Who is this lady?

[RJNorton]

Yes, Laurie! Kudos. And I thought for sure this one would need some clues.

[Gene C]

(01-22-2018 10:48 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Hopefully this will be a challenge --> who is this lady?

She must have had a great personality

(C'mon you were thinking it too.)

[L Verge]

(01-22-2018 12:19 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Yes, Laurie! Kudos. And I thought for sure this one would need some clues.

The previous questions had been about the Sewards, and Linda Anderson of this forum is an expert on them and with Olive Risely and her role in the widowed Seward's life. I remembered that face and hair-do.

[Gene C]

I was a bit disappointed in Walter Stahr's book about Seward, when it comes to the role Olive played in his life.

In the last few years of his life she was a very important person to him, but I felt that Stahr treats that relationship very lightly. You get a few facts, but not much that examines the depth of that relationship.

[RJNorton]

Here is a statue of Olive Risley Seward:

From Wikipedia:

"In 1971, sculptor John Cavanaugh chose to create a statue honoring her rather than her accomplished father. A picture of her was not found at the time, so Cavanaugh sculpted his idea of an idealized Victorian lady instead. The statue stands in front of a private residence on North Carolina Avenue and Sixth Street, SE in Washington, D.C.. The subject's head is turned to the left as if gazing toward the nearby Seward Square, named for her adoptive father."

[L Verge]

I think the question has always been whether Olive was served as a "daughter" after Fanny Seward's death or as a "companion"...

[RJNorton]

What lady whom we have discussed on the forum has this inscription on her tombstone:

"She will not return to us but we will go to her."

[L Verge]

In my search, I found that epitaph done in the first person singular, "She will not return to me, but I will go to her," but not as posted here. I will take a guess at Elizabeth Edwards?

It sort of reminded me of the epitaphs on the single spire that marks the graves of my great-grandparents. On one side is "Come Wife, Come," inscribed when Joseph Eli Huntt died in 1897. On the other side is "Husband, I Come," inscribed then or when wife Laura died in 1914.

That said, I did find some photos of gravestones with really funny (and some filthy) epitaphs:

DAMN, IT'S DARK DOWN HERE!

Here Lies
An Atheist
All Dressed Up
And No Place
To Go

LOVING FATHER
___________
OCCASIONAL HUSBAND

JOKE'S OVER,
LET
ME
OUT
NOW

Here Lies
Scotty Fife
For Foolin' Around
With the Marshal's Wife

[Susan Higginbotham]

(01-28-2018 09:36 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  What lady whom we have discussed on the forum has this inscription on her tombstone:

"She will not return to us but we will go to her."

Matilda Edwards Strong?

[RJNorton]

Excellent, Susan! You are correct. Laurie, thanks for such an interesting answer.

The inscription in the question is what Newton Strong asked to be engraved on his wife's tombstone.

John S. Richards, the editor of the Berks and Schuylkill Journal, saddened with the sudden death of 29-year-old Matilda, wrote a notable tribute to her:

"The sudden death of this most esteemed lady has awakened an unusual degree of sorrow in the circle of her friends. Her gentle temper, her conciliatory manners, and the sweetness of her heart made her dear to all who knew her. The memory of such as she cannot perish and it will be long ere her many friends shall cease to think of her virtues and grieve for her early death."

[Susan Higginbotham]

She has a very nice tombstone:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3147...lda-strong

[RJNorton]

Who is this lady?

[Steve]

Clara Harris

[RJNorton]

Steve, you are certainly on the right track, but it's not Clara Harris.

[Steve]

I still think it looks like the Brady portrait of Clara Harris Rathbone. But if it's not, and Clara not being an identical twin, the only guess I can come up with is her daughter, Clara Rathbone Randolph. I haven't seen any adult pictures of the daughter Clara, so I don't even know if they looked alike.