Carnival of Genealogy # 44: Sarah Elizabeth (Williams) Reed

The theme of this Carnival of Genealogy is “A Tribute to Women.” It was quite difficult to pick one female ancestor but as soon as I found this photograph, I knew that I had to write about Lizzie Reed.

My great great grandmother Sarah Elizabeth (Williams) Reed was born in West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania on December 17, 1828 and died in Brooklyn, New York in 1915.
She was my grandmother’s favorite grandmother. My grandmother Grace Agnes Hicks (born June 8, 1889 in Brooklyn) spent a fair amount of her early childhood with her Reed grandparents. Her own parents didn’t have a lot of money, and there were five children to look after, so Grace went to the Reeds. She said that it was wonderful, they were lovely kind people who spoiled her in the nicest sort of way.

Sarah Elizabeth was one of the three daughters of Moses V. and Rebecca (Miles) Williams of Chester County. They lived in various townships - Vincent, Tredyffrin, West Chester. Rebecca and her girls ended up in Tredyffrin and then in West Chester after Moses abandoned the family. The cover story for this was that he had gone off “to join the Mexican War,” but there is no record of his having done so. And there is also a record of Rebecca’s filing to have him declared dead. She said that he died in 1847 in Philadelphia, but I don't know enough about him to agree. I'm looking forward to someday solving the mystery of his life and origins.

I have not sorted out the whole history of Moses, but in another post I will sum up what I do know. In any case, the family had little money even when Moses was around. The Poor School Children’s records of Chester County, which you can find at the online archives of the Chester County are lists of the children in the county who qualified for free schooling because their parents were unable to pay the fees.

All three Williams girls are recorded as Poor School Children. Sarah E. was living in West Vincent twp, age 5, in 1834. She was in Tredyffrin twp in 1836, age 8. The head of household is not listed for her, but her sisters Ann and Maria L. both were listed, in the early 1830s, as living in the household of Nathaniel Miles (their maternal grandfather) in Tredyffrin, so Sarah Elizabeth was probably in his household in 1836.

Moses and Rebecca lived in Vincent in the mid-1820s, and may have been there in 1834 when Sarah E. Williams received Poor Children’s aid. The move to Tredyffrin two years later may indicate that this was when Moses abandoned his wife and children, and Rebecca’s moving to her father’s household.

Sarah Elizabeth was the youngest daughter, and she was called Lizzie. She had eye problems, and as you can see in the photograph, she wore little green-tinted glasses to protect them. My grandmother remembers Lizzie telling her that when she was a girl, Lizzie decided to scare a male cousin of hers by wrapping herself in a sheet and hiding behind a tombstone in the local cemetery. The cousin always took this route home. When he walked by, Lizzie jumped out and had a wonderful time giving him the scare of his life.

When she was older, though, death would touch her more seriously. She told Grace that a fortune teller came through town - probably before her marriage in 1851 - and told Lizzie’s fortune. She said that “the little white hearse” would come many times for Lizzie. And indeed, Lizzie had nine children - and only three lived to adulthood: Henry Wilfred, Alida Agnes (my great grandmother) and Bertha Elizabeth. Lizzie made the three of them swear that they would never go to a fortune teller, for fear that some dreadful prediction would come true for them, too.

My great grandmother was born while Thomas was away in the Union Army in October 1861. She was so tiny that the doctor put her in his top hat, and said to her mother: “Don’t make any baby clothes, Lizzie.” But thankfully the little girl in the top hat survived. In the photo above she is sitting on Lizzie’s lap. The boy of course is Henry Wilfred, who became a minister in Brooklyn and later in Illinois.

The Reeds moved many times. Henry (or Harry, as he was known in the family) was born in New York in 1853; on the Reeds’ marriage certificate (1851) Thomas is called “of New York” though his family was all in West Chester, so the young couple must have lived in New York for awhile. By 1861 they were back in West Chester. Bertha was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1868, and by 1873 the family had settled in Brooklyn, where they would remain. Lizzie and Alida were both dressmakers, and helped to support the family with their sewing.

I always got the impression that Sarah Elizabeth was a very strong, rather quiet but very sweet person. There is a photograph I will post another time of several of the Williams/Reed family together sometimes in the 1880s. Lizzie and at least one of her sisters, Alida and Bertha, and a man (Henry?) are grouped together. You can see the affection they had for each other in their expressions and the way that they sit together. Nothing showy or ostentatious about their affection, but genuine - and captured, thanks to one photograph, forever.