About Lizzie Lancaster

Elizabeth Lancaster was born at the end of April 1862, likely conceived very soon after William and Maggie were married. Maggie decided to call her "Lizzie" as a baby, and she is referred to that way in the letters. Lizzie would end up being the only child of William and Maggie's union. Lizzie would be only 3 when William was killed.

She grew up with her mother and stepfather, Theodore L. Marshall, in the Kansas area. In her late teens she began teaching 1st grade.

She married Samuel Denman ("Dennis") McGinley on September 21, 1887. They immediately moved to Allison, Kansas where he ran a dry goods store. They moved a number of times, finally settling in San Antonio, Texas. They had one daughter, Margaret, who eventually married Robert D. Sims and lived in Colorado Springs. Margaret and Robert had one son, William.

Lizzie moved to Denver for health reasons, and later died there of acute heart disease on August 4, 1927 at 64 years old.

It was through Lizzie's daughter, Margaret, that the letters and related documents of the William Lancaster collection, which Maggie had faithfully kept, were preserved and passed down to her son William D. Sims.