The 'The Sorrow Grows And Grows After Little Katy" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Walking through the St. James Episcopal Church graveyard to get a view of the memorial plaque that sits atop the gravesite of my mom and dad.  Both died years ago and their ashes were buried beneath the plaque that at one time may hold my name.  As I walked throughout the cemetery at the corner of North Duke and East Orange Streets I noticed a tombstone that I had not noticed over the past 70 plus years.  It read LITTLE KATY, DIED DEC. 14, 1849 AGED NEARLY 3 YEARS.  Beneath that continued...SHE, TOO, HAS ENTRED IN THROUGH THE GATES INTO THE CITY.  LOVED BUT NOT LOST.  WE HOPE TO MEET THEM ALL AGAIN IN THE WORLD OF LIGHT ABOVE.  

Tombstone and plot of Little Katy

I have walked the aisles of the cemetery many, many times since I was a choirboy in the St. James Choir and never once before did I see that tombstone.  There is no last name on her stone and no evidence of family surrounding her in the cemetery.  This poor little girl was buried all alone!  So, just who was this Little Katy?  Well, I opened one of my "The History of St James Church" and found that her father was Russell Jesse Judd who was born in 1812 in New York City and completed his theological studies at Lane Seminary in Ohio in 1836.  He married Mary Jane Wolcott of Connecticut, in 1937.  From 1838 until 1841 he was pastor of the Free Presbyterian Church in Paterson, N.J.  Three children, William Henry (1841), Mary Plummer (1843) and Emily Catherine (1846) were born to Russell and Mary while in New Jersey, with Emily Catherine (Little Katy) being the third child born in 1846.  Rev. Judd's health got the best of him and he had to leave the ministry, working instead for a book company.  Then in 1848 William Murray opened the Judd & Murray's Cheap Books in the center square of downtown Lancaster.  

Litty Katy's tombstone is on the right with two siblings buried to the left to it.

Then in 1849, William Henry died on August 26 from scarlet fever.  He is buried in plot #26 in St. James graveyard.  On September 26 they lost Mary to scarlet fever.  She was buried in plot #25.  There are no tombstones on their two graves.  On October 13 they had another child, Caroline Loomis.  Shortly after Rev. Judd's 37th birthday, Emily Catherine, "Little Katy" died on December 14 of scarlet fever.  She is buried in plot No. 24, where her stone still stands. The sadness of losing three children was to much so Rev. Judd left his business and he and his wife moved to Wisconsin in 1851 to go into farming.  Then in 1873 he was called back into the ministry in Wisconsin.  Rev. Judd and his wife had eight more children.  So, Little Katy never knew most of her family, but certainly wasn't an orphan.   It's just a shame that her parents left the city of Lancaster broken-hearted.   My St. James history books list all of the plots in the cemetery and the names of the three young children of the Judd's can be found there, but only one has a tombstone..."Little Katy."  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.