Imagine thirteen siblings, seven of whom were still underfoot, and a 23-year-old mother managing an impossible workload on top of earlier-than-expected summer heat. It was 1913 in New Madrid County, Missouri, and in the Lancaster household, the demands of survival often outpaced the resources available. Sixteen-month-old Edith Irene, daughter of Cordelia Morrow and Charles Monroe Lancaster, died that June of a severe form of gastroenteritis, listed on her death certificate as illio colitis . In the early decades of the 20th century, diarrheal deaths in infants surged every summer. Anecdotal evidence suggests these deaths more often came during the "second summer" of a child's life, after breastfeeding was discontinued. Unpasteurized cow's milk and solid foods fit for an infant were difficult to keep fresh in the Missouri heat. Ileocolitis (the more common spelling) is just one way the inflammatory bowel condition could be described on a death certificate. "Summe...
Telling the Tales of Tombstones