26. Child's Dress
This red cotton child’s dress was worn by Ann Maria Jones, who died of typhoid on August 12, 1846, two months before her sixth birthday. A simple dress trimmed with white piping and ornamental bodice buttons, it is labeled “Little Ann Maria’s dress. she was Grandma Jones’ oldest child. died with typhoid and effects of too much calomel, age 6 years.” “Grandma Jones” was Mary Ann Dawson (1815-1855), wife of David Trundle Jones. Ann Maria was born and died in Dawsonville, as was her mother. They are buried together at Monocacy Cemetery at Beallsville with many of the Dawson family.
Little Ann Maria Jones died two years before the birth of her first cousin John Lawrence Dawson (1848-1926), who with his wife, Amelia, and their children, were the Dawsons who would later share the Beall-Dawson House in Rockville with their Beall cousins.
Typhoid is a bacterial infection usually brought on by contaminated food or water often resulting from poor sanitation or hygiene. The White House deaths of President William Henry Harrison in 1841 and Willie Lincoln in 1862 are attributed to typhoid. Calomel, or mercury chloride, was one treatment, the toxicity of which was not recognized until the end of the 19th century.