07/20/2026
A Victorian Keepsake, Tucked Inside a Bible
While working through Sophie Britten's generous donation from Three Rivers, we may have uncovered one of the oldest artifacts in our entire archive: the family Bible of Elizabeth Newton Hickman Nichols, one of the earliest Western settlers of Fresno Flats.
Elizabeth traveled west with her parents, husband (Henry Hickman at that time), and siblings in the mid-1850s. She and her second husband Robert were among the first of four sisters to eventually settle here.
Tucked between its pages, we found something quietly poignant: four or five locks of hair, carefully preserved — some paired with pressed flowers and a bow. If that sounds unusual, it wasn't. Saving a lock of hair in the family Bible was common practice in the Victorian era. The Bible was already where families recorded births, marriages, and deaths — so it made sense as the safest place to keep these small, personal mementos too.
Two of the samples have us especially intrigued: One appears to contain two different colors of hair — one brown, one gray — bundled together with pressed flowers. Elizabeth's son Franky was the first person buried in Oakhurst's Oak Hill Cemetery, in 1874. Cemetery records show her father, William Newton, passed away just a year later, in 1875 — could this be a lock kept from both grandfather and grandson? The second is labeled with her sister Caroline's name and a date sometime in September 18xx?? Caroline didn't pass until 1910, long after Elizabeth, so this wasn't a mourning lock. Was it saved from a wedding? Elizabeth herself was married twice.
We're hoping Sophie Britten, who donated the Bible, can provide insight. It's so fun finding new clues about our own Little House on the Flats families. These were real people with their own real frontier stories. Have any insights that you can add? We love piecing together the small, personal details that bring Fresno Flats' pioneer families back to life. 💛
