A Wilson Family Tree
Notes for Maude Campbell Wakeman
From a letter by John Wilson, quoted in the Hotchkiss manuscript:
We that remain of our family are all in good health, but the prettiest and smartest child of her age (5 years 4 months) ever produced in any of our families, Maude Campbell Wakeman, died about two months ago. Playing in our yard with her little associates, how or why we know not, her clothes got on fire from matches at about 1 P.M., and before any of the family knew it, her clothes were literally burned off her. Several doctors were on the ground in a few minutes, who did all they could, but at half past 7 P.M. she fell as it were on sleep, seemingly without pain, and was dead and her spirit in heaven before the sun's rays had fully withdrawn themselves from the tops of the Sierras. This of all others has been our most terrible misfortune of our lives, which has certainly furnished us many, too many misfortunes to name. This will be with us always. She possessed the most remarkable matured mind. She was the preferred leader of all her associates of her own age and was a welcome associate of all who knew her of the girls of 15 or 16 years old.
Had death in his ordinary rounds taken her off, our grief would have been almost inconsolable. As it is, nothing will assuage our grief till we follow after.
Note: Some of the information in these pages is uncertain. Please let me know of errors or omissions using the email link above. ...Mike Wilson
Page generated on 31 October 2023