Wednesday, April 17, 2013

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 252: Devier David Carringer in 1889

I'm posting family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they aren't Wordless Wednesday posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is a photograph from the Seaver/Carringer family photograph collection passed to me by my mother in the 1988 to 2002 time period:




This is a photograph of Devier David Carringer, born 19 August 1889 in San Diego, the first son of Henry Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer.  Unfortunately, he died on 10 May 1890.  

This photo is of a baby aged about six months or so - he is alert and responsive, just a beautiful child (aren't they all at this age?).  

I have a remembrance card for Devier that says:

"One less at home, 

The charmed circle broken -- a dear face missed 
day by day from its usual place. 
But cleansed, saved, perfected by grace, 
One more in heaven.

"One less on earth, 
its pain, its sorrow, and its toil to share. 
One less the pilgrim's daily cross to bear. 
One more the crown of the blessed to wear, 
At home in heaven."

I wondered if that was from some sort of book or publication.  I found a longer poem (the above was just two stanzas of a longer poem) on Google Books from 1885 -  in The Home and School Supplement, Volumes 3-4.  My guess is that Della Carringer had this book in her library.

Devier David was named after his two grandfathers, Devier James Smith (1839-1894) and David Jackson Carringer (1828-1902).  

Austin and Della Carringer had one more child, Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976), my grandfather.  

The death of Devier David Carringer was a family trauma - according to my grandfather, Austin and Della renounced religion and were humanists the rest of their lives.  This affected Lyle and his daughter, my mother, Betty (Carringer) Seaver in their life outlook also.  They were tolerant of religion, but didn't practice it.

I've often wondered what the Carringer family would have been like if Devier David Carringer had survived childhood, married and had children.  My mother would have had cousins!  I would have had cousins.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/04/not-so-wordless-wednesday-post-252.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

1 comment:

Mariann Regan said...

What a moving poem on the remembrance card. Religion worked to console some people, but as in your example, not everyone. I'm sad to see so many children dying in my own family research of the 1700s and 1800s.

True, all children are beautiful at that age -- but not all are quite so beautiful as Devier. What a smile. What a love of life.