Tombstone Tuesday: Irving Cohen, age 5, Montefiore Cemetery, Queens , NY

Irving Cohen's short life ended tragically.  His grave stone, shaped as a cut-off tree truck, testifies to this sad fact.

Here lies

Yisrael Meier

son of David

Died 3 Nisan 5691

IRVING

COHEN

BORN

JULY 11

1925

DIED MAR. 21, 1931

DEAR SON

AND BROTHER

On 18 March, Irving was playing in front of his house at 457 Georgia Avenue, Brooklyn, when another child started a bonfire. Irving's clothes caught fire and he sustained third-degree burns on his abdomen and legs.[1]

An article in the Brooklyn Eagle fills in some of the story.[2]

Boy, 5, Burned While

Playing at Street Fire 

Irving Cohen, 5, was severely burned yesterday while playing in front of his home at 457 Georgia Ave. Police say that another youngster lighted a street blaze and that Irving's clothing caught fire. Attracted by the screams of the other children, neighbors called a physician who removed the child to the Knickerbocker Hospital. Irving's parents were not at home.

Irving was moved to Trinity Hospital and died there three days after the accident.

Irving's parents were David and Rose Cohen, both immigrants from Russia. Rose's maiden name, as written on Irving's death certificate, was Karchman. 

In 1930, the family lived at the same address, 457 Georgia Avenue, Brooklyn. In addition to Irving, David and Rose had an elder daughter, Anna, who had been born about 1922.[3]

Dave and Rose may have had two more children after Irving's death: Melvin and Ruth.[4] 

It appears that David Cohen, Rose Cohen and Melvin Cohen  are buried in another First Lubiner Progressive Benevolent Association plot in Beth David Cemetery, Pinelawn, Long Island.

Irving's grave is located in gate 156N, block 89, line 2R, grave 4, Montefiore Cemetery. 

Notes: 

1. Kings County, New York, death certificate no. 7465 (1931), Irving Cohen, 21 March 1931; Municipal Archives, New York City.

2. "Boy, 5, Burned While Playing at Street Fire," Brooklyn Eagle (Brooklyn, New York), 20 March 1931, p. 3, col. 2; image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 19 February 2017).
3. 1930 U.S. Census, Kings County, population schedule, Brooklyn, enumeration district 24-1215, sheet 17A, dwelling n/a, family 337, Dave and Rose Cohen family; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 February 2017); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1492.
4. 1940 U.S. Census, population schedule, Brooklyn, enumeration district 24-1530, sheet 10B, household 24, David and Rose Cohen family; images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 February 2017); citing NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 2585.