Lamb Laments

Click on an underlined name to read about the individual honored with verse.

INFANT MORTALITY

In the 18th century, Georgia, like much of the United States, faced very high infant mortality rates (an estimated
541 deaths per 1000 live births), reflecting harsh settlement conditions and limited medical knowledge of the period. The infant mortality rate of the 19th century, while much improved, was still very high (an estimated 60-110 deaths per 1,000 live births) due to various factors such as poor sanitation, inadequate medical care, and infectious diseases. Thus, one in ten infants died before age one, while six to nine mothers died of pregnancy-related complications.

The loss of a child was deeply felt and often expressed through poignant epitaphs and detailed gravestones. Families used these markers to convey their love and grief, with inscriptions reflecting the hope that their children would find peace and beauty in the afterlife. This sentiment is evident in the careful words and sculptures found on many infant gravestones, symbolizing the enduring bond between parents and their lost progeny.

“Blest babe! we would not wish thee back, To share our sorrows here. Since satan never can stain thy soul, Nor wicked men ensnare.” from Anne Bradstreet's poem "In Memory of My Dear Grand-Child Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665"Elizabeth Johnston [1810-1811]
“Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 19:14
Elizabeth Johnston [1810-1811]
Thaddeus Beall Rees [1813-1817]
Martha Amanda Robson [1828-1829]
Robert Cleveland Killian [1839 -1841]
Cynthia E. Killian [1841-1844]
Richard Talmadge Killian [1843-1845]
Mary Elizabeth Smith [1843-1851]
Edward Lee McClesky [1851-1855]
Sallie B. Wade [1854-1855]
Anne Porter Williams [1858-1858]
Edgar Booth [1872 -1875]
Catharina Hilsman Rice [1873-1875]
Mamie Crawley [1883-1888]
Thornell Jefferies [1885-1885]
Anna Eliza Green [unknown, 4 yrs]
"Sweet child rest in heaven.”
M. Lafayette Campbell [1834-1835]
“Let the loved one with Jesus rest, a trophy of his grace, a Seraph in the presence of his glory.” Anna Hill Wingfield [1846-1848]
“Rest, my child, in hope until the Heavens
shall be no more.”
Anna C. C. Arnold [1845-1860]
“Our Child.” “The lovely bud so young and fair, Called hence by early doom. Just came to show how sweet a flower, In Paradise would bloom.” from the poem "Epitaph on an Infant"
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Ella Georgia Liddon [1850-1855]
“Child and mother united shall live forever.” Minnie Wade [1856-1857]
“It is well with the child.” 2 Kings 4:26
Gazaway E. Crawford [1850-1853]
Robert W. Radford [1853-1855]

“Love would not keep her here.”
Carrie Burnett Carbine [1868-1868]

““Baby”
Baby Rainwater [1908 - 1908]
Frank W. Foster [1910-1910]
Eugene N. Alliston [1922-1925]
Baby Hurt [1998-1998]
infant

MADISON'S FAVORITES

Tombstones often feature references from scripture offering comfort, hope, and assurance of eternal life and reflecting the faith of the deceased or their loved ones. Popular selections promise resurrection and eternal life, reference the afterlife, highlight a life well-lived in faith, and offer solace by promising an end to earthly pain and sorrows. Such verses often provide a sense of peace, making them fitting tributes on gravestones.

Acts 13:36: “Having served their generation faithfully, by the will of God they fell asleep.” W.H. Collier [1837-1907]
1 Corinthians 15:54: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Thomas B. Baldwin [1816-1855]
2 Corinthians 5:8: “Absent from the body - now present with the Lord.”
Robert Walter Trotter, Sr. [1931-1987]
Hebrews 4:9: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Rest weary pilgrims. How precious that rest promised to the good and faithful. Loved loved ones, strive to obtain this rest."
Elizabeth Shaw [1812-1882]
Dr. Seaborn Saffold [1789-1859]
Hebrews 11:4: “She being dead yet speaketh.”;
"Tho dead, she yet speaketh.”
Mary Morton Wingfield [1798-1851]
Julia A. Burney [1809-1844]
Hebrews 11:25: “She chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season.”
Frances Sturges Wingfield [1824-1846]
Isaiah 40:11: "He will carry the lambs in his bosom."
Job 14:12: “Rest, my child, in hope until the Heavens shall be no more.” Anna C. Arnold [1845-1860]
Job 16:18-19: “O earth, cover not thou my blood and let my cry have no place. My witness is in Heaven, and my record is on high.”
Augustus P. Rea [xx-1851]
Job 19:26: “In my flesh shall I see God.”
Alfred Eubanks [1799-1857]
2 Kings 4:26: “It is well with the child.”
Gazaway E Crawford [1850-1853]

Luke 8:52 / Matthew 9:24: “She was a faithful wife and kind mother and a devoted Christian, and died praising God and said let my epitaph be ‘Not dead but sleepeth’.”; “She is not dead, but sleepeth.”
Frances Shields [1794-1883]
Caroline M. C. Ray Burnett [1823-1864]
Mark 11:22: “Have faith in God.”
Lillie Ackerman [1856-1893]
Mark 14:8: “She hath done what she could.”
Numbers 23:10: "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his.”
Charter Campbell {xxxx-xxxx]
Proverbs 4:18: “The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Mary E. Baker [XXXX-1849], Adam G. Saffold [1784-1850]
Proverbs 16:31: “The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness.”
Susanna Taylor [1768-1846]
Psalm 116:15: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.”
Joice H. Wittich [1782-1826]
Dr. John Wingfield [1791-1857]
Cynthia Killian [1807-1875]
Hawesie Vickers Moore[1893-1920]
Psalm 127:2: "In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves" or “He giveth his beloveth sleep.”
Julia S. Saffold [1799-1877]
Anna Mabel Hilsman [1868-1889]
2 Samuel 12:23: “We shall go to him but he will not return to us.”
Orrin H. Markham [1853-1853]