Alfred and Annie Waller letters

The Alfred and Annie Waller letters consists of approximately fifty letters spanning the period between 1899 and 1902. The letters housed in this small collection discuss the separation and divorce of Alfred and Annie ("Nancy") Waller of Watertown, New York.

The letters are arranged by recipient and housed in three folders, including the following: F1 Letters to Annie ("Nancy") Waller, F2 Letters to Alfred Waller, and F3 Letters to ("Governor") Allen Beach from Alfred Waller. The letters illustrate several different perspectives on this turn-of-the-century marriage crisis and provide insight into the emotional, social, legal, and financial aspects of the Waller's separation.

Alfred Waller’s letters to his wife are typically full of heartbreak, atonement, and pleas for reconciliation, as well as frequent discussions of his financial difficulties in providing an allowance to his estranged wife. Illustratively, Alfred Waller’s letters to his wife were addressed to the familiar "Nancy" prior to November 9, 1899, when he accepted her terms for separation; thereafter, he refers to her by the name "Annie."

Additional letters from the Waller's family and friends reflect the social difficulties of divorce at the turn-of-the-century. Many letters, including one from Annie Waller's mother, advise the couple to reconsider their separation in order to avoid publicity and harm to the reputations of all involved.

Letters written to Allen Beach, the couple's legal intermediary and a resident of Watertown and Sackets Harbor, New York, document the couple's path to separation. The separation appears to have begun following the "Piercefield scandals," in which Alfred Waller's jealousy toward his wife purportedly resulted in "personal violence" toward her. In addition to Annie Waller's complaints of personal violence, Alfred Waller submitted a letter to Beach on April 1, 1900, in which he claims to have committed an act of adultery with a woman in Philadelphia. However, in his personal correspondence with Beach, Alfred Waller maintains that he has had no adulterous relationships with women, and that he only wrote the letter suggesting the contrary in order to provide the necessary "evidence" for the divorce as per his wife's wishes and Beach's recommendations. In later letters to Beach, Alfred Waller condemns his letter admitting adultery and flatly denies its truth. Alfred Waller also scorns Beach for advising him to falsely admit to such acts.

From the fragmentary and often one-sided evidence presented in the collection it is difficult to discern the facts leading up to the Waller's separation and the eventual outcome of their estrangement. Nevertheless, this small collection offers the researcher a glimpse into the difficult process of separation and divorce at the turn of the twentieth century. These letters may be useful to researchers interested in women’s history, social history, family studies, as well as the legal and financial aspects of divorce during this time.