Gravestone for the Infant Children of Isaac
and Hannah Arnett
Courtesy:
Penny Colman Collection
First
Presbyterian Church Burial Grounds, Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Gravestone
for the Infant Children of Isaac and Hannah Arnett
This gravestone is a reminder of the high rate of infant mortality in
the 1700s. It marks the grave of three children of Isaac and Hannah
Arnett, who died at the ages of 3 months, 6 months and on the day of
birth. The inscription reads: HERE lie the Bodies of three Children Of
Isaac & Hannah Arnett Elizabeth Ann, died April 6th A.D. 1758 Aged 3
Months, Abigail died December 1 A.D. 1766. Aged 11 Months John was Born
& died Sept 6 A.D. 1770.
Infant mortality rates remained high well
into the twentieth century. For example, a 1925 study conducted in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania found that one of every three babies born died young. The situation improved throughout the 1930s and 1940s with
advances in medicine, improvements in sanitary toilet facilities and
clean drinking water, and public health education for pregnant women and
mothers.