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| Donna Madixxa/Lillian Beardslee Smith Abbott Daniels Chuna |
In last month's post I related the specific instructions that Denver merchant W. B. Daniels left concerning his funeral. He wanted his remains transferred to an appropriate crematorium, then afterward his ashes interred next to those of his departed first wife Elizabeth in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago.
I quoted from the Chicago Inter Ocean Newspaper of January 3, 1891 about his open urn (resembling a hat) being cemented into a niche "in the family vault" at Rosehill during a New Year's Day downpour.
I pointed out that it was very unlikely that the urn for his remains had no lid, leaving his cremains open to the elements, curious eyes, and the freezing rain. I also said that there was no "family vault" at Rosehill for either the Daniels family, nor for Elizabeth's family, the Cookes.
I talked about Daniels' second wife who went by both the name Lillian Beardslee Abbott and the more exotic "Donna Madixxa," the supposed granddaughter of a Spanish grandee. She and Daniels were married July 8, 1882 and divorced March 16, 1886.
W. B. Daniels died on Christmas Day, 1890 leaving his twenty year old son, William Cooke Daniels as his only heir.
When Daniels and Donna Madixxa divorced in 1886, not all of the terms of the divorce were made public. It was known that Daniels paid his former wife a lump sum payment of $50,000 ($1.7 million in today's dollars) plus he deeded several parcels of Denver real estate to her. In exchange he demanded in addition to an end to the marriage, that his former wife leave Denver, never to return. She complied by joining a traveling theatre company called the Helen Blythe "Creole" Troupe, and toured the United States in several different productions.
W.B. Daniels left an estate of approx. $2 million ($67.8 million in today's dollars) and Donna Madixxa decided that a crack at that much money was too good to pass up. Colorado law provided that a widow was entitled to 50% of the estate of her deceased husband, so if she could prove that a divorce had never happened, or was invalid, she would get something in the neighborhood of $1 million ($34 million in today's dollars). Here is how the Rocky Mountain News of March 3, 1891 related what happened:
As with most matters that end up in litigation, only the lawyers made money.
The case rattled around in the court system for seven years until March of 1898 when it was determined that Donna Madixxa was entitled to:
$-0-
Here is the story from the Denver (CO) Sun from September 11, 1898:
But, it's not like the former Mrs. Daniels was penniless. She had received a substantial settlement at the time of their divorce in 1886, although it is not known how much was left by 1898.
Almost toward the end of the article above it says: "...two or three years ago she was again married to a man who was then an auctioneer and who had been an actor."
This is explained in the Wheeling (WV) Daily Register from April 30, 1896:
Entire books could be written about the escapades of Donna Madixxa and at least one has: Donna Madixxa Goes West - the Biography of a Witch by Forbes Parkhill. In this case, Parkhill uses the word "witch" to describe Donna Madixxa when the word "bitch" would probably have been more appropriate - but it was 1968 after all. Parkhill's book unfortunately only covers her through the end of the litigation about Daniels' will but it is an amusing read nonetheless. It is readily available on ebay or amazon and I think I paid a whopping $6.00 for my copy.
One thing Parkhill's book does, is clear up the mystery of Daniels' cremains being interred in the family vault in Rosehill Cemetery. The New York World newspaper gave the most complete account of the burial.
"...during a downpour of icy rain, when the urn was placed in the Daniels Family vault."
"The urn was covered with a marble lid cemented into place with hydraulic sealing. It was 18 inches wide, 18 inches high and 24 inches long. The granite vault was the same depth as an ordinary grave."
So much for the "family vault." It turns out that Daniels' urn was placed in an urn vault like the kind most cemeteries require today to keep the ground from sinking if the urn disintegrates. Here is a photo of a granite urn vault available today for $124.94 from amazon:
It is certainly a misnomer to call this a "family vault".
Here is a photo of the Daniels' plot in Rosehill Cemetery:
Here is a photo with the "family vault(s) outlined:
It is interesting to note that except for the "W.B. Daniels" on the front of the monument, there is nothing else on the monument. No mention of Elizabeth, no dates of births and deaths, etc.
One of these marks each of the four corners of the plot:
What about William Cooke Daniels - the only son and heir of W.B. and Libbie Daniels? He was in Japan at the time of his father's death and unable to make it back in time for the funeral.
He returned to Denver from Japan and had planned that he would run the Daniels & Fisher store with Fisher's widow. It was soon apparent that this would not work, so young Daniels bought our Fisher's widow and became the sole owner.
Shortly after the beginning of the Spanish-American War Daniels enlisted, turning over the day to day running of the store over to his friend Charles MacAllister Willcox (1870-1932), son of General Orlando B. Willcox.
In the military, "Young Daniels" as he was referred to, worked his way up to the rank of major and served with distinction with General Henry W. Lawton. While serving in Cuba, Daniels contracted a tropical fever from which he never completely recovered. After his time in the military, he preferred to be called "Major Daniels."
Major Daniels lived the life of a carefree millionaire, marrying twice and traveling the world, including leading an expedition to the South Seas.
In 1909 Major Daniels created what he is best remembered for - the Daniels & Fisher Tower, connected to the Daniels & Fisher department store on Arapahoe Street at Sixteenth. At 330 feet—375 counting its flagpole—the tower was the tallest building in Denver and one of the tallest in the country when it opened. Daniels wanted it to be based on the campanile of St. Mark's in Venice, Italy.
Although the Daniels & Fisher department store no longer exists, the tower remains a major Denver landmark today.
Major William Cooke Daniels died March 17, 1918 at the home of Frederick Watts in Buenos Aires, Argentina of the fever contracted in Cuba many years earlier. His second wife was living in Switzerland at the time - Daniels left no children.
Major Daniels dying instructions were nowhere near as detailed as those of his father. They were as follows:
"Wherever or whenever the light goes out, my body is to be cremated (as was the body of my father) and the ashes sent to Denver and given to the custody of (Charles MacAllister) Willcox. And after the cremation there is to be no burial of ashes, but a place found for them in some secure niche aboveground."
Not surprisingly, he did not direct that his ashes be interred in the Daniels Family Vault at Rosehill.
In the 1960s the department store, now called May-D&F, decided to leave the store attached to the tower and move to a more "tony" location. The old department store building was razed and the tower purchased by the Chemical Bank of New York. When clearing out the tower building the new owners found more than they had bargained for - an urn containing human ashes but no label or other indication as to whose cremains they were.
Many assumed they were the ashes of the original founder William B. Daniels, but we know his ashes were interred in the Daniels Family Vault at Rosehill. It was ultimately determined that the ashes were those of Major William Cooke Daniels and that they had been placed there by his friend Willcox. The ashes of Major Daniels were stored in a May- D&F store warehouse for a time, then taken by a friend of the family to relatives in Illinois. Their ultimate disposition is unknown.
Lastly, whatever became of Donna Madixxa? It was pointed out earlier that in 1896 she had married auctioneer James Mortimer Chuna. In 1898 it was determined that she was not entitled to any part of the estate of W. B. Daniels. After 1898 the paper trail on her stops. It is amazing that a woman who was so fond of publicity virtually disappeared.
What do we know about her for sure? She was in the newspapers often until 1898 when it was determined that she was not entitled to any of W.B. Daniels' estate. After that it gets very sketchy.
We know that she was either dead or divorced from James M. Chuna by August 15, 1905 because that was the date James M. Chuna married Gertrude M. Bennett in Quebec, Canada. (They divorced in 1915).
What are the names she used through the course of her life? There are many:
Lillian (or Lilyon) Beardslee (or Beardsley)
Lylyon Donna Beardslee
Lillian Zorn Beardslee
Lillian Smith (Mrs. William A. Smith)
Lillian Abbott (Mrs. Nathaniel Abbott)
Lillian Daniels (Mrs. W.B. Daniels)
Lillyon Donna Daniels
Tillyon Daniels
Lillian Chuna (Mrs. James M. Chuna)
Donna Madixxa
Dona Madixxa
Donna Madixa
Donna Madicsa
Family Search has her listed as "Lillian Zorn Beardslee" born 1849 but no death date. It lists her mother as "Eliza Forbes Madixxa."
Donna Madixxa shows up in the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record on February 14, 1906 in an article entitled "Actresses Who Have Been Divorced from their Husbands."
She shows up in the Reading (PA) Daily Times of November 30, 1909 in an article entitled "Some Divorces in the 'Profesh'."
Donna Madixa shows up in the New York (NY) Daily News from December 26, 1934 in a column entitled "I Remember, I Remember," about her escapades in the past - no present information.
Unfortunately I was not able to find anything further on Donna Madixxa. I scoured the internet and genealogy sites using every possible spelling of every possible name she went by with no success.
She must be dead by now but where her grave is I do not know, nor do I know what name she was buried under. She may have done this on purpose. Sometimes people who live notorious lives ultimately choose to fade into the background.
I always say that wherever you look in Rosehill Cemetery you will find an interesting and historic story. Looking at the impressive monument of W. B. Daniels, you would never guess what interesting stories lie beneath it in the Daniels Family Vault.
May W.B. Daniels, Elizabeth Cooke Daniels and Lillian Beardslee Smith Abbott Daniels Chuna rest in peace.
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