Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.
This week Sepia Saturday has reached the letter V, but I do not have a violin photo or story to share. Therefore, I vow not to vacillate over various options, instead to vindicate myself with this view of the life of Victoria Vernon, the veracity of which you should not doubt.
Victoria Vernon was born in 1854 to Burton Shiflett and Nancy Frazier in Greene County, Virginia. She was the ninth of ten children and the youngest sister of my 2X great-grandmother Lucy Ann Shiflett Jollett.
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| Morris Reunion probably 1927 Susan Clementine Shiflett Morris (sister to Victoria and my 2X great-grandmother Lucy Ann) Austin Morris (Clementine's husband), James Franklin Jollett, Ambrose Vernon (NOTE: Lucy Ann and Victoria are not present; Clementine died in 1928 - hence the estimated date) |
Not far away Ambrose Vernon grew up in the home of Edmund Jones and his much younger common law wife Margaret Vernon. I chuckled at Ambrose’s death certificate which asks the name of the deceased’s father and mother. Ambrose’s daughter openly pronounced him “illegitimate.” Ambrose’s brothers and sisters, however, all claimed Jones as their father.
Ambrose and Victoria married 26 Dec 1875. They were a farming family in the Monroe district of Greene County, and together they had 5 children:
- Ira McClellan Vernon (1876-1953)
- Madie Macella Vernon Merschel (1878- ?)
- Charles Marcus Vernon (1880-1959)
- John Fleming Vernon (1881-1937)
- Lucy Ann Vernon Snow (1884-1972)
In 1926, Victoria Shiflett Vernon died from pneumonia, likely due to complications from an abdominal tumor. The details on the back of her death certificate suggest she must have suffered a great deal in those last days of her life.
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| Back of Victoria Vernon's death certificate March 13, 1926 |
TRANSCRIPTION: … cause of death is given as “Bronchial pneumonia – abdominal tumor.” Please state the exact location of the tumor & whether cancerous or benign.
Do not know the nature of the tumor as the death
certificate will show that I only saw the patient the day of her death so had
no opportunity of finding out. Suppose it was benign. It was as large as an
infants head filled the hypogastrium and umbilical region – was so tender &
sore when I saw her that it was impossible to palpate it.
Given what I know of my mother’s death from ovarian cancer,
I wonder if Victoria’s disease was this as well.
Why don’t you venture over to Sepia Saturday where the venerable vanguard of verisimilitude in the vernacular will offer a veritable vortex of veracious verbalization.
Wendy
© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
Poor Victoria. What a terrible way to die.
ReplyDeleteLoved the photo by the car. People were all dressed up to go see something, or each other. Yes death certificates do give many details of diseases that would possibly be treated these daays.
ReplyDeleteA clever bit of alliteration here! :) And a neat take on the "V" of today's prompt venturing victoriously into the value of the Vernon name!
ReplyDeleteThe death cert is very poignant; it paints a picture of Victoria's state towards the end of her life, that of an empathetic doctor. Your alliteration is just fabulous!
ReplyDeletePoor Victoria. Your suspicions may be correct.Funny about the death certificate!
ReplyDeleteI always thought this was a picture from the Jollett reunion. Good info about Victoria Vernon and I agree about the Ovarian Cancer. Great post sista!
ReplyDeleteSo sad that she suffered so much. Poor Victoria. I always think about how it must have been harder in a way before the "modern era" when folks got sick and died -- and they didn't know why! I wonder if she had been aware of the tumor before the secondary problem. I hope she hadn't suffered for a long time before.
ReplyDeleteAs large as an infant’s head????????
ReplyDeleteI regularly find death certificates in my research and as useful as they are for names and dates, it always feels like a violation of someone's privacy. There's also a sadness to learn about sickness or disease that today would be treatable. Medicine was once not so much science as guesswork.
ReplyDeleteA very poignant post . I did like your final paragraph - I too am very fond of alliteration.
ReplyDelete