To Celebrate Addie’s 140th Birthday…
In honor of Addie’s 140th birthday (January 22), I’m asking that the readers of this blog make a donation to PADA of Jefferson County, an advocacy group for victims of domestic abuse. There’s a Paypal button on the PADA website, which makes donating a few dollars simple and fast. Any amount would be appreciated, even if it’s just a couple dollars.
Addie's 140th birthday is January 22nd. To honor her memory, please make a donation to PADA.
Perhaps if there’d been a resource like PADA in 1901, Addie would have lived to be an old woman. Maybe she would have accomplished great things with her life, and had a chance to leave her mark on the world. Maybe - just maybe - she would have championed Women’s Rights, or even used her inheritance from Enoch to start a shelter for abused women in Lake Mills.
But Addie did not survive her marriage to Enoch. By the age of 29, she was dead, allegedly murdered by her own husband.
Women’s lives are most at risk when they’re attempting to leave their husband or romantic partner. Many years ago, one of my dear friends was escorting a woman friend to her car after work. This woman had recently left her abusive husband after years of trying to get away. They had just stepped out into the parking lot, when the enraged “soon-to-be-ex” showed up, and quickly pulled a gun from his jacket pocket and shot his wife in the face, killing her instantly.
I wonder if Addie was attempting to leave the Fargo Mansion that summer’s night in June 1901, when things got out of hand. I wonder if Enoch was tired of her involvement with the D.A.R., or maybe he was tired of her many out-of-town trips. I wish I knew. And I won’t stop searching until I find out what happened to Addie that night - good or bad.
From time to time, anonymous writers tell me that there’s no way someone as powerful and rich and prominent as Enoch would have slapped or struck his sweet young wife. I say those people are misinformed. That’s one factor. And here’s another: It was a different world in 1901.
One hundred years ago, if a woman “got out of line,” it was her husband’s prerogative - perhaps even his duty - to smack her around a little bit. Women were considered to be emotionally on par with children, and it was up to the man to “keep her in line.”
Addie’s life ended when she was 29, and her husband’s alleged involvement in her murder, and the falsification of her death certificate were not investigated at the time of her death. Sadly, justice came a little late for Addie, but fortunately, Addie is no longer in the shallow grave where Enoch placed her 110 years ago. To read more about the exhumation and autopsy, click here.
There’s a lot more evidence that makes it clear, Addie did not die of diphtheria. To read more about that, click here.
Join me - this week - in honoring Addie’s memory by making a donation in her name to PADA.
Addie and I thank you.
Addie in 1896 (left) and 1901 (right), after five years of marriage to Enoch. Note the swollen lip, misaligned philtrum (indent under the nose) and puffy eye. Life with Enoch was not easy.
*
Based on what we know now, diphtheria could not have been Addie's cause of death. The question is, what did happen to Addie, that those present at her death felt they must cover up the truth with this lie of diphtheria?
*
My great-grandmother (Anna Hoyt Whitmore) was 44 in this photo. Anna (left) and Addie (right) were sisters. Addie was 29 in this photo. I've posted this photo to show what Addie might have looked like as she aged. Anna Hoyt Whitmore (left) lived to be 99 years old.
*
Addie was a beautiful young woman.
*
Addie Hoyt in her bedroom, shortly after her marriage to Enoch.
*
Addie sitting in front of the house in Lake Mills, WI. Enoch is at the top, with Addie below him. Enoch's two daughters are Elsie (top right) and Mattie (lower right). Elsie (1876-1959) married a McCammon. Mattie (1883-1956) became Mattie Fargo Raber. It was Elsie that told her daughter (Mary Wilson) that Enoch killed Addie.
*
Addie Hoyt, all dressed up for travel, and ready to go.
*
Addie was a snappy dresser.
To learn more about Addie, click here.
* * *
It’s been said elsewhere on the internet that the fact that Addie was visiting another town in the week or so before her death proves she could not have been an abused wife. The “logic” was she obviously had opportunity to run. I disagree.
As Rose has said, it was socially acceptable to keep your wife in line through physical means at that time. Women were supposed to accept it and there were no support groups to help them if they left, at the time of marriage their money became the husbands’. I’m sure family could put social pressure on the husband treat his wife better, this could well be the reason the photo album was sent by Addie to her brother in law and not her sister.
Good grief, even today women hold jobs, and have numerous groups waiting to help them if they need to leave an abuser, and they go back day after day. So you have to wonder if Addie did indeed stand up to Enoch that night, what happened to make her do so against all the standards of the time.
Rose this is a wonderful suggestion to help women who are abused today. It is a shame that it wasn’t around in Addie’s time. You may have had more relatives today.
Addie Hoyt Fargo’s death has indeed raised more questions than answers. There has been *NO* historic proof or documentation that she died of diphtheria as stated on her falsified death certificate. The photographs, and stories passed down by those who knew what happened all say that Addie’s life was taken at the hands of an abusive spouse. Addie slipped through the cracks like so many women and children of her time did and sadly so many of them will never have the voice that Addie now has.
A few folks have questioned the reasoning behind investigating a death that happened so long ago. There are many reasons, family history is an amazing gift our ancestors leave for us to learn from. Whatever the reason may be, the most important outcome is this, Addie’s story has reached many, many people. And if her life story helps even one woman~or man~ get out of an abusive relationship safely all of the efforts made are well worth it.
Addie’s exact cause of death my never be known, but we all know she did not die peacefully of old age in her sleep as she should have, (or of diphtheria). Thanks to Addie bravely sending off the photo album, and to Rose for braving the harsh words of a few people, someone may have the courage to get help and live another day.
Happy 140th Birthday Addie!