Deaths in the Borden House

For most visitors to the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast house museum, the interest is in two deaths primarily- Abby and Andrew Borden. Psychics who perform seances in nearly every room in the house have picked up various presences and often ask about other possible deaths in the house over the years. Considering the era, and the general occurrence of being born, dying, and being waked in one’s home, the probability of other people dying a natural death in the Borden house is high. After the Borden sisters moved out in September of 1893, the house returned to a two-family rental for a time and then in 1918 was sold by Lizzie and Emma and changed hands and families over the years as a single family home.

Built in 1845 by Southard Miller for woolen mill carding room supervisor, Charles Trafton, the house was built on land once owned by Lizzie’s great uncle Lawdwick (or Lodowick) Borden.  In the 1850 census Charles Trafton is 45 and living with his wife Hannah whom he married in 1850, aged 32, and Rhoda White, his mother-in-law, aged 50. 

Hannah Trafton died a tragic death from tuberculosis, which at the time was called consumption, a disease which affected young to middle aged adults primarily. Her date of death was January 11, 1851 so the married couple had not lived long together at the house on Second Street. They had lost an infant son during the short time they were married.  The death certificate below states Hannah was born in Freeport but several other official records indicate she was born in Westport, the daughter of Nicholas and Rhoda White.  She had one brother, George Borden White. 

Identifying and understanding the contagious nature of the tuberculosis bacillus, the building of sanitoria, and medications for the disease came several decades after Hannah Trafton’s death.  The disease, sometimes called “wasting away” disease caused prolonged coughing, spitting up of blood, and a gradual heartrending decline of the affected victim.  The quality of the air and water were suspected causes and the treatment consisted of fresh air and making the victim as comfortable as possible as they grew ever weaker and paler. In 1851 Fall River, it is probable that Hannah Trafton did die in her bed on Second Street.  The Traftons inhabited the first floor of the two-family home, and what is now the dining room would have been in 1851, two small bedrooms. It is also probable that their infant son Charles Jr. died at the house.

The words “Town Lot” on the death certificate refer to the Old North burial ground on North Main at the corner of Brightman, the city lot before Oak Grove Cemetery opened in 1855.

Charles Trafton remarried on Christmas Eve 1866, his second wife very much younger, as was Hannah.  They moved to Somerset where Charles died on Feb. 23, 1878.  Susan remarried Frank DeCaro, an Italian barber. Frank returned to Italy after her death in 1898. As was the frequently- seen custom, Charles is buried between his two wives.

Although not as horrific as the murders of the two Bordens, Hannah Trafton’s sad demise and that of her child is tragic.  How many other deaths at #92 can only be imagined. The dining room, which saw the funeral preparation of Abby and Andrew’s bodies, the removal of Mrs. Borden’s stomach, and was the bedroom for owner, Mrs. Josephine McGinn in her final days, was a place which had witnessed much sadness and horror.  There should be enough hauntings for almost any psychic.