Mercy Brown

In December of 1883, Mary Eliza, the wife of George T. Brown, a respected farmer in Exeter, died of consumption. Seven months later, his daughter, Mary Olive, succumbed to the same disease at the age of twenty. Within a few years, his only son, Edwin, began to show the signs of consumption, gradually losing his strength, color and appetite. Alarmed, Mr. Brown took Edwin to the doctor, knowing too well from previous experience that a diagnosis of consumption was the equivalent of a death sentence. By this time his daughter, nineteen year-old Mercy Lena, had contracted the disease, too. Her consumption was of the "galloping" variety, for she quickly passed away in January of 1892. Her unembalmed corpse was either buried in the family plot at Chestnut Hill cemetery or, more likely, stored in the stone crypt awaiting burial after the spring thaw.

Text © Dr. Michael Bell