Ada and Minna Everleigh

The sisters claimed an alternative biography, which has long been accepted as factual. Better research has provided more accuracy.{{harvnb|Abbott|2007|pp=23–46}}.

According to their story, Minna and Ada Simms were born outside of Louisville, Kentucky in 1876 to a wealthy lawyer who had fled to Kentucky from Virginia when Benedict Arnold invaded Virginia in 1781. The two sisters had been to finishing school and had proper social debuts. When Minna was 17, she says she married a man whose last name was Lester who turned out to be abusive. Ada claimed to have been married to Lester's brother, who also turned out to be abusive. After both marriages failed, they became actresses. Claiming their father died in the early 1890s, they said they came into a legacy of $35,000.

According to Abbott, whose research included an interview with the sisters' great niece, Minna and Ada were born in Greene County, Virginia to George Warren "Montgomery" and Virginia "Jennie" Madison Simms, the second and third of four daughters. Their mother died when they were young, as did their sisters. There were three brothers, who all survived to adulthood. Although the family was wealthy at the time of their birth, they lost much of their wealth during the Civil War{{cite web|last1=Gunderson|first1=Erica Gunderson|title=Historical Happy Hour: A Toast to the Everleigh Sisters|url=https://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/07/28/historical-happy-hour-toast-everleigh-sisters|website=Chicago Tonight|access-date=7 April 2018|language=en|date=July 28, 2017}} and the family lost their plantation when they couldn't pay their taxes.{{harvnb|Wendt|Kogan|1974|pp=320–322}}. Both sisters were married but subsequently divorced.{{cite web|title=The Other Ladies of Prairie Avenue|url=https://chicagotreasurehouses.com/2017/04/17/the-other-ladies-of-prairie-avenue/|website=Chicago Treasure Houses|access-date=7 April 2018|date=18 April 2017}}

Stranded by a theater company in Omaha, Nebraska, the sisters changed their last name to Everleigh, adapted from their grandmother's habit of signing letters with "Everly Yours" and opened their first brothel in Omaha in 1895. When the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was held in Omaha in 1898, they opened a second brothel in the vicinity of the event in Kountze Park and quickly doubled their investment. They then decided to close their brothels and sought a more affluent city.{{citation |last=Inghamn |first=J. |year=1983 |title=Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders |publisher=Greenwood Press |page=354}}.

In 1899, they settled in Chicago, and on February 1, 1900, opened a high-class brothel named the Everleigh Club, which did good business until closed down in 1911.

In November 1905, a rival madam maliciously accused the sisters of the murder of Marshall Field Jr., son of department store founder Marshall Field.

When the brothel was closed by the city authorities in 1911 Ada was 47 and Minna 45. They then retired with over $1 million to the West Side of Chicago, but were driven out by disapproving neighbors. After traveling around Europe, they changed their name to Lester and settled in New York City.

Minna Everleigh died in 1948. After Minna's death, Ada Everleigh sold most of her personal belongings and moved to Virginia.{{cite news | title=The Everleigh Club | website=Chicago Tribune | url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-everleighclub-story-story.html | access-date=January 26, 2016|author=Louise Kiernan}} Ada Everleigh died in 1960 at the age of 93.

In 2014, a play based on the sisters' life, titled Scarlet Sisters Everleigh, was produced in Chicago.{{cite web|title=Scarlet Sisters Everleigh|url=http://threecatproductions.com/upcoming-season/scarlet-sisters-everleigh|website=Three Cat Productions|access-date=7 April 2018}}

{{reflist}}

• {{citation |last=Abbott |first=Karen |author-link=Karen Abbott |year=2007 |title=Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4000-6530-1}}.
• {{cite book |last=Asbury |first=Herbert |author-link=Herbert Asbury |title=Gem of the Prairie |publisher=Knopf |year=1940}}
• {{citation |first=Ray |last=Hibbeler |year=1960 |title=Upstairs at the Everleigh Club |publisher=Volitant Books|ref=none}}.
• {{citation |first=Edgar Lee |last=Masters |author-link=Edgar Lee Masters |title=The Everleigh Club |periodical=Town & Country |date=April 1944|ref=none}}.
• {{citation |last=Wallace |first=Irving |author-link=Irving Wallace |year=1965 |title=The Sunday Gentleman |publisher=Simon & Schuster|ref=none}}.
• {{citation |first=Charles |last=Washburn |year=1936 |title=Come Into My Parlor: A Biography of the Aristocratic Everleigh Sisters of Chicago |publisher=Knickerbocker Publishing|ref=none}}.
• {{Cite book | last1 = Wendt | first1 = Lloyd | author-link = Lloyd Wendt | last2 = Kogan | first2 = Herman | author2-link = Herman Kogan | title = Bosses in Lusty Chicago (a.k.a. Lords of the Levee) | publisher = Indiana University Press | year = 1974 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/bossesinlustychi0000wend/page/320 320–322] | isbn = 0-253-20109-8 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/bossesinlustychi0000wend/page/320 }}

{{Prostitution in the United States|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Everleigh, Ada And Minna}}

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:20th-century American businesspeople

Category:19th-century American businesswomen

Category:20th-century American businesswomen

Category:American brothel owners and madams

Category:Sister duos

Category:People from Greene County, Virginia