Tragedies & Challenges Faced

On New Year's Day 1842, John Thoreau Jr. nicked his finger with his razor while shaving. It was a tiny, minor cut, but in the days before the tetanus vaccine it was deadly. The cut became infected, and within a week the tissue had turned black and stiff.

John Jr. suffered lockjaw, an agonizingly painful condition. On 11 January, 27-year-old John Jr. died of tetanus in his brother Henry David's arms. John Jr. was Thoreau's best friend and his elder brother by two years. He was so devastated by his death that he developed psychosomatic symptoms of lockjaw himself, though he recovered in a few days. He closed Concord Academy.

In 1840, he proposed marriage to Ellen, who first accepted and then rejected him due to pressure from her parents.