One we lost
Name: Willie, perhaps Wilhemina, but more likely just plain Willie.
Born: 11 January 1895, most likely Provo, Utah.
Died: most likely, March 1896.
Buried: most likely, March 1896, City Cemetery, Provo Utah.
Not much to tell the story of this little girl, is it?
She lived, she breathed… she died.
Willie was the ninth of 10 known children and sixth known daughter of my great grandparents, Martin Gilbert Cottrell and Martha “Mattie” Johnson.1
There are only recorded family memories to tell of her name. She had an older brother named Sammie,2 so, we think, Willie is a safer bet than anything fancy like Wilhelmina.
Only those recorded family memories tell of her birth — 11 January 1895, 120 years ago tomorrow.3 They tell us nothing of her life. Whether she was dark or fair. Whether she was blue-eyed or brown. Whether she was hearty or frail as an infant. Whether she learned to crawl or to walk. Whether she was babbling or talking or even able to say mama and daddy by the time our family lost her, at just 14 months of age.
They don’t us how it came to be that Willie died in Utah. The family was not a Utah family at all — Martin Gilbert Cottrell, or M.G. as he was called, was born in Texas,4 he and Mattie married in Texas,5 they were in Texas before and after Willie’s birth and death,6 and we’re not entirely sure what they were doing in Utah. M.G. had taken a job as a traveling salesman for the Wrought Iron Range Company7 and it may be that the family traveled with him for a time.
Two of the known children — Sammie and Willie — died young, and the family notes say that Sammie was the one who died in Utah and Willie in Texas.8 That can’t be correct. Sammie died on 11 April 1892 and was buried in the family plot at Highland Cemetery in Iowa Park, Wichita County, Texas.9
There is a burial of a Cottrell child recorded in the Provo, Utah City Cemetery.10 That has to be Willie, but the record is singularly uninformative. No first name. No date of birth. No date of death. No parents’ names except for the surname Cottrell. No cause of death. No block and lot number for the grave, only feet north and feet west — of what, it does not say.
Not much to tell the story of this little girl, is it?
She lived, she breathed… she died.
We hope that the fact that her name survived to be passed on to the children and grandchildren of a brother — my grandfather — born after her death11 — means that she was dearly loved and greatly missed.
And at least she is, today, remembered by her kin… here in Utah… 12
Rest in peace, little girl.
SOURCES
- Interview with Opal Robertson Cottrell (Kents Store, VA), by granddaughter Bobette Richardson, 1980s; copy of notes privately held by Judy G. Russell. ↩
- See Judy G. Russell, “Remembering the birthday boy,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 5 May 2012(https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 9 Jan 2015). ↩
- Interview with Opal Robertson Cottrell (Kents Store, VA), by granddaughter Bobette Richardson. ↩
- Texas Department of Health, death certif. no. 13603 (1946), Martin Gilbert Cottrell, 26 Mar 1946; Bureau of Vital Statistics, Austin. ↩
- Marriage license and return, M G Cottrell-Mattie Johnson, 27 Aug 1874; County Clerk’s Office, Weatherford. ↩
- See 1880 U.S. census, Clay County, Texas, Precinct 4, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 164, p. 492(B) (stamped), dwelling 17, family 17, M.G. Cottrell household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 May 2012); citing National Archive microfilm publication T9, roll 1296. Also, 1900 U.S. census, Wichita County, Texas, Iowa Park, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 127, p. 238(A) (stamped), dwelling 86, family 86, Martin “Catrell” household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 May 2012); citing National Archive microfilm publication T623, roll 1679 ↩
- See Ballenger & Richards 25th Annual Denver City Directory (Denver : Ballenger & Richards, 1897) 300, entry for Martin G. Cottrell; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 Mar 2014). ↩
- Interview with Opal Robertson Cottrell (Kents Store, VA), by granddaughter Bobette Richardson. ↩
- Highland Cemetery (Iowa Park, Wichita County, Texas; on Rodgers Road 0.1 mile west of the intersection with Bell Road North, Latitude 33.96704, Longitude -98.6595041), Sammie Cottrell marker; photograph by J.G. Russell, 9 Nov 2002. ↩
- Sexton’s Record, March 1896, Provo City Cemetery; digital images, City of Provo Public Documents (http://publicdocuments.provo.org : accessed 10 Jan 2015). ↩
- Clay Rex Cottrell was born 20 April 1898. See Virginia Department of Health, Certificate of Death, state file no. 70-026729, Clay Rex Cottrell (1970); Division of Vital Records, Richmond. ↩
- Two of us are here in the Beehive State today. The Association of Professional Genealogists Professional Management Conference ended yesterday; the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy gets underway today with a colloquium. I’m teaching at SLIG; my cousin Paula is attending a class. ↩
This is much like the story of my grandmother’s brother, Michael Scerbak, baptized on 30 January 1895 and buried on 13 October 1895. I wrote about him on my blog on December 28th. The infant mortality rate was so high back then and many infants never had much of a chance to survive.
Some families didn’t even name a child until it reached the first birthday because the chances of making it that far were so slim. Sigh…
Thank you for this article. So many of my ancestor’s families died so young, with no other records. You wrote this beautifully and honored those who are gone.
Thanks for the kind words, Ann. It breaks our hearts to see these little ones lost, doesn’t it?
We have one of those heartbreakers too. Well, over the generations, quite a few. But this is one I know some detail about– as with you, thanks in part to family memories. The death of both mother and child in late 1899 changed many lives. My grandmother, one of nine living children, was just ten years old when her mother died in childbirth. The baby boy lived for 2 more days. Unnamed and birth unrecorded, he was placed by my great-grandmother’s sisters in her casket just before she was buried. A year later, the rest of the children were scattered. Their father remarried, and his new young wife didn’t want to raise another woman’s children, some of them nearly as old as she. My grandmother herself, with only a third grade education, was widowed at age 39, still with young children to support. She was an amazing woman. She held her family together, and the family worked together to support each other, working at field labor, fixing up and reselling abandoned houses, selling her beautiful crochet work. She kept her children in school as long as she could, and some went to college. I am named after her and her mother, and her mother before her.
Annie, it sounds like your grandmother was one tough and good woman. Good for her… but what a sad tale.
It looks like you’ve already done great research, but if it helps copies of the Provo cemetery records are at the Utah State Archives:
Provo (Utah). Parks & Recreation Department Cemetery Burial Records, Series 26410, described at http://archives.utah.gov/research/inventories/26410.html. I believe these should be copies of the same records that you found online from Provo City. The lack of information is interesting and probably does point to a family not known to people already in Provo.
Also some Cemetery Administrative Records, Series 84631 (or never mind, nothing before the 1920s apparently): “These records contain information regarding the purchase of grave sites and location of individual burials of the cemetery. Information includes grave sites given by lot, plat and block number; plot deeds or lot ownership records; perpetual care certificates; and financial records of cemetery.”
Maybe newspapers? The Provo Daily Enquirer is online for the likely time period: http://digitalnewspapers.org/newspaper/?paper=Provo+Daily+Enquirer
I also consulted with another archivist who coordinated a nearly statewide inventory of cemetery records, and he’s really curious if you can find anything now! I enjoy your blog and will watch for any updates, but you can also get in contact with our reference staff to continue this research (start at http://historyresearch.utah.gov).
Thanks so very much! Yes, the documents on the Provo City site are the same as at the State Archives, but I sure will reach out if I can come up with more questions! Thanks!
Thanks for this touching tribute! I have seen so many similar young deaths in my ancestors’ families/cousins. As someone who has young children of my own, it sometimes takes my breath away and even occasionally tears to my eyes when I discover these early deaths while researching; and I imagine what they may have been like, and what the situation was and what the family must’ve gone through, etc., and whether their tragic deaths could’ve been easily prevented in modern times…