Charles Martin

Charles Martin was the seventh of the fourteen children of Nathaniel Martin and Hannah Strader. He was named in honor of his uncle, Charles Alexander Martin. (It is possible he had his uncle’s middle name, too, but no surviving records have him as anything but Charles Martin.)

Like all too many of his siblings, Charles died very young. He was born 16 August 1855 and died 31 May 1858, his lifetime spent entirely in Martintown, WI. There is an old family tale that one of Nathaniel and Hannah’s children strayed from the yard as a toddler and fell into the Pecatonica River and drowned. If this report is accurate, Charles must have been the child in question. However, the tale may have arose because his first cousin Anna Frame is alledged to have drowned at a similar age in 1847 in the river right below where the Martin family settled into their house in 1850.

Charles is buried in the Martin family cemetery.

Shown is the reverse side of the gravemarker of Nathaniel and Hannah Martin. Photograph taken 2 November 2005 by Dave Smeds. This marker, the largest in the Martin cemetery, was used not only for the couple but for five of their children -- all ones who died as infants or toddlers. The inscriptions devoted to William and Christa Belle (Christie B.) are positioned on the two sides, while the back commemorates Charles, James Franklin, and Hannah.

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