Death of four children of George W. Ferguson and Viola Bell Sparks???
I recently received an obituary for Viola Bell Sparks Ferguson, who died in 1931. In that obituary, it refers to the fact that she and George W. Ferguson had nine children together but that four of them - two sons and two daughters - died "49 years ago". This would put their deaths in 1882.
I am wondering if there is anyone who is familiar with this family or may have run across a news item that would have referred to the deaths of these four children. I believe their names to be Robert D (b 1874), Mary M (b 1878), Loretta (b 1877), and another son for which I do not have a name but who was born in 1880.
Was there an epidemic of some kind in the area? An accident of some kind that took all four? Any help in determining what may have happened to these children would be greatly appreciated!
Census records put this family in Hancock County, Illinois, in this time period. George's brother, John S. Ferguson and his wife, Alice Young, also lived in the county.