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THE LAMBS OF INNOCENCE
Gertie Marx
born May 16, 1877 Bendersville, Pa.
died Nov 7, 1879 Bendersville, Pa.
Minnie May Marx
born May 21, 1873 Bendersville, Pa.
died Oct 24, 1879 Bendersville, Pa.
Two of
the daughters of Jacob and Caroline Marx of Bendersville died within a
fortnight during a diphtheria epidemic in 1879, while a third,
four-year-old Emma, survived only to die in 1882.
Infant mortality was high, and hardly a family saw all its children
grow to adulthood. At least 23 children under the age of 10 are buried
in the Jewish cemetery of Chambersburg.
Many of the headstones from the 1870's and 1880's are decorated with
the figure of a lamb - a
symbol of a child's innocence frequently found in Christian cemeteries
in America, and readily employed by German Jewish immigrants who seem
to have been unaware of its Christian connotations.
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