An Answer, But A Sad One

     What happened to the children of William and Catherine McGarr?  Is it because I'm a mother that I just couldn't let this go or was it curiosity?  Three children and then within the span of a month, no children.  It boggles the mind.  The unimaginable loss, and yet this same tale played out in numerous households in the 19th century.

     An earlier blog tells of the tragedy, but it's not overstating to say it haunts me.  What could have happened to those dear little ones, all under the age of four?  It must have been an illness of some sort but would I ever know exactly what occurred?  All I was certain of, is that within twenty days William and Catherine lost their entire family that horrible April of 1871. Twenty six year old Catherine would bear no more children once William Jr., Robert, and Mary were gone.

     A few days ago I sent an email to the archivist of the Diocese of Mobile, Alabama in the hopes the horrific event of three little lives lost might have merited an explanation of some sort in their burial records.  However, there are no burial records.  When these sad events occurred, Shelby Springs where they lived after leaving Auburn, New York, had no priest, nearby Montavallo was a mission of  the Catholic Church at Selma.  Being a mission, clergy visited Montevallo only several times a year as the archivist informed me.  Residents timed their sacraments such as marriages and baptisms to coincide with the expected arrival of the priest, but of course deaths were not something that could be planned for in advance.  And so, I was told, it was unlikely a priest had attended the burials of the McGarr children and there was no mention of their burials in Selma records.

     It seemed like another wall, no death certificates, no burial records, but then Karen at the archives did a very wonderful thing, she sent me copies of the two baptisms of the McGarr children in her possession, William and Mary's.

William Marion McGarr's baptism. Catherine used her mother's maiden name of Kelly in the record.  Her name was in fact McGarr, the same as William's.

  

Mary McGarr's baptism

     Robert was the middle child but his baptism was not to be found, probably due to Montavallo's status as a mission without a priest of it's own and poor record keeping.  William was born in 1867 and Mary in 1870.  Robert was the middle child, his grave stone gives his birth year as 1868.  William was baptized in Selma, and Mary in Montavallo.  Her baptism gave her birth-date as September 12, 1870 and she was baptized April 19th.  A long time between birth and baptism to be sure, but with no priest nearby they were probably awaiting a visit from one.  But wait, if she was born in September of 1870 she would have been baptized in April of 1871.  Her brother Robert died April 5th and William April 8th.  And here was Mary being baptized on the 19th in Montavallo!

     That was a bit of a surprise.  Mary too would pass away on the 25th, six days after receiving the sacrament, perhaps she was already ill by the 19th.  Back in 1871 the Church still taught that unbaptized babies went to limbo, did the frantic McGarrs send for a priest to insure Mary's baptism?  It's possible, William was a railroad official and was quite well to do.  The last clue I found was a newspaper article dated April 20, 1871:

    
     And there it was, the disease that took the children was scarlet fever.  I have to wonder if the newspaper got it wrong and it was little Mary who was ill and not William. I've seen such mistakes in newspapers. Scarlet Fever is rare in adults, but regardless I had found the cause.  It must have been a dreaded disease, in 1874 a two year old relative of mine in San Francisco died from it and in 1907 my grandfather's brother at age four in New York.  I wish I was able to visit their graves, I left flowers at Find a Grave, but it's just not the same...