Week 37, Tombstone: Clara Margaret Ladd

Week 37 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is “Tombstone.”

Childhood mortality was much higher in the past, but just because it was common, doesn’t mean it was less heartbreaking.  Take the death of little Clara Margaret Ladd.  She was the second living child born to Hattie Emma (Leighton) and Eugene Jenness Ladd.  The Ladds had a small family compared to most at the time – only four children, and Clara was the first girl, born on December 20, 1895, five years after my great-grandfather Dana. 

Clara Margaret was named after two family members.  Clara, after Eugene’s aunt, Clara Elizabeth (Rand) Stearns, and Margaret after Eugene’s mother, Hannah Margaret (Rand) Ladd Holland. 

She died from colitis (probably a bowel obstruction) on August 1, 1897, when she was just 19 months old.  The Ladds were in Calais, Maine, visiting Hattie’s family at the time, and I’d like to believe the grieving mother took some comfort in being surrounded by her mother and sisters during such a difficult time.  Clara’s tiny body was brought back home to Westbrook where she was buried in the family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery.  A small stone with “CLARA” carved on the top and the dates written along the side marks the site.

Clara's grave at Woodlawn Cemetery in Westbrook, Maine. Courtesy of Finde-A-Grave

It’s sometimes easy to overlook these leaves on our trees, but harder to do so when you see an actual grave with those too-short dates.  When you see a photograph, it’s even more difficult.  In this 1896 photo, Clara is in the arms of her big brother, Dana.  She was a pretty, bright-eyed little baby.  Young deaths like Clara’s are especially tragic because all their potential hopes, dreams and promises for the future die with them.  It makes you wonder what her life would have been like if she had lived, and her story hadn’t been cut short before it really began.