posted by Sandy on Stories Within Stories

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Lydia is such a pretty name.  In fact we have a granddaughter named Lydia.  The same age as Lydia Viola was when she died of cholera at the age of four.  Lydia was the oldest child of Jerome Timothy and Mary June Reynolds Watrous.  She was born in the tiny farming community of Terre Haute in Henderson County, Illinois.  Her home was just a few miles from LaHarpe.    Her younger brother Henry was born not long after her.  Henry is our direct ancestor.  Her sister Sarah Rebecca was born a year before she died.  It is hard to imagine the anguish of the death of a child.  Cholera was a killer then and still is in much of the world where the cleanliness of water cannot be guaranteed.

Lydia Viola Watrous was buried in the Painter Family Cemetery.  She joined her grandparents Henry Reynolds and Sarah Painter.  Her mother joined her in 1893 and her father Jerome in 1904.  The remains of Lydia Viola, her parents, her grandparents and numerous extended family members were moved to The Terre Haute City Cemetery sometime after 1904.  She rests between her parents and near her grandparents.  Their graves are marked with a large stone which reads Reynolds/Watrous. Each person has a small marker with a name and two dates.

Tags: cemeteries, cholera, illinois, Painter, Reynolds, Watrous