Dianna Elgin
Born: c. 1881
Died: c. 1920
Married: Arthur G. Elgin, a pharmacist
Children: four boys
Dianna Carpenter Elgin, known also as Anna, came to Saranac Lake in 1919 at age 38 for the TB cure. She returned to her home in Poolesville, MD, and a sleeping porch was apparently added on to the house for her to convalesce. She died at home in late 1920, leaving behind four young boys. She was buried in Monocacy Cemetery in Beallsville, Maryland. Her TB Society card dated November 7, 1919 lists her as staying on Shepard Avenue.
Her granddaughter, Mary Elgin Conlon, has a letter that Dianna wrote to two of her sons. She visited and provided the information in August of 2014. There is a T.B. Society white card for Diana on file in the Adirondack Room at the Saranac Lake Free Library.
Note from Mary Elgin Conlon, 2022
On my return to Maryland, I found evidence that my grandmother died at home in Poolesville. I have lived most of my life in Poolesville, so remember the house well. At some point in time, and I am guessing in 1919, a porch room was added to the upstairs, over the front porch. An elderly friend recently told me that she remembered that the room was added to the house for my grandmother when she returned from New York. The other bedrooms that housed the four young boys were on the second floor. I am guessing that Grandmother was housed in the porch room to give her a similar environment to the cure cottages. The room had lots of windows and faced out onto the street. It also separated her from the boys to keep the infection from spreading. That room has since been removed from the house. Dianna was buried at Monocacy Cemetery in nearby Beallsville, Maryland in late 1920.
I am continuing my research journey. At one point, I found a letter from my great-grandmother, Rachael, to my grandmother. Rachael described her life in Washington, DC, near the end of her life. She described her own illness of lethargy and cough, sounding like she had tuberculosis. She was treated by a doctor who was in the family, but had no relief. Rachael came to Poolesville in the last stage of her life. It made me wonder if that was how my grandmother contracted tuberculosis. None of the other household members seemed to have gotten it.
- Comments