Mays Family Tree - Person Sheet
NameElizabeth “Lizzie” Sewell ALCOTT 
5374
5374Birth Date24 Jun 1835
Birth PlaceBoston, Suffolk Co., MA, USA
Death Date14 Mar 1858315 Age: 22
Death PlaceConcord, Middlesex Co., MA, USA
Burial PlaceSleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Middlesex Co., MA, USA315
FatherAmos “Bronson” ALCOTT (1799-1888)
MotherAbby MAY (1800-1877)
Misc. Notes
Originally named Elizabeth Peabody Alcott in honor of the teaching assistant at her father’s Temple School. By age three, however, her mother changed her name to Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, after her own mother.
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Elizabeth is the real-life model for the fictional character Beth March in Little Women., a novel written by her sister Lousia May Alcott.
In her semi-autobiographical novel, Little Women (1868), Louisa May Alcott represented her sister as Elizabeth. She wrote: Elizabeth - or Beth as everyone called her - was a rosy, smooth-haired, bright-eyed girl, with a shy manner, a timid voice, and a peaceful expression, which was seldom disturbed. Her father called her ‘Little Tranquillity’ and the name suited her perfectly for she seemed to live in a happy world of her own, only venturing out to meet the few whom she trusted.
Her father Bronson was on a tour of the western United States and had reached as far as Cincinnati when he heard of Lizzie had taken a turn for the worst. By February 1858, she refused to take medicine and told her father, "I can best be spared of the four.”
On March 14, 1858, Louisa wrote in her journal: My dear Beth died at three in the morning after two years of patient pain. Last week she put her work away, saying the needle was too heavy... Saturday she slept, and at midnight became unconscious, quietly breathing her life away till three; then, with one last look of her beautiful eyes, she was gone.
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, Henry David Thoreau, and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn serving as pallbearers.5382
____________
Known as "Lizzie" to her family, she was the model for the character "Beth" in the book "Little Women," penned by her sister, Louisa May Alcoot. Described as quiet, gentle, and someone who took pleasure in helping her family and friends, in 1856 she contracted scarlet fever from a poor German family that her mother was caring for, but revived. However, the fever permanently weakened her, and she passed away from a "wasting illness" two years later.315
____________
Elizabeth is the real-life model for the fictional character Beth March in Little Women., a novel written by her sister Lousia May Alcott.
In her semi-autobiographical novel, Little Women (1868), Louisa May Alcott represented her sister as Elizabeth. She wrote: Elizabeth - or Beth as everyone called her - was a rosy, smooth-haired, bright-eyed girl, with a shy manner, a timid voice, and a peaceful expression, which was seldom disturbed. Her father called her ‘Little Tranquillity’ and the name suited her perfectly for she seemed to live in a happy world of her own, only venturing out to meet the few whom she trusted.
Her father Bronson was on a tour of the western United States and had reached as far as Cincinnati when he heard of Lizzie had taken a turn for the worst. By February 1858, she refused to take medicine and told her father, "I can best be spared of the four.”
On March 14, 1858, Louisa wrote in her journal: My dear Beth died at three in the morning after two years of patient pain. Last week she put her work away, saying the needle was too heavy... Saturday she slept, and at midnight became unconscious, quietly breathing her life away till three; then, with one last look of her beautiful eyes, she was gone.
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, Henry David Thoreau, and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn serving as pallbearers.5382
____________
Known as "Lizzie" to her family, she was the model for the character "Beth" in the book "Little Women," penned by her sister, Louisa May Alcoot. Described as quiet, gentle, and someone who took pleasure in helping her family and friends, in 1856 she contracted scarlet fever from a poor German family that her mother was caring for, but revived. However, the fever permanently weakened her, and she passed away from a "wasting illness" two years later.315