Medora de Vallombrosa, Marquise de Morès

Medora von Hoffman

Medora de Vallombrosa, Marquise de Morès (née von Hoffmann) (August 21, 1856 – 1921), was an American heiress who married the Marquis de Morès.

Early life

Medora was the daughter of Louis A. von Hoffman (Hoffmann, with 2 n in German), a wealthy New York banker who was one of the founders of the Knickerbocker Club,^[1] and his wife, Athenais (née Grymes) von Hoffman (1832–1897), whose family had been prominent in Virginia and Louisiana.^[2] Her younger sister, Pauline Grymes, was married to the wealthy German industrialist Baron Ferdinand Eduard von Stumm whose family owned the Neunkirchen Iron and Steelworks in 1878.^[3] Her nephew was the German diplomat Ferdinand Carl von Stumm,^[4][5] who married another American heiress, Constance Hoyt (daughter of Solicitor General Henry Hoyt Jr.).^[6]

Her maternal grandfather was John Randolph Grymes, the former U.S. Attorney for Western District of Louisiana under President James Madison.^[7] Her aunt, and namesake, Medora,^[8] was the second wife of banker and lobbyist Samuel Ward.^[9][10] Her uncle, Dr. C. Alfred Grymes,^[11] was married to Emma Stebbins (a daughter of U.S. Representative Henry George Stebbins),^[12] and, after her death, Mary Helen James (a granddaughter of Federal Vanderburgh^[13] and cousin of psychologist William James, author Henry James, and diarist Alice James).^[14]

Personal life

In 1882, Medora was married to Antoine Amédée-Marie-Vincent Amat Manca de Vallombrosa, the Marquis de Morès, a French-born nobleman who was a frontier ranchman in the Badlands of Dakota Territory. Before his assassination in 1896, they were the parents of three children, a daughter and two sons:^[15]

• Athenais Amat Manca (1883–1969), who married French Ambassador Louis M. Henry Pichon, Baron Pichon (1873–1933), at age 17.^[16] In 1929, Athenais married Baron de Graffenried; he died in 1936. She then married Henry Guerracina and moved to Argentina during World War II; returning to France in 1950, where she died in 1969.^[1]
• Louis Richard Amat Manca, Duke de Vallombrosa (1885–1959), who grew up in France and was educated at Yale University; he became a banker until 1936 when he retired and moved to Switzerland; he married Marie-Thérèse du Bourg de Bozas at Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot Church, in October 1917.^[17]
• Count Paul Amat Manca de Morès de Vallombrosa (1890–1950), a Harvard graduate who became a banker with the Bankers Trust in Paris before becoming a partner in the Paris brokerage house of Saint Phalle & Co.; he married Ruth (née Obre) Goldbeck, widow of Walter Dean Goldbeck, an American portrait painter, and sister of Arthur Obre,^[18] in 1928.^[19] They divorced in 1935 and she married race car driver André Dubonnet in 1937.^[20][21]

After the assassination of the Marquis de Morès in 1896, the Marquise de Morès lived in both Paris and Cannes, France. During World War I, she turned her home into a hospital for wounded soldiers. She died at Cannes in 1921 of a leg injury she received while working as a nurse.^[22] The wound never fully healed. Others say she died of an infectious disease she acquired while touring India with her husband. This gave her bouts of illness throughout her life which eventually resulted in her death.^[23]

Legacy

The town of Medora, North Dakota,^[24] founded in 1883, was named by the Marquis in her honor. The Marquis's meat packing plant failed and the town fell into a decline after the family left. However, the story of the Marquis de Mores and Medora are now featured in The Medora Musical held every summer in Medora, a major tourist town in the North Dakota Badlands. The 26-room clapboard-sided ranch house the Marquis built for his heiress wife, known as the "Chateau de Mores", has been restored, and tours of it are given.

References

1. "Louis A. Von Hoffmann, Athenais Von Hoffmann, Medora, Marquise de Mores and her children Louis and Athenais group portrait". www.digitalhorizonsonline.org. State Historical Society of North Dakota. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
2. "MRS. L.A. VON HOFFMANN DEAD.; Was in Delicate Health and Lived Abroad for Years In the Hopes of Regaining It. (Published 1897)". The New York Times. 3 June 1897. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
3. "MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE". The Baltimore Sun. 18 July 1879. p. 3. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
4. "VON STUMM OUSTED IN POLITICAL ROW; Failure to Answer Gerard Said Not to be Real Reason for Kaiser's Action". The New York Times. 28 August 1917. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
5. Prüfer, Curt (11 December 2017). Germany's Covert War in the Middle East: Espionage, Propaganda and Diplomacy in World War I. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-78673-318-4. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
6. "HENRY M. HOYT DEAD; AIDED KNOX GREATLY; State Department Counselor Stricken While Negotiating for Canadian Reciprocity. HIS FINAL ILLNESS SHORT Had Served with Distinction as Solicitor General, and a New Office Was Created for Him". The New York Times. 21 November 1910. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
7. Hémard, Ned (2013). "A New York Hill with a New Orleans Pedigree" (PDF). www.neworleansbar.org. New Orleans Bar Association. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
8. "Medora Grymes Ward Death Notice". Memphis Daily Appeal. 25 June 1867. p. 1. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
9. "A FAMOUS LOBBYIST DEAD; SAM WARD DIES IN ITALY IN HIS SEVENTY-FIRST YEAR. A MAN WHO ENJOYED HIMSELF IN MAKING OTHERS HAPPY--PRINCE OF GOOD FELLOWS AND FRIEND OF GREAT MEN". The New York Times. 20 May 1884. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
10. "Sam Ward's Bride | The Daughter of a Famous New Orleans Lawyer and of the Widow of Louisiana's First Governor--Lovely Medora Grymes". The Abingdon Virginian. 30 April 1875. p. 1. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
11. "DIED". The New York Times. 24 September 1905. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
12. "DIED". The New York Times. 17 November 1865. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
13. James, William; James, Henry; Skrupskelis, Ignas (1997). William and Henry James: Selected Letters. University of Virginia Press. p. 531. ISBN 978-0-8139-1694-1. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
14. James, Henry (2014). The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1878–1880: Volume 2. University of Nebraska Press. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-8032-6985-9. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
15. Dawn Maddox (May 3, 1977). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Von Hoffman House". National Park Service. and accompanying two photos from 1948 and 1977
16. Gotha Français (in French). 1906. p. 358. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
17. "World War One. Wedding of the Duke of Vallombrosa, Captain of artillery, with Miss Therese du Bourg de Bozas. Paris (XVIth arrondissement), Saint-Pierre de Chaillot church, on October 17, 1917". granger.com. Granger. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
18. "ARTHUR L. OBRE, 55, LONG AN ATTORNEY". The New York Times. 17 July 1951. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
19. "Count Paul de Mores Weds Mrs. Goldbeck, Painter's Widow; Marriage Surprise to Friends". The New York Times. 28 January 1928. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
20. United States Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1951. p. 1125. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
21. "Sad Plight of the Cinderella Countess". The San Francisco Examiner. 10 December 1944. p. 69. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
22. "Marquise de Moras Dies in France". The New York Times. 5 March 1921. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
23. Medora Vallambrosa, Marquise de Mores State Historical Society of North Dakota
24. Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 204.

External links

• Marquise de Mores (1862-1921), 1889 miniature portrait, at the New-York Historical Society
• Photo of Medora Vallambrosa, Marquise de Morès
• State Historical Society of North Dakota, Medora Vallambrosa, Marquise de Mores

Further reading

• Antonio Areddu, Il marchesato di Mores. Le origini, il duca dell´Asinara, le lotte antifeudali, l´abolizione del feudo e le vicende del marquis de Morès, Condaghes, Cagliari 2011.
• Antonio Areddu, Vita e morte del marchese di Mores Antoine Manca (1858-1896), Cagliari, Condaghes, 2018