'Jesus Loves The Little Children'

It's a fact of life that humans die. It's always tragic when it happens to young people. As a father of a young son its almost incomprehensible to me, how parents can move on. That is not a shot at a parents who have lost a child, but a compliment to the toughness of the parents.

The other night my wife and I were watching the 1980's movie Sophie's Choice. The movie is about a Polish woman who, durning World War II finds herself in Auschwitz and is given the choice by a NAZI guard of which of her two young children would live and the other, put to death.  Durning the remainder of the movie, the woman now in 1950's America is trying to live with her choice she was forced to make. The movie concludes with Sophie committing suicide along with her lover.

Now, I'll be the first to say this movie has nothing to do with the Jameson family. The only reason that I bring it up is the large number of children throughout the years that died at young ages and how their parents dealt with their tragedy of their loss. Here are a few tales of coping with this tragedy:

The Family of Carl Woodward and Jennie Leuretta (Walker) Jameson
Back in the early 1980's my great grandfather, Hugh Edward Jameson passed away. Hugh was the second son of Carl and Jennie Jameson. Hugh had been working on his and his wife's genealogy for a number of years. Having put together a nice package, almost like a book, to be passed to each of his heirs. When my mother, Karen Ann (Jameson) Traggorth and aunt Marilyn Sue (Jameson) Jones received the package, they quickly found a listing of Carl and Jennie's children. Within the listing, there were two daughters that they had never heard of. Both were shocked, being the family was pretty close and they had never heard of these two little girls. They call their father, Richard Lee Jameson to inquire. My grandfather told them that he knew of the girls and said they died from a childhood sickness that was common in those day (not remembering which one). When my aunt and mother asked why he or my great grandfather had never told them, he responded, that there just was not much to say about the girls.

Joint tombstone of Avis Pearl and Lois Ashley Jameson, McComb Union Cemtery, McComb, Hancock County, Ohio, courtesy of findagrave.com

A few years ago my aunt and mother took a trip together out to northwestern Ohio to visit a number of places from their youth. One stop was to Deshler, Henry County, Ohio. Upon visiting Oakdale Methodist Church, one of the churches that Thomas Jameson had built and where Carl Jameson had preached in for many years. They by chance, ran into a kind lady, Joy Verneil (Dangler) Rayle in the church. Upon talking to Mrs. Rayle, she told them that she too was a Jameson and that she was the daughter of Prudence Vestelva (Jameson) Dangler. Her mother was Hugh's first cousin. My aunt asked her if she know anything of the girls when talking about Carl and Jennie. She told them that her mother had told her this:

"Carl and Jennie had had a very tough time getting over the girls. In those days it was very common to lose children. But the fact that Carl had lost his two daughters in just the course of two days, was unbearable for him. Carl went into a great depression. It was Jennie, that had to sit him down and straighten him out, to get their lives back together. It took her strength, to make the family move on."

The cover page of Jennie Leuretta Jameson's bible

The little girls genealogy information:
Avis Pearl Jameson born September 20, 1896 in Jackson Township, Wood County, Ohio; died December 31, 1900 Continental, Putnam County, Ohio; buried January 3, 1901 McComb Union Cemetery, Pleasent Township, Hancock County, Ohio
Lois Ashley Jameson born August 9, 1898 in Deshler, Henry County, Ohio; died December 30, 1900 Continental, Putnam County, Ohio; buried January 3, 1901 McComb Union Cemetery, Pleasent Township, Hancock County, Ohio

The Family of Robert Anderson and Margaret Vestalla (Jameson) Vaughn
To follow this story we need to travel across the country to Kings County, Washington. Much like Robert and Margaret did many years ago. Maggie as she was known by her family, left her home in Wood County, Ohio in 1883. She and her husband first moved to Michigan, then in 1887 made the long trip across country to Washington State. They finally settled in the freshly started city of Seattle.

Maggie and Bob had a large family. Within their family they saw seven children live to adulthood. The sad part is that at least four known children died in youth. While doing my research about a year ago on ancestry.com. I came across a record of infant deaths of Kings County, Washington. The paperwork was hard to follow due to poor handwriting and a lack of filling out all the information. Undoubtedly Maggie was not the only women of children bearing age with the name Vaughn in Seattle at the time. It does appears that there might be at least two other infants of hers that might have died that can't be proven to her. They do appear to be hers, due to the home of record of the mother. I could not tell for certain and there were no other sources to cross check.

Years later Maggie and her family travel back to Ohio on at least one occasion to visit family. It was recorded by her niece, Mary Lillian (Wolcott) Rathke that she always seemed very sad. The sadness she showed was put off as being homesick. I think there might have been a little more to the sadness. She had lost a large number of children in her life. At her finally resting spot, she rest with her husband and one of her lost children.

Joint tombstone of Robert, Margaret, and Walter Vaughn, Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Seattle, Kings County, Washington; courtesy of findagrave.com



The known children that died in youth genealogy information:
Sylvia Edna Vaughn born January 25, 1883 in Jackson Township, Wood County, Ohio; died January 9, 1899 Seattle, Kings County Washington; burial unknown

Gladys Oral Vaughn born August 11, 1886 in Michigan; died January 21, 1899 in Seattle, Kings County, Washington; burial unknown

Unnamed Infant Vaughn born August 18, 1900 in Ballard, Kings County, Washington; died a few hours later on August 18, 1900 in Ballard, Kings County, Washington; burial unknown

Walter V. Vaughn born June 23, 1906 in Ballard, Kings County, Washington; died April 14, 1907 in Ballard, Kings County, Washington; buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Seattle, King County, Washington

-the two other unnamed infants that appear to have been born to Margaret and Robert were born in 1892 and 1901. They are not listed due to the lack of sources.