Lizzie's Jail letters #3

[MysteryReader]

My dear Annie,

The box of fine confectionery came to me last night right side up with care. Many, many thank yous. Miss J was here yesterday and said your Uncle James [Gillies] was dead and Ella had gone in [to Waterford, New York]. She will be liable to stay some little time must she and bring your Aunt [nee Eliza Johnston] home with her.

Have just sugared some straw-berries for my lunch. It took about two pounds of sugar, still the flavor is there. The plants I have tended all winter are just rewarding me. Two in bloom, two more in bud. Have had lovely arbutus sent me for two weeks past. Some from strangers some from friends. I am wild to go out of doors to day, the air smells so sweet but oh, dear, I cannot go. I had some very pretty china that my sister gave me to use here and Wednesday Daisy jumped up on my tray, and down went a plate and two saucers. I was provoked you may be sure. Must close now.

Much love,
L.A.B.

*p.484

[Curryong]

Thanks for posting these letters, Mystery. Two pounds of sugar on her strawberries, hmm. It all sounds very delicious. I wonder why she said she couldn't go outside. They let Lizzie exercise in the fresh air, I think.

With reference to Daisy breaking the china I have never believed that old Whitehead story about Lizzie chopping a tabby cat's head off. As far as I can see, Lizzie was very fond of animals and wouldn't have been cruel to any of them.

[MysteryReader]

I think 2 pounds of sugar is a bit but perhaps she was fixing a large bowl for everyone? I don't think she would harm any animals either. I do suspect she might have been upset that some of her dishes broke but that is about it.

[Curryong]

Incidentally, the Annie that Lizzie wrote to from jail was the sister of Mrs Brigham and both women were members of the Fall River elite. Annie, Mrs William Lindsey, spent a lot of time travelling overseas in Europe.

Lizzie was very close to Mrs Lindsey who stood by her during the trial. She also seems to have been friendly with Emma. In PL page 488 Mrs Lindsey commented to a paper at about the time of the prelim.

'Emma, when she went away to New Bedford says she had not a care in the world;' (New Bedford, she went to Fairhaven?) her mother (stepmother Abby) was an excellent housekeeper, and she took the whole care of it on her shoulders'. (Yes, we know!) relieving the girls of that (!!!) and their father always provided for their every want. When she got the telegram summoning her home she had no thought of a greater calamity than that her father was sick. When she arrived within sight of her house and she saw the crowd about the door she wondered what it could mean.'

The comments in the parentheses are of course mine!

[twinsrwe]

That's interesting, Curry.

Abby was their mother??? I'm sure 'the girls' made it quite clear that Abby was NOT their mother. Emma went to New Bedford??? I wonder if these errors were on Mrs. Lindsey’s part, or the reporter of the newspaper. ???

As for Abby taking the whole care of the housekeeping on her shoulders goes, weren’t the girls responsible for the care of their own rooms?

Mrs. Lindsey did get one thing right, Andrew always provided for ‘the girls’ every want, and then some. Perhaps part of the problem in that household was the fact that Andrew and Abby looked at Emma and Lizzie as ‘girls’, instead of the grown women that they were.

I also have to wonder why a member of the Fall River elite had anything to do with the Borden girls, since they would have been considered 'beneath' her in status. Wouldn’t they? However, I could be wrong.

[taosjohn]

(New Bedford, she went to Fairhaven?)

Was Fairhaven perhaps in New Bedford township? It was just across the river, so it maybe would have been spoken of loosely as New Bedford anyway, but...

[Curryong]

Maybe the reporter was the one who was confused? It was brought out in the trial that Lizzie was staying (with the Pooles) in New Bedford, where she went out and bought the blue material the prosecution was so suspicious about. Maybe the reporter remembered that Emma was away at the time of the murders and just took it that she had stayed on in New Bedford after her sister left to go home? Or maybe the reporter made the whole interview up.

Parallel Lives 372-375 has a lot about Annie Sheen Lindsey.

Annie Lindsey was later Ann as she thought Annie sounded like 'a kitchen maid's name'. She was born in Fall River in 1863. Her father, George, worked in the Fall River Iron Works, and she and her family lived near to the Bordens at 22 Ferry St. She and her older sister, Mary played with young Lizzie. Annie was also a school friend of Lizzie's, graduating from Fall River High in 1882. She was a member of the Central Congregationalist Church.

She was briefly a teacher before marrying William Lindsey, her childhood sweetheart, in 1884. William was the son of William Lindsey Snr, a prominent Fall River businessman with a lot of textile, banking and shipping interests. He was apparently a tyrant at home and refused to allow his son to go to college putting him in the business instead. William's mother Ariadne was gentle and cultured, however, and William Jnr inherited a love of books from her.

William Jnr moved to Boston in 1876 where he was involved successfully in a cotton yarn commission business. He and Annie were happily married and had three children. Annie kept close contact with people in Fall River and often wrote back. Her sister Mary became Mrs George Brigham who also supported Lizzie during the trial.

William gained huge wealth when a lightweave cartridge belt of his design was adapted by the British army during the Boer War (1899-1902.) He had a factory in London but business boomed even more and he, Annie and their children went to live in London for some years. This success alone enabled William to retire with a very large fortune.

He and his wife and family travelled in Europe and he often gifted his wife with a lot of jewellery. There's a whole page in Parallel Lives about his gifts to her. She was often photographed wearing them.

However he was also a philanthropist especially of education facilities. He contributed heavily to schools and universities and he founded the William Lindey School of Drafting and Design as a memorial to his own father, in Fall River. As Lizzie was also interested in education this would have been a link between her and the Lindseys. He was a noted philanthropist to organisations in Fall River.

The social pages in Fall River newspapers would make a lot of fuss when the Lindsey visited relatives in Fall River. They had large homes in Boston, Osterville, Mass., near her sister, and London. One niece remembered her aunt and uncle fondly but got embarrassed by the fuss people made. Annie's daughter Leslie was killed when the Lusitania sank due to German torpedoes in World War One.

[Curryong]

Mary Brigham, Annie's sister, seems to have been closer to Emma than Lizzie in after years. In the 1890's, early 1900's there are many references to Emma in Mary Brigham's diary and hardly any to Lizzie, though there was no break so far as is known. In Feb 1903 mrs Brigham and Emma went to Boston to see the famous actress Mrs Leslie Carter in the historical play, Du Barry. Mary Brigham was also close to the Buck sisters.