In Narrative of the deceptive courtship and seduction of Miss Phebe Crossen (Cincinnati, 1857), wrapper vignette., Fictitious person? Born near Blanchester, Ohio, Phoebe Crossen was raised by her grandparents after her mother died (and her father went West); her seducer promised marriage and then supplied Phebe with medicine in order to kill their unborn child; after the child was born dead, she wrote the narrative and committed suicide with laudanum on February 19, 1857., Three-quarter length portrait of the unwed mother, carrying a book in one hand and a lace handkerchief in the other hand.