My Family Tree

Burial plot: Sec. T 18 20.

New York Times
Mary E. CHATFIELD, daughter of Col. Harvey Chatfield. Funeral at Cambridge,

Never married

Occupation: Artist's bookbinder

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Dec 30, 1913, New York Times:
Miss Mary E. CHATFIELD, an artist's bookbinder, whose work is to be found in the libraries of many prominent families in this city, committed suicide some time on Sunday in her studio on the sixth floor of the building at 400 West Twenty-third Street. She stabbed herself in the left breast with a slender-bladed, keen-pointed paper cutter. Her body was found yesterday morning at 11:30 o'clock flung across a couch in the front room where she did her work.

On a nearby table was a piece of paper on which was scrawled in an almost illegible hand, the words "Mrs. Howard is to blame for this". The paper was spotted with blood, indicating that Miss Chatfield had written the message after she stabbed herself, and then dragged herself to the couch to die. Death must have followed shortly, for an examination showed that the blade of the paper cutter had entered her heart.

Friends of Mollie CHATFIELD, as she was known to her intimates, when they heard of her violent death, and of the strange note she had left, refused at first to believe that she had taken her own life. They urged the police to make a thorough investigation, hinting that she may have been murdered. Her brother, Harvey S. Chatfield of 105 East Fifty-third Street, who identified the body, put aside the murder theory. After he had recovered from the first shock he told of a remarkable story of the happenings which he believed led to his sister's death.

For the past two months, he said, Miss Chatfield has been the victim of strange hallucinations. She had been pursude, he said, by a voice which she believed to be that of a woman. She had felt herself bound to do whatever the voice told her to and it was in an effort to escape from its influence that she rented a studio on the top floor of the Twenty-third Street building, hoping that it would not reach her there. Mr Chatfield also said that his sister had been accustomed to taking long walks, and had worn herself out by the rapid pace at which she had strode along in the hope of eluding the Voice.

"I have not the slightest doubt that my sister committed suicide," he said. "I do not know who the Mrs. Howard she referred to may have been for I do not remember any one of that name who has come into touch with our lives for at least five years. It may have been that she believed that a Mrs. Howard was the woman whose voice was following her wherever she went.

Mr. Chatfield said that his sister had devoted her time of late to the making of artistic bindings for rare books. He mentioned tha name of Robert J. Colter as one for whom she had done much work of this kind, and said that her work was to be found in the libraries of many of the most prominebt families in New York. A Mrs. Taylor, a friend of Miss CHATFIELD, who was present during the interview, said that she thought it best not to mention other names.

Miss Chatfield's studio was one of the most artistically furnished of those in the big building. She had her workshop in the large front room into which the sunlight poured through a great skylight. An old spinning wheel stood in one corner, and the furniture included an antique desk of considerable vale and an old mahogany piano. On the mantel was a pair of brass candle-sticks of unique design. A complete bookbinding outfit was neatly arranged on the work table beneath the skylight. Off this room was a smaller one, where Miss Chatfield had lived. She did her own cooking on a small gas range. Miss Chatfield was a member of an old Southern family, friends said. She was a handsome woman, 42 years of age.

Mrs CHATFIELD, the brother, talked with a Times reporter in the front room of the studio apartment. He is almost deaf and questions had to be written for him on a piece of paper.

His sister had been well known in art circles in New York for many years, he said. There had been another sister, Elizabeth and about a year ago she had become so reduced by tuburculosis that she was taken to Saranac in the hope that the change might do her good. Mollie Chatfield had given up her work to accompany her sister. The months which followed were hard ones for her, and upon the death of Miss Elizabeth Chatfield a short time ago she had suffered a breakdown.

About two months ago, he said, his sister Mollie had recovered sufficiently to take up her work again and come on to New York, where she placed herself under the care of Dr. John E. Wilson, a nerve specialist of 616 Madison Avenue. It was about that time that she began to experience the strange hallucinations, and she complained that a strange voice was driving her on and directing her to do things which she did not want to do. Her first effort to escape from the strange influence was made when she rented the studio on the top floor. Later she started to go on the long walks.

Mr. Chatfield said that he had believed that his sister was regaining her health. He had taken her out to dinner on Christmas Eve, he said, and she seemed to be in a cheerful mood. A physician she consulted that had had also given an encouraging report.

It was learned that for three years up to 1911 Miss Chatfield had had a studio with her brother and Harriet Kaucher, an artist on the second floor of the building at 37-45 West Twenty-second Street. A woman who had lived in an adjoining apartment for twenty-five years gave some information about her life there. She said Miss Chatfield was prominent in her line. The brother, she said, was married about two years ago and was well-to-do.

Employees at the Twenty-third Street building furnished the rest of the story. Miss CHATFIELD, the polioce were told, had been seen alive last at 7:30 o'clock on Saturday night. At 11:30 o'clock yesterday morning a Mrs. Taylor came to the studio with some books she wished to have bound. She was unable to gain entrance and summoned the Superintendant. The door was opened with a pass-key and Miss Chatfield's body was found on the couch. She had been dead for at least twenty-four hours. When all of the facts became known the brother was permitted to remove the body to an undertakers.
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Source: Sussex Chatfield Family Genealogy

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