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Cissy Patterson - From Abused Wife to Newspaper Icon

7/12/2014

 

This week I’ve decided to bring you the uplifting story of a woman who most definitely had drama in her early life, but went on the become a force to contend with.

Eleanor Josephine Medill Patterson (Known as Cissy) was born on November 7 1884, in to a life of wealth and privilege. Her family owned and ran several newspapers and dabbled in politics. In her late teens she accompanied her uncle, Robert S McCormick, ambassador to Austria-Hungary, to Vienna. It is here that she met a dashing Eastern European count, nearly twenty years her senior, named Josef Cyzicki. He claimed to be a millionaire, telling her stories of his splendid castles on the Steppes of Moravia. (In what is now the Czech Republic.)

Cissy Patterson
Cissy Patterson
This experienced older man wooed her and although rumours circulated about the Count’s numerous affairs, drinking, gambling, and his illegitimate children, he managed to convince Cissy that her family were fabricating the stories and that he was the ultimate misunderstood bad boy. What young woman can resist that? It appears the more her family disliked him the more she insisted on being with him.

Cyzicki was finally able to win over Cissy's mother, and although her father still didn’t approve the couple were married on 14th April 1904. It is rumoured that on their wedding day he threatened to leave without her if he was not paid a dowry. Her mother settled the situation by doubling her allowance, but the Count’s behaviour made her father even more determined to withhold a settlement.

Once Cissy arrived at Cyzicki's home in Blansko, she discovered the truth, his estates were rundown, mortgaged to the hilt, and he was living off credit. She also learned that his mistress of five years, who had born him a child, had just moved out. The Castle was grim, sparsely furnished and the few fixtures it possessed belonged to his mistress.

Worse was to come, he drank a lot, and once drunk would beat the servants. He took control of every aspect of her life, especially her money. She must have become pregnant soon after arriving in Blankso because in September 1905 their daughter, Felicia, was born. Having ignored the advice of her family and friends, Cissy was trapped with a controlling, abusive husband who saw her as his meal ticket.  

In January 1908 the couple were staying in a French resort when Cissy had finally had enough. Josef, it seems, had progressed from beating the servants to beating his wife. One night after a fight, about his womanizing, he beat her. She managed to escape fleeing with her daughter to London. Cyzicki followed and within a few months kidnapped Felicia and demanded a ransom before he would give her back. The matter was resolved in August 1909 when President-elect William Howard Taft and Czar Nicolas II intervened on Cissy’s behalf. After much legal wrangling, she finally managed to obtain a divorce in 1917.

Cissy did marry again in 1925. This time the groom was a respectable New York lawyer named Elmer Schlesinger, but he died after just four years of marriage. She went on to become a journalist, a newspaper editor, and in 1939 became owner and publisher of the Washington Times-Herald and an icon in her field. She died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1948.

Barbara Bettis
7/12/2014 03:03:49 am

What a great story. You gave information about her that I hadn't known. She really did possess resolve and resilience (and, of course, family connections which could bring to bear the heads of two nations LOL) Super post.

Marlow
7/12/2014 03:24:02 am

Thanks Barbara, as soon as I heard about her marriage I had to write about her. And your right, it does pay to be rich and connected.

J. C. McKenzie link
7/12/2014 05:06:35 am

What a wonderful story. It read like a synopsis (in a good way) for a historical romance. Loved it!

Marlow
7/12/2014 07:22:42 am

Thanks J.C. the characters of the past are great inspiration. I never have to look far for a new idea for a story.

Margaret Tanner link
7/12/2014 11:15:39 am

Great post. Very interesting. I don't think we modern women know how lucky we are. Cissy was lucky, in that she came from wealth and had high powered friends, had she been poor, she would just have had to stay with her abusive husband.
Here in Australia in the 1800's and probably early 1900's a husband could beat his wife as much as he liked and the law would not intervene, unless he actually killed her.

Regards

Margaret

Marlow
7/12/2014 12:26:41 pm

I agree she was lucky when you consider that at the time she had no right to her children in the event of a divorce. And it was her money and influence that saved her.
I think that it is probably the same today. The law is much easier to access if you are rich and I believe that's true for both men and women.

dianacranstoun link
7/13/2014 04:57:45 am

Great post, Marlow. Obviously having money helped, but for anyone in that kind of abusive situation the mental anguish must be awful.

Marlow
7/13/2014 07:30:48 am

Thanks Diana, I agree the emotional anguish she must have endured must have been horrific.


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