Rhoda Walton's youngest sibling - "Infant of Eliza Jane Hall Walton - 1864"

 "Just a bunch of old names and dates on stones," is one way to look at a cemetery. A few minutes thinking about those names and dates exposes stories, human interest stories, tragic stories - the whole gamut of being human.

This is a story I did not have until we visited the Hall-Walton cemetery in Jennings County, Indiana in 2010. There we found the gravestone of the tenth child of Isaiah and Rhoda, a child my Mother did not have in her records and I'd seen this child mentioned nowhere else. I never heard Maggie tell this story and she had a pretty good handle on this kind of thing.

This child, gender unknown, is listed as Infant of Eliza Jane Hall Walton 1864, a child who died before being named. Next to the baby's grave was the grave of his (or her) mother and Rhoda's mother, Eliza Jane (Hall) Walton.

We aren't absolutely certain, but evidence points to the case that Eliza died in childbirth in late October of 1864. Perhaps she had the baby earlier in the year, but it is reasonable to guess that Eliza died at age 47 with  her tenth baby, six years after George, her ninth.

Our Rhoda (Walton) Rowlison was 21 years old when her mother died. George was six, John was 9, Luke 13, James 16 and Sara 18. The Civil War was on and Rhoda was corresponding with James at this time.

The family of Eliza Jane Hall from her great grandparents through her children including our ancestor Rhoda.

So, how were Eliza's children impacted by the experience of losing their mother and their youngest sibling? We can't know the immediate impact, but for the most part, her nine offspring tended to have smaller, or no families, except for the one we care about most. Rhoda went onto exceed her mother having eleven children through Ethel who was born when Rhoda was 45.