Infant Death of William Hollie Church

William Hollie Church was born on 20 March 1914, the ninth child of Eli and Lenora (Summers) Church.  The family home on eastern Seventh Street in Moundsville, West Virginia, was not only the location of William's birth, but also of his death less than two months later from pneumonia as a result of whooping cough.

A very short obituary was published on Friday, 08 May 1914 in the Moundsville Daily Echo: 

"BABY DIES
     A five weeks old baby of Mr. and Mrs. Church died Sunday night at its parents home on eastern Seventh street.  Several members of the family have been very ill during the last few weeks."

Per a written family record, William was born on 20 March 1914 and died on 03 May 1914 at the age of 1 month 14 days.  A quick look at a perpetual calendar confirms that May 3rd of that year was indeed a Sunday.  However, a date calculator counts the time as 1 month 13 days.

The Marshall County Death Register includes two entries on the same page that both recorded 03 May 1914 as the date of death:

1. Wm. R. Church, age 1 mo 13 days, born at East 7th St, Moundsville, died from pneumonia as reported by physician L. H. McCuskey. 
2. Wm H. Church, age 2 mo, born in Moundsville, died from whooping cough as reported by Eli Church, his father.

I believe that all of these documents and records are for the same little boy even though there are several inconsistencies:

• The Death Register entries were written in two clear, but very different and distinctive hands; two persons involved would reduce the chance of realizing there were duplicate entries.

• The incorrect middle initial of "R" could have been a transcription error when a clerk made the entry in the Register of Deaths or the doctor may have simply mis-reported it.

• The handwritten family record shows William's age as one day too many per the physician (and a date calculator), but that is most likely a simple calculation error.  Perhaps Eli reported the age as two months simply because he was almost 1-1/2 months old.

• The physician reported the exact place of birth (street and city) whereas Eli simply reported the city.

• According to MedicineNet.com, the most common complication and the cause of most whooping cough-related deaths is secondary bacterial pneumonia, with young infants being at highest risk for both.  So the two reports actually support each other: the primary cause of death was pneumonia, secondary cause was whooping cough.

William Hollie Church - 03 May 1914

Although a picture of a six-week old infant in a casket may seem offensive today, this quote from Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel provides another viewpoint while writing about the pioneers who settled the western part of America:

     "Among a people whose lives were often scarred by the death of children, the photograph quickly became a cherished souvenir. Such pictures might be placed on a mantel or table in a sitting room."

While the Church family was not on a westward journey, William's death when he was not quite six weeks old may well have occurred before any other photographs of him had been taken, thus making this a most cherished photo.  A valuable lesson may have been learned, as a picture of William's younger brother, Arles Lloyd Church, was taken as he sat in his mother's lap.  This proved to be a fortunate thing as he died in 1919 when only a few months old.