By Jennifer Uhlarik
If you’ve heard of Lizzie Borden—raise your hand!
Most of us probably have—at least by the oft-quoted schoolyard rhyme about the woman who delivered forty whacks of an ax to her mother, then another forty-one to her father. However, Lizzie was not the first Borden whose name was associated with murder. Four and a half decades before the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden (father and step-mother of Lizzie), the first Borden murders occurred.
Lizzie Borden
Lawdwick Borden’s First Marriage
On March 14, 1812, Lawdwick Borden entered the world—the brother of the man who would become Lizzie Borden’s grandfather. From a well-to-do family, he eventually opened a planning business to compliment his brother, Cook’s, lumber business.
At twenty-one years old, Lawdwick married the first of his four wives. His union with Maria Briggs started happily enough, though that happiness wouldn’t last. Within their brief five years together, they brought two children into the world—and lost both in less than a year from each of their births. And in their fifth year of marriage, Maria died also. So by age 26, Lawdwick had already suffered the loss of a spouse and two children—all to illnesses.
But that wasn’t where his losses ended. Indeed, things were about to get quite a bit worse.
The Horrific Second Marriage
Six years after Maria died, on March 16, 1843, Lawdwick married Eliza Darling—his second wife. Within a year and a half, they welcomed their first child, Maria, to the family. Two years later, along came their second daughter, Eliza, and two years after that, their son Holder completed their family. This should have been a joyous time for the growing family, but Lawdwick’s wife suffered with “melancholy” after her children’s births, likely a case of what we call postpartum depression today.
If you’re not aware, many women suffer some small form of the “baby blues” after giving birth. This is usually a brief period (two weeks or less) of mood swings, trouble eating, trouble sleeping, mild anxiety, crying, and other such symptoms. But sometimes the blues don’t abate within a couple of weeks. Today, we know this as postpartum depression, a condition marked by depression and severe mood swings, trouble bonding with the new baby, the mother’s withdrawal from family and friends, excessive crying, extreme irritability, anger, and even hopelessness. In truly severe cases, the mother can fantasize about harming herself or her baby—or even make such attempts.
The articles I have read on Eliza Darling Borden didn’t detail her symptoms, but I can imagine she must have been plagued by all of these and more to do what she ultimately did. Around the time that Holder was six months old and little Eliza was two, their mother was in the grip of a madness she couldn’t break free of. On a given morning, she waited for their young maid to leave the house on an outside chore. At that time, she took little Eliza and Holder to the cellar of the house at #96 Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts, and drown her two youngest children in the cellar’s cistern. I have found no details as to why Maria was not also drowned that day, but the oldest daughter survived.
News article announcing Eliza's murder of her children
and her own suicide.
After drowning her children, Eliza took one of her husband’s straight razors and did herself in by cutting her own throat. Some accounts have her taking her life in the same cellar where her children died, while others say she walked back upstairs before ending her life.
 |
| Eliza Borden's grave marker. |
Later Marriages
I have to give Lawdwick Borden credit. After losing two wives and four children—two by murder—I am not sure I would have had the strength to marry again. But Lawdwick did. His third wife was yet another woman named Eliza! (Did I mention I couldn’t have married again? I really don’t think I could’ve married another by the same name)! The third wife—and second Eliza—died also, leaving poor Lawdwick to marry his final wife, Ruhama.
Lawdwick and Ruhama shared a number of years together before his death on October 6, 1874. She survived him by about five years, ultimately succumbing to cancer in 1879.
The Surviving Child
You might be wondering what happened to the surviving child of Lawdwick and Eliza Darling Borden. Maria went on to lead a full life, marrying twice herself. Her first marriage lasted only a handful of years and ended in divorce. However, her second marriage to a man named John Chace, produced two children, one of which survived into adulthood. The other died early from illness. Maria lived out her days in Fall River.
The House Next Door
Interestingly, Maria was a just an infant when her father took a portion of the land where his house was situated and build a second home. The home’s address was #92 Second Street, Fall River, Massachusetts. In the early days after it was built, that house was occupied by Charles and Hannah Trafton, who welcomed Charles Jr. to their family. But only shortly after Charles Jr’s birth, Hannah succumbed to tuberculosis and the baby died of an unknown illness. Charles Sr. married again and lived in that house next to Lawdwick’s family until 1872—when the house was sold to Andrew Borden, father of Lizzie and Emma Borden.
Check back next month for more about the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in that very house.
It’s Your Turn: Were you aware that the murders of Lizzie Borden’s parents were not the first suspicious deaths in the Borden family tree? In your opinion, what is the saddest part of the original Borden murders?
Jennifer Uhlarik discovered western novels at twelve when she swiped the only “horse” book from her brother’s bookshelf. Across the next decade, she devoured westerns and fell in love with the genre. While attaining a B.A. in writing from the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. She has finaled in and won numerous writing competitions and appeared on various best-seller lists. Besides writing, she’s been a business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, a historical researcher, a publisher, and a full-time homemaker. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.
Available now from your favorite bookseller
Wanted:
Family, Love, and Justice
One Old West Mystery Solved Throughout Three Short Romantic Stories
Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice.
Youngest child, Callie, has pushed past her insecurities to pursue a career as a Pinkerton agent. Middle child, Andi, has spent years studying law under her adoptive father’s tutelage. And the eldest and only son, Rion, is a rough-and-tumble bounty hunter.
When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?
No comments:
Post a Comment