Lizzie (and Emma) 1893

[Kat]

Found and typed by Harry

New York Sun
24 September 1893

LIZZIE BORDEN’S NEW HOME.

She And Her Sister Have Come Into Their Money.

Neither One Has Put on Mourning Garments- Escape from Public Scrutiny During a Visit to Newport- Nerves of Steel.

If Lizzie Borden ever tried to live so as to satisfy her critics, she has given it up as a hopeless task. They found no end of fault with her as long as she lived in the old house on Second street, Fall River, where the murders were committed, and now that she has moved into another dwelling in a better part of the city they say that she has come into the money of her murdered parents and is making it fly.

Among the sensational stuff that has been published about her recently is the news that she refuses to wear mourning and goes tearing through the streets in a buggy beside her sister Emma in a very light dress while Emma dresses in deep mourning. The fact is that she has on two occasions hired a livery team and gone out for a ride, her own and only horse being busied by the work on the farm, beyond the city limits. She has, indeed, worn a light gown- one of the old ones that the detectives pulled over as they hung in the girls’ closet in the old house after the murder. But Emma has not accompanied her in deep or any other kind of mourning, for the simple reason that neither of these original and interesting women believes in wearing mourning. They did not go to the burial of the elder Bordens in that attire. They did not wear mourning in court when Lizzie was tried for the murders. Lizzie wore a crepe dress part of the time, but had a purple feather in her hat. The rest of the time she wore her black lace dress, with the same hat- but, according to the rulings of fashion, lace would not have been considered mourning, even had the hat been different.

Miss Emma Borden has recently had a new dress made, the first notable purchase of the kind made by either of the women since the murder. Their neighbors watch them pretty closely, and know all that they do. This new gown is decidedly not mourning. The feminine readers of The Sun will know what sort of a dress it is when they are told that the name of its stuff sounds like “shallee de lane.” It is black with a green figure in it. The light gown that Lizzie is criticized for wearing is a light drab with blue threads in it. The neighbors- both the friendly and the unfriendly- say that the testimony at the murder trial created a false impression as to the way the Borden girls dressed. They never made any show, but always dressed very well indeed, in clothes of good material and plenty of them. They had their own means, in money and mill stocks, and they made good use of them, paying as high as $10 a yard for trimmings, each wearing silks, and each possessing an elegant sealskin jacket. Both always had their shoes made to order.

There is equal misconception, not as to how they lived, but as to the style of their home. The parlor was newly and stylishly furnished for the use of the young women, and the rest of the house was set with substantial but not new furniture. All through, the carpets were of the best. Any one may judge the style of the appointments from the fact that the girls have moved the material bodily into their new home in French street, on the hill. There will not be much to call the stepmother to mind in the new house, as Miss Emma gave all Mrs. Borden’s things to that lady’s sister, Mrs. Fish of Hartford. This is the elder sister. Mrs. Whitehead, the younger one, who lives in Fall River, is yet almost a girl, and would have found less use for them.

But in the new house in the select residence part of the town the young women will live as they never were able to live in their old home, because their former home had practically none of the modern improvements. The old couple were satisfied without them, and the girls were far more anxious to leave that neighborhood of stores and tenements than to have the old house modernized. They moved into their new home, with its modern lighting and plumbing arrangements two weeks ago last Thursday, and immediately the workmen whom they employed took possession of the old house and began to make it fit for rental.

It would scarcely be thought that any one would be found who would wish to live in that house of horrors, but the women have already had applicants for it and can easily keep it rented. They will only rent to persons suitable to the neighborhood, that is to say, satisfactory to their old neighbors with whom they lived twenty years. Those neighbors have had an unenviable time since the murders. There is never a day that sightseers do not linger around the old house staring at it as if, by watching, they may be able to solve the mystery it once enveloped. Usually they stare at the right house, easily picking it out because of the barn behind it, but once in a while a man or a woman will stand for half a day studying the wrong house and the people who go in and out of it. The neighbors who own their homes do not criticize the Borden women for moving away. They would do so if they could. When they moved there the street was like a pretty residence street in Brooklyn, with blooming dooryards and tree-lined curbs. Now it is just such another street as Varick street in this city- a medley of business and tenement buildings.

It turns out that the elder Bordens wanted to move away, and would have done so ere this had they lived. They waited for Mr. Borden to find just what he wanted in a better part of town. He had looked at the old Mason house on Main street and at one other. The other residents, of the older set, are remaining there in the belief that when business gets firmly entrenched in the street the property will fetch high prices.

It was rumored that the Borden sisters were going to turn their old home into a storehouse and office building, but it is more profitable to rent it as it is. Its recent history is of interest. Emma did not live alone there at any time. Her uncle Morse stayed some months and the hired woman and the farmer man afterward lived with her there. While her sister was in duress in Taunton Emma visited her during two days in every week. She never was as solitary there as Lizzie often was, for that young woman at one time made it a practice to stay alone in the big house while Mr. and Mrs. Borden and Emma spent the hottest weeks at the farm. This she did until Emma decided that it was not right and that she should remain with her. After that only the old folks went away.

When Lizzie was discharged by the court and came back there to live she seemed to bear no grudges against those who had been obliged to testify during the trial. With the exception of Miss Russell, her old companion, all the friends were taken up again. Miss Russell is the girl who told about the burning of the Bedford cord dress. She is much to be pitied, for she was rudely dealt with in the Massachusetts press at the time, although she only told the truth, and yet she suffered an agony of mind because she had not done so at first and because she feared she might harm her old friend. She was so nervous on the witness stand that, as she said afterward, she could not have told her own age if she had been asked.

One other incident in the old house was the visit of Bridget Sullivan, who was the family servant at the time of the murders. She called on the day that Lizzie reached home. It was a short call, and has never been repeated.

Very much that is utter nonsense has been published about the fortunes that the sisters have come into. The “fortune” of the stepmother consisted of about $1,700 in cash and half of a tenement of the value of, possibly, $2,000. This property the Borden girls gave to the sisters of their stepmother, Mrs. Fish and Mrs. Whitehead. It will be remembered that this tenement was referred to in the testimony at the murder trial. Mr. Borden had given the property to Mrs. Borden, and as it was apparently to the advantage of Mrs. Borden’s relatives, the sisters were vexed with their father and his wife, but particularly with her. It was after this that Lizzie ceased to address Mrs. Borden as “mother.” Emma had never called her anything but Abby. It is not true that the sisters of Mrs. Borden threatened to sue for more than has been given to them, or for any part of the estate. The method of the murderer of the old couple rid them of all title as heirs, because it was proven that Mrs. Borden was murdered first. Her property, therefore, went to his heirs, and, when he was murdered next, his property went to his daughters. Mrs. Borden’s sisters had this explained to them, and had no intention to bring suit for a share in the estate. The gift to them of their dead sister’s little belongings was an unforced kindness on the part of the Borden girls.

They have taken their father’s estate, which is commonly spoken of as the value of $400,000. It is probably less than that, but is of a nature to increase greatly as time goes on. On August 5, Emma Borden filed a petition with the Clerk of the Probate Court in Taunton and qualified, with a bond of $50,000 to act as administratrix of her father’s estate. The bond filed with the court by Lawyer Wood, as administrator of Mrs. Borden’s estate, was one of $500 only. Miss Emma Borden is now in control of the estate for her own benefit and that of her sister Lizzie. She has not yet filed a schedule of the properties which compose her trust, but must do so within a few weeks, and must thereafter report her operations as administratrix once a year.

The cruel and gratuitous insinuation that there may have been a will, and that there was talk of forcing the sister into court again in order to air this supposition, has no basis. If Mr. Borden had made a will, he would have kept it where he kept all his papers, in the vaults of the financial institutions with which he was connected. It was said that he was about to make his first will at the time he was murdered, but that was not brought out on the trial.

The new home of the Borden girls on French street is not on the best street in the town, but it is in a good neighborhood and near
the most fashionable avenue. It was occupied by a man of means and good social position, who sold it because he wished to live
where he could enjoy the fine prospect that is to be had from another point on the same hill. It has been said that the sisters paid $11,000 for the place, and that may be the fact, though the house scarcely warrants a belief that such was a true figure. French street is a modern thoroughfare, set with pretty villas, generally wooden, in open grounds with a showing of neat lawns, a few vases and flowers, and plenty of shade trees. The houses are small, and of the type of dwellings with which most of the smaller suburbs of this city are built up. The new Borden dwelling is a yellow and brown frame house, with a little pointed tower on one corner of the roof and a porch in front and partly on one side. The house might have cost $3,000 to $4,000 to build. It is not as fine as several neighboring cottages. It is said that the sisters employ only one servant, as they did in the old house down town.

Few of the overcurious ever get there to disturb the women with their staring, and, so far as that goes, the change is a delightful one for both of them. But it will be a long while before either of the sisters will be allowed to resume the privacy that others enjoy. Whenever they go shopping or to market they are stared at, watched, and followed. Lizzie got her first welcome respite from this constant, though unintentional, persecution when she went to Newport quite recently. There she stopped with old friends in a private house and remained unidentified by the townspeople. She walked on the famous cliff walk and about the old town, and even went to church, feeling such a sense of freedom as she had begun to believe must only be known to the birds.

She had a less successful experience during a visit to the town of Warren. One of the Boston newspapers put her in a pother recently by establishing a most-popular-candidate contest, in which she led for a long time. Altogether she got something like 96,000 votes, and the editors- if that is what contest managers are called- notified her that she was about to win and would be entitled to a free ticket to the World’s Fair. Her very able counselor, Mr. A.J. Jennings, courteously requested the “editor” to give the prize to the next person on the list- but just then the friends of somebody else made a rush with their votes, and the prize went to their candidate.

The jurors who acquitted Lizzie next had their pictures taken in an impressive group, and dispatched the New Bedford juror with a copy of it to Miss Lizzie Borden with their compliments, doubtless fancying that if she possessed a copy it would complete her happiness by enabling her to frame it and hang it in her sitting room as a constant reminder of an episode in her life which she might otherwise forget. Unfortunately she was out and could not personally thank the jury for its thoughtfulness. She has had a narrow escape from breaking her decision never to be interviewed. She made the decision as part of her plan to contribute nothing that would lengthen her notoriety or increase it. But soon after her return to Fall River a woman who had been kind to her in her trouble sent an interviewer to her with a written plea that he be given what he wanted, This was hard to refuse, but she kept firmly to her decision.

Lizzie bears up extremely well after her remarkable experience: indeed she appears to be as well as she ever was, and stouter and better looking. The case is different with the older sister. The family affliction, the horrors of the murders, and the long strain during Lizzie’s trial, were more than her nerves could endure, and she is nothing like the woman she was. Her health is far from robust, and she frequently has to give up, or, rather, to break down. Lizzie says that she made up her mind not to allow her troubles to get the better of her, and she has had will enough to remain proof against all that has happened. At the trial the lawyers on both sides declared her to be a most remarkable woman, and people are generally coming to the same conclusion.

[camgarsky4]

What a great article, first I've seen it. Thanks!!

I am curious of how this reporter got all these details and information, especially in context of the following excerpt....
"But soon after her return to Fall River a woman who had been kind to her in her trouble sent an interviewer to her with a written plea that he be given what he wanted, This was hard to refuse, but she kept firmly to her decision."

As an example, where did the reporter come up with the Newport information unless someone in Lizzie's inner circle provided it. There are a couple of legal issues specifically noted (will & estate administration). Perhaps someone on Jennings team was the source.

Outside of the mention of a couple legal aspects, the 'centerpiece' of the case against Jennings teams being the mole for the article.....

Source: Jennings Journals. Page 73. https://lizzieandrewborden.com/LBForum/ ... f=1&t=6613
Interview with William Bowers Moison Chace. Entry recorded by Arthur Phillips.
“Mr. AJB came to us when Mr. Wm. Mason died & wanted the first show at the Wm Mason estate if it came to market, said he was getting older – Then another time while walking by there he asked about it again & said he was getting old & wanted a nice place for his daughters.”

AJB's interest in the Mason place is mentioned in the NY Sun article and in Jennings/Phillips notes.....and nowhere else. Just sayin'.

Now I'm going to dig around and see if I can find that contest a Boston newspaper conducted which Lizzie ended up as a center piece.

[Marchesk]

The jurors who acquitted Lizzie next had their pictures taken in an impressive group, and dispatched the New Bedford juror with a copy of it to Miss Lizzie Borden with their compliments, doubtless fancying that if she possessed a copy it would complete her happiness by enabling her to frame it and hang it in her sitting room as a constant reminder of an episode in her life which she might otherwise forget. Unfortunately she was out and could not personally thank the jury for its thoughtfulness.

You would think Lizzie would rather forget the episode and move on with her life, not frame it as a daily reminder, lol. I've wandered what the jurors who so easily acquitted her thought of there never being another suspect after the trial. Were they happy to go on with their lives in the knowledge that someone got away with two brutal murders? Did they ever have doubts about Lizzie's innocence? I realize they found her "not guilty", but it seemed they were of the mind a woman of her standing couldn't have committed such murders.

For that matter, I wonder what this journalist thought over the years as nobody else surfaced as the potential murderer. Did they suspect Bridget, Uncle John, Emma, some unknown business enemy? Was evereyone okay with the police dropping any further investigation, having resigned themselves to being unable to legally demonstrate Lizzie did it?

[camgarsky4]

Along those same lines.....I've found it odd that none of the key players ever said much of anything in the years after the case. To my knowledge, Arthur Potter was never asked about the hatchet he found on Crowe's roof, no one checked w/ Bence, Kilroy and Hart years later on if they still thought it was Lizzie, same goes with Elizabeth Johnston about what was in the "marion" letter, on and on.....

Every August 4th for years, the local newspapers would publish 'memorial' articles, but I haven't read any examples of the newspapers interviewing key participants and seeing if their testimony or opinions had changed. That was weak journalism and sad for us 130 years later!

I suppose the exception was the Alice Russell interview, but she really wasn't given any probative questions to answer.

[Kat]

Seems the country was dedicated to finding the killer because it was believed the reward was still open:
Clic on pic

[Kat]

Suspect Wood pt 1. 1892, October

[Kat]

Suspect Wood pt2

[Kat]

The hunt continues?
Because of the short deliberation of the jurors, I always thought that they reacted to final arguments rather than the “evidence.” (I put that word in quotes because there really was no direct evidence.)

[Kat]

Is this the contest you are referring to, camgarsky? I don’t know how you remember all this!

[camgarsky4]

Yes, that's it! Thank as always for your apparently endless supply of documentation.

By the way, does anyone agree that it is very possible (aka likely) that the Jennings Law firm was the primary source for the NY Sun's article? I just think the coincidence of mentioning the Mason estate in the article and Jennings also referencing AJB's interest in the Mason estate in his journals as a bit too coincidental.

On top of that, to know how Lizzie spent her time in Newport when the point was that no one bothered her, means that the source had to be in the inner circle since no outsider was there to notice her activities. (that might have been circular logic ).

[Kat]

The jurors who acquitted Lizzie next had their pictures taken in an impressive group, and dispatched the New Bedford juror with a copy of it to Miss Lizzie Borden with their compliments, doubtless fancying that if she possessed a copy it would complete her happiness by enabling her to frame it and hang it in her sitting room as a constant reminder of an episode in her life which she might otherwise forget. Unfortunately she was out and could not personally thank the jury for its thoughtfulness.

You would think Lizzie would rather forget the episode and move on with her life, not frame it as a daily reminder, lol. I've wandered what the jurors who so easily acquitted her thought of there never being another suspect after the trial. Were they happy to go on with their lives in the knowledge that someone got away with two brutal murders?….

—partial

There is a news article from March, 1895, that Lizzie had a proposal of marriage from the foreman of her jury (Richards)!

And here is the formal photograph supposedly presented to her proxy who answered the door. (This was Googled. The copy I had in my computer, I “adapted” with our Forum members heads)

[camgarsky4]

Do you know which one is Richards? Or the newspaper the Richards article was in?

[Kat]

…On top of that, to know how Lizzie spent her time in Newport when the point was that no one bothered her, means that the source had to be in the inner circle since no outsider was there to notice her activities. (that might have been circular logic ).

—-partial

Here’s a link to a charming travel article by Sherry Chapman written for The Hatchet
about Farewell Street in Newport where Lizzie stayed.
The last 2 pictures are The Washington Street house on the Bay in Newport.
My photo of the bay from the back porch is my screen saver on my laptop!

https://lizzieandrewborden.com/HatchetO ... wport.html

I think it’s not impossible that her good friends the Holmes’ might have been spreading positive stories?

[Kat]

Do you know which one is Richards? Or the newspaper the Richards article was in?

I was wondering the same thing, but as I studied each gentleman, I did not see any marriage material.
Sorry my sources are not local, but national. I figure you are interested in the regional newspapers slanting their coverage. (It’s too bad the press stories did not give attribution.)
Plz clic on pic

[Kat]

Oh and I had a short article that the Jurors were going to meet in Boston to renew their comradery, I think the following year, 1894. Can’t find it at the moment, tho.

[Kat]

Martins, Michael and Binette, Dennis. Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River. Fall River Historical Society, 2010.

I was looking for something else but found the jury, pg 513, describing themselves as “…a jolly crowd,” who enjoyed each others company, being solemn in the daytime and entertaining themselves at night, smoking cigars and telling stories and laughing. They decided to keep in touch and would meet at each others homes, yearly, on and off for ten years, until some died, or moved away: they had developed true friendships.

The juror who was requested by the group to deliver the portrait to Lizzie (taken in July 1893) was Augustus Swift, “accompanied by Captain William Lewis,” and that
“It appears that Lizzie expressed her gratitude to each member of the panel, as one communication written in Warren, Rhode Island, on July 14 would indicate. This particular letter, sent to Frederick C. Wilbur, began:
Mr Wilbar Dear Sir Please accept my grateful and cordial thanks for the fine picture of the honest men who gave me my liberty. I had wanted the picture very much and shall have it framed at once. I am sure you will believe me when I tell you that always shall I think of you all as my faithful friends and deliver’s. I am very sincerely yours
L. A. Borden.”

The authors conclude with a surmise as to “whether Lizzie did hang what was apparently a cherished photograph on a wall in her residence,” citing that some news item appeared that Emma and Lizzie did hang the picture “in their parlor.”

That would have been in Abbie’s most cherished domain, the parlor at 92 Second Street!

[Kat]

Delete wrong pic

[camgarsky4]

delete

[Kat]

Martins, Michael and Binette, Dennis. Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River Fall River Historical Society, 2010.
Pages 606+

This FRHS publication includes information on Emma and Lizzie’s search for a new home, “as early as June 28,”1893:
The list includes
99 Rock St, the “Chace” house
12 Underwood St, the “Peabody” house
85 High Street, “Prentiss” house
62 High Street “Butterworth” house***
7 French Street “Allen” house which they bought Aug.10, 1893, and started moving in between 9-3-1893 and 9-7ish. The house was 4 yrs old.

*The stars next to the Butterworth name denotes extra info that the owner was a suicide. **Other extra extra info was that it reports he was an agent for Hargraves Soap Co., which we know of due to the fact that Dan Emery (of Weybosset Street alibi of JVM) worked for Hargraves Soap as well- in fact he lived adjacent to the factory property.
***The other extra extra extra is that when I lived in Boston in the early 1970’s, I was a babysitter for the well-to-do Butterworth family!

Notice picture in newspaper is Butterworth house, but the ladies Borden did not buy the place after all.

[Kat]

14July1893BordenNewHome.jpeg

The ladies bought a house!

[Kat]

Newport map pieces by Harry. Good luck with the plates and the index and the …
Look for Farewell Street. That was where Lizzie stayed. It’s parallel with Washington St which is on the Bay and in the same family.

https://lizzieandrewborden.com/LBForum/ ... +map#p9096

Newport: view of the bay from the Washington Street house (Sanford-Covell)

[Kat]

IMG_1713.jpeg

Map piece showing both streets/ hint: it’s Ward S
Plz clic on 2nd pic to make bigger

[Kat]

IMG_1719.jpeg

Newport Lizzie- Farewell Street, a couple of days after juror presented her with their picture …where porch picture of Lizzie was taken holding her book and spectacles, about 26 days free.

[Kat]

Next, in July 1893, she reportedly went back to Taunton:

[Kat]

PS: since I posted wrong jury picture earlier in this thread, the deletion actually worked for me as a sort of place-holder because I was trying to keep the Borden girl’s doings in some sort of order.
What this means is that I have posted new stuff now, earlier in the thread, where the “wrong pic” used to be, and added some other stuff abt Newport. Please review this topic, if interested, from earlier date Sunday Oct 8…sorry, but thanks!

—Edit here to provide info that I have included a new drawing of 7 French Street on my post dated Oct Oct8 @ 3:53 pm that already had the NYSun article.

[Kat]

For a short while we had Mike Dube as a member here back in 2003.
His family owned Maplecroft and he had lived there a while.
Here is a link to the past, in our archive, where he was kind enough to answer the questions of our Forum members. It’s a treat!

https://lizzieandrewborden.com/Archive7 ... ecroft.htm

[Kat]

Here is a copy-paste from another topic in which Mike Dube was involved:

….B&B...

dubiousmike
38 posts​Feb-26th-03 3:43 AM
6. "Re: Tour"
In response to message #5
​
The thing about Andrew was that through his ties at the bank, he was able to purchase property with what might be considered inside information these days. Whatever price he paid for anything, I doubt it was actual market price. So really, one should take those purchase prices with a grain of salt. Andrew didn't aquire riches by paying a fair price for any piece of property. If he did, I am sure he regretted it. He bought Maplecroft, and many other properties once it was in a state of foreclosure, or nearly so, from what I have been told.

Maplecroft was designed by an architect (I can ask my dad his name) and he ran out of funding. Andrew bought the house as he did countless others throughout the city. The name Borden pervades Fall River buildings, not becuase of Lizzie, but beciase of Andrew.

My father never tried to decorate Maplecroft to be simialr to that of Lizzie. It was our home first and foremeost, at least to us. If Maplecroft ever seemed unimpressive for any reason to a Lizzie fan, it would be becuase the house wasn't filled with period pieces. Instead, there is a hand carved dining room table from Cambodia witha 3d scene of Shiva's journey with each chair carved with a different scene as well. There is a very large buffet from the palace in Belgium. There are two pianos, one baby grand, the other upright. There were toys and coats and perhaps hand towels that we actually used in our daily lives that would certainly take away from a victorian feeling. We didn't live there to preserve it as Lizzie's house. We lived there to live with all of our modern trappings.

I have seen the other house (the murder house, I like to call it, but in an affectionate way) and I can tell you that it is nothing like Maplaecroft. It is filled with period pieces to give the impression you are walking into the house days at the time of the murders. It is very well done, but the house itself is a plain house, of a plain design. Don't get me wrong though - it provides for Lizzie fans, a look and a feeling of authenticity that is unmatched. While it will always have the bigger attraction to Lizzie fans as the murder site, comparign the two houses is really apples and oranges.

Lizzie and her sister had the dad's wealth to pour into the house. She had french linen imported to line the dining room ceiling. Tiffany chandeliers, sconces. 6 car garage (to house the first electric car in Fall River). There are 6 or 7 fireplaces, most of which are hand carved, 2 of which had poems that were Lizzie's favorites. There are recessed radiators and other radiators that were especially built to mould to the sides of mantles. There were two gas fireplace, one wood, one coal and a couple of combo fireplaces. Emma's room was the only non servant bedroom wihtout a fireplace. The dining room has wainscoating on the wall. The woodwork throughout the first floor is exquisite. A hige stained glas window on one side of the house and two others on the other side. Two huge wrap around porches, the front enclosed with huge windows, the back screened in (though it is open air now).

The 2nd street house is well known for the murders. Maplecroft is known for its oppulance, at least compared to 2nd street. But that is just my opinion of course.
………..
Susan
2202 posts​Feb-26th-03 3:49 AM

7. "Re: Tour"
In response to message #6
​
So, was Emma's room at Maplecroft as tiny and plain as her bedroom at Second Street? Have you ever found any Lizzie or Emma artifacts in Maplecroft at all?
…………..,,
dubiousmike
38 posts​Feb-26th-03 4:09 AM

8. "Re: Tour"
In response to message #7
​
we found a commode. it was there from when Lizzie was there. it was not likely a servant's. after all, they can get their servant butt up and go to the bathroom, right?

The commode is white ceramic with designs (white on white). Original curtains in the dining room. Original wall paper in the dining room. Lots of other stuff, but I don't count stuff that is attached to the house in a perminant fashion, like sinks, stained glass windows. I suppose the wallpaper is attached, but it was the ONLY room with origianl wallpaper, so it meant something to us.

Emma's room is very small. The smallest non-servant bedroom.

When Lizzie passed, there was the rush for anything that was hers, much like with anyone who dies leaving things of value. Over the years, we were offered items that was Lizzie's for purchase, but often far more than what we fealt was a reasonable amount.

I'll ask my dad what else...

—ended here (KK)

[Kat]

Since Maplecroft sold not too long ago, there is a floorplan listed and interior shots (which I gave link to a separate topic title. I include here the floorplans.

[Kat]

I also wanted to share the FRHerald’s photo discovered of what they think is the oldest photo of Maplecroft, 1899.

[Kat]

https://www.compass.com/listing/306-fre ... 181742833/

Contact sheet of many

[camgarsky4]

Wow....the sisters did a lot of upgrading and expanding to that house!

[Kat]

I think Lizzie only added the back bedroom/bathroom and the back porch. It wouldn’t be seen in this picture. I think the aspect of the photograph is deceiving.
But there is info around, probably searching this Fourm, that would tell of modifications?

[Kat]

In October:
(But according to Rebello, pg 594, Second Street was not sold until June, 1918. On page 291, he states their agent was Charles C. Cook, who takes care of the property and collects the rents.)

[Kat]

And then Lizzie went to the fair! In Chicago.
Actually, it was the “Colombian Exposition.” It was due to close in October (Columbus, and all that…) Rebello, pg 187, says she went there with Caroline Borden and Alice Buck, citing Fall River Daily Globe, Tuesday, October 3, 1893, pg 8.

[Kat]

Going thru files of 1893, found a couple of things to add to that year here: some out of order by month.
This is the sale / purchase of the French Street property.

[Kat]

Lizzie’s Library card with her new address and new name!
From Lizzie to Lizbeth and from #7 French Street to #306 French Street.

[Kat]

Back to August:
In 2004 Harry said to figure the amount in today’s money, times the 1893 number by 18.
But that was in the early 2000’s, so I doubt the figure is still accurate. You may do yr own math.

[Kat]

I can actually understand these clubs! No internet. I would be Club Emma!

[Kat]

Bad luck…wonder which property this was? Someone was not taking care of it,

[camgarsky4]

Looked for a fire article from the prior week and didn't find anything that matches the article above. So I suppose we'll never know which property.

[CagneyBT]

Try this link from the Fall River Evening Daily News, July 7, 1893:
https://fallriverpubliclibrary.newspape ... 22&match=1

[camgarsky4]

Cagney --- that link didn't work for me, but I just scrolled thru the July 7 edition and still didn't see anything. If you can't paste it here, what page of the paper is it on? Is it an article or a 'snippet'?

[CagneyBT]

Sorry Camgarsky...my mistake! The article was printed in the July 6 edition of The Fall River Daily News on page 8. Headline reads, "A $2,500 Fire Caused By a Defective Chimney."

[CagneyBT]

Quick correction: The newspaper is the July 6 edition of The Fall RIver Daily Evening News.

Geeze, I'm getting old!

[Kat]

Thank you CagneyBT- but it says “Unauthorized access” when I click yr link.
Can you “read” it to us?
And we are all getting old.

That building must not have been maintained under Andrew’s regime - or Cook didn’t see to his business interests as he should. And that chimney fire is extremely dangerous, putting lives at risk.
I wonder if there was insurance? It seems the ladies Borden were better stewards of the property, getting it “raised and straightened.”
Maybe Andrew was no longer as *aware and in touch* with things as he might have thought he was.

[camgarsky4]

Kat - its a pretty lengthy article to transcribe. Due to my technical shortcomings, I sent to you to post if you would be so kind.

I searched "chimney fire" in just the Fall River papers and, wow, that town had lots of fires in the day of and just after the July 4th celebration that year. Some were suspected arson, but most they thought were caused by 'celebrations'.

The 100 So. main fire the article Cagney shared was deemed to be caused by a 'defective' interior chimney up in the attic area. C.C. Cook's insurance underwriters had to write some checks. I checked the Bristol County map from 1895, and it looks like 100 So. Main was very close to the intersection of Spring and So. Main....could very well have been the property that Mathers and associate was working on when AJB stopped by August 4. Clegg wasn't mentioned in this article, so maybe AJB owned a couple of adjoining properties. Too lazy right now to go look it up, but will later today.

You'll get a kick out of how the reporter' made note of which of the fire engine horse teams performed getting to the fire. One team was faster (more experienced), but in the end was overtaken by the newer team because they were stronger and could go up the final hill better. At least that is how I read it one time thru.

[camgarsky4]

Screenshot 2023-10-15 084927.png

Here is 99% of the article...final sentence got snipped off (sorry). I am feeling quite empowered now that I think I know how to add illustrations. Reader beware!!

[Kat]

Great job- thank you!
And if Cagney has library access, we may get more!

[Kat]

A “new” portrait of Lizzie from a photograph, at the end of the trial, 1893. There was a very short item below it, and they were very proud of this artistry.

[Kat]

A little extra newspaper coverage, from Plattsburgh Sentinel, December 1, 1893. It seems I’ve skipped November…but may yet find some more.
See next page- otherwise it splits the article…