Robert, Baby Pearl - The Calls 1896-1915-1934

None of our children are mischievous as some are but Robert had a season before he was two years old, when he did some funny, and troublesome things. I had agreed to board two young ministers who met at our church for the Conference Class - for about a week. While I was preparing a bedroom for them,little Robert came climbing up the stairs. I had set out the water pitcher so as to take it down to fill, but set it back in a room when Robert came up. In a few minutes, however, i head a rolling crash and found he had put the cloth kitty and puppy in the water pitcher, and had rolled them down stairs. 

A few days after, I was very tired, and when, at last, I had finished dinner dishes, I went and tumbled on the couch almost exhausted. I picked up something to read for once was almost oblivious to any surround. I was soon aroused, however, and found that Robert had taken the hair-brush,  and climbed up into a chair in the kitchen and pounded a full bowl of gravy he had knocked it on the floor, and the gravy was scattered far and wide, as well as the pieces of the bowl. 

It was later in the Spring I missed my new low shoes. I looked all around the house, in every place I could think and could find no trace of them. Some days after,  Arthur and Edith were picking flowers by the roadside, and Baby Robert attempted to join them by going across a plowed lot that lay between our house and the corner. I finally called to Edith to help and to also look to see what an object was in the plowed field. She did so, and found my shoes, side by side and uninjured, where the little fellow left them. 

That same summer Fall, Robert was bare footed, and one day his papa was not feeling well, and lay on the couch. Robert noticed there was a sand-burr on his papa's pants. Very carefully he picked it off and dropped it on the floor. A minute after he stepped on the burr. Then he sat down, on the carpet and carefully picked it off from his foot and then carefully replaced it as near as he could, where it was on his papa's pants. 

The next Fall, papa brought home a nice chunk of limberger cheese as I thought I would taste of it even if it was bad smelling. It smell too bad though for any of us to taste, but we urged Robert to take some. He backed off, with shut hands and smiling face and said, "Pigs like dat!" 

When he first saw his tiny twin baby sisters, he tried, as hard as he could to reach one, and said, "My take dolly, my take dolly!"

Our little baby Pearl lived not quite a week, and was buried in the Infant's Plot in the new cemetery in Wichita. Her mama's initials, "L.A.C." are on the tiny stone. Her Grandmas Coe wrote - very sweetly and consolingly that she never thought of the pure little one as lying in the cemetery, but as a bright and happy spirit for everyone and sinless, in the joyous nursery ["of Heaven". She was very white, with blue eyes and light hair, and was very thin, - but we didn't think she was sick. The doctor called her disease "infantine pneumonia" She was very active and bright appearing. The sweet little body was dressed for burial by kind Mrs. Papes and Aunt Sarah procured flowers to scatter about the little form. Her mama sadly mourns her loss, but feels the little darling form a tie to bind us all to the better world. 

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Patty's notes on this entry

Robert - Robert Vincent Call (1892-1961) son of Charles Joslin Call and Elizabeth Ann Coe

I - Elizabeth Ann Coe (1862-1956), daughter of Albert Coe (1827-1907) and Deborah Prentice (1833-1910). She married Charles Joslin Call in 1884, and is the author of this manuscript

Arthur - Charles Arthur Call (1885-1962) son of Charles Joslin Call and Elizabeth Ann Coe

Edith - Edith Alberta Call (1889-1989) daughter of Charles Joslin Call and Elizabeth Ann Coe

papa - Charles Joslin Call (1859-1939), son of Robert Call and Charlotte Joslin, he married Elizabeth Ann Coe (1862-1956) in 1884. 

twin baby sisters - Evelyn Clara  (1895-1962) and Carrie Pearl (1895-1895)

Pearl - Carrie Pearl Call (12 February 1895 - 18 February 1895) daughter of Charles Joslin Call and Elizabeth Ann Coe

cemetery in Wichita - Carrie Pearl was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery, in Wichita, Sedgewick County, Kansas. According to FindAGrave, she is buried in Section C, Lot 129, Grave 2. I visited Maple Grove Cemetery several years ago, and was unable to locate the grave. I was there before the cemetery office opened for the day, so I don't know if I was looking in the right location. Where I was looking did not seem to be an Infant's Plot. I didn't know to look for a tiny stone with the initials L.A.C. on it. 

Grandma Coe - Deborah Prentice (1833-1910) daughter of Southwick Prentice (1800-1876) and Elizabeth (Betsy) Ann Smith (1802-1846). She married Albert Coe in 1850. 

Aunt Sarah - Sarah Frances Ward (1856-1942), daughter of  Charles Kendall Ward (1819-1898) and Laura Caroline Davenport (1822-1876). Sarah married Ezra Frank Coe (1854-1942), Elizabeth Ann Coe's brother in 1883. 

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