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

Early life

Medora was the daughter of Louis A. von Hoffman, a wealthy New York banker who was one of the founders of the

Knickerbocker Club The Knickerbocker Club (known informally as The Knick) is a gentlemen's club in New York City that was founded in 1871. It is considered to be the most exclusive club in the United States and one of the most aristocratic gentlemen's clubs in th ...

, and his wife, Athenais (née Grymes) von Hoffman (1832–1897), whose family had been prominent in Virginia and Louisiana. Her younger sister, Pauline Grymes, was married to the wealthy German industrialist Baron Ferdinand von Stumm whose family owned the Neunkirchen Iron and Steelworks in 1878. Her maternal grandfather was

John Randolph Grymes John Randolph Grymes (December 14, 1786 – December 3, 1854) was a New Orleans attorney, member of the Louisiana state legislature, U.S. attorney for Louisiana district, and '' aide-de-camp'' to General Andrew Jackson during the Battle of N ...

, the former U.S. Attorney for Western District of Louisiana under President

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

. Her aunt, and namesake, Medora, was the second wife of banker and lobbyist Samuel Ward. Her uncle, Dr. C. Alfred Grymes, was married to Emma Stebbins (a daughter of

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

Henry George Stebbins), and, after her death, Mary Helen James (a granddaughter of Federal Vanderburgh and cousin of psychologist

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

, author

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, and diarist

Alice James Alice James (August 7, 1848 – March 6, 1892) was an American diarist, sister of novelist Henry James and philosopher and psychologist William James. Her relationship with William was unusually close, and she seems to have been badly affec ...

Personal life

In 1882, Medora was married to Antoine Amédée-Marie-Vincent Amot Manca de Vallombrosa, the Marquis de Morès, a French-born nobleman who was a frontier ranchman in the

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Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...

. Before his assassination in 1896, they were the parents of three children, a daughter and two sons: and * Athenais Amot Manca (1883–1969), who married French Ambassador Louis M. Henry Pichon, Baron Pichon (1873–1933), at age 17. In 1929, Athenais married Baron de Graffenried; he died in 1936. She then married Henry Guerracina and moved to Argentina during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

; returning to France in 1950, where she died in 1969. * Louis Richard Amot Manca, Duke de Vallombrosa (1885–1959), who grew up in France and was educated at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

; 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. * Count Paul Amot Manca de Morès de Vallombrosa (1890–1950), a Harvard graduate who became a banker with the

Bankers Trust Bankers Trust was a historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons in 1997 before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. Deutsche Bank sold the Trust and Custody division of Bankers Trust to State Street Corpo ...

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, in 1928. They divorced in 1935 and she married race car driver

André Dubonnet André Dubonnet (28 June 1897 – 20 January 1980) was a French flying ace, athlete, race car driver, and inventor. He was the grandson of Joseph Dubonnet, founder of the Dubonnet apéritif firm, from which he inherited substantial wealth. Early l ...

in 1937. After the assassination of the Marquis de Morès in 1896, the Marquise de Morès lived in both

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

, France. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, she turned her home into a hospital for wounded soldiers. She died at

in 1921 of a leg injury she received while working as a nurse. 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.Medora Vallambrosa, Marquise de Mores
State Historical Society of North Dakota

Legacy

The town of Medora, North Dakota, 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

. The 26-room

clapboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

-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

External links

Marquise de Mores (1862-1921)
1889 miniature portrait, at the

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...

Photo of Medora Vallambrosa, Marquise de Morès

* 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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Vallambrosa, Medora, Marquise de Mores 1856 births 1921 deaths Female wartime nurses People from Billings County, North Dakota American women in World War I American expatriates in France Female nurses in World War I 19th-century American women French marchionesses