Sometimes you find a very sad story in your family tree. The story of the children of Reuben Lowell Smith and his wife Sophronia Richardson Smith is one of those. I did a number of searches with
________Smith and the two parents as the parameters. Every time I searched, more children popped up. And this image appeared on FindaGrave. These are the five daughters of Reuben and Sophronia who were born and died between 1841 and 1850. Sandwiched in between was my great grandfather, George Frederick Smith, who luckily survived. There's no indication of how each of them died, but at least two died of croup and they all seemed to have lived about a year. This is a sad reminder of how fragile live was even then. The story doesn't stop there.....
Reuben and Sophronia moved to Massachusetts and continued to have children. Both Ellen and Jennie died in their late teens/early 20's. Jennie died of consumption not long after her 18th birthday. I also found a record which may indicate yet another child. So of 11 children we know about, only 4 made it to adulthood. There was a lot of sorrow in that house.
This must have touched someone else in the family as well. The stone in the picture above has a placement date long after the deaths. Someone remembered these little girls...
Wow, that's a lot of children to lose. I lost one and am still suffering. They must have been strong women back then and a lot of disease. Is the croup another word for whooping cough?
ReplyDeleteHi Cousin,
DeleteNo croup is a cough from an upper respiratory infection. Whooping Cough is an actual virus. Similar but not the same.
They used to make "croup tents" with steam inside around the child to relieve the cough. I can remember that from my childhood. But in little kids and babies it's deadly.
And yes, I think this was a strong woman.