Susan was the second child, born February 15, 1820, and named for an aunt, Susan Anthony Brownell.

She herself adopted the initial "B" when older, but never claimed or liked the full name.[3] [Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF SUSAN B.ANTHONY, ADAMS, MASS.
(BORN IN ROOM SHADED BY TREE.)] Lucy Read Anthony was of a very timid and reticent disposition and painfully modest and shrinking.

Before the birth of every child she was overwhelmed with embarrassment and humiliation, secluded herself from the outside world and would not speak of the expected little one even to her mother.

That mother would assist her overburdened daughter by making the necessary garments, take them to her home and lay them carefully away in a drawer, but no word of acknowledgment ever passed between them.

This was characteristic of those olden times, when there were seldom any confidences between mothers and daughters in regard to the deepest and most sacred concerns of life, which were looked upon as subjects to be rigidly tabooed.