Lizzie Borden Gold Watch
Today’s Tiny Tuesday once belonged to one of Fall River’s famous residents: Lizzie Andrew Borden (1860-1827)!
The safety barrel watch was made by the American Waltham Watch Company in 1891, and is in a hand-engraved Hunter-case of 14K gold. The original slide chain (not pictured) is also 14K gold.
Lizzie left the watch to Alice Isabel Soderman (1900-1945), the only child of one of her members of staff. Lizzie took a keen interest in Alice, who she had known since the girl was born. When Lizzie died in June 1927, she bequeathed Alice “the sum of two thousand dollars, also my jeweled watch and chain.” Alice Isabel Soderman would go on to become an architect, her education funded by Lizzie. The watch descended in the family until it was donated to the Fall River Historical Society.