SAD DEATH ON CHRISTMAS EVE
On Christmas eve Mr. and Mrs. Edward Dietrich of near Gratz were taking their 6 year old daughter, Sarah Ellen Dietrich, to the Harrisburg Hospital, boarding the eight o’clock train here [Elizabethville], the child died in the waiting room of the Millersburg station.
Over three weeks ago the child, who was a pupil of Gises’ School, was successfully vaccinated. After the eighteenth day the bandages were removed and with them came the scab.
The girl was apparently well, attending school up until Thursday evening. On Saturday morning she began to get stiff and complained of her stomach. A physician was sent for, who pronounced her ailment “lock jaw” [tetanus].
The parents, with the girl started for the Harrisburg Hospital immediately, but got no farther than Millersburg where the child succumbed. She was aged 6 years, 6 months and 7 days.
Funeral services were held from her parents’ home two miles west of Gratz [Specktown, Lykens Township] on Tuesday morning. The main services were held in the Lutheran Church at Gratz of which the parents are members. Interment was made in the adjoining cemetery. Rev. W. Z. Artz officiated and Undertaker Buffington had charge of the funeral, the latter having taken the child and her parents back to their home from Millersburg on Christmas eve.
Deceased Sarah Ellen Dietrich, is survived by her parents, seven brothers, all at home except William Dietrich who lives near Gises’ School and Earl Dietrich, who, until lately was an electrician in the Navy, and by two sisters at home. One brother preceded her in death.
As can be seen from the official death certificate, the official cause of death was “tetanus” with “vaccination” as a contributory or secondary cause.
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The photo is cropped from a family snapshot taken about fall of 1921. The obituary is from the Elizabethville Echo, December 29, 1921, via Newspapers.com. The death certificate is from Ancestry.com.
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