It was brought to my attention some time ago that in the Smithwick Cemetery there are the graves of 6 children that died during a very short period of time.

They all died within 4 years. I found several oddities about this. If they had all died at the same time, perhaps the plague or a house fire may have been the cause. But they died in groups of 2.

A boy 8 and a boy 4 died on the same day, Feb. 9, 1859.

Three years later a little girl 5 and a little boy almost 4 died just one day apart on Jan. 7th and 8th in 1862.

Later that year another boy 2 died on Dec. 16, 1862 and 24 days later a boy almost 14 died on Jan. 9th, 1863.

I guess this says something about how difficult times were in those days. All six deaths happened in the coldest months of the year.

There appears to have been 2 other children that survived until adulthood and each had large families.

The graves of these children, including their Mother, Mary were originally buried in the Georgetown, Texas area and were relocated to Smithwick when Lake Georgetown was built in the late 1970’s.

The father, Daniel Brown Boultinghouse it is believed died during the Civil War while he was in Galveston, in 1864 at age 35. He was cremated. The mother died in 1866 at age 37.

It just seems like unbelievable circumstances befell that family during a short period of time.