1882 was a Tough Year for Edward Haught

At the bottom right of the chart above is my husband, Larry C. Jamison, You can see that his paternal grandmother was Rhea Haught, the daughter of Lafayette F. and Priscilla Yost Haught. This post is about Lafayette Haught's uncle and aunt, Edward and Catherine Haught. 

I subscribe to "The John Haught Family" site on Tribal Pages and this morning received an email with family birthday reminders that are found on this site. I usually delete the email due to time constraints but since today's Saturday, I took time to go to the site and look around again. I found information for which I need to submit corrections, but also found information that I'm able to add to my database. There are a lot of supporting documents available on the site.

This chart above shows that Edward Haught and his wife Catherine Haught are first cousins, both grandchildren of Jacob Henry and Mary Magdalena Cannon Haught. 

Edward and Catherine's family is shown in this group sheet above. As I was reading about the family on The John Haught Family site this morning, I learned these heart-breaking facts:
5 Feb 1882, daughter Bertha was born
14 Mar 1882, mother Catherine died at age 35 of Scarlet Fever
1 Apr 1882, 7 year old daughter Martha died of Scarlet Fever, just 17 days after her mother's death
5 Aug 1882, 6 month old baby daughter Bertha died of unknown causes

So in less than 5 months, Edward Haught lost his wife and 2 daughters. He was suddenly a single father to: 
Harriett, age 12
Phebe, age 10
Prudence, age 8
Jacob, age 3 
and Peter "Kinsey", age 2

I see in the 1900 census at Bettelle, Monongalia West Virginia, four of his adult children are still living at home: Harriett, single at age 30 (she died 9 years later), Phebe, single at age 28, Jake, single at 21, and Kinsey, single at age 20. Also living in the household were Edward's mother Nancy, widowed and age 76, and the single 20 year old Rena Simpson, a boarder, along with 4 year old Alice Simpson, boarder. 

Elder Allan F. Packer of the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tells us "Family History is about the Hearts before the Charts". This quick research today drives home that point. The charts show us names, dates, and places, but the documents reveal the details of the lives, the trials, the illnesses and the heartache that our ancestors suffered and endured. Edward Haught endured life as a widow for more than 50 years after he lost his wife, infant daughter Bertha, and 7 year old daughter Martha. When Edward died at age 86, he had also survived daughter Harriett, who died in 1908 at age 39, daughter Phebe, who died at age 41 in 1913, and son Jacob, who died in 1930 at age 51. 

When we look closely at the facts, our hearts are drawn to this family as we realize their heartaches from the losses they suffered.