THE BIRTH OF A MADAM

This faded photo is what I have of my  maternal great-grandmother, Mary Emeline Cummings. 

Mary Emeline Cummings 1867-1917

In fact, until recently, I didn't even know who she was.  I didn't know that she was rumored in the family to be "an entertainer" before she married Isadore Benoit, my maternal great-grandfather, in 1889.

It all came out on a lovely fall day in 2016 while I visited with my cousin, Margo and her mother, my aunt, Carol.  Carol is my mother, Ruth's, sister.  My mother died more than thirty years ago. 

Margo and Aunt Carol generously shared family pictures I had never seen before, and some new-to-me stories.  Aunt Carol told me that her father's mother worked as a prostitute, commonly referred to in the family as an entertainer.  The veil was thin, as everyone knew she worked as a prostitute and she was looked down upon because of it.   That is all that is known.  

Mary Emeline Cummings Benoit died in 1917.    

Mary E. Cummings Benoit married in 1889

The picture to the right is Mary Benoit, as she was known after she married Isadore Benoit. 


Our visit was wonderful, as we don't see each other often.  And on the forty-five minute or so trip home, my mind was fixed on a new version of great-grandmother.  In my imagination, I called her Emeline Cummings -- prostitute in the old west.  

By the time I got home, she was a madam, living where I live, in Edmonds, Washington.

I decided right then and there -- on I-5 and 196th in Lynnwood -- to write a book about Emeline Cummings, her life as a madam, and to start it when the real Mary Emeline Cummings got married:  1889. 

"The Boardinghouse Journals of Madam Emeline Cummings" is the title of my book in progress.

Because I have a ground zero starting point, much research lies ahead.  Follow this blog to take that journey with me, won't you?  I'm tippy toeing through unknown territory, and I could use some travelling companions.

I'm trying to persuade my Aunt Carol and my cousin Margo to let me post their pictures here.  If and when they agree, I will add them.  They started my wheels turning to raise the imaginary Madam Emeline Cummings, and tell her story.  Until then,

Thank you for joining me!    Author Bridget Clawson

***********************

Little known about madams is that the most successful were wealthy and prominent (sort of) members of their community through charitable donations and public works funding.  Madam Dora DuFran was one such madam, operating in Dakota Territory.  She ran respectable houses and made significant donations to the community as it was developing.  She called her places "Parlor Houses", while some madams preferred the term "Boarding House" -- as will Emeline Cummings --- but only when she gets her own place!