‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
Tales from Pioneers + Soldiers Cemetery – Dec. ’23
Mother’s Biased Love and Loyalty Follows Chosen Son to the Grave and Beyond By SUE HUNTER WEIR Much, perhaps too much, has been written about Harry Hayward, the most notorious person buried in the Cemetery. Less has been written about his family. Harry was the youngest of William and Lodusky Hayward’s three sons. He was their golden boy, the son who could do no wrong—except that he orchestrated the murder-for-hire of Catherine (Kitty) Ging.Lodusky Hayward was perhaps the strangest member of the family. She was born in Illinois on August 5, 1836. In 1860, she married William Wirt Hayward. They had three sons: Thadeus, Adry, and Harry. Their only daughter, Williametta, died in 1870 when she was two years old.The Haywards arrived in Minnesota in the 1860s. William became a successful real estate dealer. Thadeus was a dentist, Adry a businessman, and Harry, who had no profession, was best known as a womanizer and gambler. Their lives were disrupted in 1894 when Harry was [...]
With No Vaccines and Antibiotics Thousands Died of Diphtheria
Vaccines and antibiotics have saved countless lives Tales fromPioneers and SoldiersMemorial Cemetery 216th in a Series By SUE HUNTER WEIR More than 800 people buried in the Cemetery, almost 670 of them children, died from diphtheria, a disease that has for the most part disappeared. It was a particularly cruel disease, one that often claimed two or more children of a family’s children within days of each other. Parents stood by watching their children struggling to breathe. So-called doctors and healers claimed to have liniments, ointments, and blood purifiers that guaranteed a 100% chance of a cure but it wasn’t true. There were no antibiotics, no vaccinations, nothing in the way of a cure. Fredricka Renlie, the beautiful little girl second from left, died from diphtheria on July 21, 1914. She was ten years old. She was one of more than 670 children buried in Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery who died from diphtheria. PHOTO: Renlie [...]
Tales: October ’23
Memorial Markers Always Timely No. 215 By SUE HUNTER WEIR Enid Weston wanted to honor the intentions and wishes of her grandparents so she ordered new markers for two of their children. They were children who died more than 100 years ago so she never knew them. Their father died before Enid was born but she was fortunate to have known their mother, the woman that she was named after. Placing a marker is an act of remembrance for those who might otherwise have been forgotten and a gift to the memories of the parents who loved those children. Her grandmother spoke about losing her second child, Everett William Prill, but she never spoke about her first child most likely because he died as a result of being born prematurely on December 4, 1914, the day that he was born. Enid discovered him while she was working on her family’s genealogy. In the Cemetery’s records he is known simply as Baby Boy Prill. Everett died about a year and a-half later, on May 7, 1916. He was 22 [...]
