Was it elephantiasis that killed Alvin Lamb?

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Alvin Lamb's stay in Chariton was relatively brief, in life at least --- about two years. But in death, considerably longer (about 40 years). He now is at rest near this impressive family stone in Marshalltown's Riverside Cemetery, however.

His widow, Amelia, had the deceased attorney and their infant son, Alvin Jr., moved from one location to the other during December of 1913, disinterred in one place on the 17th, reburied in the other on the 19th. Their burial in Chariton is noted with no further information in cemetery records here, but their removal is not. Riverside Cemetery records (many thanks to the staff for checking) provide the dates.

There's little left in Lucas County to serve as a reminder of Alvin, other than his brief will, written on Dec. 15, 1873, as he was preparing to undergo the surgical operation described in the following brief article published in The Chariton Patriot on Christmas Eve of that year:

ELEPHANTIASIS --- Forty-two years ago Alvin Lamb, then a boy of 6 years, at his father's house, in Franklin county, Vermont, had his left leg amputated below the knee. The disease that caused the amputation, having manifested itself when he was about three months old. For twenty one years he walked with a crutch, and twenty-two with an artificial leg. The remaining portion of the limb has been a constant source of trouble to him his whole lifetime and a score of physicians have been consulted in reference to its condition.

It remained, however, for Drs. Heed & Baird, of the Chariton Infirmary, to give a correct diagnosis of the disease, and assign its proper name, Elephantiasis --- so called owing to its resemblance to elephant skin --- a very rare and formidable disease, and one that never fails to destroy or deform its victim.

The Judge, after a careful study of all the works bearing on that subject became convinced that the doctors were right, and consented as a last resort to submit to an operation termed the Legation of the Femoral Artery, which was successfully performed last Wednesday by Drs. Heed & Baird in the presence of Drs. Cornett, of Knoxville, Everett, of Corydon, Burton, of New York, and Gibbon of this place. The Judge has since been somewhat prostrated by the loss of blood, and the appearance and removal of gangrene, but is gradually rallying, and at this time every symptom is favorable. 

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Although the symptoms may have been favorable at the time the article was written, the long-term outlook was not. Alvin died at home in Chariton on May 2, 1874, and following funeral services at First Presbyterian Church was buried in the Chariton Cemetery.

Was his trouble really "elephantiasis"? We'll never know. Did the gangrene that, according to the newspaper report, had been troubling him eventually prove fatal? We'll never know that either. 

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Alvin was a Vermont native, born during 1825, who had arrived at Norfolk in St. Lawrence County, New York, with his wife, Roxey, and daughter, Harriet, prior to 1850. His occupation as given in the census of that year was shoemaker. But between 1850 and 1860 he apparently studied law; in 1860, his profession was given as "judge." He always seems to have been known as "Judge Lamb" after that even though there's no sign he ever held the office in Iowa.

Two of the Lambs' sons, both named Charles, are buried in the High Street Cemetery in Norfolk, Charles D, who died at 8 months on Nov. 15, 1850; and Charles A, who died at 8 years on May 16, 1860. Daughter Harriet grew up and was married at Norfolk. Roxey, or Roxana, had been a widow some nine years older than Alvin when they married so she also had adult children in that area.

At some point during the 1860s, Alvin and Roxey moved west to Marshalltown, Iowa, where he established a law practice. Roxey died there at the age of 53 during 1869 and was the first buried on the Lamb family lot in Riverside.

A year later, on Oct. 19, 1870, Alvin married Amelia Crocker, whose family also lived in Marshalltown at the time, and their only child, Alvin Jr., was born during 1871. Amelia was the oldest sister of Frank R. Crocker, who arrived in Chariton at about the same time his sister and brother-in-law did, went to work for Smith H. Mallory, became the most trusted Mallory associate and during 1903, while serving as cashier of the Mallory family bank, First National, embezzled vast sums of money for illegal investment schemes, sending the bank into receivership and himself over the edge into suicide.

But that was in the distant future when, Alvin, Amelia and their son arrived in Chariton during 1872 and he joined the law practice of Col. Warren H. Dungan, offices located in the Dungan Building, a two-story wood frame structure that stood on the current site of Piper's at the intersection of Braden and North Grand. Their infant son died not long after and was buried in the Chariton Cemetery.

Amelia remained in Chariton for a year or two after her husband's death, then eventually moved to Minneapolis where the remainder of her life was spent. She died there at the age of 81 on Aug. 23, 1923, and her remains were brought to Marshalltown for burial in the place she had prepared, ordering an impressive family stone and new headstones for Alvin, little Alvin Jr. and Roxey, whose original stone remains in place. Unfortunately, Amelia had made no provision for her own tombstone and so her grave remains unmarked.