Old Grudges!

Old Grudges

 

Dr. Amy Helen Bell:

My aunt told me this story when I was a child and I finally tracked down the original headstone at the Lake George United Church near Harvey Station NB. In 1915 a young girl named Trixie Hoyt had a suitor who got her pregnant, and she went to St Stephen to her aunt’s house to have the baby. Her parents did not like the young man, and had his letters to her sent back, and hers to him intercepted. The girl died in childbirth, not knowing the young man had written, and her parents brought her body home to be buried. Her headstone is the largest in the Churchyard, and reads: “In this cold Grave I lie, I was too young to die. Young friends, I was not to blame- to destroy my life it was his aim. Here is my deceiver’s Name: XXXXXX. We know that God is just and true, and will give this bold wretch his due.” The young man tried to come to the funeral, and apparently the mother denounced him as a murderer in the church. A few years later he wanted to marry, and came to the churchyard in the dead of night to chisel out his name. The baby lived, called “Dolorous Odell” by his grandparents, and was raised by them.
How many old grudges are set in stone this way? Strange to think the two families probably lived within a mile of each other their whole lives.