Clara "Dovie" Sherk Comstock

THE PRESS AND THE SCANDALS OF DOVIE FORNEY

When a rich young woman has the nickname of Dovie, she must be careful about her behavior. Nineteenth century readers knew that a soiled dove was a woman whose reputation was not what it should have been and when such a woman is divorced she might expect reporters to write that the dove had flown the coup. They did. When the family and friends of Clara Sherk Forney read what the papers were saying her they cannot have been pleased..

It all started in a wonderful way. Clara was the daughter of Daniel Carpenter Forney, the nationally known editor of the Washington Chronicle. Because of her free spirited ways, the family had taken to calling Clara "Dovie." She was lively, witty, and by all accounts, exceptionally beautiful. At a seaside resort she met Walter J. Comstock. Up in Providence, Rhode Island, his family firm was slaughtering 40,000 hogs a year and had moved into the upper ranks of southern New England society. Clara's father approved of the match and, so the papers said, had contributed a generous amount toward the construction of a 50,000 mansion and stables complex on Providence's Parkis Avenue for the new couple. They were married on 4 February 1880 at Washington's Church of the Ephiany. In Rhode Island Dovie quickly became a social success and was called a, "conspicuous ornament." In December a son arrived and was proudly named Forney Comstock. Everything seemed perfect..

Then clouds began to gather. Their second chikld, a girl named Catherine Farnum Comstock, died soon after birth. Increasingly Dovie began to associate with a cluster of lively young men and women known to be members of the, "swell set." There was talk of drink and of opium. There are two versions of what happened next. Either Walter was driven from the "magnificent residence" or he asked his wife to leave and she fled back to the District of Columbia. In the divorce that followed, Walter was said to have had no dificulty in finding respondants who could be demonstrated to have been much to friendly with Dovie. The judge was inpressed enough with Walter's evidence that he awarded him custody of the couple's son. Walter went back to work and filled his spare time with his horses and to his very successful breading of Irish terriers. By the mid-1880s Dovie had drifted off to New York and was reported to have married a man named John Watrous. So far, it must have been sad for both families, but a small matter in the swirling world of East Caost scandal. Much worse was to come..

On Saturday night, 30 June 1891, Darwin J. Messerole, a New York stockbroker and son of a Union general, entered Dovie's apartment on Sackett Street in Brooklyn and encountered Theodore Harbing. A fight ensued. Messerole drew a revolver and, at very close range, shot Harling, killing him. The police arrived and took both Dovie and Messerole to the Raymend Street station. He was accused of murder and she of being an accessory. It did not help her position when testamony was given that she was frequently seen in New York's tenderloin district and that Harbing, who was married and had a family living a few blocks away, was paying the rent on Dovie's apartment. Her aging father rushed to see his daughter. Rumor mills worked overtime. Some said Dovie had encouraged the shooting, others that the accused man had found Harbing beating Dovie. Reporters loved the story. They dargged out everything they could find on the divorce and were sure to mention that her father was the famed editor, Daniel Carpenter Forney. Wearing a striking black dress and white hat Dovie tertified. Messerole was aquitted of murder and the whole business sold a lot of papers. The lively young girl from Washington, D.C. was now big news. There was more..

In December of 1894 the story went out out that Dovie, the one-time rich girl, had died in a kansas City jail cell. It seemed that she had been caught stealing jewelry and had been charged with grand theft. Word was that she had told the police that she only wanted the money to live her life and buy more drugs. Opium was responsible for her problems. She was last seen alive , prone in the dank cell, sick with fever, singing in a low voice, "nearer My God to Thee." Tales of her divorce and of the 1891 murder were repeated and, of course, her father was mentioned. I have seen versions of the story in papers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, and Kansas. She was national news. Within a few days fairer minded newsmen were forced to print that the the tale was quite untrue, and that friends of the lady in question had contacted editors to say she was alive and well and living in Brooklyn. Dovie, it seemed, had never been as far west as Kansas City..

In 1895 a privite bill was passed by the Rhode Island state legislature changing the name of her son from Forney Comstock to Walter J. Comstock, Jr..

Selected sources: New York Times 2 June 1891; New York Times 30 June 1891; New York Evening World 30 June 1891; Boston Globe 30 June 1891; Richland County Journal, 4 June, 1891; New York Times, 4 December; New York World 5 December 1894; 1894 San Francisco Call, 7 December 1894;