Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Waldersee, Mary

WALDERSEE, Mary, Countess von, b. in New York city, 3 Oct., 1837. She is the daughter of David Lee, a New York merchant, who left his widow and five children a large fortune. The second daughter, Blanche, married Augustus Charles Murray, a commander in the British navy, and the third, Josephine, married Baron August von Waechter, ambassador of the king of Würtemberg to the French court. The baroness sent for her youngest sister, Mary, to live with her in Paris, where she met and married Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg-Noër, who had been driven into exile by the Austro-Prussian army in 1864. Miss Lee, however, not wishing to be trammelled by the exacting etiquette that attaches to high rank, induced the prince to renounce his rights and titles as a member of the royal house of Denmark. He subsequently accepted from the emperor of Austria the title of Prince of Noër, the name of his principal estate. The prince died shortly after his marriage while on a visit to the Holy Land, 2 July, 1865, and the princess then returned to Paris, where she resided with the Baroness Waechter until the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war, when she accompanied the latter to Würtemberg. In 1871 she married Count von Waldersee, the successor of Field-Marshal von Moltke, and lived with him for some time at Hanover. There she soon became widely known through her interest in local charities. Since she has resided in Berlin she has been equally zealous in good works. She was for years the friend of Emperor Frederick William, of Germany, and of the Empress Victoria.