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Elizabeth Sewall Alcott (June 24, 1835 – March 14, 1858) was one of the two younger sisters of
In her semi-autobiographical novel, ''Little Women'' (1868), Louisa May Alcott represented her sister as Beth. She wrote:
In 1856, Lizzie contracted
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Good Wives'' (1869), ''Little Men'' (1871), and ''Jo's Boys'' ...
. She was born in 1835 and died at the age of 22 from scarlet fever
Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...
.
Biography
She was originally named Elizabeth ''Peabody'' Alcott in honor of her father Bronson'steaching assistant
A teaching assistant (TA) or education assistant (EA) is an individual who assists a professor or teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate students; ''undergraduate teach ...
at the Temple School and close friend of her mother, Abba
ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...
. By age three, however, after a falling out between Bronson and Elizabeth Peabody, her name was changed to Elizabeth ''Sewall'' Alcott, after her mother's mother, Dorothy Sewall May.
In her semi-autobiographical novel, ''Little Women'' (1868), Louisa May Alcott represented her sister as Beth. She wrote:
In 1856, Lizzie contracted scarlet fever
Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...
while helping a poor German family. Although she recovered, she was permanently weakened. Her father Bronson was on a tour of the Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau.
As American settlement i ...
and had reached as far as Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
when he heard that Lizzie, known to be ill, had taken a turn for the worse. By February 1858, she refused to take medicine and told her father, "I can best be spared of the four." As time went by, she grew weaker and thinner. On March 14, 1858, Lizzie Alcott died three hours after slipping into a coma. She was only 22 years old, about 3 months short of her 23rd birthday. On the same day, Louisa wrote in her journal
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...
:
At the moment of her death, Louisa, her mother, and the doctor saw a ghost-like mist rising from Lizzie's body. Her funeral was a small affair, with Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...
, Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon sim ...
and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn (December 15, 1831 – February 24, 1917) was an American journalist, teacher, author, reformer, and Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist. Sanborn was a social scientist and memorialist of American transcend ...
serving as pallbearer
A pallbearer is one of several participants who help carry the casket at a funeral. They may wear white gloves in order to prevent damaging the casket and to show respect to the deceased person.
Some traditions distinguish between the roles o ...
s.Matteson, John. ''Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007: 236. Lizzie was interred at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York, is the cemetery, final resting place of numerous famous figures, including Washington Irving, whose 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is set in the adjacent burying ground of the ...
.
References
LaPlante, Eve. ''Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012: 81. {{DEFAULTSORT:Alcott, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott family 1835 births 1858 deaths People from Concord, Massachusetts Deaths from streptococcus infection Sewall family Quincy family May family Burials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)