Richard or Raymond??

Exerpt from Newspaper article - Central City Republican-Nonpareil, 23 Mar 1989 "In the spring of 1891 Mike and Lillie received a letter from Kansas City, MO with the news that Kate's (correction: Eva's)young son Walter had died of Diphtheria. Six-year-old Mammie was so deeply hurt by the death of her cousin Walter, she mourned his loss and carried her Aunt Kate's(Eva's?) letter with her for days.

Lillie watched her little girl grow weak and listless as the days went by and she found there was nothing she could do to ease her childs grief. Before Lillie and Mike's eyes, Mammie was sick with the same disease that had taken the life of their nephew! It was unheard of that the deadly disease could be transmitted by a letter from one infected family to a previously uninfected community.

One by one the five youngest McMahon children age 6-years and under, including their six-month-old baby boy, Raymond (Richard?), became infected with diphtheria. During the outbreak of the childhood disease Mike and Lillie's oldest daughters, Liz and Rose, had been staying with friends in a near by house in Irishtown. There the girls continued to stay until the crisis passed. The McMahon household was quickly quarantined, saving the rest of the community from the deadly disease.

As the war against the disease raged on in the household, the community of Irishtown held its breath. It was well known that a single outbreak could rip through an entire community striking down youngsters, and claiming the precious little lives. The fears of other parents were very real, parents tried to recall which one of their youngsters had last played with the McMahon children as horrors played on in their minds. Amazingly! no other child in the community was taken down by the disease.

The McMahon neighbors brought warm dishes of food and left them on the front porch for Lillie or Mike to take inside their hushed house. Inside their home that before rang loud with children's voices, Lillie and Mike waged war against the merciless disease. Quietly the fever raged on in the bodies of their babies. Helplessly, Lillie watched as the fever suddenly claimed the life of little Mammie. One by one Lillie witnessed the deaths of her children. One by one small bundled bodies were laid on the front porch for neighbors to take away to the cemetery.

Frantically Lillie fought to save the lives of her remaining children, but tearfully she lost them all. In the spring of 1891 five small headstones were placed in the Catholic section of the Lone Tree (Central City) Cemetery, all bearing the last name of McMahon. The oldest girls returned to a quiet subdued home that was once filled with little voices and laughter."