The Andrew Jennings Journal

[mbhenty]

Yes:

The Fall River Historical Society just received a donation which includes the personal journal of Andrew Jennings, with never published personal information. Included is proof that Borden loved his girls and was planning to make sure they would live a comfortable life, even buying a place on "The Hill."

I smell a new book in the makings.

Story in Monday's Fall River, Herald News.

Click below.

http://www.heraldnews.com/newsnow/x1785 ... ed-to-FRHS

[DJ]

Thanks for sharing, M.B. I hope these will be printed, as is, much like the trial transcript, the Inquest testimony, and the Preliminary Hearing.

If Mr. Borden were going to ensconce Lizzie and Emma on "The Hill," and take care of them well, he should have done that a lot sooner. He most probably would have lived a much more peaceful and probably much longer life, given his general aura of good health.

The problem in the household was between "His Girls" and "His Wife," as well evidenced in bountiful testimony.

Why, oh why, did he let that go on and on and on?

Lizzie seems to have executed "The Daylight Robbery" the summer before the murders as a test to determine how far her Father's love extended-- would he suspect her? Protect her?

Mr. Borden was a man in the middle, if you will, with the power to separate the warring factions within his household.

The problem with Lizzie and Emma, as well demonstrated by their disputations over property, was Mrs. Borden receiving much of anything at all, under any circumstances. Oh, I don't think they wanted her to starve in the street; rather, they didn't want her heirs waltzing about in fine style on the Borden nickel.

Lizzie wanted Mrs. Borden out of the picture. Emma did, too. Mrs. Borden seems to me to have been the principal target. At that point, Lizzie probably felt her Father would have given her away. Or, disinherited her, at the very least, if she left him standing and Mrs. Borden on the floor of the guest room.

Moral of this story: If you intend for your daughters-- who are in their thirties and forties, respectively-- to have a nice place to live and be well taken care of, then don't dangle them along. Do it today. Don't wait for tomorrow. The life you save may be your own.

[twinsrwe]

Wow, thanks for sharing, MB!

What a gold mine - it would be awesome if a book were to be published of Andrew Jennings' personal journal.

[Allen]

I have not contended that Andrew didn't love the girls. I'm sure he did. I think Abby did too, even though they shunned her as they did, she did have a hand in raising them. I think Andrew did love the girls. But many rich parents who loved their children have been killed for the money. The kids decide they aren't getting a big enough piece of the pie, or maybe that they should just be entitled to the whole thing. And I believe Alice Russell when she said that he did not understand why they thought they needed to live in the style that they wanted. I think Andrew had the money, but he did not understand why the girls wanted to live out the fashionable existence of someone who had it, and fought against it. Otherwise why wait in Emma's case over 40 years to start talking about buying them a fine house on the hill? Were they getting any younger? Did they have any prospects of getting married and taken out of his hair?

[Yooper]

The first question which comes to mind is whether the information about Andrew Borden intending to buy a house on The Hill comes as the result of the attorney/client relationship between Jennings and Andrew Borden, or from some other source. I'm wondering who, other than Jennings, might have known about it.

On face value, assuming it's true and Lizzie was aware of it, it tends to support the idea that Abby was the primary target because she would have moved to The Hill with the rest of the family. While it may tend to diminish possible animosity toward Andrew before the fact, once Abby had been killed the balance changes and Andrew had to go if there was a risk of Andrew throwing Lizzie to the wolves.

[DJ]

Yes, there's a great deal of difference between plans for Lizzie & Emma to "move on up" by themselves, or in the same ol' household.

Yes, too: What's the source of this info? Is Jennings taking notes from Lizzie to aid her possible defense? From Emma? From John Morse? Is Jennings recalling something Andrew once said in passing to him, umpteen years back?

The reference sounds part and parcel of Jennings' notes to aid in Lizzie's defense.

The sore fact of the matter is that this move never came to pass during Mr. Borden's lifetime. Furthermore, a man who sells off the family's only means of conveyance-- its horse and buggy-- does not appear to be a man who is planning a grandly upscale overhaul of the family's living conditions.

Mr. Borden was a businessman who seemed to enjoy his location withing easy walking distance of his business concerns. He could pop over and pop back with ease, even when he wasn't feeling well, as demonstrated by his actions on the morning of the murders.

If he were on The Hill, he would have been at a further remove. He would have been wishing for that horse and buggy.

[Yooper]

It's remotely possible Andrew planned to buy a house on The Hill and move Lizzie and Emma into it. The peace and quiet might have been worth it!

[DJ]

It's interesting that Lizzie and Emma-- even John Morse-- never mention this information in any of their testimony.

And, it would have been most helpful to Lizzie's cause, too, giving her a reason to let Andrew live.

Furthermore, Lizzie's state of mind in New Bedford is anything but positive, telling an old friend there, right before she returned to Fall River, that she believed she could be disinherited.

Again, I stress-- if this information were known to any of the principals in Lizzie's camp, they would have been gushing it out like a Kuwaitian oil well. It would have been too beneficial to Lizzie's cause to neglect.

Moreover, if Andrew had been making noises about such a move over the years, I seriously doubt Lizzie would have committed the Daylight Robbery, which seems to have seriously eroded her relationship with him.

[Yooper]

I have to agree, Lizzie's defense would have benefited from including this information. While it had been established that Lizzie and Emma were probably the only two inhabitants of the planet who bore Abby any ill will, people may have considered Abby's death as incidental to Andrew's. They probably figured that Andrew was the primary target and Abby somehow got in the way.

The information is likely part of the attorney/client relationship, something Andrew had brought up to Jennings. It may have never gotten further than the talking stage; if Andrew had actually pursued the matter by looking at houses and talking to sellers, it would probably have become common knowledge, although Jennings might have done that for Andrew.

[patsy]

Thanks for sharing, mbhenty.

I hope that since Jennings seemed to be very detail minded and so had efficiently cross-indexed the journal there may be plenty of documentation to go with some of his statements. I do want to read this journal!

[Yooper]

I wonder how near the murders in time was Andrew's interest in a house on the Hill? I'm sure Andrew was content to remain on 2nd St., so he probably considered it a frivolous purchase. He likely didn't want to spend any more than he had to on such a luxury, so he might have played a waiting game. I suspect the domestic turmoil had reached a breaking point for Andrew to consider something like that. DJ is correct, Andrew wouldn't have sold his horse the previous year if he had been contemplating a move to the Hill at that point.

[Harry]

Found this:

"The Boston Globe, Tuesday, September 20, 1892 – 1

FAVORABLE TO MISS LIZZIE.

Andrew Borden Had Been Looking
For A House For Daughters.

FALL RIVER, Sept. 19. – A story published in the later editions of tonight’s local papers has given cause for much satisfaction among the friends of Miss Lizzie A. Borden.
It is shown that her father had been looking for some time for a new house for his daughters, also that she was not greatly stinted with money.
Instead of being an impassive woman, as represented by District Attorney Knowlton, it is said she has several times given way to tears, though never in public."

[Yooper]

Thanks for the information, Harry.

The Globe article seems to imply that Andrew was looking to buy a house for Lizzie and Emma, but not necessarily for the entire family. Andrew might well have sold his horse and carriage if he planned to remain on 2nd Street while sending his daughters to live in a more fashionable area. This calls for the source to be aware of the daughters being the impetus for the purchase in addition to the fact of the purchase itself. I have to wonder if Andrew selling his horse and carriage sent a message to Lizzie and Emma about their chances of the family moving to The Hill? The subsequent whining and wringing of hands might have driven Andrew to desperate measures!

[Angel]

If there were things in the journal that would cast Lizzie in a more favorable light, wouldn't J
ennings, a friend of the family, sought to let people know these things instead of letting Lizzie become a social pariah in the years after the trial? Instead, they were kept very secret and stored so no one would have access to them. Also, if Jennings believed in her innocence and cared about how she was perceived, why would he have broken off the relationship after the trial?

[DJ]

Good P.R. for LIzzie's case-- would like to know the source!

Now, if a letter (or some such) in Andrew's hand ever surfaces, I'll believe that he entertained the notion.

Wonder what happened to all those loving letters between Andrew and Lizzie?

Too bad she didn't save them and whip them out at the Inquest, a la John Morse with his letter about the cows!

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The more I ponder it, the less I believe Andrew Borden had any intention of leaving #92 Second Street. He conducted business in the house and was accessible to his business concerns.

Moving farther away would have put him at an inconvenience, especially at his age, relying on foot transportation, having sold the horse.

Also, if he had had any intention of moving Emma and Lizzie out on their own, he probably would have done so when the first property imbroglio occurred, with Abby's half-sister.

Well, you can put a price on property, but not on peace. Poor Abby. It's a wonder she didn't flip and take a hatchet to everyone herownself.

[Yooper]

If there were things in the journal that would cast Lizzie in a more favorable light, wouldn't J
ennings, a friend of the family, sought to let people know these things instead of letting Lizzie become a social pariah in the years after the trial? Instead, they were kept very secret and stored so no one would have access to them. Also, if Jennings believed in her innocence and cared about how she was perceived, why would he have broken off the relationship after the trial?

For Jennings to release the information after the trial, he would be sending the message that his defense was somehow insufficient and required further elaboration. It falls within the category of having to prove innocence. Furthermore, if the information was covered by attorney/client privilege, he couldn't very well offer the information under any circumstances. If a third party questioned him about it after Andrew died, he might possibly be able to supply the information, but I don't know for sure. This would call for a third party to be aware of the information independently, and very likely not as the result of Jennings prompting them because he would then have violated the attorney/client privilege.

Jennings' task was to get Lizzie cleared of the murder charges. He didn't necessarily have to believe in her innocence. He may have had other information of the damaging type which he squelched along the way, who knows?

[Yooper]

Good points, DJ! One other possibility exists about moving Lizzie and Emma out. Andrew may well have decided to provide them with their own house at the time of the Whitehead house turmoil, but he was waiting for the right price. I don't expect houses in the desired area would come up often as a panic sale, so he may have had quite a wait ahead. Either that, or something else came up in the meantime which intensified the complaints from his daughters, something like selling his horse and carriage which would have sent the message that Lizzie and Emma weren't going to live on the Hill anytime soon. It could be that Lizzie and Emma were not aware of Andrew's intentions, he would have been far less pressured to buy if they didn't know about it.

[Chichibcc]

Very interesting...just found out about the release of the journals a couple days ago.

I wonder if another reason Andrew was waiting as far as purchasing a house on "The Hill" was possibly because he planned to build a house from scratch, since it appears that property didn't go up for sale there very often? Would there have been any room left to build anything else on at that time?

That wouldn't have been cheap, though, but with daughters like Lizzie and Emma, I think I would've found a way to scrape up the money somehow!

[Allen]

I don't believe that Andrew had any intentions of buying, or building, a house on the Hill for the girls. I'd be interested to know the source of this information. It might put it more into perspective. The "girls" were in their 30's and 40's. If the thought of buying them a home of their own were going to occur to Andrew, it would've been before this in my opinion. Especially with the state of their relationship with Abby. I'd say he could have bought them a house on the hill to get them out of his hair after the chaos of buying the half house, instead of giving them property to collect rents of their own, and then buying it back when they couldn't seem to handle the responsibility. As two grown adult women, how hard was it to collect rent and maintain property? If anything this may have been an indication to Andrew that the girls could not handle living out on their own, and would end up back at home anyway. As a matter of fact, Emma never did live on her own, even after the murders. She spent her whole life living with other people.

[DJ]

Much agreed, Allen, and good point about Andrew's losing faith in Lizzie and Emma over their inability to manage the property on Ferry Street-- I believe he also complained that they cashed in stocks before they reached full value.

Lizzie also failed the test, as it were, when she wrote home for more money during her Grand Tour. Notice, she hit up Andrew. Emma could have sent her some. I believe Lizzie and Emma were happy to take money from Andrew and thus away from Abby, to have him indulge them-- to choose them, if you will-- over Abby.

I believe that's an important point about their feelings, as manifested in their actions. Lizzie and Emma wanted special treatment, to be more in Andrew's eyes than Abby was.

I don't think Andrew had any intention of moving himself to The Hill and away from his business, nor setting up Lizzie and Emma in a house there, and having them spend through his hard-earned money.

[Yooper]

The concept of Andrew buying a house on the Hill is a difficult fit at best to all the other information. I would like to know the source if it was someone other than Jennings himself. It is possible that Andrew mentioned it to Jennings in passing at some time and Jennings gave it greater importance than it deserved in light of the murders. If that's true, it makes me wonder how objective the journals are in general.

The only way I can make it work is if Andrew was planning on buying a house for his daughters in the interest of peace and quiet. But why did he wait five years after the turmoil over the Whitehead house began? Why wait for a year after the daylight robbery if he suspected Lizzie? That implies that peace and quiet was not much of a motivating factor. The daughters owned the Ferry Street house up until about a month before the murders, so if it was something Andrew was contemplating, it had to be a very recent idea with respect to the murders. In any case, I doubt it went any further than the talking stage before Andrew was killed.

[Allen]

I found an interview with Mrs. George Brigham published in the Fall River Herald. I'm not sure of the date, but it can be found on pages 136-137 of the Lizzie Borden Sourcebook. In it she states,"Mr. Borden was, as they say, not a demonstrative man, but he loved his daughters and showed it at such times when they came back after being away. He did not like them to go away from home. I could give you very many illustrations of this, showing Lizzie's kind consideration for her father and he for her. For instance, both the girls would have preferred to live in this part of town to where they did, and often expressed the wish the wish of course, but said that it was better for their father, more convenient to live where they did, as it was near his business interests, and so they did not urge it. On the other hand, the father, knowing the wish, told them only a short time ago to look for a house in this neighborhood." Now I am willing to bet she heard the information from Lizzie. She goes on to say Abbie was a good woman, but not affectionate to the girls.

[Allen]

In the same interview,she states Lizzie did not go to Marion because Andrew and Abbie were going to Swanzey but the companion who was to go along to keep Abbie company could not go. So she told Lizzie to go ahead and go. Again this seems questionable. There was never any testimony concerning this.

[diana]

There’s quite a lot about Mrs. George Brigham (nee Mary Ella Sheen) in Parallel Lives. She does seem to have been a good friend to Lizzie at the time of the murders and visited Lizzie during her incarceration. She also remained friends with both Borden sisters for some years after the murders. Sometime after 1900, Lizzie gave Mrs. Brigham’s son, Richard, a subscription to an animal magazine and renewed his subscription for several years and there is also a note in Mrs. Brigham’s diary that on January 23, 1903, Lizzie Borden sent over a brass bed.

In her 1903, 1904, and 1905 ‘line-a-day-diaries’ Mrs. Brigham notes visits and correspondence with both Emma and Lizzie, but after the estrangement between Emma and Lizzie, it would appear she sided with Emma and her contact with Lizzie dwindled away. The wonderful index in Parallel Lives (thank you Stefani!) is a great resource for garnering this kind of information.

So Mrs. Brigham probably was a valid source of information about the Borden’s but, of course, it’s impossible to know how accurately her comments about the family were transcribed by the newspapers.

[DJ]

Thanks, Diana and Allen for the great info--

Interesting that Mrs. Brigham supplies the same story about Andrew pondering the relocation of his daughters. Thus, it could be that Lizzie was the source of the same info to Jennings. Or Emma, considering that Mrs. Brigham was pals with both.

Also: Intertesting that Mrs. Brigham has Lizzie (and/or Emma) saying what we've been saying-- that it was convenient for Andrew to live where he did because of his business concerns, and his daughters were well aware of this.

Moving off on a little tangent: That bit about Lizzie saying that Mr. and Mrs. Borden were planning a trip to Swansea that was canceled, unbeknownst to Lizzie, indeed sounds like a fabrication-- designed to make it seem that Lizzie thought she was returning to an empty house from her abbreviated trip, and not returning to terminate her stepmother and father.

[Allen]

I believe the accuracy of any of the information provided by Lizzie's friends depends on whether it was witnessed first hand, or fed to them by Lizzie. And to a degree whether it was before or after the murders Lizzie related the information.