“Of scarlet Fever”

Even though the gravestone is small and weathered, or perhaps because of its small size, I stopped to read the inscription.

The marker reveals little about Daizy Harner (d. 1878), but look closely: It tells us her cause of death.

DAIZY
HARNER
DIED
Jan. 28
1878

Of scarlet
Fever
Daizy (Daisy?) was almost certainly a young child. Not only does the small size of the marker (measure it in inches, not feet) suggest she was a child—perhaps an infant—when she died, but so does its badly weathered carving. It is almost certainly a broken rosebud.

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Oak Grove Cemetery, Delaware County, Ohio