Tucked in with the
letters from Sam, Sadie, and Carrie was also this Easter card, with Martha’s
name written in cursive on the back. In fact, it was an 1890s advertising trade card, found only in “the one pound packages of Lion Coffee.” There were
many different cards available, decorated with pictures of little girls, fairy
tale scenes, and other Victoriana.
This one has a copyright date of 1891 in the bottom-right corner; Martha would have been four years old that Easter. Maybe Sam sent it to her from college, or her mother gave it to her on Easter morning. Was it special to her? It doesn’t show the wear that I’d expect to see if she had carried it around — maybe she had it displayed in her room, to keep it safe. What made Sadie save it?
This one has a copyright date of 1891 in the bottom-right corner; Martha would have been four years old that Easter. Maybe Sam sent it to her from college, or her mother gave it to her on Easter morning. Was it special to her? It doesn’t show the wear that I’d expect to see if she had carried it around — maybe she had it displayed in her room, to keep it safe. What made Sadie save it?
Martha and Sam
died of diphtheria in the winter of 1893. At that time, diphtheria was a leading cause of
death in children and spread easily through close contact with an infected
person. The early symptoms included a low-grade fever, sore throat, and
headache. Within a few days, the diphtheria bacteria produced a toxin that
caused a thick film to develop in the back of the throat, making it increasingly
difficult to breathe, and often strangling the patient to death.1 A
physician in 1927 described a patient he was treating, and I can
imagine this was an all-too-familiar scene for many families in the
late nineteenth century as well:
“I recall the case of a beautiful girl of five or six years, the fourth child in a farmer’s family to become the victim of diphtheria. She literally choked to death, remaining conscious till the last moment of life. Knowing the utter futility of the various methods which had been tried to get rid of the membrane in diphtheria or to combat the morbid condition, due, as we know now, to the toxin, I felt as did every physician of that day, as if my hands were literally tied and I watched the death of that beautiful child feeling absolutely helpless to be of any assistance.” (“Diphtheria: A Popular Health Article,” The Public Health Journal 18, Dec. 1927, 574)2
