For the past two years, readers of the Fort Macon Ramparts have followed a young mother's life at Fort Macon in the late 1860's, as revealed by her letters to her sister in the North.  Jane "Jeannie" Coues was the wife of Fort Macon's Surgeon, Dr. Elliot Coues.  Dr. Coues made his living as an Army officer, but his primary interest in life was developing and enhancing his international reputation as an authority on North American birds.  When the Army reassigned Dr. Coues in 1870, we lost our correspondence connection with "Jeannie".
    In November 1870, Dr. Elliot Coues, along with his wife Jeannie and their daughter Edith Louise, would leave Fort Macon to go to Fort McHenry.  Jeannie must have been very excited about this move from Fort Macon for one of the best army posts, located near Baltimore Maryland.  Also, with her husband's transfer came a pay raise from $2500 to around $4000.  The officers' quarters at Fort McHenry were of sturdy construction, well heated and ventilated.  Jeannie now had a home that provided her family with the comforts which had been lacking at Fort Macon.  The Officer's House at Fort Macon had cracks in the wall that let the sand and rain in.  Jeannie probably never missed her house at Fort Macon which she called "my cottage by the sea".
    On January 16, 1872, Jeannie gave birth to her first son, Elliot Baird Coues.  Dr.  Coues wanted to name their son Spencer Baird (Spencer F. Baird was then the Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution), but Jeannie had her heart set on Elliot Baird.  Sometime around late September 1872, Dr. Coues would be sent to Fort Randall, in the Dakota territory.  In 1878, Jeannie would give birth to another son, Beverly Drinkard.  Jeannie had two other children, but both died in infancy.
    On November 26, 1880, Dr. Coues was ordered to Fort Whipple, Arizona Territory.  He had begun his military career at Fort Whipple and did not want to return to this outpost.  He considered this appointment an insult.  Dr. Coues did not want to return to "tent-life in unbookish Arizona". He  believed this appointment from the War Department was secretly arranged by his "worst enemy".  Dr. Coues' "worst enemy" was his wife Jeannie.  Dr. Coues would write "...my whole career is at present blocked, in the deadlock brought about by the most devilish malignity and ingenuity of my infamous wife, whose subtle antagonism has been manifested for years in every possible endeavor to thwart and hamper and degrade me...  I have been utterly helpless; and so sure did a long matured plot leave her in full possession of my name, house, children, and money..."
    Jeannie's hatred for her husband had resulted from his many affairs with other women over the years.  In 1881, Jeannie and her husband decided to go their separate ways.  Jeannie continued to reside at 1617 K Street, Washington, D.C., where the entire family had lived before Dr. Coues' second tour of duty in Arizona.  Jeannie kept custody of their daughter, Edith Louise, and youngest son, Beverly Drinkard. The oldest son, Elliot Baird, went with his father.  On May 12, 1886, Jeannie filed for divorce in the District Court of Washington, D.C.  On July 27, the judge granted the divorce on the grounds of desertion.  According to the decree, Jeannie was to receive fifty dollars a month from Dr. Coues and was to have custody of the children, except Elliot Baird, who was to stay with his father.  Dr. Coues died on December 25, 1899.  The lowest point in Jeannie's life must have been on January 2, 1913, when her oldest son, Elliot Baird, passed away.
    Edith Louise was age two while at Fort Macon.  She would ride a broom-stick around the fort and would often ask for "tandy" (candy) from the soldiers of the fort.  The soldiers made a point to keep candy in their pockets for Edith.  Later, she would receive her education at the Convent of Notre Dame in Maryland, and from private tutors.
On April 22, 1901, at the age of thirty three, Edith married Nelson O'Shaughnessy of New York City.  The wedding took place in Rome, Italy.  Nelson O'Shaugnessy worked for the American Diplomatic Service.  In 1907, Edith would give birth to her only child, Elim, a son.  Elim would also spend most of his life in the diplomatic service as a Foreign Service Officer.
    Edith became an excellent writer and wrote many books.  Her first and best known book was A Diplomat's Wife in Mexico.  Around 1920, Edith wrote about her mother, Jeannie:  "My mother is very tall, her figure little or not at all bent by time, and her gait is of a peculiar rhythmic majesty.  She generally wears capes of unique and beautiful cut... Often too I picture her sitting at one end of the long white table of the white upper chamber, the light from the electric bulb in the paneled ceiling, cutting out her beautiful, high, straight nose, deepening her large-socketed, still blue eyes, tracing her delicate, so often smiling lips, and finding the gleam or sparkle of something around her unravaged throat.  Over her face lies a great calm which has come after much combating with circumstances and many enforced or voluntary renunciations...  Under that light yesterday she was saying, 'Love your griefs; they are your best friends.  Looking back over these many years I see that the good and admirable things of life have indeed belonged to adversity rather than prosperity".
    Jeannie spent her last years traveling with Edith and her family.  She died on January, 1925, in Rome.  Edith O'Shaughnessy died on February 18, 1939, in New York City.

    The author, Randy Newman, is a Park Ranger at Fort Macon State Park.  The source of much of the material in this article is the book titled: "ELLIOTT COUES, Naturalist and Frontier Historian" by Paul Cutright & Michael Brodhead.