Second in a two-part series
Eva Burton Leaf was born on Nov. 27, 1880 to Lucy and Columbus “Lum” Burton. At some point in time, Eva’s daughter Elizabeth Leaf, born June 14, 1913, wrote a short unpublished history of Eva’s life that speaks to cultural changes that have occurred from then until now in Rivah country.
In last month’s column it ended with “But somehow in the magic of the summerhouse (on the Burton House lawn) Eva and Mr. Leaf developed an inconceivable attachment.
“They were poles apart in background and personality. He was from a family of intellectuals, and the only books Eva had opened were the Bible and the Methodist hymnal. Music saturated her soul – he was tone deaf. He was no doubt attached to her warmth and jovial acceptance of life – soothing for a young man with blasted hopes of an Army career. She must have been attracted to his Barrymore profile or intrigued by his clipped accent, and his physical disability could have touched a tender cord, since she wanted to be a nurse, but her parents had refused to permit such a career, considering it improper for a young lady.
“And so they left together on the steamer (from Urbanna Creek) and were married in the Baltimore home of her sister Alma by Alma’s husband Rev. Francis Scott. As Eva’s husband he was accepted by the Burtons but no one ever called him by his first name.
“They purchased (cottage) property up the creek accessible only by water, and every day he reached his office at the Southside Marine (a company he founded) by motor boat while Eva cheerfully rowed a skiff to spend the day with her family (in Urbanna). It must have been a halcyon time for over three years – until the day Eva stopped by to see Dr. Percy Jones, a family friend who had just started his practice. After checking on certain symptoms she had reluctantly divulged, he informed her she was pregnant and to stop jumping into the skiff.
“Gone the idyllic cottage in the woods and back to the cottage at Burton House where late one June night Dr. Jones, assisted by a knowledgeable black midwife (Aunt Hettie), laboriously pulled a breach-birth baby girl into the world as Aunt Hettie was holding an oil lamp to illuminate the procedure. She was named Elizabeth Ann.
Charles Burton (Leaf) arrived (at home) about two years later (on April 11, 1915), a skinny little fellow, causing no trouble at all and not even waiting for the doctor’s arrival.”
Eva died in 1964 at the age of 84 of cerebral hemorrhage in her home where Elizabeth and Burton grew-up next to what is today the Urbanna Museum and Visitor’s Center.
It happened right here in Rivah country!
