Cyndi's Two Cents

Learn from the past

Commentary.

The farm Jim and I own is part of a section of land deeded to a sergeant who served in the War of 1812.  The cemetery on the hill behind our house tells a story of those who lived and died on the land. A descendant of the family with whom we have developed a great friendship has researched the history and shared stories that better help us to understand the people who inhabited this farm two hundred years ago.

My father’s ancestors came west about the same time that Sergeant Howard and his family settled in Missouri. Jonathon and Elizabeth Young were pioneers in Scott County, Illinois in the early 1800’s.

I grew up playing among the tombstones in the old family cemetery across from Grandpa and Grandma Young’s home. There are fewer grave markers in the cemetery behind my house than the one in west central Illinois that bears my father’s family name, but you don’t have to look very hard to recognize the hardships and loss that pioneer life cost those who broke out the ground to grow crops and raise livestock.

Most of the graves in both the Howard and Young Cemeteries are dated from the mid-1800’s to the mid-1900’s, but there are a few older and a few more recent.  As I read the names and dates and do the math in the resting place of many of my ancestors, I wonder if it was influenza or something just as sinister that cost a young husband and father his wife and young child in the winter of 1899.  Beside the grave of 17-year old Melissa Jane Blair, who died on August 18, 1856, is the stone bearing the name of her daughter Lucy Jane, who was born and died on that same date.

So much that we take for granted now was a struggle to achieve in those early days of our country. Every member of the family had a role to fulfill to ensure there was food on the table. Weather extreme and exposure to the elements were a daily and expected occurrence.

Infant mortality in this country was near 30% in the mid-1800’s.  Walking through both cemeteries, there are tiny stones lined up beside the larger ones.  The number of children under the age of 2 that are buried in these cemeteries is staggering compared to the number of adults occupying the sacred grounds.

I hear people today talking about feeding their family raw milk because they truly believe it has more health benefits than the pasteurized product. I have to wonder how many of those tiny grave markers represent the stillborn babies or those that died shortly after birth because their mother consumed contaminated food or drink.  We will never know.  We do know that pasteurization destroys certain microorganisms that can produce disease or cause spoilage or undesirable fermentation of food without radically altering taste of quality.

We can learn so much from our history if we will only pay attention.