Alice Jane Liffiton (1879 - 1859)
Born in Canada, she and her husband moved with their family to Cleveland, Ohio in 1920. She raised four children and her grandson.
Details:
Born Alice Jane Downey on 5 October, 1879, she was one of at least three children raised by Michael and Julia (Demaray) Downey in Quebec. Alice's father was born in Ireland, and her mother was born in Quebec. Her father reportedly operated a freight company, but in 1901 was working with the railroad in Cowansville, Quebec.
Alice married William Henry Liffiton of Montreal on 4 September, 1898, in Cowansville. William also worked for the railroad and eventually was a labor official in the Brotherhood of Firemen and Locomotive Engineers (BFLE).
Alice and William raised a family of two girls and four boys: Lincoln Stanley, William Edward, Ilene Jesse, Dorothy Alice, Jack Kenneth, and Charles Downey Liffiton. In the LFH photo section you will find a photograph of Alice and family taken about 1913.
In 1920 the family immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, where they lived in the suburb of Lakewood. A tragedy in Alice's life took place there in 1931 when her son, Charles Downey Liffiton, died in a car accident at the age of twenty-one. Around the same time, Alice and her husband began raising their eight year-old grandson, William Thomas Liffiton, after the divorce of his parents,William Edward and Jean Liffiton.
Alice's husband died in 1946, and Alice died in a nursing home on 1 June, 1959. Alice and William are buried in Lakewood Park Cemetery in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
Revised 10/5/2010
