Lizzie Borden Society Forum

#1

#2

Love them!

Very cool, Clint, I love them! Lizzie just looks so pretty in color, its a wonder we don't read about more suitors.

Susan, I was just reading about that. Because we have wondered about that very thing before, and since I happened upon a news item which applies, I'd like to quote a partial comment:
Fall River Herald News, Aug. 2, 1976, headline, "Lizzie: A Famous and Fascinating Enigma," by Jean Judge, Women's Page Editor:

"The ruling class world of Fall River protected Lizzie Borden. She did not really enter that world, but nothing about her left its portals either.

Like Victoria Lincoln, Rev. Dr. Wilcox, the First Congregational Church minister is a descendant of first families of the area, and can speak with some certitude about that world.

The society that controlled Fall River in the late 19th century was a closed one. Indeed few, other than the mill owners, the bank presidents and the church founders, and they were usually interchangable, 'need apply.'

As the men ran the business aspects of the city's life, the women dominated them and everything else, according to the minister.

He claims that, with few exceptions, most of the charitable foundations and institutions in the city were established by women. Men made the money, but women made society.

Lizzie and the other Borden women had some prestige, associated with the family name and with Borden's rank and financial standing. But apparently Mrs. Borden had failed to exercise social preogatives.

From the perspective of a century later, Lizzie's life appears to have had little to fill it. She had taken a kind of Grand Tour of Europe a few years before the murders, but she was known primarily for her charitable endeavors. There was the Fruit and Flower Mission, there was the Sunday School teaching, and there was a substantial inheritance in the future. But perhaps she wanted more.

In 1892, 32-year-old Lizzie Borden was already well on her way to spinsterhood; along with her older sister, Emma.

Reflecting on that, Dr. Wilcox emphasizes that 'you didn't marry beneath you.' It was far better to remain single and retain the status associated with a family name like Borden than to exchange it for that of another from lower social level."

--Then he goes on to say that Lizzie also had red hair which at the time was considered "ugly." We don't think Lizzie had red hair, but the rest might apply.

Rebello's book quotes George Ambrose Petty as saying "Lizzie is known to be ugly" but in the context of sanity in the Morse and Borden families. I always assumed that it was her moods or dispostion which could turn ugly. I just could never understand in what context Pettey knew her.

A New York reporter Julian Ralph (also in Rebello) said he saw "a good many women of the Lizzie Borden physiognomy in the city..." so it would seem that her looks were average and somewhat typical for the Fall River area.

While there may be a status issue in not marrying beneath oneself, it just seems that many women and men (at least in New England) remained unmarried. From personal knowledge, I can say that I know many older people who never left home. Many who did marry (including my own parents) had to elope simply because the father would not consent to let them marry.

Religion also seemed to have a lot to do with it as well. There was a lot of change going on in various religions in terms of organization and beliefs after the Civil War. Here in Southern New England, camp meetings and revival meetings became popular during Lizzie's time.

The Westport (MA) Historical Society has a timeline for 1892 showing "1500 teams and 6,000 people for "Big Sunday" at Cadman's Neck" for the camp meeting. Many people thought they were living "in the end times" and should practice chaste lives. And New Englanders were known for being puritannical and repressed. I wonder if Lizzie's visit to Westport at the end of July coincided with the revival gathering.

Hoffman's "Yesterday in Old Fall River" has an item on Pettey, whose name is variously spelled in some of the Borden literature. According to Hoffman, Pettey has resided at 92 Second Street (then numbered 66) before Andrew Borden bought the property. Pettey found himself near the Borden house on August 4, 1892, and was invited inside by Dr. Bowen to view the bodies. (Dr. Bowen finally found somebody who wanted to look at the bodies!) Pettey had worked at his father's grocery store, Wade & Pettey, ca. 1869-79. That's the store that was located south of the Kelly home. Possibly Pettey knew Lizzie from the neighborhood, since she would have lived on Second Street during much of his tenure at the grocery store. His comments about Lizzie were given as part of Moulton Batchelder's "sanity survey," so he was probably referring to Lizzie's personality rather than her appearance when he used the term "ugly."

Thanks for that, Kat. I still find it odd that there was no men of equal social standing that didn't try for Lizzie's hand, at least that we haven't heard of as of yet. That article does present an interesting idea about Abby's possible role in the girls being spinsters. Could it be another reason why the girls disliked Abby so much, that she failed them in finding proper suitors for them?

These color photos are something to see. The first one really emphasizes those piercing blue/gray eyes.

That's an interesting point, Susan.
We don't know what the Durfee-Gray family home life was like, or a lot about Abby and Priscilla's upbringing. Since Abby married so late, if she herself had no, or minimal, social training, then she would not be the best person to bring those Borden girls out. But I'd expect a close, more socially prominent female relative would do that for the girls. Was there no one?

Thats a good question, I don't of any close Borden relative that was in the position to introduce those girls to society men, but, there may have been at least one?

I keep thinking of Michael Martin's words on one of the Lizzie videos, he says something along the lines that Abby was raised in "genteel poverty", so, I don't think she would have the social contacts despite the family name having some clout. That may have been one of the first reasons why Emma may have chosen to dislike Abby, that Andrew had married beneath himself, she didn't have the ways and means of their social class. Could you imagine if all your hopes were pinned on your mother for the task of finding you suitable beaux and then she passes away and is replaced by a woman who has no cachet with society? It may have been quite a bitter pill to swallow.

I personally believe Emma's resentment begins shortly after the marriage of Abby and Andrew.

Emma had been Lizzie's mother-sister until the marriage. The Old Sturbridge site had a profile of how traumatic the breakup of these mother-sister relationships could be, regardless of the reason. Yet we know Emma didn't graduate from high school, was away for 1 1/2 years (with speculation favoring a woman's seminary). The most likely age for this would have been 1867-1868 when Emma was age 17-18,

In 1868 Abby gives Lizzie a silver cup commemorating something between them, and then Abby becomes infatuated with her younger half-sister, Bertie, who was born in 1864. Lizzie feels abandoned. Emma is away and can't be a mother to her.

This is just speculation, but I believe Emma and Lizzie's trust in Abby's devotion to them as their new mother was damaged early on.

Those photos are stunning. Thank you for sharing them with us!

I do agree that Abby very well could have turned her maternal instincts towards her Whitehead relatives, after her marriage.
Also, if there was loving acceptance for Abby's largesse at Fourth Street, and if Abby was not getting respect at the Second Street house, it seems like human nature for Abby to turn to her relatives, and "do" for them.

It would be interesting to figure out the closest socially prominent female in the Borden extended family (who did not do her duty...)

By the time 'lil Abby was born, 1884, Abby again might have been drawn back to her family and liked the experience of being around a new baby. Morse came for a year around 1885 and if Abby disliked Morse at all she might have spent more time away.