The Other Mrs. Clemm

Poe’s biography is unusually plagued with problems for historians and biographers. One minor example, which appears to have gone mostly unnoticed, is a remarkable situation concerning Poe’s aunt and mother-in-law, Mrs. Maria Clemm. Interest in Mrs. Clemm is primarily in regard to her enduring and significant association with her nephew and son-in-law Edgar. Generations of scholars have long sought every scrap of information that might shed some light on Poe and have sometimes been overly eager to track down and record any concrete fact to compensate for the murky circumstances regarding Poe’s life. Consequently, too many biographers have leapt to assumptions and accepted at face value stories long established more by repetition than by documentation.As a recent instance of the problem, Edgar Allan Poe: A Scrapbook, edited by Brandon A. Fullam (self-pub., 2022) presents many interesting and useful clippings of original material about Poe in chronological order, although not always reproducing the full image, or in a way that can actually be read. One highly questionable point is the “heretofore unknown record” of a passport application for Maria Clemm on August 13, 1846, and the presence of her name in a list of passengers “bound for Liverpool” (214). The application and departure of the steamship are both from Baltimore, and almost certainly neither is really for Poe’s mother-in-law. Similarly, some years ago, a Baltimore researcher found what she thought was a jackpot of new material about Mrs. Clemm in the Baltimore City Archives, and could only with some difficulty be persuaded that it was not relevant to Poe because it was not his Maria Clemm.A more difficult matter roughly traces back to Arthur Hobson Quinn, who gives us the comment that “Mrs. Clemm is listed in Matchett’s Baltimore Directory for 1827 as the ‘preceptoress of school, Stiles Street, North Side near Foot Bridge’” (Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography, New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941, 151). Even The Poe Log (ed. D. Thomas and D. K. Jackson, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987), generally a model of high repute and caution, repeats the information without questioning or qualifying it (85). This claim has always been something of an anomaly in Mrs. Clemm’s history, as she was not well educated in any way that might prepare one to be a preceptress of a school. (It is also difficult to imagine where she would raise funding sufficient to attempt to open a school, even acknowledging her skill at begging for money.) Stiles Street is in the Fells Point area, at the edge of what has long been known as “Little Italy.” Where the footbridge would have been is anyone’s guess, but if Stiles Street in 1827 continued beyond where it runs currently on the western end, the bridge might have gone over the waterway and connected pedestrians to the piers. In any case, the road, particularly the more eastern end, is near where Mrs. Clemm was presumably living about that time (see Mary Markey and Dean Krimmel, “Poe’s Mystery House: The Search for Mechanics Row,” Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. 86, Winter 1991, 387–95). We must consider, however, the problem that there were, in fact, two Mrs. Clemms living in Baltimore at roughly the same time. More than that, they were related by marriage to two brothers. Before delving more deeply into the specific complications in terms of historical claims, let us first document basic biographical information about the two Mrs. Clemms.Maria Eichelberger was born in Baltimore on November 6, 1785. She married John Shultz Clemm (1780–1814) on August 8, 1810, at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore. He was the younger of two known sons of William Clemm Sr. and Anna Schultz. He was a Baltimore merchant with a business at 114 N. Howard Street. In the War of 1812, John Clemm joined the Baltimore Fencibles, a company of volunteer citizen soldiers, and served as a sergeant. He was killed on September 13, 1814, in the bombardment of Fort McHenry (made famous in the poem that would eventually become the American national anthem). Their daughter Joanna (1813–1850) married Commodore Daniel Bowley Ridgely (1813–1868). The first child of that marriage, John Clemm Ridgely (1838–1839), died in infancy and is buried at the Hampton mansion, in Baltimore County. This connection to a larger family with a great deal of property and money was through her sister, Elizabeth Eichelberger Ridgely (1783–1803), who married Nicholas Greenbury Ridgely (1774–1829) about 1802 and died in childbirth. (This Eliza Ridgely is not to be confused with her more famous daughter, Eliza. A portrait by Thomas Sulley of the daughter with a harp, and indeed the harp itself, are still displayed at the mansion, now a museum). I am grateful to Gregory R. Weidman, curator at the Hampton National Historic Site, for making a search of their archives. Unfortunately, he was unable to find any portrait of Maria or her sister. He did come across a letter documenting that Mrs. Clemm and her sister were staying at the Hampton mansion in the summer of 1848.) Left a widow who never remarried, this Mrs. M. E. Clemm remained in Baltimore until her death on July 6, 1864. She was buried there in what was then the highly fashionable Green Mount Cemetery, in a vault that is more substantial than a mere headstone although certainly modest by the standards of that cemetery. Although she is not generally listed in city directories, probably because she was living with other members of the family, her long presence in Baltimore resulted in many traces of her activities in the city.John Clemm’s older brother was William Clemm Jr. (ca. 1779–1826), the elder son, who carried his father’s name. He married Harriet Poe (born March 29, 1785), one of Edgar’s aunts, on April 30, 1804 (recorded as May 1, 1804, by First Presbyterian Church records noted by Quinn, p. 725). Their first child was William Eichelberger Clemm (born October 11, 1806, christened June 25, 1807, at St. Paul Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore). Note the Eichelberger connection, which further indicates a web of associations between the various families. Harriet Poe Clemm died early in January in 1815. William Clemm Jr. would go on to marry her younger sister, Maria Poe (born in Baltimore on March 17, 1790). That marriage took place on July 13, 1817. (See PL, 33; and Quinn, 726, for the date of July 12, which PL states is in error.) William Clemm Jr. died on February 8, 1826 (PL, 67; Quinn, 726), leaving his widow with little money and a few meager properties, which were saddled with debt. (See Poe’s letters of January 22, 1836, to J. P. Kennedy, and Kennedy’s unhappy reply of April 26, 1836.) This Mrs. Clemm, Edgar’s mother-in-law, died at the Episcopal Church Home on February 16, 1871. She had moved back to Baltimore and entered this charitable facility in 1863. (Ironically, although a different institution was using the physical structure at that point, it was the same building where Edgar had died in 1849.) She was duly interred in the Poe family lot at the Westminster Burying Ground, near where Edgar had been buried. (In 1875, when Poe’s remains were relocated to the grand memorial monument in the front corner of the cemetery, Mrs. Clemm was also exhumed and moved with him. The body of Virginia Poe, having died in New York in 1847, was relocated to Baltimore in 1885, and reburied next to the monument so that the little family was together again for eternity.)Here we see how complicated the picture is, almost a real-life case of “William Wilson” but with actual flesh and blood people. We have two women of approximately the same age, both using the name Mrs. Maria Clemm (generally without the middle initial to distinguish them), living in Baltimore (at least for a substantial period at the same time), having been married to two brothers who were both merchants and who both died young leaving them widows struggling to survive in a world that was not kind to older ladies of limited financial means.With this additional knowledge in hand, it is fairly easy to dismiss the claims of Poe-related significance for a passport and travel to Liverpool in 1846. By this time, Poe’s aunt was living with him as his mother-in-law in New York. Her daughter, Virginia Poe, had married Maria’s nephew, Edgar, just a decade earlier. Although Edgar was never quite able to admit the fatal diagnosis, the first signs had made themselves known in 1842. By 1846, reoccurring bouts had left Virginia increasingly weak and in need of nearly constant attention. Under such circumstances, the possibility that Mrs. Clemm would leave her daughter and make a trip of this sort seems even less likely. In any case, living in New York, there would be no reason for her to travel all the way to Baltimore to make a voyage abroad.The idea that Poe’s Mrs. Clemm ran a school in Baltimore, or attempted to do so, in 1827 is more difficult to trace or verify. The first mention of such a claim goes back to 1877, when E. L. Didier’s memoir of the author for an edition of Poe’s poetry says that following the death of her husband, Mrs. Clemm “was compelled to earn a living by teaching school” (The Life and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: W. J. Wilddleton, 1877, 41). Although not fully documented, one might presume that this information came from Mrs. Clemm herself, but it is not clear that Didier extensively interviewed her directly before her death in 1871, although he claims to have done so. In his January 7, 1872, article on “Poe’s Grave” (Appleton’s Journal, 104), Didier states with some pride that he attended Mrs. Clemm’s funeral, and that he obtained information about Poe from “my conversations with Mrs. Clemm.” On the other hand, his 1877 preface thanks Neilson Poe for many details about family history, and Mr. William J. McClellan for unspecified assistance, but makes no mention of Mrs. Clemm. Didier does not annotate the source of this information about Mrs. Clemm’s school, and while it is possible that Mrs. Clemm or someone else in the family told him, it is just as possible that he merely saw the entry in the same city directory cited by Quinn. As an example of Didier’s questionable authority, he also claims that “In 1831–2, Mrs. Clemm lived on Cove (now Fremont) Street” (50). Here, Didier appears to be in error, although these streets are fairly close to Amity Street, where she is now known to have been living about 1832–35. (It is at least possible that she might have moved more than once in this period, but we have no other documentation to support this idea.) We know that Mrs. Clemm was skilled in such domestic activities as cooking and sewing. Indeed, it was presumably one of her tasks to mend Poe’s clothes and keep them as neat as possible, while avoiding the need to buy new ones. It has sometimes been suggested that she used these skills in a paid capacity as a seamstress, but there seems to be no documentation to support the claim even if it might be perfectly reasonable as a speculation. Had either Quinn or The Poe Log recognized the problem of two Mrs. Maria Clemms and quoted the directory entry in full, rather than merely giving the second half, it would have made clear that it does specifically start with “Mrs. Wm. Clemm” (Matchett’s Baltimore Director, Baltimore: Richard J. Matchett, 1827, 57).A possible source for funding and assistance might have come by 1827 from the small pension awarded in 1824 to Mrs. Clemm’s mother, Elizabeth Cairnes Poe, the widow of “General” David Poe Sr., but it is hard to imagine that the annuity of $240 would be adequate for such a purpose. Even if financing could be obtained, we are left with the question as to how Mrs. Clemm might be able to provide the education demanded by a school. (It is at least conceivable that she might have been capable of training young girls in domestic activities.) The fact that the name in the directory is cited as being Mrs. William Clemm must be accepted as indicating Poe’s “Muddie” rather than her sister-in-law, but we can only wonder if the venture was anything more than an unsuccessful idea. Whether or not there ever really was a school, or how long it might have existed, is probably not resolvable with the information currently on hand. In any case, there should at least be some hesitation in offering it as a certainty.Given these problems, one might even be tempted to question the connection of Edgar to the house on Amity Street that is now a museum. Poe’s August 29, 1835, letter to Mrs. Clemm and Virginia is addressed only as to “Mrs. William Clemm / Baltimore / Md.” This very generic form of address was common in the days before home delivery of mail, when she would have had to pick up the letter from the local post office. It might be interesting to note that it addresses Mrs. Clemm by her married name rather than as Maria, which might have caused confusion about the recipient, as Poe would probably have known. Amity Street being the place where they lived is first mentioned by Mary E. Phillips (Poe the Man, Chicago: John C. Winston Co., 1926, 1:454), on the authority of William J. McClellan, a Baltimore resource much interested in matters appertaining to Poe and long involved in research efforts by Poe biographers.The question is generally answered by the long-standing tradition that Poe had indeed lived in the area, further supported by three notable bits of more tangible evidence. Matchett’s 1833 Baltimore City Directory lists Mrs. Clemm, somewhat indistinctly we now see, as Mrs. Maria Clemm, and as being the resident of “3 Amity St., between Saratoga and Lexington Sts” (Baltimore: Richard J. Matchett, 43). Poe gave an early although incomplete manuscript of “Morella” to Mrs. Samuel F. Simmons, who lived at No. 1 Amity Street (p. 166), a manuscript that is now in the Huntington Library in San Marion, California (HM 1726). An obituary for Elizabeth Poe, from the Baltimore American and Commercial Daily Advertiser of July 8, 1835, notes that she died in the “residence of her daughter, Mrs. William Clemm, in Amity Street” (see M. G. Evans, “Poe in Amity Street,” Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. 36, December 1941, 376).