This is a view of Kilmory on the north end of Rum, which is visited in chapter 28 of book 1. At the center is the burial ground, and far off to the upper right the peaks of Hallival and Askival can be seen.
The Kilmory burial ground has an ancient
cross-stone. There is also another historic stone here, one that marks the
grave of the Matheson children. Murdoch Matheson had been the Kilmory shepherd
from 1855 to 1875. As of September
7, 1873 , the Matheson’s had eleven children. Over the next three
days they lost five to diphtheria. The tombstone, inscribed with all those
young names, is a grim reminder of island life a century ago.
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| Matheson Tombstone |
REBECCA WHO DIED SEPT
1873
AGED 18 YEARS
JOHN WHO DIED SEPT 1873
AGED 12 YEARS
CHRISTINAANN WHO DIED SEPT 1873
AGED 8 YEARS
MURDO WHO DIED SEPT 1873
JOHN WHO DIED SEPT 1873
AGED 12 YEARS
CHRISTINA
AGED 8 YEARS
MURDO WHO DIED SEPT 1873
AGED 6 YEARS
WILLIAM JOHN WHO DIED
SEPT 1873
AGED 4 YEARS
AGED 4 YEARS
BETWEEN THE 7th AND THE
9th OF SEPT 1873
ARCHIBALD DUNCAN WHO
DIED APRIL 1871
AGED
7 MONTHS
SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN
TO COME UNTO ME
IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
That is so poignant. We missed that on our visit to Rum, it's a good job you never visit Rum just once! www.mark-ten.blogspot.co.uk
ReplyDeleteI have just stumbled across this after seeing a photo of the Matheson headstone among papers that are being used by a family member to put the family tree together. I knew of the deaths of the children before Murdoch arrived in New Zealand, but when you see it, and read the names and realise it all happened over three days, it is indeed numbing!
ReplyDeleteI have really glad to have found this and will pass on to family members. My mother's aunt married
Dougald Matheson in 1897, in the ChCh Hyndman home and moved to Central Otago, farming. My mother, and indeed my siblings and I recall staying at "Attadale" the sheep station, with the original little house still there (in the 1950 and 1960s.
Gendy Ritzema