Victorian Era Prostitution in the US: Part II of III

PART II: Preacher Intervention

The situation in Chicago’s Levee District was horrendous. Something needed to be done. The fall of 1901 saw Chicago hosting the National Purity Congress.

Some attendees were …

Moody Bible Institute, Cook County Juvenile Court, Jane Addams’ Hull House, the Anti-Saloon League, Graham Taylor’s Chicago Commons, the Pacific Garden Mission (they led Chicago White Stockings player, Billy Sunday, to the Lord), and more. There were delegates from nearly all 50 states, England, Holland, France, Canada, and India.

The three day congress was held at the First Methodist Church (Clark & Washington Streets, Chicago, IL). The conference was a success in spite of Mrs. Steadwell’s (wife of Northwestern Purity Association president) purse being snatched by two men.

Enter: Reverend Ernest Albert Bell.

Bell wanted to be a missionary in India and establish an Oxford-type university there. He wrote letters to Andrew Carnegie and Stanley McCormick asking for assistance, but to no avail. In 1897 as Bell was leaving Chicago Theological Seminary, he was propositioned by a young woman. From that night on, Bell’s goals changed. His friends bought him a bordello in the heart of Chicago’s Levee District and Beaulah Home … a rescue mission … was established. (I truly enjoy the irony of Bell buying a bordello to rescue prostitutes!) Bell’s saints were ready for their crusade.

Some were scandalized that Bell would actually work out of a former Bordello … yet, others could see the wisdom in this decision.

We have struck a blow for Jesus!
~ English evangelist Gypsy Smith

In Chicago our God lurks everywhere.
In the elevated train’s husky roar …
in the humid mists of summer by the lake.
~ Father Andrew Greeley

Bell understood politics and knew he had to make some sort of intervention within the internal political workings of the city. Somehow he had to deal with organized crime who paid off the police, mayor, and other officials handsomely. Actually, Minna & Ada Everleigh would have been thrilled with this as they paid these gangsters money every month (all types of businesses … what we would consider legitimate & illegitimate … paid these bullies off each month for the priviledge of working … otherwise buildings just might be set on fire, a “mysterious” robbery would occur, folks would be beaten up, etc.).

Victor Lawson, the Chicago Daily News publisher, contributed to Bell’s work along with others.

Bell began to speak out on the results German scientists recently discovered on the bacterium causing syphilis and its devastating consequences. This did not sit well with those in the visible Church. They did not want those things discussed. Yet, Bell knew these women were … ultimately … the ones that would be hurt. They needed to make informed decisions.

Bell caused even more uproar within the visible Church when he began to address the White Slavery issue. Too many Christians still wanted to ignore it. So, Bell carried on and began to have nightly open-air meetings outside the Levee District’s cathouses.

Bell also began to address those legitimate business owners that claimed to be Christian. They were not paying women a livable wage. As a result, they were selling themselves in order to provide for their families.

Enter: Lawyer Clifford Griffith Roe.

On 25 May 1907 Roe, Chicago’s youngest assistant state’s attorney, received a message from Captain Edward McCann of the Harrison Street police station who told him they had a girl at the station that claimed she was sold as a white slave.

There is not a life that this social evil
does not menance. There is not a daughter,
or a sister, who may not be in danger.
~ Clifford Roe

Mona Marshall had worked at the ribbon counter at Marshall Field’s Department Store. She was given something to drink one evening by a man called Harry Balding that tasted bitter. The next night she woke up in a strange place and was surrounded by people she did not know. Her story got worse (I shall not repeat it here).

Roe soon joined the good Reverend Bell to fight.

9 October 1906: National Purity Conference

Bell’s work, with the help of attorney Roe prosecuting cases, was making headway.

This conference was held in the brand new Abraham Lincoln Center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for his uncle, the minister. Delegates attended from all over.

Mayor Dunne gave the welcoming address.

More and more were taking notice of what was happening.

The visible church in the Victorian Era seemed to be reduced to many rules and regulations. Yes, there were many Christians during this time frame doing good things on an individual and small group level, but … overall … it would seem most had reduced Christianity to a bunch of dos and don’ts while wallowing in moralistic romanticism (e.g., the Pollyanna series, wealthy & priviledged Elsie Dinsmore being “traumatized” because ink spilled on her penmanship exercise or because her father asked her to play the piano on Sunday while her poorer peers did not have enough to eat Sunday or any other day and having her female servants work on a Sunday waiting on her, maudlin poetry, etc.).

Bell and others confronted the evil.

He shamed so-called “Christian” businessmen and pointed out how they were not paying females (girls & women) a livable wage … so much so that they thought they had to supplement their income by any means possible … or die.

… The Third part of the Victorian Era prostition saga would cover Legislation

Buy Sin in the Second City!

~ From the notes of Lady Victorian Historian

Victorian Era Prostitution in the US: Intro and Part I of III

About the Victorian Era Sin in Chicago

The preachers in the Chicago area demanded that employers give women a decent living working wage so they would not be forced to resort to prostitution in order to provide for their families

this is a hard one to do … I do NOT want to shock anyone …

I think it will need to be in three parts …

1: Sisters Minna & Ada Everleigh
2: Preacher Intervention
3: Legislation

PART I: Sisters Minna & Ada Everleigh

Chicago’s Everleigh Club is the most famous brothel in USA history. It was located in the notorious Levee district (Chicago, IL).

Sisters Minna (1866-1948) & Ada (1864-1960) Everleigh ran the “club”. They hosted senators, foreign dignitaries, literary icons, actors (big surprise there!), business moguls, and on and on. Prince Henry of Prussia, Theodore Dreiser, Diamond Jim Brady, and other celebrities of reknown went to the Everleigh Club. The department store heir, Marshall Field Jr., was even shot there.

The Everleigh “butterflies” were expected to be well read and were even tutored in Balzac. Other requirements …

… look good in an evening gown
… be polite
… be there of their own free will (they wanted nothing to do with parents selling their children, white slavers, etc.)

… be at least 18 years old

… visit their doctor (that they kept on retainer) at least 1x/month

… no drugs/alcohol

The early history of the sisters is wrapped up in the War Between the States. The fortune of their family reflected what was happening financially to families all across the south.

Harold Woodward wrote, “a grim reality of poverty & decay … Once-fertile fields were covered with scrub oaks and stunted pines, the landscape dotted with decayed fences, half-starved cattle, ramshackle houses and the remnants of crumbling mansions.”

The sisters’ grandparents died. Their dad had to stop practicing law and farm the land. Agricultural prices were low. Taxes & interest were high. Income was scarce. Their father’s brother had stolen most of the family money secretly and moved to Missouri.

Their mother and little sister died when Ada was 12 & Minna was 10. Baby brother George was given to an aunt to raise. The sisters began to detach themselves from life. The family moved to Madison County (VA) where their neighbors were former Virginia governor & confederate general (with 5 children). Visits to his mansion reminded them of everything they lost.

Lula, another sister, died and the family moved from Virginia to Warrensburg, Missouri, where their father had relatives. They grew up believing daddy was the only man that mattered … why marry?

Minna & Ada did marry, but needed to flee for their lives because of physical abuse.

The sisters concluded from their experiences that men were greedy, brutal, spend thrifts, and not to be trusted. A niece, Evelyn Diment, would later write to Irving Wallace in 1989 about her great aunts,

“They were struggling because they were at the end of the Civil War and there were very few ways to make money. Their plantation was lost because they couldn’t pay taxes. They began as prostitutes and they became madams. Their father put them in the business, and then these women made a marvelous success out of it … Southern families have a way of keeping things very quiet. And if anyone knew anything, they kept their mouth shut.”

The sisters provided for their family in the only way they knew how. They changed their last name. Their grandmother signed all correspondence with “Everly Yours” and the name of their new club was established: Everleigh.

Everleigh Club Admission: $10
Bottle of Champagne : $12
Dinner: $50

At a time when the average wage per week was $6, those visiting the Everleigh Club found they were spending anywhere from $200-$1500 per visit. If a patron only spent $50, they were asked not to return.

Was it right? …. NO
Do I approve of it? … NO
Can I understand it? … YES!

The business management skills and acumen of the sisters is undebatable.

Yes, they did much better than other “wayward” women of the Victorian era whether they were located in Chicago, Philly, NYC, Washington DC, major European cities, etc.

Even though their “business” prospered beyond what they dreamed, they do represent an important aspect of the Victorian Era.

Read Sin in the Second City!

~ From the notes of Lady Victorian Historian