#52Ancestors, Week 29, No First Birthday

Birthdays are a time for celebrating another revolution around the sun, but as the saying goes, "growing old is a privilege denied to many."  This was probably even more true in the days before advanced medicine.  A dozen children might be born to one set of parents, but it was rare that all 12 would live to adulthood.  Childhood diseases (and the occasional accident) took many a young life. It's hard to know just how many, though, because mandated reporting of deaths didn't start until the 1900s.  Family cemeteries, if they still exist, are sometimes the only indicator of a brief life.  I am fortunate that my ancestors, the Pearsons, kept a family cemetery and placed markers to recognize the loss of young children.  This post is dedicated to four little babies who didn't get to celebrate a single birthday.

Joseph Allen Pearson and Nancy Ann Fields had (at least) 10 children between 1848 and 1872.  One of them was my great great grandfather, George William Pearson, and one of them was Cuzzin Heather's great great great grandmother, Elizabeth Pearson. 4 others lived to adulthood: Thomas, Mary Ann, Nancy, and Mattie. The remaining 4 (John, Catherine, Joseph, and Lila) didn't reach the age of 1.  These children will be remembered primarily thanks to a group of people in Pulaski County, Illinois, who decided to transcribe the local cemeteries in a series of volumes titled Where They Sleep: Cemetery Inscriptions of Pulaski County, published in 1993.

John M. Pearson's stone in what is left of Pearson Cemetery

John M. Pearson was born June 22, 1849.  I'm sure he was born to much fanfare, as he was the first son.  (His sister, Elizabeth, had been born the previous year.) Because of the timing of his death, John is enumerated on the 1850 Mortality Schedule.  It is indicated that he died of croup, a common childhood malady. John lived 8 months and 4 days, dying on February 26, 1850.  His mother, Nancy, was already pregnant with another child, Catherine.

Catherine's headstone

Sadly, Catherine wouldn't live to see her first birthday either.  Her headstone reads:

Catherine Pearson

d/J.A. & N.A. Pearson

b. 5 Nov 1850

d. 28 Mar 1851

age 0-4-23

It is unknown what the poor mite died of, but I'm certain her mother was absolutely heartbroken.  This time, she couldn't even comfort herself with the possibility of another child.  The next recorded birth for Nancy wouldn't be for another 2 years.  In the meantime, Elizabeth - born 1848 - remained Joseph and Nancy's only living child.

Two more girls would arrive, Nancy and Mary Ann, before the advent of another son, Joseph L.  Any joy in his arrival was short-lived, however. Joseph wouldn't even see out his first month.  He was born on July 13, 1857, and he died on August 6th.  Were it not for Where They Sleep, no knowledge of Joseph would remain.  It has been 30 years since the volunteers recorded the cemetery inscriptions, and Joseph's stone has since been consumed by the cornfield in which the tiny cemetery resides.

My great great grandfather was born next, and he would be the first male to survive infancy.  Next came another son, Thomas J.  He was born in 1862, survived childhood, but disappears some time in the late 1800s.  Mattie, a daughter, would follow.  Joseph and Nancy's final child was a girl, Lila O. Pearson, but she would not be the baby of the family for long. Again, Where They Sleep is the only documentation of her existence.  Her inscription simply reads:

Lila O. Pearson

b. 27 Oct 1872

d. 6 July 1873

Her stone has succumbed to the cornfield, too.

In memory of John, Catherine, Joseph, and Lila Pearson

Sweet babies gone, but not forgotten