Barbara Isabel (Wehrly) LeMaster (1869-1930), Dies From Operation, 52 Ancestors # 10

Barbara Isabel (Wehrly) LeMaster

The tenth ancestor in my 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project is my paternal great-grandmother, Barbara Isabel (Wehrly) LeMaster (1869-1930).  Previously, I'd written about the details of her life in an Exploratory Data post.

Barbara is one ancestor that I don't have a lot of insight into - the only photo I have is the one above, which is cropped from a larger family group photo.  She died well before my father was born, so there are really no stories passed down about her.  Her obituary however, gave me the story for this post.

Grandma Barbara went into the hospital for an operation, and didn't come back home.

I do not know how long she was ill, but she was apparently ill enough to undergo surgery at a hospital.  The hospital was in Union City, Indiana, which according to Google maps, is a distance of 15.9 miles.  Union City is intersected by the Indiana-Ohio line, and has a city in Indiana as well as Ohio.  In 1930, the hospital was in the Indiana side.

According to her obituary¹, Barbara had gone into the hospital for an operation to treat gallstones:

Mrs. Barbara I. Lemaster, wife of L.C. Lemaster, of east of Salamonia, died at 4:25 o'clock Thursday evening at the hospital in Union City.  She underwent an operation for gall stones on January 29, and it was thought that she was recovering until she suffered a sudden relapse.....

Portland, Indiana Commercial Review, February 7, 1930

Barbara's death certificate lists her cause of death as cholaemia, with a contributing factor being gall stones².  

Barbara I. Lemaster death certificate, Randolph County, Indiana, 2-7-1930.

The death certificate gives a few clues to how long she had been suffering.  The physician that certified, H.H. Jones of Salamonia, Indiana, stated that he had attended Barbara from October 20, 1929 until her death.

Cholemia was not something that I was familiar with, but the Wikipedia entry for the disease states it is a condition caused by the presence of excess bile in the blood.  Its symptoms can include drowsiness and in extreme cases, coma.  It is often an early sign of liver disease.  Currently untreatable, it is caused by a blood disorder caused by genetic factors.

To my knowledge, I'm not aware of any others in the family suffering from this condition.  She left 12 surviving children and today has numerous descendants.

Barbara was buried at the Salamonia Cemetery in Salamonia, Indiana where she was joined a few years later by her husband, Luman.

Tombstone in Salamonia Cemetery, Salamonia, Indiana

Sources :

1. Mrs. Lemaster Dies Thursday From Operation, Portland Commercial-Review, Portland, Indiana, February 7, 1930, page 1.
2. Ancestry.com. Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA : Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data : Indiana State Board of Health. Death Certificates, 1900-2011. Microfilm.  Indiana Archives and Records Administration, Indianapolis, Indiana., Barbara I. Lemaster, 2-7-1930, Randolph County, Indiana.

The 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge was created by Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small blog.  The premise is to write once a week about a specific ancestor - whether it be a story, a biography, a photograph or a research problem.