A Graceful Dancer

 

Unknown Dancer. NYPL Digital Collection.

Life on the road as a vaudeville performer continued into the 1890s for Agnes, where she was often lauded as a graceful dancer and quick change artist.

Brooklyn Times, 9 Dec 1890.

At the end of July, Agnes performed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By mid-September, she toured with Gillette's World of Wheels to Pittsburgh. The following week, the company hit Philadelphia, where Agnes was mentioned for her "songs and high kicking dances" (27-30 September 1890, mentioned in the Philadelphia Times and Philadelphia Inquirer). After Philadelphia, the company went to the Grand Theater in Brooklyn for a week of shows.

Philadelphia Times, 28 Sep 1890.

Gillette's World of Wheels show next ventured north of the border to Toronto and Montreal in October 1890. Agnes would have been the graceful and clever quick change artist in the Montreal Herald article below.

Montreal Herald, 21 October 1890.

La Samedi, 25 October 1890.

The previous week's performances in Toronto were lauded in Canadian Grip comic magazine (published in Toronto). The company did big business during the Toronto shows.

Grip, Oct 1890.

After Montreal, the company visited Buffalo, New York for a series of shows. Agnes performed without the Gilletts in a show at Huber & Gerhardt's Casino in Brooklyn on 13 November 1890.

Agnes rejoined the World of Wheels show for a run in Albany, New York during the week of 5 January 1891, followed by a burlesque show in Trenton, New Jersey the following week.

Trenton Evening Times, 18 Jan 1891.

In early February 1891, she appeared in Hoboken, New Jersey in a show managed by her husband.

Agnes returned to the familiar stage of Kohl & Middleton's in Minneapolis for the week of 3 April 1891. In September 1891, she was in Duluth, Minnesota.

Her run of shows with the World of Wheels seems to have ended by 1892. Agnes performed in Chicago in mid-August 1892 in a show at the Globe Dime Museum titled the Agnes Atherton Combination. She was in Milwaukee in September 1892 at the People's Theater, and in St. Joseph, Missouri with the Eden Musee. Agnes was back in Chicago in October and November 1892.

Positive Press

 

Evansville Journal, 16 June 1885

By mid-June 1885, young actress Agnes Atherton was performing at the Apollo Theater in Evansville, Indiana. She received positive press for her excellent singing, acting and "remarkably quick [costume] changes."

Evansville Journal, 17 June 1885.

Another writer from the Evansville Daily Courier was captivated by her performance, and wrote about Agnes' beauty, voice and graceful dancing.

Evansville Daily Courier, 16 June 1885.

After concluding the Evansville shows, Agnes returned to St. Paul, Minnesota for a three week run at the Theater Comique.

St. Paul Globe, 23 June 1885

By the end of August, the Theatre Comique show had gone on the road to Richmond, Virginia, where Agnes was announced as a new face for 31 August 1885. In mid-September, she had returned to Chicago to perform at Stanhope & Epstean's Museum.

Early 1886 took Agnes to Kansas City, Missouri, where she performed with Eva Lester and the Gillett Brothers, followed by Chicago, then Louisville, Kentucky by August 1886. In early September, she performed for several shows in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Daily Wabash Express, 9 Sep 1886.

Daily Wabash Express, 12 Sep 1886.

November took Agnes back to Minnesota for a multi-week run of shows at Sackett & Wiggin's Mammoth Dime Museum (early November through Thanksgiving 1886).

Star-Tribune, 7 Nov 1886.

Agnes closed out December 1886 in a vaudeville show featuring live kangaroos in Cleveland, Ohio (Drew's Dime Museum, mentioned in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on 14 December 1886). She opened January 1887 in St. Louis at the Standard Theater.

Sackett & Wiggin's show reopened in Detroit in February 1887, Agnes joined as a vocalist. A news clipping from the Detroit Free Press mentions A. M. Gillette (Agnes' second husband) as a "ceiling walker". It is not clear when Agnes remarried, but she had been performing in shows with Gillette from as early as 1884.

Detroit Free Press, 8 Feb 1887

By the beginning of March, Agnes and the Gillettes had joined Kohl & Middleton's show in Cincinnati. The company closed 1887 at the Casino Theatre in St. Louis.

Agnes appeared in an advertisement for Alfred M. Gillette's Gillett Family act in January 1888.

New York Clipper, 28 Jan 1888.

She appeared in the trade paper New York Clipper as "Mrs. Agnes Gillett", and sustained a severe injury, fracturing an arm while performing a bicycle trick as part of the Gillett Family act in Louisville, Kentucky.

New York Clipper, 19 May 1888.

Agnes had recovered from her injuries to perform with Gillett's World of Wheels in Chicago (April and mid-September 1889), Evansville (late September), Grand Rapids and Detroit, Michigan (October), Pittsburgh (late October), Rochester and Buffalo (early November).

Evansville Daily Journal, 28 Sep 1889.

Agnes may have celebrated her birthday at the end of the Buffalo shows, as well as a decade in traveling theater. My next post will look her travels and performances during at the 1890s.

Pittsburgh Dispatch, 27 Oct 1889.

The Actress

 

Unknown Actress. American Vaudeville Museum. 

The discovery of the 1899 Shelby County News-Gazette article on the family reunion between Agnes Atherton O'Brien and her father, John O'Brien, prompted me to look back at the records to take a closer look at her life and career on the stage. During her 30+ years in the business, she was highly regarded as a singer, dancer, vaudeville performer and actress.

It appears that Agnes got her start in Chicago, perhaps around 1879 when she was 20 years old. The first news clipping I have been able to find mentioning her noted she appeared in Patrick Conley's Varieties Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota during the fall season for 1879, and that she was contracted by Conley's agent out of Chicago (referenced in the New York Clipper, 30 August 1879). A November 1879 article from St. Paul, Minnesota mentioned that Agnes "sings motto songs in a manner that captivates the young men."

By Christmas 1879, Agnes had moved on to perform a song-and-dance with a company at the Coliseum Theater in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Her run in Council Bluffs ended in January 1880 and she returned to Chicago.

Agnes appears in the 1880 US Census in Hancock, Houghton, Michigan between 3-4 June 1880 as a performer in theater. In mid-January 1881, she performed in Janesville, Wisconsin. She then did two weeks at the Academy of Music in Detroit, Michigan in mid-February 1881.

In October 1881, Agnes was performing in a variety show in Indianapolis, when she had an impromptu marriage to musician Fred E. Day. The marriage appears to have been very short lived, as Fred filed an annulment in Nashville, Tennessee in August 1887 so that he could marry another woman in September 1887. Agnes likely returned to Chicago while Day moved on to perform in Nashville in 1882, as she joined a new company, Niblo's Humpty Dumpty pantomime company. They performed at the New Gem Theatre in Deadwood, South Dakota in early January 1883.

Indianapolis Sentinel. 21 Oct 1881.

Nashville Daily American. 7 Aug 1887.

Between September and December 1883, Agnes performed in Saginaw, Michigan. In early January 1884, she moved on to the Vine Street Opera House in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 20 Jan 1884.

Agnes performed in Indianapolis in February 1884.

In early April 1884, Agnes performed "exquisite song and dance" in Kohl & Middleton's West Side Museum in Chicago, then Omaha, Nebraska (14-20 April), followed by an extended run at the Theatre Comique in St. Paul, Minnesota, with the Gillett Brothers (and future 2nd-husband Alfred Gillette).

New York Clipper, 15 Mar 1884

St. Paul Globe, 21 Apr 1884.

After a two-week run in St. Paul, Agnes moved on to Milwaukee, performing Poetry of Motion at Kohl & Middleton's Milwaukee Dime Museum (2-7 June 1884). Her next stop was Columbus, Ohio (28 July 1884), followed by Grand Rapids, Michigan (14-28 August 1884 due to popularity), where she was billed as "the queen of song and dance."

Evening Leader, 12 Aug 1884.

Evening Leader, 30 Aug 1884.

By early September 1884, Agnes returned to the Milwaukee Dime Museum for performances of "refined songs and dances."

In late November 1884, Agnes was in St. Louis, Missouri at the Alhambra Theater. She likely stayed on in St. Louis through the holidays. With the start of 1885, Agnes performed in St. Louis, Missouri (week of 12 January), followed by Nashville, Tennessee (19 January). She returned to St. Louis in late February at Broadway & Treyser's Dime Museum (last week of February), and at the Palace Theater with the Gillett Brothers (first two weeks of March 1885). Agnes was still at the Palace Theater during the first week of June 1885.

St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 1 Mar 1885.

Agnes' next stop took her to Evansville, Indiana, and I'll pause her career recap at this stage for the next post, covering mid-1885 into the early 1890s.

Finally Confirmed

 

Shelby County News-Gazette, 9 Mar 1899

This article is genealogical gold. Back in August 2019, I wrote about my theory that Agnes Atherton was the daughter of my 3rd-great-grandfather, John O'Brien, and described the long-standing family mystery about the daughters of John O'Brien. The article confirms everything! The Shelby County-News Gazette must have recently been added to Newspapers.com, or I overlooked this article on prior searches. 

The article confirms that John placed his daughters in the convent with the Sisters of Charity in LaSalle, Illinois, after the death of his first wife Bridget Dooner. The article does not mention Agnes' other sisters, Anna Maria and Isabella O'Brien. Anna was still alive in 1899 and living in Chicago. The article does mention my 2nd-great-grandfather, John J. O'Brien.

Agnes' father died in 1901 at the age of 108. It is possible that she never made it back to Shelby County to see him again. Now I want to know more, how did she track him down? Did she reconnect with her sister Anna Maria or brother John? It is highly possible that Agnes met her brother and family during this visit, as he lived close to his father. This visit might have had quite an impression on my great-grandfather Harry O'Brien, who would have been 15 then. Perhaps meeting his long lost Aunt Agnes was an inspiration to go into music and later perform in New Orleans.

What an amazing find. It's time to revisit Agnes, and her fascinating life on the stage. More to follow.

Gregorio's A-File, Part 2

 

Gregorio Diaz. 22 June 1948.

Continuing from my earlier post, Gregorio Diaz crossed on foot at Nogales, Sonora to neighboring Nogales, Arizona, and submitted paperwork for an immigrant visa and alien registration. The file confirms the death date for his wife Tomasa Arvayo as 30 November 1912 in Hermosillo, Sonora.

Gregorio relocated to Los Angeles, and died there in November 1956.