Caroline Miskel Hoyt

Caroline Miskel Hoyt (born Caroline Miskel Scales, 1873–1898) was an American stage actress who became the second wife of playwright Charles H. Hoyt.

Caroline Miskel Hoyt
Caroline Miskel Hoyt in 1894
Born(1873-09-15)September 15, 1873
Covington, Kentucky, U.S.
DiedOctober 2, 1898(1898-10-02) (aged 25)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationStage actress
Years active1893–1898

Early life

Caroline Miskel Scales, who later adopted the professional name Caroline Miskel, was born September 15, 1873, in Covington, Kentucky.[1] Her parents, Christopher Columbus and Mary Menzies Scales, moved to Toronto in 1875. There she became a student of the Canadian elocutionist Jessie Alexander.[2] Over the years, Caroline's father was a merchant, Kentucky state legislator, magazine editor, and inventor.[3][4]

Caroline Miskel Hoyt
Caroline Miskel Hoyt in A Contented Woman (1897), written for her by her husband

Career

Miskel moved to New York City at the age of 18 and soon made her professional stage début touring with Augustin Daly's famed repertory company that by season's end saw her playing Phoebe, the shepherdess in Shakespeare's As You Like It. She later portrayed Marguerite in Charles Osborne's The Face in the Moonlight opposite Robert B. Mantell. The following season she portrayed Ruth Hardman in Charles H. Hoyt's A Temperance Town, a satiric comedy that opened on September 17, 1893, at Hoyt's Madison Square Theatre and ran for 125 performances.

Though by then Miskel was known as a promising young actress with a flair for comedy, she chose to retire from the stage not long after she married Charles Hoyt on March 4, 1894.[3] She returned to the theatre in 1897 to star in Hoyt's new play A Contented Woman, the Broadway premiere of which was anticipated for the next season after a brief shakedown tour of several northeastern cities.[4]

While in Hartford, Connecticut, early the following year, at a ceremony following the last curtain call of the opening night's performance of A Contented Woman, Caroline Miskel Hoyt received an award from the publishers of The Dramatic News. She had been voted by its readers "most popular actress" in a contest the magazine had conducted over the previous few weeks. As her reward, she received a fully nickel-coated Columbia bicycle from the American Bicycle Company, along with an ornate tool storage pouch, a solid silver cyclometer from The Standard Watch Company, and a silver search lamp from the Bridgeport Brass Company.[5]

Death

On October 1, 1898, Caroline Miskel Hoyt, who had become acutely ill with kidney problems, became gravely ill following the birth of her son. Both died the next day, and mother and son were interred together at the Hoyt family plot in Charlestown, New Hampshire.[4][6] The loss brought about the decline of Charles Hoyt, leading to his death in November 1900.[7]

References
  1. Gallery of plays from the Illustrated American, Issues 1-9 by Austin Brereton 1894
  2. Morgan, Henry James, ed. (1903). Types of Canadian Women and of Women who are or have been Connected with Canada. Toronto: Williams Briggs. p. 167.
  3. University of Toronto
  4. "Caroline Miskel Hoyt Dead". The New York Times. October 3, 1898. p. 1. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  5. New York Times, February 16, 1896
  6. The Atlantic Monthly, Volumes 287–288
  7. "Charles H. Hoyt is Dead". The New York Times. November 21, 1900. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
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