1888 Flora Mae Brumback 1890
1887 Mary Emeline Adams was 15 when she married Richard Brumback a "Handsome man with dark hair and soft brown eyes." They had a baby girl Flora, born in 1888 and a son John was born the following year.
1890
"A never ending stream of black buggy
hearsts passed down the street punctuated only occasionally by a white one."
Mary would often retell the story when 18 month old Flora became ill. Of sending for a doctor who told them he could not help, "sponge her and give her fluids". How on the third night Floras temperature had risen suddenly in spite of the sponge baths and devoted efforts. It was late into that night Flora looked up at her Daddy and said "Papa water". He raised her head gently from the pillow to meet the dipper and gently returned it. As the light from a kerosene lamp danced and flickered on the walls of a small room baby Flora closed her eyes forever. Richard and Mary had a studio portrait taken of Flora, after death, which was the custom in those days.
The pain and grief of this loss would always be near.