Mary Adaline Graham was the second daughter and fifth child of John and Tildy Graham, born on 21 December 1897 in Red River Township, Searcy County, Arkansas.

Mary appeared only on the 1900 census at the age of two, recorded with the rest of the family on the farm in Red River Township.

On 16 October 1905,  Mary died.  The span of her short life was seven years and 10 months.  Mary was interred at Shady Grove Cemetery in Searcy County, Arkansas.

Variations

On the 1900 census, Mary’s birthdate appears to have been transcribed as February (written atop January) 1898. The John Henry Graham Family Data Sheet reported her birthdate as 21 December 1898. That’s a variation of eleven months! Mary’s grave marker recorded it as 21 December 1897, which better corresponds to the date estimate given on the 1900 census.

Questions

What was the circumstance of Mary’s death?

The John Henry Graham Family Data Sheet reported Mary’s place of burial as Webbers Falls, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma.  However, I have stood before Mary’s grave marker in Shady Grove Cemetery, Searcy County, Arkansas. Was Mary originally interred in Oklahoma then re-interred in Arkansas, or does the Arkansas grave marker represent a symbolic memorial? Or, was the recorder of the family bible data in error?

Sources

Ancestry.com:  United States Federal Census of 1900;  Grimes Family Tree.

Find A Grave:  Memorial for Mary A Graham.

John Henry Graham Family Data Sheet by Nellie Collins Allen, as transcribed from the Graham Family Bible.

Grave marker photographed by Ashli B. Graham on 4 June 2011 at Shady Grove Cemetery, Searcy County, Arkansas.