LOVE, HEARTBREAK, AND FAITH
Indiana Chapter 1
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Link family marker at North Union Cemetery.
- Ginny Nunemaker
Determination in the face of suffering
Jacob and Elizabeth had lost five of their eight children by the time the 1880 census was taken. Their first child had died in infancy in 1847 in Ohio. Another, Melissa Jane, died at about three years of age in 1862, also before the family moved to Indiana.
During a particularly dark period for the family, three children died within two years in Indiana; two within two days of each other. George died on June 18, 1870 at age 17. Anna Mary Link, who had married Levi Chupp and had given birth to a child, Cora, just eight months earlier, died of consumption on May 10th, 1872. Then, two days later on the 12th, nine-year-old Emma suddenly died. Both girls were buried during a joint funeral, and all three children had plots laid side by side in North Union Cemetery about two miles from the farm.
A story passed down by letter to Mary (Jones) Henry, daughter of Edna Link, describes what is probably the day that Emma died, two days following her sister.
"Mother wrote that she died a day after her 9th birthday. She was washing dishes when Grandma (Elizabeth) noticed a change and went to the neighbors for help. (Emma) died before any help could arrive."
- Edna Frances Link
Although the story leaves behind little detail, it is heart-wrenching, and what it does not tell is almost as powerful as what it does. One wonders if the strain, uncertainty, fear and sadness over the loss of an older brother and older sister in so short a time was more than a just-turned nine-year old could bear. As it happens, Emma had come down with scarlet fever. It was a test of faith, as such times strain the foundations of even the strongest families.
Lowell Nunemaker lives in the area today and knows the logistics of this farmland, which have not changed greatly since those difficult days in 1872.
"The Link farm was very isolated and still is today so it would have been at least a half mile to the nearest neighbor to go for help and would have been three miles to Wakarusa and a doctor."
- Lowell Nunemaker
Loss of children; overwhelming, yet common
Mary (Link) Chupp's marker, who died on 10 May 1872, about eight months after having a daughter, Cora. Cora lived with grandparents Jacob and Elizabeth and became Charles Link's best friend as they grew up on the Link farm. - Photo by Ginny Nunemaker
Family markers of Jacob and Elizabeth on either side of the family monument, and the children's stones coming down the hill. Mary (Link) Chupp's marker is in the foreground. - Photo by Ginny Nunemaker
The loss of children was 45 times more frequent in 1870 than in the early 21st century.
The loss of five children is remarkable, even for the time. It had to be devastating to Jacob and Elizabeth. The life expectancy in the United States was 42.3 years in 1870 and just under 50 years by the turn of the century. That rate has increased to about 80 years today, although since 2016, several factors have contributed to drops for all groups in the United States. Obesity, drug-related deaths and pandemics have been contributors to decline. But one would have expected to live about 60% as long when the Links lived in Indiana.
Out of the five (an infant and a 3-year-old having died in Ohio), losing three children ages 17, 21 and 9 to disease or accident in such a short time (two a few days apart) must have been very nearly overwhelming. The children's markers were set next to one another, Their parents, who arrived for burial years later, were laid beside them in the Holdeman North Union Cemetery, two miles from the Link farm. The simple markers are barely discernable today, but a family marker with two of the children's names on one side and their parents' names on the other can still be read. Anna Mary (Link) Chupp's marker is to the outer side and of a different design. She was married at the time of her death. That marker is now laid flat to the ground, and more difficult to read - victim to years of rain, ice and snow eroding away the past chiseled by Mankind.
Then and now
The threats to life faced in the late 1800s were notably different from those faced today. Cancers, which were 29th on a list of 29 in 1890, are second on the list compiled for 2017. Suicide, at 11th on the list today, was the second leading cause of death in 1890, exceeded only by death due to alcoholism. Today, alcohol-related diseases are 15th. Our perception of happiness in former times may be informed by such data. Whooping cough and scarlet fever have been eradicated in the U.S. through vaccines since 1890, but were active concerns in the late 1800s. Emma Link died of scarlet fever a day after her 9th birthday.
Heart disease and “dropsy” (edema and congestive heart failure), in a physically active society a century and a half ago, has gone from 18th place then to number one (cardiovascular disease) today. Having food available easily has proven both a blessing and an impairment in the 21st Century.
