Maggie Mitchell
Born
Margaret Julia Mitchell

(1832-06-02)June 2, 1832[1]
New York City, New York
DiedMarch 22, 1918(1918-03-22) (aged 85)
New York City, New York
Maggie Mitchell, [ca. 1859–1870]. Carte de Visite Collection, Boston Public Library

Margaret Julia Mitchell[2] (June 2, 1832 – March 22, 1918) was an American actress, born in New York City.[3] She made her speaking debut as Julia in The Soldier's Daughter at the Chambers Street Theatre in 1851. The parts in which she earned the greatest fame were Jane Eyre, Mignon, Little Barefoot, and Fanchon the Cricket.[4][5][6][7][8]

Mitchell was at the outset of the Civil War a Confederate sympathizer, but later moderated her views. She reportedly danced on an American flag while performing in Montgomery, Alabama, but later denied doing so. Her southern sympathies, charismatic personality and profession made her a warm, close friend of John Wilkes Booth, but also earned her the admiration of Abraham Lincoln, who invited her to tea in the Executive Mansion and enjoyed her performances at Ford's Theatre.

Family

She was married to Henry Thomas Paddock (1836–1896), a Cleveland haberdasher who then became her manager, in 1868, and they had (i) a daughter, Fanchon Maria Paddock (1869–1940), who married Harry Paddock Mashey (1878–1960), and (ii) a son, Harry Mitchell Paddock (1872–1938). Maggie and Henry divorced twenty years later; and – on October 12, 1889, in Boston – she married her co-star Charles Abbott (stage name of Charles Abbott Mace; 1852–1927). She retired from the stage to live in New York in 1892. Maggie, by way of one of her half-sisters – Sophia Dodson Lomax (1826–1894) and husband, Charles Alfred Mitchell (1817–1864) – was an aunt of Julian Bugher Mitchell (1851–1926), a musical comedy director associated with Weber & Fields and Florenz Ziegfeld.[8][9]

Maggie's mother was Hannah Dodson (maiden; 1805–1869), born Knaresborough, Yorkshire. She married – on February 24, 1824, in Manchester – John Lomax (1803–1832), a native of Bolton, and emigrated to the US in 1830. In 1832, they were preparing to return to England to escape an epidemic of cholera, but Lomax died before they sailed. Hannah afterward married Maggie's father, Charles S. Mitchell (1805–1886), to whom Lomax's bookbinding business had been sold.[10] Mitchell's 1st cousin, Joseph Dodson Greenhalgh (1821–1886), recalled stories that circulated in the English side of the family about the actress's salary, her servants, accouterments, and jewelry.[11] The actor and author Dodson Mitchell was still another relation.

Maggie's mother was a sister of Ann Dodson (maiden; 1788–1863), who, with her husband Thomas Greenhalge (1780–1859), was a grandmother of Frederic Thomas Greenhalge (1842–1896), the 38th Governor of Massachusetts.[12] Maggie's maternal half-sister, Mary Mitchell (née Lomax; 1833–1908) – also an actress – was married to John William Albaugh, Sr. (1837–1909), an actor and theater operator, notably, from 1884 to 1894, proprietor of Albaugh's Grand Opera House (2,000 seats) in Washington, D.C.

Death

After her death on March 22, 1918, in New York City, one of the wealthiest actresses in the world (primarily in Manhattan and Long Branch, New Jersey, real estate), Mitchell was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

References

  1. ↑ Leonard, John William, ed. (1901). "Mitchell, Maggie". Who's Who in America, 1901–1902. Vol. 2. Chicago: A.N. Marquis & Company. p. 790 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ↑ Bogar, Thomas Arthur (2020). Champagne Sparkle – Maggie Mitchell, The First Musical Comedy Star of the American Stage. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-4348-3. LCCN 2020941513. OCLC 1145609119.
  3. ↑ Clapp, John Bouvé; Edgett, Edwin Francis (1899). Players of The Present (Part 1). New Series No. 9. New York: The Dunlap Society. pp. 10, 12, 15, 40, 49, 80, 100, 110, 132, 241, 251, 254, 321. LCCN 01008294. OCLC 2623904. Retrieved January 24, 2020 – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ Gilman, Daniel Coit; Peck, Harry Thurston; Colby, Frank Moore, eds. (1903). "Mitchell, Margaret Julia". New International Encyclopædia. Vol. 12. Dodd, Mead & Company. p. 421. LCCN 02018468. OCLC 369176. Retrieved October 3, 2021 – via Google Books. See New International Encyclopædia. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ↑ Hines, Dixie; Hanaford, Harry Prescott, eds. (1914). "Mitchell, Maggie". Who's Who in Music and Drama. New York: H.P. Hanaford. p. 325. LCCN 14018082. OCLC 5345361. Retrieved February 4, 2021 – via Google Books.
  6. ↑ Holden, Luther Loud (1896). "Maggie Mitchell". In McKay, Frederic Edward; Wingate, Charles Edgar Lewis (eds.). Famous American Actors of To–Day. Boston: Thomas Y. Crowell & Company (publisher). Boston: C.J. Peters & Son (printer) → Charles J. Peters & George E. Peters. pp. 309–321. LCCN 13012208. OCLC 180630860. Retrieved November 3, 2021 – via Google Books.
  7. ↑ Thomas, Benjamin Platt (1952). Abraham Lincoln: A Biography. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 241. LCCN 52006425. OCLC 421189. Retrieved November 3, 2021 – via Internet Archive..
  8. 1 2 James, Edward T.; James, Janet Wilson; Boyer, Paul S., eds. (1971). "Mitchell, Maggie". Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 2. pp. 551–552. ISBN 0-6746-2731-8. LCCN 76152274. OCLC 184794830. Retrieved October 3, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ↑ Maggie Mitchell; North American Theatre Online
  10. ↑ Lomax, Joseph (1894). "John Lomax". Genealogical and Historical Sketches of the Lomax Family. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Rookus Printing House. p. 115. LCCN 09011606. OCLC 62046337.
  11. ↑ Greenhalgh, Joseph Dodson (1869). Memoranda of the Greenhalgh Family. Bolton, England: T. Abbatt's Machine Printing Works. pp. 22–27. LCCN 25017995. OCLC 17117970. Retrieved August 12, 2016 – via Google Books. The author was a brother of Frederic Thomas Greenhalge (1842–1896), the 38th Governor of Massachusetts, and a 1st cousin of Maggie Mitchell.
  12. ↑ Anderson, George Baker (1897). "Joseph D. Lomax, M.D.". Landmarks of Rensselaer County, New York. Published Under the Auspices of The Troy Press. Syracuse: D. Mason & Company. LCCN 01016740. OCLC 1728151. Retrieved November 4, 2021 – via Google Books. Note: Joseph Dodson Lomax, M.D. (1829–1899), was a half-brother of Maggie Mitchell.
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