Census Sunday: PEMBERTON in 1920

1920 U.S. census, St. Clair County, Michigan, population schedule, city of St. Clair (Ward 1), enumeration district (ED) 131, sheet 9B, dwelling 234, family 234, C. Lovell Pemberton household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 December 2005); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 795.

Continuing in the Census Sunday post series, we find my great-great-grandparents, Lovell and Alvina (Lesperance) Pemberton, living at 700 N. Vine St. in St. Clair, St. Clair, Michigan. Lovell was listed as a 41-year-old blacksmith in a factory. Alvina was age 36. Both were listed as born in Michigan.

All children who survived to adulthood were living at home:

Nellie, age 14
John, age 12 (my great-grandfather)
Madaline, age 8
Lovell, age 4
Eva, age 3
Alvina, age 9 months

Sadly, Lovell and Alvina lost four children between 1910 and 1920. Only six of their thirteen children lived to adulthood.

Their fourth child, Charlotte Agnus Pemberton, died 25 Sep 1910 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, Michigan. She was just four months old and died from cholera. 

Their oldest child, Gilbert Lowell Pemberton, died 21 Jun 1913 in Mount Clemens. He died from acute endocarditis at the age of ten. Acute endocarditis is the inflammation of the inner layer of the heart. Rheumatic fever is not listed as a contributory cause of death on his death certificate, but according to Wikipedia, it is the cause of many cases of endocarditis. The death certificate gives his length of illness as six days.

Their sixth child, Myrtie Elva Pemberton, died 15 Sep 1914 in Mount Clemens from intestinal and stomach indigestion. Interestingly, the contributory cause of death was listed as "bottle-fed infant." Did formula in the early 1900s cause the deaths of infants? I need to do some research about the invention of baby formula. Like baby Charlotte four years earlier, she was only four months old when she died. 

Their ninth child, Orville Joseph Pemberton, died 23 Mar 1919 in Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan, from spinal meningitis. He was 11 months old. 

After the 1920 census, Alvina and Lovell lost three more children. 

Their 11th and 12th children were twin boys, James and Joseph, born 22 Mar 1921 in St. Clair. James died immediately on the same day that he was born. His cause of death is given as general anasaica. I'm not sure if the death certificate should have read "anasarca" instead, as I can't find a definition of "anasaica." Anasarca is a swelling of the skin due to an effusion of fluid into the extracellular space. It's usually caused by kidney or liver failure. Joseph died at the age of two on 14 Aug 1923 in Marysville, St. Clair, Michigan, from pneumonia. 

Their 13th child, Adele Christine Pemberton, died at the age of five on 28 Dec 1928 in Port Huron, St. Clair, Michigan. Strep throat is given as her cause of death, but some family notes that I obtained from my uncle several years ago state that a man named Dr. Burch gave her the wrong dose of drugs. I need to look into that a little further.