Free Collectibles on That Whacky Lizzie

Among the countless blogs on Lizzie this one (click here)

is a hoot because of the official crime scene image of slain Abby on the floor of the guest room. The poster has “cartooned” it up – and a very good job at that. Abby’s feet kicking is a particularly nice touch….comically macabre.

Take note, however, that the purported sisters image of Emma and Lizzie is wrong. It is not Lizzie, nor is it Emma. This image has been on the internet for years.

 

Naaaah

 

Also the text has numerous factual errors. Lizzie DID in fact “date” men and that will be widely known come this summer. Lizzie taught Sunday School briefly to a class of Chinese at Reverend Buck’s missionary. Andrew wasn’t “withdrawing” their inheritance. Oh, I could go on and on, but I’m busy. Instead, you do it and I’ll give you a free prize. Here’s the deal -

The first 3 people who email me with at least ten (10) of the inaccuracies (and stating why) can have their choice of either the T-shirt shown below (all are new, all are size XL) or the CD ROM for Borden case research originally created by me in 1999. This one is a 2001 edition. No cost on either, except a $4.00 postage fee. First 3 people only. Oh, and if you are out of the country, postage will be higher…. some of the Timeline booklets were shipped as far as Afghanistan! Anyway, read thru this blogger’s telling of the Borden case and email me your list! Good luck!

Email: phaye@npgcable.com

 

U.S. Copyright Office Registration – All Rights Reserved

Fall River – 1911

The above image has nothing to do with this entry. I just like it. Besides, I put the names to the figures – purely fictitious.

June 19, 1911 was the opening of Fall River’s Cotton Centennial – just one month before Lizzie’s 51st birthday. We can assume she did not partake in any of the festivities, but if in residence at “Maplecroft” she surely read about them in the papers.

The town was ready to celebrate it’s 100 years of growing prosperity and was in a gay and festive mood. It would seem as if all of its nearly 20,000 population turned out. People gathered on Main Street which was dressed up with giant banners, a huge archway, and raised platforms for speeches.

On the third day of the week long celebration they awaited the grand arrival of President Howard Taft. And no doubt the bands played Irving Berlin’s new, toe-tapping “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”. Perhaps that upbeat tempo helped soften memories of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company’s horrific fire in New York that caused so many young girls to leap to their death just three months previous. But now was a time for having fun, picnics, parades, and the exchange of coy smiles among the younger set.

The dawning of the 20th Century and the bright early years that followed after this celebration would dim and be marred by the First World War – but still, the people of Fall River had their happy times. There was a growing middle class during the first two decades after 1900 that was hardly identifiable from just two generations ago, and they were coming into their own.

Lizzie Borden Dateline: November

Update: All the booklets indicated below have been accounted for, i.e., will be mailed per your email requests. Please no more emails.

Also: Under the “Here it is Again” category (don’t bother looking to the right because its not really one of my categories) another purported Lizzie photo on eBay. It is NOT Lizzie. It was shopped around 2-3 years ago by Dan Dunn collectibles in Newport, RI but determined not to be Lizzie by several qualified people. Check it out here.

(Right click to view larger image)

Lizzie may have sought privacy immediately after her acquittal in New Bedford’s Superior Court on June 20, 1893 when she was declared “Not Guilty”, but she was destined not to have it in her lifetime in Fall River OR after her death.

Much of the tourism of Fall River is attributed to the multitudes who flock there simply to see the “murder house”, her gravesite at Oak Grove Cemetery, “Maplecroft”, and artifacts at the Fall River Historical Society, which is a shame because the city has so much more to offer in its history. But it is Lizzie Borden – whose name might as well be on a huge, flashing, neon marquee at the end of the Braga Bridge – ever privacy-resistant, enduring and forever the best damn true crime murder mystery in America.

“I realize that I can never be light-hearted again.”
- Lizzie Borden

Contributing to the Bordenia chronicles, here is a sampling of Fall River & Borden case-related events in the month of November extracted from a little 32-page booklet I created and printed in color codes, spiral bound with black coil and plastic cover. It tracks Fall River history and the Borden case and legacy from 1612 to 2007. I have several I’m giving away for free. Just email me at phaye@npgcable.com if you’d like one. First come, first serve. Postage is $4.00.

November 5, 1824	Twins, Lurana and Charlotte Borden, sisters of Andrew Borden, are born in Fall River.
November 7, 1850	Melvin O. Adams is born in Ashburnham, Ma.
Nov. 23, 1854	Abraham Borden marries second wife BeBe Wilmarth, Andrew’s stepmother. (AJB is 32 years old).
November 12, 1867	Niantic Thread Mill, at the corner of Division and Mulberry Streets, Loss: $50,000.
November 9, 1874	Grace Hartley born, Lizzie’s cousin and later to become wife of Louis McHenry Howe. (Lizzie is 14)
November 2, 1875	Fire wipes out the Massasoit Cotton Mill owned by Nathan Durfee. Loss: $150,000
November 2, 1877	Fire at Border City Mill #1 reduces it to ruins.
November 1889	Dr. William A. Dolan appointed V.P. of Fall River Medical Society.
November, 1889	Grace Hartley marries Louis McHenry Howe in Vermont (6 months before Lizzie’s Grand Tour)
November 20, 1889	Fall River Medical Society formed.
Nov/Dec 1889	Bridgett Sullivan starts working for the Bordens.
November 1889	Dr. William A. Dolan appointed V.P. of Fall River Medical Society.
November 1, 1890	Lizzie returns from Grand Tour to Boston on S.S. Scythia.
November 11, 1890	Reception at Central Congr. Church for Lizzie and Anna & Carrie Borden on return from Grand Tour.
November 14, 1890	Hosea Knowlton prosecutes Jerome Brisebois for manslaughter; Andrew Jennings defends.
November 24, 1892	Moulton Bachelder submits his “sanity” investigation to District Attorney Knowlton.
November 24, 1892	Investigation by prosecuting attorneys concludes no evidence of insanity attributed to Lizzie.
November 11, 1916	Jane Baker dies at 89 years, 2nd wife of Oliver Gray, and Abby Borden’s stepmother.
November 7-21, 1892	Grand Jury convened in Taunton.
November 8, 1892	U.S. Presidential Election: Cleveland defeats Harrison.
November 15, 1892	Professor Edward Wood testifies at Grand Jury hearing in Taunton,
November 18, 1892	Grand Jury considers Borden case.
November 21, 1892	Grand Jury adjourns taking no action.
November 24, 1892	Moulton Bachelder submits his “sanity” investigation to District Attorney Knowlton.
November 24, 1892	Investigation by prosecuting attorneys concludes no evidence of insanity attributed to Lizzie.
November 2, 1894	Abby’s estate of approximately $1,500 is distributed to family members.
November, 1894	Hosea Knowlton becomes Attorney General of Massachusetts.
November 26, 1897	Lizzie buys small house north side of French Street and has it moved to install gardens.
November 2, 1898	The 12 male jury members of Borden Trial hold reunion at Revere House in Boston, Ma.
November 20, 1920	Emma Borden signs her Last Will & Testament.

The Dinner Pail

Fall River’s industrial greatness was once measured by the total number of spindles it had, and was known as the “Spindle City”. It was also known as the “City of the Dinner Pail”, the title of Jonathan Thayer Lincoln’s 1909 book exploring the dichotomy of mill owners and mill workers and the need for management and labor to better understand each other. If the towering smokestacks were the iconic symbol of the power and prosperity of their owners, the dinner pail was the iconic symbol of that class of poor men, women, and children who labored long and hard within those mills. What follows beautifully captures the era and importance of “the dinner pail”. Kudos to you, Alice. :)

THE DINNER PAIL —Alice Grinnell Killam (American Heritage Magazine)

“In the years since I have had to use the services of a baby-sitter, inflation has hit this little business. I was amazed to find that the rate per hour has more than doubled. My grandchildren are baby-sitters, and they make a lot of money. Listening to one of their conversations, I discovered that accompanying fringe benefits are important to them and are carefully considered before they accept jobs: large color televisions, for instance, and families that leave out lots of snacks.

I couldn’t resist a lecture on how tough things were when I was young and how lucky they were to be able to earn money so easily. I had a different way of earning money, and memory came flooding back as I described it.

I was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, a hilltop city overlooking Mount Hope Bay, an arm of Narragansett Bay. These deep blue waterways were carved out by the same glacial activity that forged a chain of long, narrow lakes east of the hill, which funnel into the Quequechan River. With the force of the lakes behind it, the river descends rapidly with a fall of 130 feet in one half mile before it joins the waters of the bay.

As early as 1700, gristmills and iron-works were standing along its banks, and when a few decades later the spinning jenny made such improvements in the weaving of cloth that what had been a cottage industry moved into mills, the swift Quequechan proved an ideal site for them. Eleven mills were strung along the banks of the lakes in 1872, and there were forty-three by 1876. By 1900 Fall River was largely given over to the weaving of cotton cloth.

The mills were enormous affairs, three stories high, built of the granite that was abundant in the area. They were insatiable in their demand for workers. Sometimes whole families labored in them, and what long hours they worked! The starting whistle summoned them to the job at seven o’clock and, except for a toot at noon, didn’t blow again until five-thirty, with no coffee breaks and only a half-hour for lunch. The short lunch break posed a problem in getting these hardworking people fed. It was before the days of company cafeterias, and there wasn’t time enough to go home. This is how my friends and I earned our spending money. We carried dinners to the mills, either for our parents and relatives or for families whose children were grown.

Fall River has been called the City of the Dinner Pail. Although I haven’t seen a dinner pail in many years, I remember it well. It was made of galvanized tin, had three nesting compartments, and a bail handle. A hot drink in the bottom compartment kept meat and potatoes warm in the smaller compartment above. A still smaller compartment on top held dessert, and a tight-fitting lid covered the whole thing. Thus this ingenious pail carried a whole dinner. The meals were prepared at home and carried by us children to the mills. The school day was broken up into two sessions, with a two-hour break in between, so at eleven-thirty hundreds of school children poured out of my school, rushed home to pick up the dinners, then set off for the mills, hurrying to get there before the noon whistle blew. There was no lingering to talk with friends on the way, but coming back I could saunter along if it was warm. If it was cold, I wasted no time getting back to my own warm dinner. I remember walking through snow up to my hips and through drenching rainstorms that made it feel as though my journey was a long one. But it couldn’t have been very far if I walked to the mill and back, ate my own dinner, and got back to school by one-thirty.

So it was that I began my working life at the age of seven. We were very poor but weren’t aware of it since all the families we knew were poor too. There was nothing unusual in women going to work as soon as the youngest child was in school. So when my younger sister started school, my mother went back to her old job as a weaver, and I was considered old enough to bring her lunch. After all, my grandmother, who had been born during the Industrial Revolution in England, had actually worked in a mill from dawn to dusk when she was just a year older than I. All I was asked to do was carry a pail. I felt capable of it and proud to be “carrying dinners” along with my friends.

The weavers worked in a downstairs room. To get to it, I opened a heavy door at the top of a flight of brass-bound stairs that led to another heavy door at the bottom. I was so short that the bottom of the pail bumped on the steps as I went down. The handle was not rigid, and the pail tipped perilously at each bump. The brass bindings were loose, and I was terrified that I would trip on the step and spill the dinner pail’s contents. Each trip down was a nightmare as I made my way, step by step, until I reached the bottom and struggled to open the other heavy door. Only then could I relax my viselike grip on the pail and breathe a little more easily as I crossed the spinning room: rows and rows of spindles where that marvelous spinning jenny quietly twisted the yarn into thread.

On the other side of this room was the door to the weaving room. I always hesitated before opening this door; the noise from the clattering looms, combined with the hot, oily smell, was a blow in the face, and I hated to go in. Hundreds of looms were lined up here, each working away with a life of its own. I would watch fascinated as the shuttle carrying the warp flew back and forth between the two rows of thread, while the heavy harness banged each row taut. It always looked as though the harness was trying to catch the shuttle in mid-flight, and I would wait nervously for the disaster to happen. But in spite of appearances, the looms were well under the control of the workers, who paced back and forth between the rows, changing bobbins and watching for imperfections in the woven cloth, each one tending from two to six looms. Spoken communication was impossible, but the workers became adept at carrying on long conversations in sign language. I couldn’t understand all of it, but I watched with admiration as they talked. A woman told my mother of a telephone call she had had, and the motions of her hands described the conversation perfectly.

The end of my journey came as I delivered the pail to my mother, its contents intact. At twelve o’clock the looms stopped, and the weavers were free to enjoy their lunches in the deafening silence.

We were paid twenty-five cents a week for this work. It doesn’t sound like a demanding job; the pain was in the doing of it every day. Many children carried two pails in each hand, and I remember one enterprising boy who used to load six or eight pails into a wagon. For a while I carried dinner to a supervisor who thought it beneath his dignity to be seen carrying a pail home at night. He paid me an extra ten cents a week to carry the pail home for him.

The job began to seem to be beneath my dignity, too, as I neared the end of grammar school. After struggling through a particularly heavy snow-storm, I told my employer not to expect me if we had another one. My days as a dinner carrier came to an inglorious end when I didn’t appear after the next storm and was abruptly dismissed. I can’t believe my own callousness in not thinking of the poor soul who missed his dinner!

Naturally, my grandchildren thought this was a pretty hard way to earn twenty-five cents. Looking back on it now, I can see benefits other than the money. The walk to the mills in all kinds of weather strengthened our legs, and the fresh air sharpened our appetites. It isn’t the long walk that I remember most when I think of those days. Rather, it is the rattling of loose brass as I crept down the steps toward the pandemonium and my mother’s smiling face.”

Andrew Jackson Borden as a Young Man

SPECIAL ADDENDUM:

Well, Shelley Dziedzic has a burr up her butt about me again, so I think a little explanation directed to all the forum members who visit my blog is in order:

First of all, Stef’s find of this AJB portrait is quite remarkable and I would not have known about it had it not been for her own posting of this discovery – the timing of which coincided with my pre-planned visit to Fall River.

Any researcher or Borden enthusiast such as myself would naturally want to actually SEE this portrait, so of course I planned to see it. I took with me Bob Dube, owner of Maplecroft and Ken Champlin. And of course we had pictures taken of ourselves with the portrait as I think, again, any Borden researcher or enthusiast would do his or herself given that the Swansea Historical Society President and Treasurer are allowing photos to be taken of and with the portrait. Lord knows how long they may have possession of the portrait while it CAN be photographed. I’m hopeful their Board will vote to keep it with the Swansea (and not the Fall River) Historical Society. So the window of opportunity of seeing this portrait up close and personal – not to mention FREE – may be very short.

What amazed me was that Shelley did not include a visit to Luther’s Museum with the MuttonEaters group who gathered in Fall River on November 9th – same weekend I was there. Such an arrangement to tour Luther’s could have been made by a simple phone call to Carl Becker. And my guess is that each and every one of those who would have gone would have had their picture taken with the portrait. A nice momento of their trip. So – to use Shelley’s words that I “beat feet” to Luther’s to see this portrait – you bet I did.

I certainly would have included them for a tour of Maplecroft, with Mr. Dube’s approval.

Bob Shaw, me, Don Sykes and Kenneth Champlin

I also heard all about the gathering from Don Sykes who invited me to dinner at Magoni’s Saturday night, as well as others who are mutual acquaintances. I have NOT nor had any need to email any forum members asking about it as Shelley posted. That’s just not true. Don’t need to. But I DID email a forum member whom I met Thursday night at the B&B explaining I couldn’t see his images and could he email them to me. Shelley jumped to conclusions about my intent. I only wanted to see them. Just get the facts straight when you post. It’s what Sherlock or any good sleuth would do.

So once again, for those who do not subscribe to The Hatchet (as I do not) and have no knowledge of any other images or poses in it and have only seen one image of the portrait – here’s more:

After a very late, late arrival back in Payson, I realized I had to be at the Women’s Shelter in the area early this morning where I do volunteer work, so I’m still running on a minimum of sleep. But I wanted to get some pictures up before I hit the bed with a good book.

Thanks to Stef Koorey’s eagle eye in spotting a “bigger than a bread box” ornate framed portrait of Lizzie Borden’s father, we now have it on record – even if it hasn’t been validated, i.e., no documentation. But given all the givens, one can deduce, Sherlock, that it is young Andrew. The Sunday Fall River Herald News article was pushed to this date and partially appears here.

That’s Carl Becker holding the portrait outside Luther’s Museum in the bright sun on a chilly but clear day being photographed – as was happening just as we arrived. (The shrieking sound you hear is from two curators across the bay).

Since very few of the people who read my blog subscribe to the FRHN or The Hatchet, or even go to other blogs, I’m posting more pics here. I know this to be a fact because I get referrals from all over the world and the country and from emails I’m getting these people have only seen the one image posted on the internet so far.

This dual image shows the backside of the frame. Both Carl Becker, Swansea Historical Society President, and Paul Summers, Treasurer have carefully checked and there is no writing or note card or any sort of documentation that would identify the portrait or where it came from.

Below is author and local historian Ken Champlin holding the portrait upright.

So at issue is just where this portrait of a “young Andrew” should reside. The Fall River Historical Society would LOVE to have it adorn the interior walls of their structure. I would imagine the public would see it – at a price – after the tour (when tours are happening) and at the tail end of the tour when they expose visitors, salivating and enduring the waiting for the “main show”, i.e., the Lizzie Borden display. (Michael Martins, Curator, informed Carl Becker he knew just where they would put it. Hopefully, not out of sight – for protective purposes against the light, of course.)

Residing up on The Hill, is one of the last places old Andrew would ever want to spend his days – dead or alive. Yep, Andrew would be happy as a clam if he were “hanging out” at 92 Second Street. The old bird never wanted to leave that place, anyhow. And some think he’s still there.

If it was Henry Gardner (out of Orrin Gardner), who delivered all the Gardner property, he meant for it to remain in Swansea. Perhaps the portrait hung at the Gardner’s Neck Road farmhouse – or perhaps Emma had it in her possession (taking it with her when she left Maplecroft, perhaps?) till the day she died. Whatever the outcome, it is an intriquing portrait. I do think Andrew was younger than 35 in the portrait, however.

Recently placed inside the bookcase on the second floor of the Swansea Historical Society (Luther’s Store & Museum) you see here on the top of the dual image is Orrin Gardner’s autograph book with writings dating as early as 1850. A particularly interesting entry is Emma Borden’s 1881 entry, written when she was 31 years old in flawless penmanship and signed “Emma L. Borden 1881″. It was Ken who pointed out to me: “That’s on the dedication page of my booklet on the history of the Fall River Y.M.C.A.” And indeed it is:

What Emma wrote was verbatim to the above, taken from Hamlet, Act I, Scene III:

“This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

So there it was written by Emma in 1881 and the exact same quote used in 1988, in A Periodical History of The Fall River Y.M.C.A. (1857-1917) by Kenneth Champlin. I know, I know, Shakespeare is quoted a zillion times. But pause to think of it as yet just another tiny thread that further weaves into this wonderfully rich fabric.

Meanwhile, back in the basement of 92 Second Street, the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast:

Ken and myself blocking out the irrelevant wording.

 

“I Know Just Where We Can Put That”

Yep, back in Fall River.

Great meeting the forum members at the B&B & yak about Li zzie….Mike S. & wife Katrina, (pick out that Oak Grove plot now); Richard Behrens who has a keen insight on the case & can tell a funny story, Don S. “the sponge” , Bob Shaw, the birthday boy, Fall River historian Kenneth Champlin and the others. At dinner Thursday night with Don and Bob at Al Mac, FRHN reporter Debbie Allard was at a booth acoss from us & heard us talking about the AJB photo and recognized me and came over to our booth…we chatted for a while; her article will be in Sunday’s paper and she sent her photog over to Luther’s store/museum today where he was finishing up just as we arrived.

I introduced Bob Dube to Carl Becker and showed him the framed painting. Gracious Dube, who thinks the nose doesn’t quite match, invited Carl to come over to Maplecroft but not before Carl told us Michael Martins came by to look at it – wanting to see it himself for more scrutiny beyond the digital replica and of course thinks it Andrew (as I do) offered to take the painting and have it “properly” hung in an appropriate place at the FRHS. Right. Wonder what MM might give him (i.e., the Swansea Historical Society) in exchange – perhaps one of his/those lovely Victorian dresses. hmmm? Rest assured, it ain’t gonna happen. The portrait will remain at Luther’s.

The other cool thing we saw at Luther’s today was Orin Gardner’s autograph book which includes some of Emma’s writing, scripture and philosophical writings in her own hand “Emma L. Borden”, 1881, others back to 1850’s….it was Orin’s autograph book – excellent condition….I kinda think Emma had possession of that portrait of her “dear” father and it subsequently got into Orin’s hands after her death. Makes sense to me.

Dube treated us to a nice Italian luncheon in Somerset before heading back to Maplecroft where he explained all the maple leaf carvings, etc. Generous with his time as always. Funniest line of the day: Dube to George Quigley: “So who did you vote for?” Quigley to Dube: “Sullivan. He’s Irish.” You had to be there.

Ken Champlin is amazing…he knows FR history inside out and knows all what’s going on ‘under the surface” of FR, and the skinny on contemporaries. Love to dish with him. He pointed out where Sarah Cornell was originally buried at the old cemetery off South Main (her remains and headstone was moved to Oak Grove in 1905) and the place where she was found on Durfee Farm by the haystack. Also the site of the original cotton mill built in 1811 and so much more. We talked long into the night and kept moving place to place. Dinner was at Me-Sums and we had specialty dishes and shared a chow mein sandwich…good thing, too, they are huge! I learn more talking with Ken than I do reading ten books; he’s a virtual encyclopedia…If you haven’t read his articles in the Spinner series, you should…they are wonderful. Ken’s chart of the Greater & Lesser Bordens is usually with me on my visits to Oak Grove, only this time I left it at home. Ken in person is even better.

I think I’ve gotten 5 hours sleep since leaving Payson and I’m exhausted. If it wasn’t for this laptop and Wi-Fi I’d be asleep already….early wakeup for his FR Underground Railroad history lesson tomorrow, other locals to meet – new introductions (Philip Silvia?) and more media cards to fill up with the camera. OH, paid my regular homage to the FR Room and noted a Lizzie Borden display at the FR Library, must have been a school project.

Maplecroft Neighbors: Lizzie on French Street

(Recycled post)

Here’s a question I’ve pondered from time to time: Of those French Street and nearby neighbors, who might have visited Lizzie Borden that last year of her life? Weak and not recovered from her gall bladder operation, who went a-calling? No mystery in finding out who lived nearby; more difficult is assessing which neighbors would have visited her. One can only speculate. Here’s a scan from my 1926 and 1927 Fall River City Directories. Let’s take a peek at a sampling of those neighbors

.

Directly across the street from Lizzie at 309 French was Mrs. Emma Lake. Her son, Arthur Lake praised Lizzie in Joyce Williams’ Casebook, but there had been a property dispute between Lizzie and Mrs. Lake after Lizzie acquired half a lot adjacent and wanting it for an open park. It would seem Lizzie and Mrs. Lake ended their friendship on ugly terms. Perhaps Arthur was never made aware of that dispute.

Lizzie’s nearest neighbor to the east would be at 328 French Street, shown above. The 1926 Directory shows this house as apartments with Edwin Belcher a tenant and school teacher Harriet E. Henry (listed in the Directory as “Hervey”). By the time of printing of the 1927 Directory, Edwin Belcher is no longer a tenant. This property was purchased in 1925 by Harriet and then sold to Charles C. Cook, Lizzie’s business manager, in trust for Lizzie about 7 months before Lizzie’s death. That particular transaction would end up being reviewed by the State Supreme Court, but we’ll skip the details for now. This property is alternately referred to as the Henry House or the Davenport House (a previous owner and relation to Harriet). Note: The rod iron spiked fencing separating the properties was installed by Lizzie.

Lizzie’s nearest neighbor to the west, 324 French, would be John T. Swift. Swift was the lawyer Alice Russell, her conscious weighing heavily, first told of the dress burning incident. Had Swift not advised Alice to tell it to District Attorney Hosea Knowlton, we would not even know who Lizzie Borden was 115 years later. Shown here left to right is the Swift house, Maplecroft, and the Henry/Davenport house. Photo taken in 1998.

The next house east is 344 French where the widow Mrs. Isabella Hooper lived. Perhaps she and Lizzie visited? Exterior re-hab has been going on for years with this house and it looks much better in 2007. This photo was taken in 2005.

Across the street and slightly east from Maplecroft, this structure existed in 1926 but I’m unable to locate the number from the 1926 or 1927 Directory. It is now a commercial property and often referred to as the “Baker” lot. Lizzie bequeathed to Charles Cook “my so-called Baker lot on French Street across from where I live.” I took this photo in 1999.

At the southeast corner of French and Belmont was John Summerfield Brayton, Jr., a BC&C (Big Cheese & Connected) whose crowing bird annoyed Lizzie and made her nervous over a quarter century before she died. Did John and Mary Brayton visit Lizzie? I don’t think so.

At 257 French was Everett M. Cook, Vice President of BMC Durfee Trust Company. Another BC&C, like so many on French Street.

At 243 French was Elizabeth J. McWhirr, widow of Robert A. McWhirr, who may have been related to the great McWhirr department store. Did she go a-calling on Lizzie? I don’t think so.

At the southeast corner of French & June at 421 June was Marion Jennings – the daughter of attorney Andrew Jennings. It’s safe to say she did not call upon Lizzie. It’s further safe to say Marion had no knowledge of what lay inside an old hip bath covered with a tarp up in the attic of this house. Most likely, neither did Lizzie.

ON ROCK STREET:

Carrie L. Borden is listed in 1926 at 492 Rock Street, but in 1927, only her sister Anna H. Borden. These ladies went on the Grand Tour with Lizzie in 1890. It is my educated guess that they were the two sisters that spoke in confidence to author Edmund Pearson when he was writing his long, first essay on the Borden case in Studies in Murder. It’s highly doubtful these ladies went a-calling to Miss Lizbeth of Maplecroft.

At 618 Rock was Jerome C. Borden, son of Cook Borden and Grace Hartley Howe’s uncle, and strong supporter of Lizzie in 1892-93. Jerome succeeded Andrew as President of Union Bank, but it’s doubtful Jerome ever presented his calling card at Maplecroft during Lizzie’s last year. While most genetic threads were woven tightly, some weaves became irreparably tattered.

At 451 Rock Street was the formidable Elizabeth Hitchcock Brayton, whose nephew, having inherited this stately granite beauty, donated it to the Fall River Historical Society in 1935.

Actually, the 400 thru 700 blocks of Rock Street in 1927 reads like a Who’s Who of Fall River. However, after Lizzie died, Fall River had about one good year remaining before its economy and stratified society would fade and dissolve like so much smoke drift from the iconic mill chimineys that marked its once great prominence and vitality.

BACK TO FRENCH STREET

The interesting thing about French Street is that at #96 French Street, just west of Rock Street, we find Gertrude M. Baker, long time English teacher at BMC Durfee High School. ( The 1927 Fall River High School Yearbook, “The Durfee Record”, is dedicated to Gertrude Baker). Gertrude owned a summer house on the beach in Linekin, East Boothbay, Maine. She was a friend of a later friend of Lizzie’s, Miss Helen Leighton (we’ll get to her in a moment) but the important thing is through this thread that bound, Miss Baker was a founder and Treasurer of the Fall River Animal Rescue League from 1914-1930. It seems more a gratuitous gesture for service rendered than one steeped in a personal friendship that Lizzie left Gertrude $1,000 in her Will. Miss Baker never married and when she died she left her money to her close friend, Helen Leighton, along with her beach house in Linekin. Lucky Helen.

Helen Leighton struck half of the mother lode upon Lizzie’s death being one of two primary legatees. Seven years younger than Lizzie, Miss Leighton graduated from nursing school in Fall River a month before Lizzie went to Trial for the double hatchet homicide. Helen had been nurse and companion to Eudora Borden Dean, daughter of that very wealthy Captain of Fall River Industry, Jefferson Borden. Smart Helen. In 1913, she had successfully solicited money from Lizzie to start the Fall River Animal Rescue League of which she became its President. Clever Helen. She moved to Boston in 1919 and Lizzie visited her there, taking in galleries and the theatre. She moved to Brookline, MA. in 1924, and when she died in 1947, newspapers reporting on the Borden case were found stuffed inside the walls of the Linekin beach house.

So there they are: Gertrude, Helen, and Lizzie – they could have all three been sisters judging by how they looked in these photographs. It’s anyone’s guess as to who introduced who to whom in this three-some, a constellation in orbit around Lizzie’s moon. These dames were really out of the same mold. Same hair styles, same glasses, same kind of dresses. I can almost visualize them at the Animal Rescue League Board of Directors meeting or even taking their time walking through some museum in Boston or New York. Not exactly your party-hardy type broads. Uh uh. But oh so very proper, yes indeed. Decorum, decorum, decorum. All were proper spinsters who loved animals. None ever married or had children of their own to enrich their lives, to nurture, to enjoy, to love, and who would return that love.

Grace Hartley Howe hit the other half of the mother lode, inheriting half of Lizzie’s half of Maplecroft, furniture, jewelry, books, carpets, personal effects, etc. Grace’s grandfather was Cook Borden, a brother of Abraham, Andrew’s father. In 1926, Grace and her husband Louis are in the 1926 Directory as having a residence at 636 Rock Street, but in 1927 Grace is living at 464 Locust. Louis McHenry Howe was chief advisor and political strategist to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt but lived in the White House, visiting his family at their Westport residence in Horseneck Beach. (Louis would die in 10 years and be buried at Oak Grove with FDR attending his funeral.) But here we see Grace was literally in walking distance to Lizzie in 1926 and 1927, and surely she must have visited her. I have long believed Grace was called by the Reverend Cleveland of the Church of Ascension and was at Maplecroft when Lizzie died. She would have been, after Emma, the next and, literally, nearest of kin. Ten years after Lizzie’s death, two years after the final probate of Lizzie’s Will, and one year after her husband died, Grace was appointed Postmistress of Fall River by President Roosevelt.

Of these three women, Gertrude, Helen and Grace, two (Helen and Grace) gave newspaper interviews in the week after Lizzie died. One other woman, definitely not neighbor nor friend of Lizzie’s when she died, also gave an interview – Nance O’Neil. Nance met Lizzie in 1904. By 1927, Nance had successfully transitioned from the stage to motion pictures. In the newspaper interview she remarked on Lizzie’s kindness, refinement, and intelligence, downplaying their relationship and characterizing it as “ships passing in the night.” She was not named in Lizzie’s Will. Nance lived long enough to have read several books on Lizzie published prior to 1965. Her ashes are entombed with her husband, Alfred Hickman at Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California.

I think Lizzie was probably always ladylike and refined and masked her inner angst and depression when in public. We know she let that mask down with Miss Leighton, who, after Lizzie’s death, commented so definitively on Lizzie’s loneliness and depression in her later years. The Roaring Twenties, shorter skirts, bobbed hair, Lindberg racing across the Atlantic through the skies while she, Lizzie never did anything in a hurry. The “Flapper Age” must have come on like gangbusters and not suited her at all, much like the sexual liberation of the 1970’s to the Born Again Christians. No, I don’t think Lizzie liked the changing times. She was nervous and depressed enough and now all this fast living. (Mammy to Scarlett: “It ain’t fittin’, it just ain’t fittin’).

I can envision her, in her last year of life, sitting on her window box seat in her summer bedroom in Maplecroft. More alone and isolated than ever with only a tiny few who ever came a-calling. Dressed in a stylish lounging gown, too weak to go up and down the stairs every day, she would have spent much time wistfully looking at the houses below and at the young people coming and going. Perhaps a young man honking the horn of his tricked out Model T Ford for his girlfriend to come out. Twenty Three Skid-doo. I envision one of Lizzie’s dogs in her lap feeling the gentle strokes of her hand as she remembers a quieter time of proper deportment. The era of when ladies were ladies and conducted themselves accordingly was gone forever. Stroke…….Sigh……Stroke.

No wonder our “Lizbeth of Maplecroft” preferred Dickens and Trollup over F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Sources:

1926 & 1927 Fall River City Directory

Unveiled: Miss Helen Leighton by Leonard Rebello, Lizzie Borden Quarterly, October 2000, Vol VII, #4.

1927 BMC Durfee H.S. Yearbook.

Last Will and Testament of Lizzie Andrew Borden.

Knowlton-Pearson Correspondence, Fall River Historical Society.

Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage, vol. 2, by William C. Young, 1975.

Lizzie Borden- Past and Present, Leonard Rebello, Alzack Press, 1999.

Conversations with Robert Dube, owner, at 306 French Street, August 3 & 5, 2007.

New Photo of Lizzie Borden’s Father

There’s a new (well, new to us) photo of Andrew Jackson Borden that apparently has never before been seen in print showing Lizzie’s father as a young man. Stefani Koorey, who publishes The Hatchet announced the discovery to be featured in the new issue for sale as of November 5th. This print-on-demand magazine article will explain where the photo has been laid dormant all these years. It’s always kewl to have something “new” pop up about the case and this is something new – like Kristen Pepe’s verification of exactly *where* Emma went “away to school” (Wheaton Seminary – see July blog entry).

Until now, the only other “younger Andrew” image we’ve seen is this one:

 

It’s nice to see a different visage from the usual thin-lipped, stern countenance of old Andrew. Oh wait. It’s still thin-lipped and stern but something in the eyes of the “new” photo tells me he was capable of humor and joy back then. Probably taken before the time he would charm bereaved widows in deeding some of their property to him to pay for more expensive coffins! (It’s quite interesting how much real estate Andrew and his partner, William Almy acquired during the years of their undertaking business.)

Due to a low subscription base of the publication, multitudes of those interested in this case will never even see this picture until it is subsequently used in future documentaries or published in a book at some later date, as it most surely will be. And even sooner than later the image will be snatched from the site and show up elsewhere on the internet, perhaps with a feather boa draped around his neck or mini hatchets in animation swirling around his head.

As to new photos of Lizzie herself, we’ll have to wait for the Fall River Historical Society’s two-volume publication in Spring or Summer of 2008. (More on that later).