Mary Elizabeth Tillotson copied a poem in 1916 which was entitled either "Lament of a Little Girl" or a "Little Girl's Plaint" depending on where you find it. I could not discover a specific author although I'm certain that there must have been one!
Let's see if I can make this simple. My great-grandmother was Ella Jane Stevens, but she was born Julia Eldora Welch. She was the birth daughter of Mary Elizabeth Richardson and Evi Welch and was born in Topsham, VT where her father died when she was an infant. Her mother later married Martin Dexter and they had several more children. David and Rosina Jane (Richardson) Stevens, her aunt and uncle had no children and when Julia was 5 (about a week shy of her 6th birthday) she was adopted by them. Martin and Mary Elizabeth (Richardson) Dexter had a daughter they named Bertha Dexter and Bertha was about three months old when Julia was adopted by the Stevens family. Mary Elizabeth, Bertha and Julia Eldora (Ella Jane)'s mother, died when Bertha was about 12 years old. When Bertha grew up she married Sylvester Tillotson and they had five children. The youngest child was Mary Elizabeth Tillotson who I assume was named for Bertha's mother, Mary Elizabeth Richardson Welch Dexter. As adults, Bertha and Ella Jane (formerly Julia) began corresponding and continued exchanging letters until their deaths, eight days apart in July of 1925.
I imagine that this cute little poem was copied by Mary Elizabeth either purposely to be sent to Ella Jane, or as a school lesson -- nice cursive at 8 years old -- and shared with her distant aunt. Bertha was always very proud of her children's accomplishments, as was Ella Jane. Mary Elizabeth Tillotson - who apparently married someone by the name of Bean that I haven't tracked down yet -- lived to be 83 years old. Should any of her children or grandchildren wander across this blog, I hope they will enjoy this small look into her childhood.
