Smurthwaite, Mildred Brown (1905-1923)

(Mildred is the aunt of the contributor, Richard Neal Heywood.)  

Mildred Brown Smurthwaite

       
         Birth:  13 Dec 1905, Wellsville, Cache, Utah
               Father:  Alfred Smurthwaite
               Mother:  Margaret Ellen Brown
          Death:  23 Nov 1923, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Utah
   

Utah Death Index, 1905-1951      Name: Mildred Brown Smurthwaite      Death Date: 23 November, 1923      Statefilenumber: 1923004283      Gender: Female      Age: 17      County of Death: Salt Lake

     When she was 8 she fell from a tree with resulting paralysis.  She died shortly before her 18th birthday.

Mildred Brown Smurthwaite (1905-1923)

Excerpt from American Family and American Home, Stories of an Evolving Wellsville Home by Kathleen J. Hanna

"The children enjoyed the home and the surrounding fields. They often climbed the trees and swam in the creek, and in a pond in the lower field. They also relished the fruit from an orchard east of the large barn, and enjoyed their mother s’roses and other flowers.
"One day, eight year old Mildred fell from a tree in the lower field. Charles B. Smurthwaite was swimming nearby, and ran for his mother. Maggie came running down the hill to her daughter. Mildred was not crying, but her eyes were big with fear. She had no pain, but she could not move her legs, or feel them, and she could not get up. Maggie sent one of the children for help, and gathered the husky eight year old into her arms and carried her across the pasture, up the hill, past the barn and two chicken coops, past the big Box Elder tree, and along the boardwalk to the house. In the early 1900's, little was known about spinal cord injury, or the necessity to avoid moving the injured person. Mildred did not recover the use of her legs, and a short time later the family moved to Salt Lake City to obtain better medical care for her. Despite this sacrifice, Mildred died in the 1920's, as a teenager."

Excerpt from Margaret Smurthwaite, Our Mother written by Alfred and Phyllis Heywood--The accidents and deaths of Mildred and her brother, Armand,  

"This love and affection within the home surely must have aggravated the pain caused by the loss of two of her (Margaret Smurthwaite's) eight siblings due to accidents.  Margaret often spoke with a certain wistfulness of her sister, Mildred, who was paralyzed from a fall from a tree at 8 years of age and died of complications when she was almost 18.  She remembered with sadness the Thanksgiving Day accident that took the life of her beloved brother, Armand.  He was just two years older than she, and was a great companion.  They had much fun together.  He would dance with her at the children's dances, and at home would practice the dance steps with her to give her confidence.  When it was his turn to select players for his side in active games like "Prisoner's Base" and Baseball he would choose her.  One can understand the terrible void that his passing left for her."

Wellsville Home

Utah Death Certificate, Utah History Research Center, 300 S. Rio Grande St., Salt Lak City, UT 84101-1182, www.historyresearch.utah. Gov/.

    Smurthwaite, Mildred Brown b 13 Dec 1905, Wellsville, Utah age 17y 11m 10 d.  Father:  Alfred 
    Smurthwaite b England.  Mother Margaret E. Brown b Utah.  Death:  23 Nov 1923, Salt Lake City, Salt       Lake, Utah.  Cause of Death:  Tubercular Meningitis.  Contributory:  Chronic discharging sinus right                   buttock.  Informant:  Alfred Smurthwaite.

Find A Grave Link