Elizabeth Minnie Brooks lot 69, Highland lot 36
Thomas Waldo Edmunds lot 5
Herbert Ellis lot 101
Jesse Nelson lot 16, Highland lot 141
In 1735, Noah Webster, in his A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases, wrote of “a disease among children, commonly called the ‘throat distemper,’ of a malignant kind, and by far the most fatal ever known in this country.” Its symptoms included a swollen neck, and general fatigue and weakness. According to Webster, the disease “almost stripped the country of children” and those who survived often went on to die young. In 1821, a French physician gave the disease a name: diphtheria, based on the Greek word for leather. It was so named due to its distinctive feature, an accumulation of thick, viscous tissue in a patient’s throat which made breathing and swallowing difficult or impossible. The small airways of children were exceptionally vulnerable as children, both rich and poor, choked and smothered, leaving their helpless parents with no option but to watch them die.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, parents lived in fear of a simple sore throat or croup turning into a devastating loss. By the end of the 19th century, scientists identified the bacteria that caused diphtheria and began exploring new treatments, including tracheotomy. Eventually researchers around the world united to create an antitoxin to stem the deadly disease. After years of further experimentation, in 1913, the first diphtheria vaccine was developed and, by the 1930s, diphtheria vaccines were widely promoted in the United States. These campaigns led to a universal program of infant vaccination. Largely as a result of these routine vaccinations, diphtheria is rare in the U.S. today.
Here are four children whose lives could not be saved.
Elizabeth Amelia “Minnie” Brooks (1867-1876)
Elizabeth Amelia “Minnie” Brooks, their firstborn child, was born on April 24, 1867. She died from diphtheria on November 15, 1876, at nine years of age. She was interred in Old Parish Cemetery. In 1893, her parents purchased a lot at Highland Cemetery and her remains were removed to Highland lot 36. Her name appears on the stone as Minnie E.
Thomas Waldo Edmunds (1874-1876)
Also in November of 1876, Thomas Waldo Edmunds died of diphtheria. He was two years and nine months old. In the Norwood Annual Report, the death of Frank W. Edmunds, 2 years and 9 months old, was recorded on November 3, 1876. Since that date matches the birth of Thomas Waldo Edmunds, which was recorded in the town’s annual report of 1874, it is probable that his name was erroneously entered as Frank in the 1876 report. There is also a discrepancy in the exact date of death. Recorded as November 3 in the annual report, it appears as November 23 on the gravestone.
Herbert Ellis (1869-1881)
Herbert Ellis was born on January 20, 1869. His parents were Albert C. Ellis and Harriet L. Tuttle Ellis, who was known as Hattie. Herbert was their first child. On August 31, 1881, Herbert Ellis, then 12 years old, died of diphtheria. He was interred in Old Parish Cemetery as the plot plan indicates but his name was not recorded on his family’s gravestone.
Gravestone of Herbert Ellis' parents Albert & Hattie.
Jesse Edwin Nelson (1875-1881)
Born on April 11, 1875, Jesse Edwin Nelson was the son of Major (this was his given name) Jesse Nelson and his wife, Susan Samler Nelson. Following service in the Civil War, as a private in the New Hampshire Infantry, Major Nelson settled in Norwood to raise his family. He was a carpenter. On April 23, 1881, Jesse Edwin died of “diphtheria and croup,” He was six years old.
He was interred in Old Parish Cemetery, lot 16, later removed to Highland Cemetery, lot 141.
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