Clay County AlArchives News.....The Lonely Grave of an Unknown Child at Ashland December 6, 1906
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Linda Ayres http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007674 March 10, 2023, 4:38 pm

The Birmingham News December 6, 1906
Andrew Sullivan, of this city, has just returned from a trip across country near 
Ashland in Clay County and tells an interesting and pathetic story of a baby's 
grave which is marked by a snow-white slab and is annually covered with flowers 
by the women of Ashland. The sad little story is told by the for residents of 
Ashland and verified by old Jake Orr, a well-known character of that place, who, 
in his ninety-third year, still nimbly drives and rides about the place and 
tells stories of the early days when he, as a lad, moved to Alabama many years 
ago. Alabama was a territory when the death of the little child occurred and its 
parents were slowly moving across country, hoping to find a place where they 
might settle. Apparently, they did not care to stop in the settlement, which was 
then located in Clay County, but pushed on after a word of greeting under to the 
few people whom they met. Some miles further they were delayed by sudden illness 
of the child and stopped to camp while it recovered. But the illness proved 
fatal. No physician could be obtained and the flame of life, flickered slowly 
out he baby pathetic and feeble cries bearing plaintively out on the stillness 
of the wild and picturesque country. Sadly, the parents dug a grave and marking 
the spot with a headstone of rocks pushed their weary way onward; Somehow, the 
story never died out, but was told and retold through successive generations 
until it became part of the history of the place, and everyone who comes to 
Ashland has his attention directed to the tiny grave. The women of the place 
ordered a snow-white headstone and across the surface they charged the sculptor 
to carve the following inscription: The Lonely Grave of an Unknown Child.

Additional Comments:
Note: Located on Hwy 9 coming from Lineville to Ashland on the left side of the 
road, just before entering Ashland. 

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/clay/newspapers/thelonel2156gnw.txt

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