Is Lizzie Borden Buried at Connecticut Valley Hospital(CVH)?
January 6, 2025 – By Jean
Not that Lizzie Borden
February 5, 2022/posted initially
This question came up recently; someone left a comment that Lizzie A. Borden, the Alleged Ax Murder, was buried at Connecticut Valley Hospital on the YouTube page for the paranormal group I’m involved with. Knowing that Lizzie A. Borden was from Massachusetts, I found this hard to believe.
I asked myself why Lizzie Borden would be buried here if she was from Massachusetts. Was Lizzie A. Borden’s body moved due to vandalism? Was CVH even in existence when she died, and was there a cemetery? Are we sure a Lizzie Borden is buried in the graveyard for CVH? If so, who is she? Where was she from, and why would she have been brought there? Can I get answers to all the questions I have? What is Connecticut Valley Hospital, and what is its history? Why would people be placed at Connecticut Valley Hospital?
The research began!
Some of these questions have been easy to answer, but others… well, we might never have answers. The State of Connecticut has restricted records for the patients, even though HIPPA wasn’t even in existence then, and Lizzie has been dead for over 100 years. Since this is the case, I could not physically see records from CVH because records are restricted; the Asst. State Archivist Allen Ramsey at CT State Library gave me as much information as possible. For that, I’m thankful. I also got help from Chris Shields at the Greenwich Historical Society and Judith Kudrah from the Middletown Health Dept. I’ve gone to all that I thought would be able to help and checked record after record, including historical maps. It might come down to never knowing Lizzie’s full story. Just because we might not have this information now doesn’t mean it won’t be available down the line, and I’ll possibly find out some other cool things in the meantime.
Is Lizzie A. Borden (Ax Murder) buried at Connecticut Valley Hospital Cemetery? Not this Lizzie Borden. The answer is NO! According to historical facts, Lizzie Borden, “Ax Murderer,” was born on the 19th of July 1860 in Fall River, Mass., and died on the 1st of June 1927 in Fall River, Mass., of pneumonia alone at home. Lizzie A. Borden was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River, Mass. So, she is not the Lizzie laid to rest at CVH. Don’t believe everything you see online!
Photo from Wikipedia
The name Borden can be linked to Richard (Joan) Borden, Kent County, England, through Boston to Portsmouth, RI. Lizzie A Borden is a descendant of Richard and Joan Borden. The Bordens Of Portsmouth eventually branched out and landed in Fall River, Mass., the eastern part of Connecticut and parts of New Jersey. I hoped to find the connection between Lizzie A. Borden Fall River and Lizzie of Connecticut, but much to my disappointment, I have not, not for lack of trying. Historical and Genealogical Record of the Descendants as Far as Known of Richard and Joan Borden, who Settled in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Ma, 1638: With Historical and Biographical Sketches of Some of Their Descendants Jan1899 H.B. Weld
Was Connecticut Valley Hospital in existence when Lizzie died? Yes! It is Connecticut’s oldest standing and running Mental Institution; the doors opened in 1868. Under the guidance of Dr. Abram M. Shrew, as the first Hospital of its kind in Connecticut. The name was Connecticut General Hospital. It has had several different incarnations throughout its existence, but its purpose has remained the same. Some older buildings placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 collapsed or were demolished due to dangerous conditions.
Was there a cemetery on CVH property? Well, of course, I already knew there was a cemetery at CVH. I’ve been a few times. The cemetery is located on Silvermine Rd in Middletown.
Connecticut Valley Hospital started to intern patients from its asylum, some criminally insane, in 1878 and continued this practice until 1957. Patients buried there were given only numbers due to the stigma around mentally disabled people. Numbered headstones were the only identifying features of the cemetery until as recent as the 1990s, when Rev. John Hall, Former minister of Middletown’s First Church of Christ, and the staff at CVH got permission from then-Attorney General Blumenthal for the names and information of the patients to be released. In 1999, Rev. John Hall started to read a hundred patient names each year for the next 17 years. There are 1686 numbered headstones; each represents a person (most) now identified. There is now a large memorial for these anonymous patients, but only a number. Not everyone who passed had a tragic death; it is more likely that their life was tragic.
Photo from Find a Grave
The reasons for death range from infants dying during birth or shortly after to fire victims, suicide victims, and some murderers. In that environment, how could there not be violence? It isn’t clear if patients were buried or cremated and then buried; from how the cemetery at CVH is laid out, the patients could very well have been cremated. Melancholy is the best way to describe being at the cemetery for the first time. The second time, it felt a bit happier, and their spirits remembered us from our first visit. I won’t go into much more detail on the paranormal side. I know some people still question it, but I won’t get into a debate on it. Many articles have been written on what folks have done to give reignition to the lost. Connecticut Valley Hospital Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
Photo from Newspapers.com Hartford Courant Dec. 24, 1919
Is there a Lizzie Borden buried in the cemetery at CVH? If so, who is she? Yes, there is a Lizzie Borden buried at CVH. A simple headstone with the number 476 lets us know where she is. Her cause of death was cancer of the uterus. She passed away at Connecticut Valley Hospital on the 7th of May 1909.
Photo taken by myself at CVH Cemetery.
Why would people be placed at Connecticut Valley Hospital? Many people of little means might have been placed in State Hospitals due to insufficient funds. Instead, they became wards of the State. Historically, men and women would be admitted to Insane Asylums for the most INSANE reasons. Pun intended! The list from West Virginia Hospital for the Insane will give you some reasons for commitment.
Photo from Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
The story of Elizabeth Packard gives an example of why a woman would be admitted to an Asylum. The treatment of the patients, whether Insane or not, was atrocious. Nellie Bly experienced these atrocities firsthand in 1887 when she went undercover as an inmate at Bellevue Hospital on Blackwell’s Island, which today is Roosevelt Island in New York. Nellie’s book Ten Days In A Mad House details life for patients at any State Asylum in this country in the late 19th and early 20th Century.
Lizzie Borden was born in 1851 in Ireland; a lack of identifying information about her birth was on the death certificate. At her death, the following information was given: Widow, her place of birth was listed as Ireland, her parents were listed as being from Ireland, and her occupation was listed as Domestic. Unfortunately, no names of family members were filled in on the death certificate.
Where was she from, and why was she brought here? The death certificate for Lizzie states that she lived in Greenwich, CT. The Asst. An archivist from the CT State Library said, “Lizzie’s admission date to CVH was the 6th of September 1904.” He also stated, “The hospital authorities typically relied on the patient to provide this information, and Lizzie’s memory, according to the file, was not very good. She was committed by a Selectman of Greenwich and not by any family members.” The first selectman was Silas D. Ritch, who served from 1904 to 1909. This likely means she was a ward of the Town of Greenwich and living in the Town of Poor Farm.
Lizzie’s Death Certificate, Middletown Town Clerk
With the above statements from the Asst. Archivist of the State, can we trust what was given on the death certificate? Could this be Lizzie? I have taken a great deal of time and resources looking for Lizzie. She has made it extremely difficult to find her. Although I have found one more tidbit on Lizzie, I can’t prove with 100% that it is indeed her. I will share what I have found and why I genuinely think this is her. A census record 1870 gives the name Irish Lizzie; she’s about 20 years old, and both parents are foreigners. She can not read or write. She also works as a domestic and for a family that was one of the original families of Greenwich and was well-off. The Mead family was well-established in Greenwich and lived in the same area as the Town Farm(Poor House). Could it be that Lizzie couldn’t speak proper English, was challenging to understand with a thick Irish accent, and was dubbed Irish Lizzie? Could she have taken Borden as her name, as some enslaved would? Could Borden have been her given name? Could she have been in a relationship with someone named Borden, and she was never married? All are possibilities. It seems that I have exhausted my search for dear Lizzie. Maybe she doesn’t want her complete story told.
1870 Census Record Town of Greenwich, CT. From Ancestry.com
Looking at the collective information on Lizzie, I see that she could very well be Irish, but again, due to lack of evidence, I can’t say with all certainty that it is her. Lizzie is giving more questions than answers. She has been the most difficult person to find information on, and I have so much and, again, so little.
I hope that the lost are at peace with their identity known, and as for the few that remain unnamed, I hope someday they won’t be lost any longer. If any more information comes my way, I will update this post.
Thank you to the kind person who visited Lizzie and left her the coin. I went again today, 1/29/24, to see her after going this past summer.
Photo taken by myself