The Moravian Church established Salem, North Carolina, in the mid-1700s as a community for Moravians from their settlement in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as well as from Europe. Historically, the Moravian Church divided its parishioners into married sisters, single sisters, married brothers and single brothers. They were buried with their choir so that they would enter the kingdom of Heaven as one church family at the time of the resurrection. Unlike many colonial cemeteries, God’s Acre has been continuously used for 230 year by this same community and includes over six thousand grave stones, around 20% of which are for children. I am currently entering information from these stones, including names, dates, inscriptions, and decorations, into a data base as part of a study of the community. This paper will explore patterns of dying among infants and children as well as examine the inscriptions and decorations carved on their stones. This is a work in progress. My preliminary findings cover the 1770s through 1899 but will be expanded to 2000. The earliest children’s graves were simple, usually just the name and date. But as the community prospered and became more American, the stones became increasingly ornate. The choir system began to be abandoned around the 1850s and the inclusion of family relationships reflected the Victorian romantization of family. The presence of mother and father’s names, which in previous years were omitted, now dominated most children’s stones. Inscriptions became more sentimental, with girls’ inscriptions particularly becoming more tragic. Verses conveyed an emotional connection between parent and child. Even boys’ stones included sentimental references to Sunday school teachers and angels. The typeface became more artful, and lines were often arced with carved decorations beneath them. Carving began to appear, including lambs, flower buds, and birds. My paper will explore the patterns of the inscriptions and decorations, how they changed over time, varied from boys to girls, and varied depending on the ages of children. Throughout the nineteenth century, gender clearly affected when infants died. Boys died within the first days of life more often than girls while girls died more frequently between the ages of two and five. Children died in groups with women more often than men since they spent more time together, which spread disease quickly. The hot summer months were more deadly than the winters, with children more often dying in July and August than in December or January. Siblings often died within days of each other. Some families seemed tragically stricken, losing child after child over a number of years. Once children reached age ten, they fared better. My paper will explore the patterns of dying, including the impact of gender, time of year, family, and age. The paper will conclude with a comparison of these patterns, exploring how the deaths of children were commemorated on their gravestones.