Died as a child at Camp Independence as a result of the collapse of her families adobe dwelling in the 1872 Owens Valley earthquake. Burial location has not been documented but it is assumed that she is buried in the Camp Independence Cemetery.
The birth date is unknown but the family was interviewed for the 1870 census and they did not list Meta/baby so it is assumed she was born sometime after June 28, 1870.
Transcription of article on Meta Vagt's death from the 27 Apr 1872
Inyo Independent newspaper:
"A CHILD'S DEATH THROUGH THE INHUMANITY OF MEN. Outside of Lone Pine and the Eclipse works, where Superintendent Tregellas was killed, there occurred no deaths, with the single exception of the infant child of Jacob Vagt, which was suffocated under the ruins of an adobe house, about three miles north of this place [Independence, California]. In connection with this fatality I hear a report, which, if true, stamps the three men concerned as the most depraved and soulless of their sex.
It is said that when Vagt's house went down, burying himself, his wife and little babe under two heavy adobe walls, two of his employees went manfully to work at removing the ruins and beseeched the assistance of three men who stood within easy hearing and in plain view, but beseeched in vain. The bereaved mother, losing this her seventh and only remaining child by this direful calamity, asserts that the babe was crying as she escaped from the ruins and would undoubtedly have been saved had the needed assistance been extended.
I am loth to credit this shocking story, but it is vouched by so respectable a source that no room is left me for doubt. It is indeed painful to believe such things as these, because they reveal a side to humanity so dark and appalling as to make one blush for the dreadful possibilities of his race."
The birth date is unknown but the family was interviewed for the 1870 census and they did not list Meta/baby so it is assumed she was born sometime after June 28, 1870.
Transcription of article on Meta Vagt's death from the 27 Apr 1872
Inyo Independent newspaper:
"A CHILD'S DEATH THROUGH THE INHUMANITY OF MEN. Outside of Lone Pine and the Eclipse works, where Superintendent Tregellas was killed, there occurred no deaths, with the single exception of the infant child of Jacob Vagt, which was suffocated under the ruins of an adobe house, about three miles north of this place [Independence, California]. In connection with this fatality I hear a report, which, if true, stamps the three men concerned as the most depraved and soulless of their sex.
It is said that when Vagt's house went down, burying himself, his wife and little babe under two heavy adobe walls, two of his employees went manfully to work at removing the ruins and beseeched the assistance of three men who stood within easy hearing and in plain view, but beseeched in vain. The bereaved mother, losing this her seventh and only remaining child by this direful calamity, asserts that the babe was crying as she escaped from the ruins and would undoubtedly have been saved had the needed assistance been extended.
I am loth to credit this shocking story, but it is vouched by so respectable a source that no room is left me for doubt. It is indeed painful to believe such things as these, because they reveal a side to humanity so dark and appalling as to make one blush for the dreadful possibilities of his race."
Died as a child at Camp Independence as a result of the collapse of her families adobe dwelling in the 1872 Owens Valley earthquake. Burial location has not been documented but it is assumed that she is buried in the Camp Independence Cemetery.
The birth date is unknown but the family was interviewed for the 1870 census and they did not list Meta/baby so it is assumed she was born sometime after June 28, 1870.
Transcription of article on Meta Vagt's death from the 27 Apr 1872
Inyo Independent newspaper:
"A CHILD'S DEATH THROUGH THE INHUMANITY OF MEN. Outside of Lone Pine and the Eclipse works, where Superintendent Tregellas was killed, there occurred no deaths, with the single exception of the infant child of Jacob Vagt, which was suffocated under the ruins of an adobe house, about three miles north of this place [Independence, California]. In connection with this fatality I hear a report, which, if true, stamps the three men concerned as the most depraved and soulless of their sex.
It is said that when Vagt's house went down, burying himself, his wife and little babe under two heavy adobe walls, two of his employees went manfully to work at removing the ruins and beseeched the assistance of three men who stood within easy hearing and in plain view, but beseeched in vain. The bereaved mother, losing this her seventh and only remaining child by this direful calamity, asserts that the babe was crying as she escaped from the ruins and would undoubtedly have been saved had the needed assistance been extended.
I am loth to credit this shocking story, but it is vouched by so respectable a source that no room is left me for doubt. It is indeed painful to believe such things as these, because they reveal a side to humanity so dark and appalling as to make one blush for the dreadful possibilities of his race."
The birth date is unknown but the family was interviewed for the 1870 census and they did not list Meta/baby so it is assumed she was born sometime after June 28, 1870.
Transcription of article on Meta Vagt's death from the 27 Apr 1872
Inyo Independent newspaper:
"A CHILD'S DEATH THROUGH THE INHUMANITY OF MEN. Outside of Lone Pine and the Eclipse works, where Superintendent Tregellas was killed, there occurred no deaths, with the single exception of the infant child of Jacob Vagt, which was suffocated under the ruins of an adobe house, about three miles north of this place [Independence, California]. In connection with this fatality I hear a report, which, if true, stamps the three men concerned as the most depraved and soulless of their sex.
It is said that when Vagt's house went down, burying himself, his wife and little babe under two heavy adobe walls, two of his employees went manfully to work at removing the ruins and beseeched the assistance of three men who stood within easy hearing and in plain view, but beseeched in vain. The bereaved mother, losing this her seventh and only remaining child by this direful calamity, asserts that the babe was crying as she escaped from the ruins and would undoubtedly have been saved had the needed assistance been extended.
I am loth to credit this shocking story, but it is vouched by so respectable a source that no room is left me for doubt. It is indeed painful to believe such things as these, because they reveal a side to humanity so dark and appalling as to make one blush for the dreadful possibilities of his race."
Family Members
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