Myra Clark Gaines

Family and early life

Gaines was born to a mercantile businessman Daniel Clark and French socialite Zulime Carrière. During his lifetime, Clark was considered one of the richest and most influential men of New Orleans. Originally from Ireland, Clark was named after his uncle, Daniel Clark Sr., another very successful businessman, who immigrated to New Orleans in the 1770s. After years of paying for his nephew's education, Clark Sr. eventually invited him to take part in his business ventures in New Orleans. Against his parents' will, Clark accepted his uncle's offer and moved to the United States in 1787 at the age of twenty. Once there, Clark built up a decent fortune running his uncle's mercantile house and investing those profits in New Orleans real estate. Aside from his various commercial projects, Clark also had ambitious political aspirations. Although Clark ultimately secured an official appointment as the vice consul to New Orleans from President Thomas Jefferson in 1801, he was unsuccessful in obtaining an appointment for the governorship of Louisiana.

While Clark was a well-known figure of society, much less is known about Gaines's mother. Born in Louisiana in 1781, Carrière was an attractive woman from a modest upbringing. At thirteen, she entered her first marriage with Frenchman Jerome DesGrange, who, at forty years old, described himself as a "wealthy nobleman. Carrière then met Clark through her husband, who had an ongoing business partnership with him. In 1802, once a relationship had already developed between Carrière and Clark, Gaines claimed that the two were secretly married because Carrière was still married to DesGrange. It was further alleged that Carrière's marriage to DesGrange was illegal because he was a bigamist who had several wives before moving to New Orleans. Indeed, records showed that an ecclesiastical court condemned and arrested DesGrange for bigamy. As a result, in 1806, Carrière left Philadelphia where she and Clark resided for New Orleans to find enough proof to annul her first marriage. Still, the circumstances that ended her first marriage are somewhat contested since a transcript of Carrière's testimony to an ecclesiastical court reveals that she did not believe DesGrange was a bigamist.

Whatever may have been the truth, Carrière's relationship with Clark also began to crumble around this time. In Carrière's absence, Clark courted another socialite, Louisa Caton, granddaughter of Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. According to Gaines, Clark destroyed every document proving his marriage to Carrière in order to marry Caton. The other reported reasons for their separation included rumors of Carrière's infidelity while Clark was in Washington working as Louisiana's territorial legislator as well as Clark's fears that his clandestine marriage threatened his political aspirations. By the time Carrière and Clark separated, Gaines was an infant and put in the care of Clark's close friend, Colonel Samuel Davis and his wife Marian.

Investigation into a lost will

When Colonel Davis first learned of Clark's death, he contacted Clark's executors, Richard Relf and Beverly Chew to know if Clark had left anything for Gaines. Relf and Chew, however, affirmed that Clark's last will ("the 1811 will") named his mother, Mary Clark, as his only heir. According to Davis, Gaines learned about the will and her father's identity in 1830 when she supposedly found correspondence from Clark that acknowledged her as his daughter. Davis confessed the truth upon her discovery of these letters. Other evidence puts into doubt this chain of events, but regardless Gaines never asked Davis to make further demands upon Relf and Chew or attempted to write them on her own behalf.

Circumstances and familial relationships changed after Gaines' marriage to a young lawyer named William Wallace Whitney in 1832. Davis had a strained relationship with Whitney and did not approve of Gaines' marriage to him for unconfirmed reasons, though it somehow involved Clark's estate. Over time, Gaines became more distant from Davis, whom she only referred as "the Colonel" in her correspondence.

Her relationship with the Colonel did not improve once she and Whitney decided to pursue the information found in the various correspondences between Davis and Clark. After locating and visiting Clark's old friends and residents who knew Clark, Gaines and Whitney confirmed that Clark had made a second will right before his death ("the 1813 will") that recognized Gaines as his legitimate child and heir. Under the will of 1813, Clark left Gaines his entire estate less several minor inheritances.

Following this investigation, Whitney filed a preliminary lawsuit in February 1834 to contest the validity of the 1811 will in the Eastern District Court of Louisiana. In the beginning, Gaines's lawsuits were filed by Whitney because, for most of the nineteenth century, women had no legal standing before U.S. courts. Thus, Gaines could only fight for her inheritance on behalf of her husband's name. Although Louisiana followed civil law, which gave women more flexibility and power in controlling their own property, Gaines's claims were primarily filed in U.S. federal courts.

The preliminary suit went after Clark's executors, Relf and Chew, accusing them of fraudulent mismanagement of Clarks's estate assets. The specific claims alleged Relf and Chew had acted fraudulently by pretending that Clark endorsed to them a loan made to Davis. Another claim also accused Relf and Chew of destroying the 1813 will that left most of Clark's fortune to Gaines. In response, the executors denied the allegations and further argued that Clark had never been married to Carrière, had no legitimate descendants, and left his estate to his mother. Additionally, they presented evidence that Mary Clark granted power of attorney to Relf and Chew to act on her behalf in all matters that related to Clark's estate. Finally, they explained that managing Clark's estate was complicated as a result of defective land titles.

Great Gaines lawsuits

Despite the setbacks, Gaines and Whitney were not deterred in moving forward with their claims. On June 18, 1834, Whitney initiated the first of a long chain of lawsuits on behalf of Gaines: W.W. Whitney v. Eleanor O'Bearn, et al. This new suit asked the Court of Probates of New Orleans to declare Gaines the true heir of the 1813 will and order Relf and Chew to transfer all property belonging to Clark's estate to Gaines. The defendants named in the suit were the heirs of Mary Clark, including daughter Eleanor O'Bearn, as well as Relf and Chew.

The Gaines case posed a serious threat to not only the named defendants but to the dozens of property owners in New Orleans. Indeed, over the last twenty years since Clark's death, Relf and Chew had sold property from Clark's estate to various third parties. Many of these transactions involved the executors and prominent figures of New Orleans society. In effect, the case claimed title to their plantations, hundreds of slaves, bank deposits, bank stocks, rents, and profits from Clark's properties. Over the course of subsequent suits, the couple widened the scope of their litigation to include as defendants at least twenty-five purchasers of property from Clark's estate.

Whitney offered as witnesses two of Clark's close confidants. First, Harriet Harper Smythe, the nurse who cared for Gaines as an infant, testified about the contents of the 1813 will, which Clark signed only a month before his death. Clark's friend Colonel Joseph Bellechasse also confirmed the existence of the 1813 will and recalled how Clark had confessed that Gaines was his legitimate daughter and heir. The defense's answer was similar to the arguments presented in the prior suit and would continue to be used in the suits that followed: Clark and Carrière were never legally married; Clark had no legitimate children; the 1811 will was the only will Clark made; and if there was a subsequent will, Clark had gotten rid of it himself.

At the center of the litigation was the question of whether there existed a legal marriage between Gaines's parent, Daniel Clark and Zulime Carrière. The testimony at trial explained that Clark's primary motivation for keeping a clandestine marriage was to protect his political hope of becoming Louisiana's governor. Against this view was evidence of Carrière's subsequent marriage to Gardette, which complicated the claim that there existed a valid marriage between her and Clark. However, there was such scant records or letters on this issue that each side was able to twist the finding to fit their own argument.

Aftermath of trials

The Supreme Court issued its final ruling on the Gaines case in City of New Orleans v. Whitney (1891). Six years after Gaines' death, the Court ordered the city of New Orleans to pay her estate $923,788. Before this decision, the city had been contesting the decrees from both the U.S. and Louisiana Supreme Court that awarded damages and the contested property to Gaines. Although the city lost the courtroom battle, the Gaines family did not fare much better. Gaines's creditors quickly filed claims with the administrators of her estate for repayment of attorney fees and loans. After deducting more than $860,000 in prior debts and legal expenses, Gaines's heirs were left with a small fraction of the original settlement.

Popularity and media coverage

Gaines's plight in the courtroom led to extensive media coverage that propelled her into a celebrity status that few women had in the late nineteenth century. A popular series of books during that time, for example, published a novel inspired by her life and the romance between Clark and Carrière called Myra: The Child of Adoption, A Romance in Real Life.

Philadelphia, New York, and New Orleans newspapers also published recurring stories on Gaines and her lawsuits. However, the relationship the litigants had with the media was a mutually beneficial one. From the beginning, the parties took their claims to newspapers, which would publish their story but not without its own commentary. Immediately, New Orleans papers were in firm support of Relf and Chew while Gaines received a strong backing from the Northern press. The Southern papers often questioned Gaines's true motivations and praised Relf and Chew's determination to rise above any speculation. On the other hand, the Northern papers were moved by elements of romance and tragedy marking Gaines's life, often referring to her case as the cause of an injured orphan.

Several factors helped intensify the spotlight on Gaines's lawsuits. First, a number of the suits were litigated by some of the most famous lawyers in the country. Litigators like Daniel Webster, John A. Campbell, Francis Scott Key and Reverdy Johnson all ensured that her case remained in the front pages of the news. Second, Gaines garnered significant attention from her second marriage in 1839 to war hero General Edmund Pendleton Gaines. In fact, the General's courtship of then Myra Clark Whitney made national headlines. At the time they married, the General was known as the "Hero of Fort Erie" from his victories in the War of 1812 and celebrated in various states with medals for bravery. The marriage proved successful not only in bringing more attention to her case but also in alleviating much of the financial burden from her cases. Like Whitney, the General also contributed most of his wealth to defending Gaines's claims.

Gaines became a famous yet controversial figure just as much for her appearances outside the courtroom. In 1840, Gaines set out with the General on an extensive lecture tour throughout the Atlantic to discuss his plan of national defense, which promoted the use of floating batteries over fleets of steam-powered warships. In support of the General, Gaines spoke after him about the horrors of war to packed town halls in St. Louis, Cincinnati, New York City, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Her decision to speak contravened the common view that women could not be taken seriously in a public forum. While the lectures were also a way to keep the public eye on her lawsuits, she was also outspoken about other legal causes such as the post-Civil War campaign for women's suffrage. Gaines's celebrity status finally reached its zenith in the 1860s.

Death

After General Gaines' death in 1849, Mrs Gaines did not remarry. She died on January 9, 1885, in New Orleans due to pneumonia and lung congestion. Even though, by this time, Mrs Gaines had retreated from the media limelight, her death was widely covered by national newspapers.

List of Supreme Court Cases

Ex Parte Myra Clark Whitney, 13 Peters 404 (1837)

Edmund P. Gaines and Wife v. Richard Relf, Beverly Chew, et al., 15 Peters 9 (1841)

Edmund P. Gaines et ux. V. Beverly Chew, Richard Relf, et al., 2 Howard 619 (1844)

Charles Patterson v. Edmund P. Gaines, et ux., 6 Howard 550 (1848)

Myra Clark Gaines v. Richard Relf and Beverly Chew, Executors, et al., 12 Howard 472 (1852)

Myra Clark Gaines v. Duncan N. Hennen, 24 Howard 553 (1861)

Myra Clark Gaines v. The City of New Orleans et al., 6 Wallace 642 (1868)

Myra Clark Gaines v. F. De La Croix, et al., 6 Wallace 719 (1868)

Myra Clark Gaines v. Manuel J Lizardi, et al., 6 Wallace 723 (1868)

City of New Orleans v. Myra Clark Gaines, 82 U.S. 624 (1873)

Myra Clark Gaines v. Joseph Fuentes, et al., 92 U.S. 10 (1876)

Samuel Smith, James E. Zunts et al., v. Myra Clark Gaines, 93 U.S. 341 (1876)

Eliza Davis v. Myra Clark Gaines, 104 U.S. 386 (1881)

City of New Orleans v. James Y. Christmas, et al., 131 U.S. 191 (1889)

City of New Orleans v. James Y. Christmas and Hattie L. Whitney, Administrators of the Succession of Myra Clark Gaines, 131 U.S. 220 (1889)

List of Louisiana Supreme Court Cases

Barnes v. Gaines, 5 Rob. 314 (1843)

Succession of Clark, 11 La. Ann. 124 (1856)

Clark's Heirs v. Gaines, 13 La. Ann. 138 (1858)

De la Croix v. Gaines, 13 La. Ann. 177 (1858)

Van Wych v. Gaines, 13 La. Ann. 235 (1858)

Fuentes v. Gaines, 25 La. Ann. 85 (1873)

Foulhouze v. Gaines, 26 La. Ann. 84 (1874)