Chloe Lankton

Chloe Lankton

Chloe Lankton received many visitors over the course of sixty years while bedridden with scrofula (now diagnosed as a form of tuberculosis). Lankton was born in 1812 and died in 1890, some thirty years after the biography in which her portrait appeared was published. The author of Lankton’s New York Times obituary, who refers to her as “the well-known chronic invalid,” notes that she became a household name as a result of her biography. The biography, published by the American Sunday-School Union, celebrated her piety in the face of great physical suffering. Like Lathrop, Lankton’s body became the surface upon which faith was tested and, ultimately, proven.