Rosina Froidevaux

Rosina was born in Brooklyn in the early summer days of 1861 to Lucien Froidevaux of Switzerland and Marie Mercier of France. The first daughter, she was one of the six children born to the Froidevaux couple. Her older brothers, Lucien Jr. and Aristides, were born in 1852 and 1858, respectively, followed by sisters, Angela in 1867 and Marie in 1869, and a brother, Ulysses in 1873.

Her name appeared on the list of the missing in the December 6, 1876 issue of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, while her brother Aristides was reported among the injured who escaped the fire. In the same issue, we read the following account of Rosina’s brother:

IN THE LONG ISLAND COLLEGE HOSPITAL.

A reported visited the Long Island College Hospital at two o’clock this morning. In the accident ward, stretched on two cots, lay two men. They were burned and festered and covered with wounds. Every effort had been made by the physicians in charge to alleviate their sufferings, but they uttered faint groans, and tugged at their bandaged hands as if driven to desperation by their terrible injuries. They were stout hearted fellows, however, and did all in their power to control themselves. The reporter approached one of the couches. Its occupant turned slightly, and groaned as the reporter asked him his name.

“I am Arty Froidevaux” he muttered faintly. “I don’t know how I got out of the place,” he added with an effort. “My sister was with me, but nobody knows what become of her. Oh! have you seen her! I fear that she was killed in the fire.” And then the poor fellow groaned again, and said to his interrogator, “Oh! it smarts so; these burns are awful.”

On December 8, Rosina’s name appeared on the list of the identified bodies in the Eagle. The next day, The New-York Tribune published a description of how Rosina’s father found her among the victims of the fire.

FROIDEVAUX, ROSA, No. 257 Columbia-st. There was only a portion of the trunk and head remaining. Her father, L. Froidevaux, a watchmaker at No. 257 Columbia-st., on searching the remains carefully, found a peculiar earring clinging to the cartilage of the ear. The earring was blackened by the heat, but the aqua marine stone was peculiar, and recognized by the father as an ornament worn by his daughter when she went to the theater with her brother on Tuesday night. The earrings were a present from her father. The brother was badly hurt, and is now in the Long Island College Hospital. The girl’s body was removed to her father’s residence.

New York Tribune, December 9, 1876, cover

Rosina was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery of Brooklyn.

Marie Froidevaux, mother of our victim, lost her eldest son, Lucien Jr., a mere three months after Rosina’s death. He was buried next to his sister.

The toll of losing two children in such short span of time must have laid heavily on Marie, so much so that on March 24, 1878, she died and was buried with her children. The Froidevaux family members are buried in St. Marks Section, Row F, plot 15.

The Froidevaux family in 1875 New York State Census, Kings County, Brooklyn, enumerated on June 10, 1875 (lines 28 to 35)

Lucien Froidevaux Sr., who was born about 1823 in Switzerland, arrived to New York sometime in 1850. A year later, he married Marie, daughter of George and Marie Merciers. Lucien was a jeweler and watchmaker by trade. In 1863, his name appeared among the “persons of Class II, subject to do military duty,” but there’s no record of his service in the military. After his wife’s demise, Lucien’s mother-in-law lived with the family, helping with the household. Meanwhile, Aristides was working as bookkeeper, perhaps in his father’s store.

On March 28, 1884, Aristides Lucien Froidevaux, who survived the Brooklyn Theater Fire, died in his home, leaving a wife and infant child. Rosina’s youngest sister, Marie, who was a school teacher, died on October 15, 1890, at the age of 21 years. On July 19, 1896, Ulysses, youngest brother of Rosina, died at the age of 23 years. His full name at birth was Ulysses Eugene Lucian Froidevaux, and, like his father, he was a jeweler by trade. Aristides, Marie and Ulysses were all buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, next to their mother and siblings. Unlike the rest of his family, Lucien Sr.’s body was cremated when he died on February 14, 1892.

Aristides’ obituary, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 29, 1884, page 4