“She suddenly ordered that the child be taken from the house.”

It sounds almost biblical, but it was only a little more than a century ago that a Long Island mother cast away her three-year-old daughter, the result of some mysterious, multi-generation wound. The story from the August 12, 1903 New York Times (scroll down to second item):

“Mrs. Egbert V. Strong of Babylon, L.I., repented before her death last April that she had cast out her only daughter at the age of 3 years and refused thereafter to have anything to do with her. This was learned yesterday when it became known that Mrs. Strong had left her entire estate, valued at $100,000, to her daughter, Miss Marion Goodale Strong. She is living with Mr. and Mrs. George E. Congdon of Trumansburg, Tompkins County, N.Y. She is 24 years old.

According to residents of Babylon, Mrs. Strong was fond of her daughter until the little girl was 3 years old. Then she suddenly ordered that the child be taken from the house, and she never willingly saw her again. She did see her once, three years later, when Mr. Strong, in an attempt to bring about a reconciliation, induced his wife to visit relatives, not knowing that her daughter was at the same house. Mrs. Strong liked the child until she learned it was her own. Then she left the house and ordered that her daughter’s named should never be mentioned in her presence. It was shortly after that that Marion was sent to live with relatives at Trumansburg, N.Y.

Although Mr. Strong has always been on the friendliest terms with his daughter, his wife’s peculiar dislike never seemed to affect his respect for Mrs. Strong, and they lived happily in Babylon together.

It is said that Mrs. Strong’s mother, Mrs. Goodale of Peconic, L.I., felt similarly toward her daughter for many years, but that there was a final reconciliation.”