Elisabeth Thomas Polden born 6 October 1829 Died 28 July 1830
  Hiram T Polden born 5 August 1836 Died 14 May 1837
  Sarah H* Polden born 23 [†] 1839
  Mary E Poldin born 29 January 1841 Died 19 February 1842
  Emma Poldin born 7 September 1843
  Julian A‡ Polden born 8 March 1851.
  Mary Paulding the Mother Died 5 October 1873§."

     The bible records, made (with two or three exceptions) by William Paulding, the father, show that he was married 23 November, 1828.   They also show that Hiram Thomas Paulding was the fourth child, that he was born "August 5 1836", and that he died "May 14 1837"; and the town records of his birth and death give the same dates as the bible.   His age at death, therefore, according to his own father's record, and also according to the town records, was only 9 months and 9 days.

     Furthermore, the child's sister, now living, states that he died in infancy, and that the death record on the missing gravestone was the same as the death record in her father's bible; and Messrs. Smith and Willard, whose copies of all other death records in this cemetery were accurate, copied the date on the child's stone as 14 May, 1837, and the age as 9 months and 9 days; and they, as usual, marked their copy to show that it had been compared a second time with the original stone.

     We must also take into account the fact that this stone probably was erected by the child's father; and it is inconceivable that he should have accepted and paid for a stone bearing a date and an age which would indicate that the child was born before either parent was sixteen years old, that the child was born six years before his parents were married, and that the child died more than five years before it was born.

     The child's mother did not die until 1873, and his father did not die until 1896, and it is absurd to suppose that they would have allowed the erection of a stone bearing such an error, or, if erected by mistake, that they would have allowed it to remain so many years without correction.

     * Incorrectly copied by Alden.   It should be "Sarah S ".
     † The month was omitted.
     ‡ "Julian Ellmer" and "18" March, in his father's bible.
     § Entries in italics are in a different hand.