Myth Busting Lizzie Borden

by Stefani Koorey, PhD

First published in Fall, 2009, Volume 6, Issue 2, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.

From page 3 of the January 2000 Lizzie Borden Quarterly:

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

(Editor’s note: Last issue’s headline article, “Choosing the Borden Trial Jury” provoked much positive response, not the least of which was a letter from our Anonymous friend who appears in these pages from time to time. . . .We edited it to remove any identifiable identity recognition, the balance is repeated as written. Along with his praise for Ms. Roach were nestled the following knowledge nuggets.)

Mr. Maynard F. Bertolet, Editor

Ms. Roach’s article ‘Choosing the Borden Trial Jury’ was of great interest to us. For that reason, we wish to thank Ms. Roach for sharing her many hours of research and work with us. 

From time to time in the future we look forward to seeing additional interesting articles in the LBQ especially ones that hopefully will be discovered by active genealogists during their examinations of old records. As an example, records show Abby Durfee Gray Borden married Andrew J. Borden June 6, 1865. Her mother, Sarah (Sawyer) Gray, had previously died in November 1860. On May 4, 1891, only sixteen months before the Borden murders, Sarah’s remains were exhumed and reburied in the Oak Grove Cemetery, a period of approximately 30 years between burials. The interesting fact is the Oak Grove Cemetery records indicate Sarah Gray’s existence but do not show any lot number or location for her. (The Fall River City Hall death records are where you will find this interesting fact.)

It is rather intriguing to speculate on the Borden family discussions that must have taken place regarding the cost of transfer and location of the reburial site of Sarah Gray. Andrew Borden, being the noted miser that he was, must have experienced some heavy pressure from his second wife, Abby, to finance such a move. Abby’s father Oliver Gray is somewhat of a mystery also as to the location of his final resting place. Fall River City Hall death records show his final resting place as Oak Grove. However Oak Grove records do not list Oliver Gray as buried there.

Anonymous

This letter, with this information about Andrew being such a nice guy and paying for the reburial of his wife’s mother, has stayed with me since I first read it. I have quoted this find as proof positive that Andrew wasn’t such a miser after all—that he had forked over a sum of money in an effort to do something nice. 

While conducting some research for another project, I thought I would see for myself just when this reburial took place and get some additional details to fill in the blanks mentioned in the letter by Anonymous. What I found was quite surprising. It turns out, the information about the body of Sarah being reburied is bogus. The books, which the City Clerk of Fall River uses to look up deaths this old, are large ones—when open, the pages span about three feet, with handwritten dates, names, and details starting from the edge of the left side and written all the way across the page to the edge of the right side. Whoever first “discovered” this “news” was the victim of human error—the City Clerk had misread the book and looked at the wrong line. While reading across the page, the writing takes a decided downward turn, and if one is not super careful, the information from the entry below Sarah’s can be read as being about Sarah. 

The reason why there is no burial card at Oak Grove Cemetery for Abby’s mother Sarah Gray is because she was never moved there. Her remains are still in the old North Burial grounds, where they were placed when she died in 1860.