Forgotten but not Unloved – Norman E. Seaman
He died of starvation at age six weeks.
Norman E. Seaman is another infant without a marker. The Woodlawn Cemetery records say he is buried in Range 18 Lot 53. This is in the grassy area between the Cady Family Stone at Lot 52 and the rough-hewn Holt Family Stone and the large Barnes Family Stone at Lots 59 and 60.
He died of starvation at age six weeks.1
Norman’s father, Henry E. Seaman, was not poor. While he didn’t own his home, he was steadily working as a plumber and his older children lived to adulthood.2 Norman should have been the easiest to nourish as he was breastfeeding.
And that was possibly the problem, his mother, Elizabeth Varnum, was most likely not producing sufficient milk. Even today, breastfeeding mothers can be unaware that their infant is starving.3
In 1853, Gale Borden developed condensed milk which became a popular infant food, until John B. Myerling developed an unsweetened version in 1885 he labeled evaporated milk.4
Baby bottles had also improved over the years. In 1905 the Hygeia Nursing Bottle, the company claimed, “The rubber part is so like the human breast in size and shape that in weaning or when natural supply is low, baby will go from breast to the Hygeia bottle without noticing the difference.”5
Norman was born in January 1905 so formula and bottles were available. But lack of breast milk is not the only medical cause of infant starvation. Congenital defects in the intestines or heart can also cause infants to fail to thrive.6
The Seaman family left Nashua and moved to Portsmouth where Henry got work at the Naval shipyard.7 As Muriel and Ralph Seaman were very young when their brother Norman died, they probably didn’t remember his short life and after their parents’ deaths, there was no one left to care about a small unmarked grave in Nashua. But while there is no grave marker, Norman’s life was not unremarked. His death was announced in the local paper and a private funeral was held at his home.8
Illustrations:
Advertisement for The C. H. Avery Co., Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), 18 May 1905, Evening Edition, p. 1, col. 5; imaged, Nashua Public Library (http://nashua.advantage-preservation.com : accessed 27 December 2024).
Advertisement for the Hygeia Baby Nursing Bottle, The Boston Advertiser (Boston, Massachusetts), 8 April 1923, advertising section, unpaginated, cols. 5 & 6; imaged, MyHeritage (https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10704-5277850/the-boston-advertiser : accessed 30 May 2024), image 81 of 92.
“U.S. Navy Yard– Portsmouth, N.H.,” postcard (Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Canny’s Music Store, ca. 1905); imaged, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/item/2005680016/ : accessed 31 May 2024). Colorized at MyHeritage.com.
Woodlawn photo by John and Deborah Carl.
Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, original death certificates 1864–1915, March 1905 deaths, unnumbered, organized alphabetical by date, Norman E. Seaman, 5 March 1905; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3HS-C9V7-K : accessed 30 May 2024), 008627105, image 1610; citing Nashua City Hall, Nashua, New Hampshire.
1900 U.S. census, York County, Maine, population schedule, Sanford Town, Springvale Village, ED 251, 21A, dwelling 30, family 34, Mary Hanson’s boarding house; imaged in “United States Census, 1900,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-63J9-SW1: accessed 30 May 2024), 004120203, image 3. Also, 1910 U.S. census, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, population schedule, Nashua Ward 2, ED 162, 14B, dwelling 313, family 333, Henry E. Seaman household; imaged in “United States Census, 1910,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRK3-SG4: accessed 30 May 2024), 004972833, images 32–33. Also, New Hampshire, Index to Marriages 1901-1937, not numbered, organized by groom’s surname, card for Frank E. Paterson and Muriel E. Seaman, 25 June 1927; imaged in “New Hampshire Mariage Records, 1637-1947,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DK4Q-2W: accessed 30 May 2024), 004245727, image 982; citing New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics, Concord. Also, Maine, Index to Vital Records 1892 through 1907, not numbered, organized by surname, Record of a Birth, Ralph Henry Seaman, 12 December 1902; imaged in "Maine Vital Records, 1670-1921," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939K-RPN2-V: accessed 30 May 2024), 004703872, image 2496; citing Maine State Board of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, Augusta. Also, “U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947,” imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44016_05_00138-00026 : accessed 30 May 2024), image 27, registration card for Ralph Henry Seaman, serial number 000554, Local Draft Board, Newton (Middlesex), Massachusetts.
Kate Seamons, “Breastfeeding Mom Didn’t Know She Was Starving Her Baby to Death,” 7 March 2017, USA Today (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/03/07/breastfeeding-mom-starves-her-baby-death/98843838/: accessed 30 May 2024). Also, Kavin Senapathy, “Beware of Accidentally Starving Your Breastfed Newborn, Warns the Fed is Best Foundation,” 27 September 2016, Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kavinsenapathy/2016/09/27/beware-of-accidentally-starving-your-breastfed-newborn/ : accessed 30 May 2024).
Emily E. Stevens, Thelma E. Patrick, and Rita Pickler, “A History of Infant Feeding,” The Journal of Perinatal Education, vol. 18, Spring 2009, issue 2, 32-39, transcribed at National Library of Medicine (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2684040/ : accessed 9 August 2023).
Advertisement for the Hygeia baby bottle, imaged at PeriodPaper (https://www.periodpaper.com/products/1905-ad-hygeia-baby-nursing-bottles-feeding-milk-infant-mother-nipple-buffalo-101129-lhj6-082: accessed 30 May 2024).
Walter Nützenadel, “Failure to Thrive in Childhood,” originally published in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, September 2011, 108(38): 642-649; abstracted at National Center for Biotechnology Information (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198227/ : accessed 31 May 2024). Also, “Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD),” Mayo Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ventricular-septal-defect/symptoms-causes/syc-20353495 : accessed 31 May 2024).
1930 U.S. census, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, population schedule, Portsmouth, ED 37, 15A, dwelling 378, family 409, Henry E. Seaman household; imaged in “United States Census, 1930,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RZZ-9M1L: accessed 31 May 2024), 004951893, image 29.
“Deaths: Norman E. Seaman,” Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire), 7 March 1903, p. 5, col. 1; imaged, Nashua Public Library (http://nashua.advantage-preservation.com : accessed 27 December 2024).