More About the Cantrell Child

There's rosemary -- that's for remembrance -- and I took some with me when I returned to the Walnut cemetery yet again in search of Emma Jane -- or possibly Emma Jean -- the Cantrell child whose grave I went looking for a while back.

I'd been in touch with Jeter Cantrell -- who was born after his sister's death -- and he told me the story as he remembered it. (I didn't catch everything he said -- thus the Jean/Jane confusion.)

Emma Jane (or Jean) would have been three on February the second. It was December (of 1925 0r '26) when her parents left her and her brothers at home (the older boy wasn't feeling well) and set off walking down Thomas Branch to attend Sunday night church meeting.

The older boy went out to water the mule; when he came back his little sister was fine, happily playing with her dog. A little later he left the house again to go turn the cows out. When he came back, Emma Jane was gone, as was his younger brother.

The older brother figured that the two must have gone over the mountain to their grandparents' place in Sodom. So he got the mule and rode over there to find his brother there but no Emma Jane.

It was snowing lightly and she didn't have a coat on, said Jeter. Later the searchers figured that the little girl must have set off down Thomas Branch, following the way her parents had gone, but rather than continuing toward Walnut, she had turned up the switchback that led toward Saddle Top Mountain.

The sheriff searched on horseback and, as Nancy's family remembered, the lights of the searchers could be seen weaving back and forth through the leafless trees on Saddle Top.

When they found her, Emma Jane was frozen to death, but the little dog with her was still alive.

She's buried in the main cemetery around the church, Jeter said, under a flat stone near the marker for her parents, William and Nola Cantrell. Look in the southeast corner, he added, next to the pasture.

So back I went, on another cold and windy day, with a little bouquet of rosemary to put on the grave. With such good directions, I felt sure I'd find Emma Jane.
(Or Jean.)

But I didn't.

Which is why I haven't updated the ongoing story. But when Esta, who comments here occasionally, asked me yesterday what more I'd found out about the little girl, so I thought I'd go on and do an update.

Eventually, I'll get to the library and see what I can find on micro fiche. And when the weather is more moderate, I'll go back one more time and look for Emma Jane. Or Jean.

And I'll take some more rosemary.

A Grave Mistake

...or, The Plot Thickens

A few posts back, I spoke of finding what I thought might be the doll house grave Nancy had told me -- the grave of the Cantrell child who wandered off and froze to death up on Straddle Top Mountain.

Then I got an email from Phyllis who said: " My husband called Jeter Cantrell, and he said that he did have a little sister who wandered away from home at age three and froze to death. He thinks this would have been in 1925 or '26. And she is buried in Walnut.

However, he remembers there being a dollhouse and doll on the grave of a little McDevitt girl, who was buried "above the road on the bank." He thinks her name might have been Ruby, and that she had a twin sister named Reba. I'm not sure if he meant they both died young or not. He said their father's name was Regan."

Aha!

So I passed this on to Nancy, who said: "Oh, my goodness! I know Reba McDevitt (if it's the same one) - she married Fred Rector (my cousin) and I was friends with their daughter. . . . I can still see that little doll house sitting up there on the bank. I vaguely remember looking in the windows of it and seeing dolls - one sitting in a little chair.

I don't remember hearing the story of twins and neither do my sister or brother but that doesn't mean much. "

To straighten out this confusion, yesterday Nancy very kindly came out to Walnut to show me where she remembered the doll house being.

And she pointed out Straddle Top Mountain, where the little girl died -- not a great picture, what with all the power lines but that area from the peak on the right to the peak half-hidden behind the trees on the left is where Nancy's family would have seen the lanterns moving as searchers looked for the little girl.

Nancy and I wandered through the grave yard and she pointed out markers of family and other folks she had known. I was paying special attention to the little lambs, wondering if one of these might mark the Cantrell child

Of course, they all tell sad stories -- like this one: "Budded on earth to bloom in heaven."

But though we found a few Cantrells, I never found a stone that fit the time and the description of the child.

So we went across the road for Nancy to show me where the doll house grave had been. And there was Ruby McDevitt, who died at the age of seven.

Nancy said that someone used to put new dolls in the doll house now and then. So now, I'd like to know more about Ruby and the story behind the doll house.

And I still wonder if that little broken-off stone back up in the far corner to the left of Ruby's grave, still might be that of the Cantrell child.

Nancy wants to know too and she's on the case.

Could This Be the Grave?

I returned to the Walnut cemetery yesterday, having been told by Nancy where to look for the Cantrell child's grave.












If I understood her correctly, it should be in this section, far at the back.

I didn't find any stones that said 'Cantrell,' but this little marker -- which may have been broken off -- with its uneven chiseled cross seems to be a likely candidate.

There's a field stone at the foot of the grave -- about three feet lie between the two markers. Just right for a small child.

To the right of this grave is another, somewhat longer --maybe five feet. It's marked with two rocks -- no carving.

There was no sign at all of a playhouse -- no rotting boards or anything at all. This may or may not be the Cantrell child's resting place.

But whoever it was, I wish I'd thought to bring a flower.