Little Lizzie Beth

Lizzie Beth aka L.B. Parten

LB's story is quite a sad one. She and some other children were outside playing enjoying a nice summer day. Her mother was having a wash day. During that period of time, wash days meant filling up a large cast iron washpot with water and heating it outside over an open fire until it was boiling hot, then the clothes would be put into the pot stirred around for a while using a heavy duty stick of some sort, then placing them on the rub board to scrub down, then dunked back into the boiling water for a good rinse.

A neighbor boy was chasing LB and others with a dead mouse when suddenly LB tripped and fell back into the washpot.  She was immediately rescued from the pot of boiling water and taken in the house and the doctor was summoned. She only lived a short time and then passed away leaving a family stricken greatly with grief. The poor boy who chased her with the mouse was said to have never recovered from the incident and was never in his right mind even in his adult years. A terrible tragedy took two lives that day.

Fifteen days after the death of her daughter, my great-grandmother, Winnie gave birth to my grandmother, Margaret Evelyn. My grandmother would never know her big sister but perhaps her birth helped this family through a very tough time in their lives and helped to soften this great loss.