Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
This week’s
Sepia Saturday photo shows a family rescuing
what remained of their household belongings following a fire. Interviews with
survivors of housefires always say the same thing: “We lost everything, but at
least we’re alive. We can rebuild.” I hope that if such tragedy comes my way, I
can be that positive. Several distant relatives experienced the horror of
devastating fires.
For several years I have searched without success for the
story of a fire that took the lives of two little children, Vernon and Daisey
Clift.
 |
George and Sallie Jollett Clift
Vernon and Daisey |
Vernon and Daisey were the first children born to George
and Sallie Jollett Clift, my great-grandmother’s sister. Whether the house caught on fire or the children were
playing near an open fire is not known. However, their little tombstones tell a
bit of the story.
Vernon
Son of
Geo. T. and Sallie
Clift
Died Mar. 30, 1897
Aged 5 yrs 0 mos and 15 days
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Daisey
Dau of
Geo. T. and Sallie
Clift
Died Apr. 8, 1897
Aged 3 yrs 6 mos and 8 days
Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not
for to such is the kingdom of heaven.
Some years later, a similar tragedy struck the Jollett
family again. Macile Sullivan, granddaughter of my great-grandmother’s brother
Burton Lewis Jollett, was just a little over a year old when she got too close
to an open flame. Her clothes caught fire and she suffered extensive burns. Was
it from a fireplace in the house? Was there a burn pile outside where her parents
John and Fleta Sullivan burned trash and brush? Apparently, her death did not
make the newspaper either.
 |
On the back of the death certificate.
I don't understand the request for eye drops. |
In 1959 a son-in-law of my great-grandmother’s sister
Leanna Jollett Knight died from pneumonia brought on due to 2nd and 3rd
degree burns. Ben Shifflett had tried to put out a brush fire when his clothes
caught fire.
 |
Ben and Bertha Knight
Shifflett |
This was a real downer, wasn’t it! Let’s hope my friends
at Sepia Saturday will have amusing stories of moving households and people
with mattresses on their head.
Wendy
© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
