Lizzie Brown Photos

Just had to share some photos of Lizzie Brown:

Lizzie Brown, aged 17

"I had an unusually heavy suit of hair and no one had ever combed it but Maria when I was home."

A note written by Mamie: "Mama in a red cloth jacket embroidered in white, white shirred shirtwaist, jacket had a fan tail in back, $5 to Mrs. Jones for embroidering it. Taken at Harrisonville while at home on vacation from school in Independence."

With Aunt Aggie and John Glascosk. My dress is shirred on the shoulders, the style called "The Southern Girl." 1865

A First Time for Old Times

Hello....really old friend. Life has been a little busy the last few months.

The last photo blog I did showed pictures of our garden starts. All of those are huge plants now in white pots...except for the slow cilantro. The squash and beans have blossoms, the basil is huge, the raspberries have already fruited, there are two baby cucumbers, and we've picked three vine-ripened Roma tomatoes off our plants already.

We finished putting up concrete blocks for three raised bed gardens, filled them with wood chips, and have since three days ago planted tomatoes, basil, cucumber, watermelon and squash. Our raspberries and sweet potatoes have been in the ground near our beds for a week now.

Basil and Tomato plants

Watermelon

So exciting! After we put the plants in, we could just hear them going, "Ahhhh! Thank you!" Many of them were not producing fruit, leaves were turning odd colors and dying because of the lack of nitrogen in the soil they had already used up.

I am Lizzie Brown. 

One day an email popped into my mailbox, and my name was listed as a reenactor. Somehow, I got pulled into reading a letter this young lady wrote to her cousins about the raiding and battle of Harrisonville. After reading through the information on Lizzie that Mrs. Bohl gave me, I realized there was too much good stuff to pass up NOT telling. So, using Lizzie's very own words she wrote from a long reminiscences later in life, I managed to write up 12 minutes worth, memorize almost all of it, and gave my very first first-person impression ever this Saturday. 

Taking a rest in the woods

I feel like I am Lizzie Brown...so much in common. Loves playing piano, but the outdoors call her name. Loves spelling. Hates wearing ridiculous high fashion clothing, and would rather run in the wind. Doesn't like evil, murderous men (Kansas Redlegs) but still shows kindness & a loving attitude to them because that is the Christ-like thing to do. Confident in God for her nation's status, because He will judge all deeds in the body on the Day of Judgment. Keeps bees and makes everything by hand.

Blessings: a garden, a fun hobby, and Jesus Christ!

Finally got my corset a month or so ago...love it! The steel boning does not bend like the plastic did, and keeps my back feeling very good. Gives me the right lines for the period but now my bodice doesn't fit so well in the waist. The one thing I'm stuck on is Gram's sewing machine: all the bobbins and foots are gone along with the instruction manual. I've got muslin to learn to make petticoats with but if only the sewing machine had parts. Oy. At least out at Mo-Town I can borrow two pettis and look the width I want. 

Even though I don't look as period correct as I yearn to be, I'm making tiny baby-steps. Just yesterday when doing my hair for the impression, I was trying to figure out how to hide my growing-out bangs ends even better...and figured out how to do under-rolling! Ladies did this in the 1850's for side width and usually pinned a hair rat underneath for more poof.

In Christ, Kendle

"For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:11-12