This week I’m bringing you another terrible story, this one concerning the death of my fourth cousin 4 times removed, Reuel (or Ruel) U. Babcock, who died when he was two years old. Reuel was the son of John Hill and Willametta Jane (Platts) Babcock and was born on 6 August 1874 in Farina, Fayette County, Illinois. His maternal grandmother came from the Seventh Day Baptist line of Davises. His father served in the 8th Regiment, Iowa, Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War.
John and Willametta were married on 8 April 1871 in Welton, Iowa, and had a total of four children, two daughters and two sons. Ethel, born in 1872 in Welton, lived until 1957; Eleanor, born in 1878, lived until 1948. Sadly, Reuel’s younger brother Royal, born three months before Reuel’s death, would also die in childhood, in 1882 at age five. Eleanor was born in North Loup, Nebraska, and this is where the remaining family members were enumerated in the 1880 census. In 1900 John, Willametta, and Eleanor were enumerated in Milton, Wisconsin. John and “Metta” were still in Milton in 1910 and 1920. John died in Milton in 1926; in 1930 Metta was living on her own, still in Milton, and she died there in 1936.
The Seventh Day Baptist newsletter, The Sabbath Recorder, provides us the sad but succinct account of Reuel’s death. It notes simply that he died in Farina, Illinois, on 1 December 1876 of “accidental scalding” at the age of 2 years, 3 months, and 25 days. Reuel was buried in the Farina Cemetery.
I’ve found no additional details to explain exactly what happened to Reuel or to his brother Royal. John and Metta do make an appearance in the North Loup Loyalist in 1921 in a commemoration of their golden wedding anniversary. This article notes that they were married at the end of a Sabbath morning service, and that John’s sister Lottie was married at the same time, to Mr. A. L. Clarke. It further notes that in their later years they were affectionately known by many as “Uncle Johnny” and “Aunt Metta.” According to the article, Metta had written a letter to the editor concerning the anniversary and stated they had received over 100 postcards and letters of congratulations. She also noted of their early years of living in North Loup, “The privations of the pioneer life did not seem hard to us. We looked forward to better times, and in God’s providence they came.”