DEATH WAS ALWAYS WITH THEM

Thoughts and Ramblings

I feel as though I have advanced beyond the mere collection of dates. 
Many questions have arisen like: how did my ancestors live, and of course, how did they die? How did my ancestors deal with the death that was all around them?  What about medical terms, herbs, influenza, cholera, tuberculosis, fevers, death at childbirth, burial methods, gravestones, the culture of death, and on and on and on!

Some readers may not approve of some of the photographs that I have chosen to post.
However, it's my blog.  I need to tell the story as it was and is - so on with the 
Thoughts and Ramblings!

FUNERALS

I remember funerals being taken seriously.  I was young when my paternal grandfather died in 1964, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. I remember the somber reality of death that was with our family and community. I remember the 'quiet' in the funeral home.  The reverence.  
I remember the funeral.  Family.  Love.  

Within the plethora of photographs that belonged to my parents, I have found many with the family members standing/posing at the gravesite of their departed.  
Families.  Together.  What were the messages behind these photographs?  Why do families no longer (or seldom) get photographed in this manner?

This photo was taken after the burial of my "Pappy" 

(Paternal Grandfather - William Luther Allison)

The photos below are from my 

Maternal Grand Uncle's Funeral

SGT. Sim Herron (1918-1945) 

Died at the age of 27 in WWII Co E 27th Infanty Div

I remember hearing my family talk of Sim's death, but I don't recall any 'specifics' -

 they usually just spoke of dying at such a young age.  Tragic.

Memorial Portraiture

Beginning in the mid-1800s, post-mortem photography (or memento mori) was a popular way to honor and remember 

the dead.  Most photographs were taken shortly after 

death, and could look incredibly life-life, especially if 

the deceased was propped up into a standing position. 

Post-mortem photos of children were particularly 

common, perhaps because their mortality rate was high.

So, when I ran across this photo, and realized the name actually written on the back … well, it's hard to describe.  I'm still trying to figure out how I actually feel about this type of photo. 

Below is William Luther Allison JR ~ Died at the age of 18 months

(Paternal Uncle)

Birth Certificate states cause of death was flux.

Flux was an excessive flow or discharge of fluid like hemorrhage or diarrhea.

  “...THIN dark trees through yon iron palings where dead keep their own small metropolis. Curious marble architecture, stele and obelisk and cross and rainworn stones where names grow dim with years. Earth packed samples of the casketmaker's trade, the dusty bones and rotted silk, the deathwear stained with carrion...” 
       -- From Suttree by Cormac McCarthy, 1992 

Childbirth

Childbirth in colonial America was a difficult and sometimes dangerous experience for women. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, between 1 percent and 1.5 percent of all births ended in the mother's death as a result of exhaustion, dehydration, infection, hemorrhage, or convulsions. Since the typical mother gave birth to between five and eight children, her lifetime chances of dying in childbirth ran as high as 1 in 8. This meant that if a woman had eight female friends, it was likely that one might die in childbirth.

Death in childbirth was sufficiently common that many colonial women regarded pregnancy with dread. In their letters, women often referred to childbirth as "the Dreaded apperation," "the greatest of earthly miserys," or "that evel hour I loock forward to with dread." Many, like New England poet Anne Bradstreet, approached childbirth with a fear of impending death. In a poem entitled "Before the Birth of One of Her Children," Bradstreet wrote, 

How soon, my Dear, death may my steps attend,

How soon't may be they lot to lose they friend.

Given the high risk of birth complications and infant death, it is not surprising to learn that pregnancy was surrounded by superstitions. It was widely believed that if a mother looked upon a "horrible spectre" or was startled by a loud noise her child would be disfigured. If a hare jumped in front of her, her child was in danger of suffering a harelip. There was also fear that if the mother looked at the moon, her child might become a lunatic or sleepwalker. A mother's ungratified longings, it was thought, could cause an abortion or leave a mark imprinted on her child's body. At the same time, however, women were expected to continue to perform work until the onset of labor, since hard work supposedly made for an easier labor. Pregnant women regularly spun thread, wove clothing on looms, performed heavy lifting and carrying, milked cows, and slaughtered and salted down meat.

Today, most women give birth in hospitals under close medical supervision. If they wish, women can take anesthetics to relieve labor pangs. During the seventeen and eighteenth centuries, the process of childbirth was almost wholly different. In colonial America, the typical woman gave birth to her children at home, while female kin and neighbors clustered at her bedside to offer support and encouragement. When the daughter of Samuel Sewall, a Puritan magistrate, gave birth to her first child on the last day of January, 1701, at least eight other women were present at her bedside, including her mother, her mother-in-law, a midwife, a nurse, and at least four other neighbors.

Most women were assisted in childbirth not by an doctor but by a midwife. Most midwives were older women who relied on practical experience in delivering children. One midwife, Martha Ballard, who practiced in Augusta, Maine, delivered 996 women with only four recorded fatalities. Skilled midwives were highly valued. Communities tried to attract experienced midwives by offering a salary or a house rent-free. In addition to assisting in childbirth, midwives helped deliver the offspring of animals, attended the baptisms and burials of infants, and testified in court in cases of bastardy.

One of my cousins had a grandmother who was a midwife. 
I hope to learn more from her concerning the realities 
as it was here close to home. 

BURIAL POSITIONS

                                           In the words of Louis Simpson: 

                                          In this America, this wilderness 

                                  Where the axe echoes with a lonely sound, 

                                            The generations labor to possess 

                                  And grave by grave we civilize the ground.

As the frontier settlers moved westward intruding on Indian lands, the need for grave sites became inevitable. The family burial ground on the family farm was the first of the frontier cemeteries. The custom of family burial grounds kept its strong hold on the rural south, especially in the Appalachian and Cumberland Mountain areas. The local church cemetery came next, but while the family farm and the local church cemeteries were frequently surveyed, the determination of true east was not usually established. They simply did not have the luxury of good surveys, and it is unlikely that even a compass was used later to determine true east for the graves. Undoubtedly, the east direction was determined by sunrise and that changed every day of the year. 

In early land records, we often find disparities between legal descriptions and the actual surveys. The cause of this is declination, which is the difference between true north and magnetic north. (Longitude lines run true north - south, while the compass needle points to the magnetic north - at least on our north side of the equator.) Add to that, the early south used a survey system called 'meets and bounds' which was poor at best. Certainly we can not rely on the old surveying methods to provide the precision of today’s surveying systems. We must conclude that the grave direction was almost always based on someone’s opinion and not science. 

Potentially, the advent of city cemeteries, especially the later ones, may have allowed for more accurate west-east positioning of the graves. Of course, not all cemeteries were designed with the direction in mind.

More Thoughts and Ramblings Soon…

“We are all the product of things we've never seen and people we never met. In fact, if just one little detail had been changed in their lives, we may not even exist!” 
― Melanie Johnston