Read ‘Spoon River Anthology,’ short poems about people in the local cemetery. Many of them died young from infections that are easily treated today or from tetanus, which is generally avoided.
It’s sad to think of the young lives cut short by the little accidents of life that we don’t give two thoughts about today.
My wife and I like to visit the small and old cemeteries around here. There are many that have, sometimes, ten or more graves from the SAME FAMILY, all of infants that died within the first year, or even week, of infancy.
But in those days there was also a stronger Christian conviction that this life is only temporary and quality was more important than length. People accepted that life was risk, but temporary anyway.
It is that mindset that would cause people to homestead the west, living hours (or even days) from the nearest other non-indians. And evry now and then, the indians, like a drug cartel, would come through and wipe them out.
Modern Americans can’t even imagine the mind set of such people who would take such risk. Most can’t, anyway. It’s why I get annoyed by people that judge our forefathers based on modern sensibilities.