Emma Borden died in the early morning hours 9 days after her sister, Lizzie. Members of her surrogate family saw to her funeral/burial wishes. Her wake was held at Henry and Caroline Gardner’s home. Unlike Lizzie, family and friends gathered to pay their respects and the details of how things were handled was published in these papers. (Click for larger views).

Seated left is Henry Augustus Gardner and his son Orrin to the right. In the back is Hamilton Gardner (raised by Orrin since he was about 10 years old) and his best friend “Buck”. These 3 Gardners, and many more, were at her Wake.
Where we read that Emma had made her wishes known to “Mrs. Gardner”, that would be Caroline Cole Mason Gardner who died in 1918, just seven years after celebrating her 50th Wedding Anniversary with Henry, an event which Emma attended. (Henry would go on to live until 1931). It was Caroline’s sister, Susan Francis Mason who had married Sarah Morse Borden’s brother, William Bradford Morse (they moved to Minnesota and lived all their lives there). That marriage began the bloodline connection to Lizzie between the Morses and the Gardners and the Bordens (still with me here?).

In the article below it states Emma’s wishes were to be buried by her father and stepmother. She is, in fact, buried right along side her sister which can be seen in the image of the family plot at the end of this post. It’s somewhat curious that Emma did not specify “beside my mother”. Emma had been informed of Lizzie’s death by Orrin Gardner but due to her weakened condition did not attend her burial. Unless the sisters spoke of the exact placements of their own future graves prior to Emma’s 1905 departure from Lizzie, Emma would not know of this layout. (Note: Lizzie, in her funeral instructions, requested to be buried at her father’s feet).

In this next article we note that Jerome C. Borden and his family attended the wake. Jerome, of course, was the son of Cook Borden who was Andrew’s uncle. Andrew’s father, Abraham, and Cook were brothers. Jerome, Andrew’s nephew, had several daughters several years younger than the previously departed Lizbeth of Maplecroft.
Two of those daughters were close cousins withGrace Hartley Howe, Jerome’s sister’s daughter and thereby his niece. (No mention if Grace was present at the wake though I doubt it as her husband,Louis McHenry Howe was absorbed in pursuits to get Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President). (I wonder if Jerome thought maybe Emma might have left him some money or property since Lizzie left plenty to his niece Grace as shown in her will which had been printed in the papers just that week). But she didn’t leave anything to Jerome who had been a staunch supporter of Lizzie during the Trial. She left plenty for the Gardners, though whereas Lizzie left them nothing.

The State of New Hampshire’s Record of Death for the year ended December 31, 1927, has a July 1, 1927 entry recording her death on June 10, 1927 and internment on June 13th at Oak Grove Cemetery. The cause of death is “chronic nephritis” and “duration 2 years”. Indicated as the cause is “senility” and “unknown duration”. No mention of any fall. Note that under “Occupation” is written “Retired”. Indeed.
George H. Towle was the physician who pronounced her dead and reported the death.

Then in 1992, comes this record of death from the State of Massachussetts showing the causing of death as both Chronic Nephritis and senility with no indication of the duration of either.

Below: Riverby (pronounced River”bye”) as it looked in the late 1920′s.

Then: Now:




This property was originally in Caroline’s family but she and Henry lived there most of their lives operating it as a successful farm. It passed on to Orrin then to Hamilton Gardner and was sold and subdivided in the 1950′s. Few of the extra out-buildings remain. The current owner of Riverby has partitioned off several rooms, making them into apartments although the neighborhood is not zoned for that. An artist lives on the first floor, a couple on the second and a musician on the 3rd floor attic rooms.





Lizzie is foot-to-foot with her father; Emma is foot to foot with her mother, Sarah. Abby is next to Andrew on the outside. The overall layout has a certain symmetry that seems almost poetic.
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