Chester Damsen (1845-) was an American opera singer during the late 19th century. She was a notoriously terrible singer, and she was robbed by the outlaws Arthur Morgan and Josiah Trelawny while travelling through rural Scarlett Meadows, Louisiana in 1899.
Biography[]
Chester Damsen was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1845, and she became a wealthy socialite before becoming a self-taught opera singer. She was a notoriously bad singer, but she travelled the country to perform, including an 1899 performance on Broadway in New York City, which received mixed reviews; Damsen blamed the reviews on the orchestra wandering off-key and on the viciousness of the New York press. That same year, while travelling through rural Scarlett Meadows, her carriage was approached by the trickster Josiah Trelawny, who pretended to be a musical theatre impresario and convinced her to halt her carriage and audition for him. While she did so, Trelawny's accomplice Arthur Morgan snuck up to the rear of the wagon and looted her prized possessions and a great deal of currency, and he disappeared without ever being discovered. Damsen's robbery later made it to the news.