XOKDHOFF
NORDICA
NORDHOFF, Charles, author and journalist,
was bora in Erwitte, Wostphalia, Prussia, Aur.
31, 1830; son of Charles and Adellieid (Plate)
Nordhoflf. His fatlier, an officer who won the
"Waterloo medal under Blucher, resigned from the
German armj- and immigrated to America in
1835, in order to have his sou educated under
democratic institutions. Charles on the death of
his father w;is left to the care of Dr. "William
NastandDr. J. H. Pulte (q.v.) of Cincinnati. lie
attended the public schools and "Woodward
college; worked as a printer, 1843—44; served in
the U.S. navj- on the old ship Columbus, 1844-47,
and in the merchant marine and whale and
mackerel fisheries, 1847-53, where he collected
material for his books. He was engaged in
newspaper work in Philadelphia, Pa., and Indian-
apolis, Ind., 1853-57, was editorially connected
with Harper & Bros., New York city, 1857-61,
and on the staff of the New York Evening Post,
1861-71, where his vigorous editorials in that
paper and subsequently in the New York Times
were largely influential in the appointment of
the committee of seventy and the overthrow of
the Tweed ring. He traveled extensively in
1871-72; visited the Sandwich Islands in 1873,
and in 1874 became attached to the staff of the
New York Herald as an editorial writer and
also as the special Washington correspondent.
Upon his retirement from that paper in 1891 he
made his home in Coronado, Cal. He was
married in 1857 to Lida, daugliter of James anil
Martha (Fallon) Letford, and their daughter,
Evelyn Hunter Nordlioff (1863-1898), was an
artist and the first woman to become an expert
in artistic book-binding. He eilited an American
edition of Kerns " Practical Landscajje Garden-
ing" (1855), and "The Tin Trumpet," and is
the author of: Man-of-War Life: a Boy's Ex-
jierience in the U.S. Navy (1855); Tfie Mer-
chant Vessel (1855); Wlialing ami Fishing
(1856); Stories from the Island World (1857);
Secession is Rebellion: the Union Indissolid)le
(I860;; The Freedmen of Sordh Carolina:
some Account of their Appearance, Character,
Condition and Customs (1863); America for
Free Working Men (1865); Cape Cod and
All Along Shore; a Collection of Stories (1868);
California for Health, Pleasure and Residence
(1872); Northern California, Oregon and the
Sandwich Islands (1874); Politics for Young
Americans (1875), which was written for his
young son, and adopted as a text-book in schools
and translated into Boliemian and Spanish;
77/e Communistic Societies of the United States
(1875), which wa.s translated into Russian and
French; The Cotton States in the Spring and
Summer of 1S75 (1876). He died in San Fran-
cisco, Cal., July 14, 1901.
NORDICA, Lillian, prima donna, was born in
Farmington, Maine, Dec. 12, 1859; daughter of
Edwin and Amanda Elvira (Allen) Norton;
granddaugliter of James Instance and Sarah
(Smitli) Norton, and of the Rev. John and Annah
(Hersey) Allen, and a descendant of Nicholas
Norton of English descent, born in Weymoutli,
Mass., and a resident of Duke's count}', Mass., as
earl}' as 1609. She removed to Boston, Mass., with
her parents in 1863, was educated in the public
schools and studied vocal culture under John
O'Neil at the New England Conservatory of
Mu.sic, graduating in 1875. She sang in choirs
and concerts and with the Handel and Haydn
society, and studied for a sliort time under
Madame Maretzek in New York. She went to
Europe as the soloist of Gilmore's band in 1878,
and sang at the Crystal Palace, London, and at
the Trocadero in Paris. Slie studied under San
Giovanni in Milan, Italy, with the determination
to become an opera singer, and in six months
had a repertory including ten operas. She made
her debut in Brescia, Italy, in "La Traviata " in
1879; appeared as Alice in " Roberto " at Novara,
Italy, in the same year, and sang the part of
Marguerite in " Faust," 1880, She appeared in
the operas " Rigoletto," "Faust" and "Lucia"
at Aquilla, Italy; in "Mignon," " L'Af ricaine,"
" Le Nozze di Figaro," "Le Prophete," "Don
Giovanni" and " Les Huguenots" in St. Peters-
burg. Russia, in 1880, and in 1881 before Ambrose
Tliomas and Van Corbeil, who engaged her for
the grand opera in Paris. She sang the role of
Marguerite in " Faust," in Paris in 1882; made a
tour of the United States under Colonel Mapleson
in 1883, and in Berlin and London in 1887, becom-
ing a great favorite in the latter city, where she
received the personal thanks of the Prince and
Princess of Wales, and was commanded to sing
before Queen "Victoria. She appeared in the
Wagnerian role of Elsa in " Lohengrin" at Bey-
reuth in 1894, joined the Abbey, Schoffel and
Grau Opera company, with whom she made
various tours of the United States, singing Elsa
in " Lohengrin " and Isolde in "Tristan und
Isolde." Her repertory in 1903 consisted of over
forty operas and all the standard oratorios. She
was decorated by the Duke of Edinburgh and the
Duke of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, and also
received the title of royal chamber singer, a
brooch of precious stones from Queen Victoria,
and a tiara of diamonds from the stockholders of
the ]\Ietropolitan Opera House of New York city
in 1896. She was married, Jan. 22, 1883. to Fred-
eric Allen Gower, an aeronaut, who lost his life
in 1886, in an attempt to cross the English chan-
nel. In June, 1896, she was married to Zoltan
Domd, a Hungarian. Madame Nordica was the
first foreigner to sing at Beyreuth. and she
