Women In My Family History: Part Twelve

(photo source:  http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/106/6/1307/F8.large.jpg)

Mary Etta Hildebrand Funk

1875 -1959

Mary Etta Hildebrand was born in 1875 and married Harry Funk in 1900.  They had six children,  the youngest of which was my mother's mother.   While Mary was pregnant with my grandmother,  her youngest child at the time was a son named Wayne.  In July of 1911, two year old Wayne was playing outside with his older brother Harold.  When Harold was called to the house, Wayne climbed up a fence that was adjacent to the watering trough for the cows.  He fell from the fence face first into the cement water trough and drowned in 13 inches of water.  Every time I read this story my heart goes out to my great grandmother who I never knew but was named after.  Anyone who has ever walked a cemetery,  as family history buffs often do, knows  it is impossible not to be struck by the amount of children who passed away in earlier times.  Every family in the 19th and early 20th centuries seems to have multiple tragedies related to losing children.   The following quote can be found HERE and explains some of the caused of childhood deaths in our history:

 At the beginning of the 20th century, the leading causes of child mortality were infectious diseases, including diarrheal diseases, diphtheria, measles, pneumonia and influenza, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, and whooping cough. Between 1900 and 1998, the percentage of child deaths attributable to infectious diseases declined from 61.6% to 2%. Accidents accounted for 6.3% of child deaths in 1900, but 43.9% in 1998. Between 1900 and 1998, the death rate from accidents, now usually called unintentional injuries, declined two-thirds, from 47.5 to 15.9 deaths per 100 000.

I feel very fortunate to have raised my children after the discovery of antibiotics and to have gotten them to adulthood without a mortal wound from an accident or a fatal disease.  It must be the most severe angst that exists to lose a child.   Please feel free to follow the link in the text and to enjoy the quiet moment of the video that follows.