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| A linen postcard image of the Johnson Saum mortuary building (abt 60 years after Joey's death). From ebay seller outweststv. |
I have no pictures of my great grandfather George Henry Hartley's little brother Joey, as he died at 3 months old, but there are two sources I find for him:
San Diego Leaves & Saplings
Vol. 3, No. 3, Summer 1975
page 104
from Johnson Saum Mortuary records
1883
Hartley, Joey
d 5 Jun 3 months, b San Diego, --, bu City cem
A more personal mention comes from George and Joey's sister Maud Hartley:
from : Remembered Incidents in the Lives of the James Monroe Hartley Family, 1882-1940
Written by Maud Hartley MacDougall in 1950 (courtesy of Sarah Bennett and HermitInTheValley)
On their return to San Diego, they bought a house on 19th and J, and it was here that
little Joey, the sixth child was born. He lived only three months. We all came through
the measles and whooping cough safely, but the littlest one. Mary told me that the little
thing took convultions, and mother [Mary Jane Tibbetts] sent her for the Doctor. I can see her yet, a little girl
of ten, running all the long blocks down the hillside to 9th and F St. and the Doctor
driving back with her, but too late to save the baby. They took him the long dusty road
to the cemetery, in a rig called a Hack, drawn by two horses, two of my Aunts holding
the tiny casket on their knees, and the parents sitting opposite, facing them. It was
surely heart breaking for them and mother always missed her baby. She often spoke of
him especially on his birthday, so I grew up seeming to know him and have wondered
sometimes, what he would have been like had he lived.
© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
I had chills while reading the story about the sickness and burial.
ReplyDeleteMy Henry Carringer family made a similar trip, probably in a similar hack, with sad parents and perhaps a sad grandmother, from their home in National city out to La Vista Cemetery in May 1890 with their 7-month old, Devier David Carringer, the brother of my grandfather, Lyle Carringer (1891-1976). If Devier had lived, I probably would have known him. Almost every family had this sadness in their lives.
Thank you for sharing.