Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1876 — Sorrow by the Wayside. [ARTICLE]

Sorrow by the Wayside.

A family from Southern Kansas, consisting of a husband, wife and three children, passed through this city in a covered wagon yesterday afternoon, and the following sad chapter in their history was related by the man: He stated that they left Kansas on the Ist of March, with the intention of Joining a number of families, formerly from Kansas, who are now living in Brown County. They traveled rapidly, and met with no misliaps until last Sunday morning, when their little babe, aged about eighteen months, was suddenly taken ill and died. The grief of the poor mother on the death of her child knew no bounds; in fact, she became temporarily insane, and when her husband wished to bury the body of the infant she clutched it wildly in her arms and fled from him and hid herself in the woods, where she remained over night alone with the corpse. It was not until nearly noon on the following day that he finally found her. She was so completely exhausted by that lime that he had but little difficulty in taking her back to the wagon. She was induced to take some nourisnment, and soon after fell asleep. While she lay sleeping the little corpse was placed in a roughly-constructed box, and the father and children buried it under a live-oak free by the roadside. The mother slept several hours, and awoke with her mind restored. She assisted her husband in building a fence around tlia lone little grave, and then, with many backward glances, the afflicted family pursued their' weary 'journey. —Waco (Tex.) Examiner.