steps to free himself, and brought a suit in the Superior Court for divorce.
The case came up for trial yesterday, and Warner and his counsel, Robert Greenthal, were on hand. Just as the taking of testimony was about to be begun, one of the court attendants handed to Judge Dugro a letter. It was from Mrs. Warner, and implored the Judge to postpone the case, so that her husband might get his freedom through her death.
“I only expect to live a few days,” she wrote, “and I pray that my husband, whom I have so deeply injured, may find it in his heart to forgive me, now that I am on my dying bed. Please tell him that I beg him to call on me, and that if he will wait only a few days he will not need to go to the annoyance and expense of a divorce suit to be rid of me.”
After reading the letter, Judge Dugro handed it to Mr. Greenthal, who was inclined to grant the dying woman’s request and let the case lie over. But the husband declined to wait. He insisted that the case go on, and testimony showing Mrs. Warner’s guilt was taken.
The New York Times painted an ever more pitiful picture.
The evidence showed that the defendant, who had danced in theatres under the name of Marie Hantz, married the plaintiff on Dec. 31, 1890, and that they separated in March, 1893, when she eloped with a song-and-dance man named William J. McGrath. It appeared that she and McGrath had lived together five weeks at the Broadway Hotel under the names of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Warner. Decision in the case was reserved, but it is said that the divorce has been granted since.
Lawyer Greenthal told his wife about the unusual incident, and Mrs. Greenthal called upon Mrs. Warner. It was found that Mrs. Warner was indeed very ill and was wasted away to a mere skeleton. She could hardly speak from weakness. She told Mrs. Greenthal that she hoped to die an undivorced woman.
Neighbors were at the house last night to condole with Mrs. Hantz the mother of the dying woman, who was crying by the bedside. Some one brought a lighted lamp into the room. In a voice scarcely audible the invalid moaned:
“Take it out; take out the lamp, for I see Tom’s face.”
The lamp was removed to the kitchen, where the neighbors were talking in whispers.
“Her husband was here this afternoon,” said one.
“You can’t call him her husband now,” add another. “The divorce was granted on Wednesday.”
The sick woman has been trying to support her old mother of late. In January last she found employment in the jute mills in Greenpoint and worked there until her health gave way.
She then went to work in a passementarie shop in Grand street. Here she labored until the middle of May, when she fell ill while at work and was brought to her home in a carriage.
Dr. John W. Hurley of 118 Cannon street was called to attend her and pronounced her case hopeless. The Doctor said she was in the last stages of consumption and could not possibly live through the summer. She might last until the 15th of June, he said, but not longer.
It turns out that the good doctor was mistaken. As weak as she was, Maria would live another six months, dying on December 7, 1895.
The Times article, too, was mistaken on one point: It was in 1891 that Tom and Maria were married, not 1890.
The Full Newspaper Articles
Here are the two articles that described Mary’s betrayal, remorse, and suffering.
William McGrath’s Legacy
Here are two reviews of the play, “An Irishman’s Love,” written and produced by the man Maria left her husband for.
Please tell us what you think