On July 18, 1893 Belle's brother Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Tisdale Jr. died.
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| 1893 Obituary Benjamin Franklin Tisdale Jr. |
Frank was born March 15, 1860 in New Orleans. (New Orleans Birth Records, Certificate Number 749) He is listed in the 1870 US Census at age 10 in East Baton Rouge with his mother Eliza and his siblings Belle, William, Lee and Robert. They were staying with Eliza's family in Baton Rouge. His father, Benjamin Franklin Tisdale Sr., died June 16, 1876 in Mobile, Alabama, at the home of his sister, Mary Eliza Tisdale Magee. In 1880 Frank is living alone in West Baton Rouge Parish and working as a grocery clerk. We find him in the New Orleans City Directories in 1874, 1877 and 1889 living in New Orleans and working as a clerk.
On March 21, 1892 Frank married Caroline "Linnie" Lusk. They had one daughter, Florence Tisdale, who was born in April 1893. She is the baby mentioned in Eliza's emotional letter of September 9, 1893. We only have a poor copy of the letter Eliza wrote to all her family. It became known in the family as the "Murder She Wrote" letter.
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1893 09 09 EHP
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Letter from Mrs. B. F. Tisdale (Eliza Helen Pratt) |
Transcription:
Page 1
New Orleans Sept 9, 1893
I, “Frank's” mother, want every one, (whos Eyes may see these lines) to know that she [crossed out] I never believed that he killed himself, never! it is an act to foreign to his nature, because he was low spireted they (the people of that place) believed that he did or they never looked into the affair. He was buried as a Suicide. My reason for thinking he was mur [scratched out] killed by some one...
Page 2
...that night the 16th of July, Sunday night, he, Frank & his wife & baby went to bed the same as usual. Frank got up about 12 o'clock, went into the yard, & came back after some little time, kissed his wife & went off to sleep, the baby woak them at 2 two o'clock, & he lifted her into the bed to his wife, (for she was asleep in her crib on his side of the bed, they fell asleep again, at 4 again, His wife woke, & spoke to him, but he never answered her, was sound asleep as she thought, & she dont know exact
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ly when she woke again but was aroused by hearing a groan, she asked Frank if he was sick, he told her he was dying. She sprang out of bed, & found him lying on the floor at the foot of the bed, with a small place cut just under the left Ear, he was covered with blood. His wife thinks he may have been killed, there was no one to notice the surroundings, all was confusion. Mr. Erwin came in, they all seemed to have settled it in their mindes that had hurt himself, (God knows I hope he did not)...
Page 4
... & the house was off, not near any other, exsept a store kept by Chinemen. He [scratched out] Frank's wife thinks they may have given her something to keep her asleep, as she usually awoke about 5 in the morning, & the negroe nurse was always awake early his raisor [scratched out] razor was lying on the floor but the drawer where it was kept was locked & the keys hanging up where they always were kept & the Negroe who lived in the house, was always trusted to put it away after
[continued upside down on the top of page 3] he [scratched out] Frank used it, he shaved Saturday night, left his razor on the bureau all night...
[continued on top of page 1] their was no Corinors inquest called though there was a place on his Breast like it was made with a blunt instrument, the blood was all up on the surface. His Mother
Mrs. B. F. Tisdale
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