Death on the Frontier: Mortality Patterns in Horse Prairie Cemetery, Franklin County (Illinois), 1840-2002

Abstract

This is an analysis of 829 gravestones in Horse Prairie Cemetery, Sesser, Illinois. The cemetery had its first burial in the 1840s. It was the primary cemetery in the area until the early 20th century. The article traces death patterns by decade across sixteen decades. It focuses upon infant morality, gender patterns, age patterns. It detects two major turning points when mortality patterns changed dramatically, at the beginning of the 20th century, and after World War II. It discusses reasons for why those changes occurred.