Posted on 05/10/2017 11:43:17 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The mysterious little girl holding a single flower, found buried in a casket underneath a San Francisco home — captivating the Bay Area’s curiosity — has been identified.
Edith Howard Cook, the second born child and first born daughter of Horatio Nelson and Edith Scooffy Cook, died Oct. 13, 1876, at the age of 2 years, 10 months and 15 days, according to nonprofit Garden of Innocence, which spent a year trying to identify her. The girl was buried in the family plot in the Yerba Buena section of the Odd Fellows Cemetery two days after she died. That year, Ulysses S. Grant was president and San Franciscans had their first opportunity to ride the Transcontinental Express to New York in under four days.
“We’re really excited. They did a lot of crazy work to find out who she was,” said Garden of Innocence volunteer Erica Hernandez, whose organization released a detailed nine-page report Tuesday. “All the information that should’ve been kept by the cemetery wasn’t kept.”
The girl had been given the name “Miranda Eve” last year shortly after a family found her in her airtight metal casket in the Lone Mountain neighborhood of San Francisco during a remodeling project. The casket contained a leaded glass window through which they could see a 2-to-3-year-old girl holding the flower. The resident turned the ornate casket over to the Garden of Innocence, a charity that buries unclaimed children, to handle the girl’s affairs.
Funeral home records show Edith died from marasmus, or severe undernourishment. It’s not clear what caused the illness, but in late 1800s urban living could have led to an infectious disease, the nonprofit said.
Information released Tuesday reveals that Edith was born into two prominent families in the world of commerce and society.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
I’ve been there twice I think. Took a lot of pictures. I have a flickr.com account, I should actually use it.
I had a great SF history teacher when I went to CSM, I think his name is spelled Svanevik. Flaming homo but a good guy, never put his hand down my pants.
He said flat out that many dead bodies weren't "missed" per se but were left ON PURPOSE by unscrupulous companies contracted to move the bodies.
Michael Svanevik was my history teacher too!
Fun Fact: He used to have hot tub parties with his male students until he was told to stop doing that.
I studied in his classes at Skyline College back around 1971 (shows my age as well as his but he was older). He taught in the San Mateo County region campuses, I guess Skyline, CSM and maybe Canada campus. He was quite the expert back then on western USA and Mexican history, especially California. Through the decades I've seen his name pop up as an expert and go-to guy. His lectures back then were fantastic and he explored history theories I hadn't heard elsewhere. I sometimes had discussions with him while we walked on the campus. Never showed me any parties, though. Great guy.
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