Died – Martha May Gilliam, at the home of her parents, Mrs. and Mrs. J. Gilliam, four miles west of Blair, on January 6th, 1890, aged 18 years, 8 months and 13 days.

Martha May Gilliam was born in Washington County, Neb., on the 19th day of April, 1871. She joined the Christian Church on August 25th, and was baptized September 1st, 1889, and lived a true and devoted Christian life from that time until her death. She was well-known and loved by everyone in the community. Her death is a sad blow to her parents and many warm hearted friends and associates.

This is the first fatal case of the Russian disease, La Grippe, in this county. Dr. Sherman, of Blair, was her physician. Prayer service was held at her home, and her remains were interred in the Cuming City Cemetery. She was ill only two days.

Courier 25 Jan 1890

We Stand Corrected.

In the Courier of two weeks ago appeared the obituary of Miss Martha M. Gilliam, whose death occurred a few days previous from la grippe. In our comments we stated that Dr. Sherman, of Blair, was her physician. This was a mistake as Dr. Sherman had not seen her for two weeks prior to her death, and for fear of unconsciously doing an injustice to Dr. Sherman, we make the correction. So far as we know the Dr. has not lost a single case from this terrible scourge, and he had more than sixty cases of it under his treatment at the time we wrote the obituary.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska. ~~~

FindaGrave #222941155