Can anyone tell me anything about the "unknown infant" who is buried in the Mignon Cemetery? I've heard stories about how a dog drug the baby up to the Comer barn and it was buried in a shoe box etc etc. Does anyone know what year that was or whose baby it was or anything else about it? I don't remember anything about it ... at all.

Thanks,
KC

There was a good story in the book GREEN PLUMS, DYE-DITCH WATER & THE TRASH PILE ROAD about the "Unknown Infant"...Will re-read the story and get back to the forum

Thanks Lathan ....
KC

Back in the 50s, if you entered the old Cemetery from the East Street Road and went to the far left-corner (facing Sunnybrook), you would see a small Tombstone with the writing "UNKNOWN INFANT" & a Conch Seashell over the Grave. The legend said at night there would be smoke rising from the Conch Shell on the grave.

In the book GREEN PLUMS..., there is a picture I took of the Tombstone but the Conch Shell is missing.

Jesse Adair had a daughter, Dorothy Adair, and she went to Comer High and was in our class. I don't know if she graduated with us or not.

Anyway, Jesse was a friend of mine and lived at the end of the Trash Pile Road just where the curve bent to the left to the Odena Mountain Road. Jesse worked at the Cotton Mill and was a good hunter. We used to hunt Rabbits, Squirrels and Possums.

Jesse would gather 'round with a crowd of people who used to sit out in front of my Uncle Clint Cast's store at the end of Twin Street where the street forked off to Dairyland. They'd sit under a big tree; chew tobacco, smoke cigarettes & pipes and swap stories.

My Grandfather Glosson bought the store from Uncle Clint in the late 50s.

Jesse Adair said one night he heard a bunch of dogs fighting over something they had dragged up in his yard. Jesse went to investigate and found the the remains of a Tiny Baby's Body.

After trying to find out who the Baby belonged to (with no success), Jesse got permission to bury the Baby in the Old Cemetery behind the houses on Tennessee Avenue located behind Blois McClure's Bar-B-Cue Place. Since no one knew who the Baby belonged to, Jesse said that he and his friends (the ones who used to sit out by my Uncle Clint's Store) pitched in and purchased a Tombstone for $4.00. Someone at Scrouge Alley engraved the name "UNKNOWN INFANT" on the Tombstone.

I've heard that story so many times I'm pretty sure it's close to what happened

Jesse Adair said he buried the Baby's Body in a Shoe Box

All of that being said ... do you have any idea when this happened as I surely don't remember anything about it during the years I lived in Sylacauga and went to Comer (1952-1958). I've asked other people, who were born in the village and have lived there all of their lives, and all they know about is the grave, not WHEN it occurred.

KC

When I first heard Jesse Adair and all the guys who used to hang out at what is called "Cast's Corner" tell about it - It sounded like a story which had been told over and over.

My guess - and it's only my guess - is this could have happened in the early 40s or maybe even before. I do know it was during the time when Scrouge Alley was in vogue because Jesse told of the man who used to have a "Fix-It" Shop there and he said that he was the one who did the Engraving on the Stone.

I remember a place on Scrouge Alley called BB's FIX-IT SHOP. This guy was ahead of his time because he had a sign which read "WE REPAIR EVERYTHING EXCEPT BROKEN HEARTS AND THE CRACK OF DAWN". A true, true story

Thanks Lathan ... the child was probably worn out of wedlock and back then, people just didn't "talk about such things". Still, I find it hard to believe that a white child was found dead and there was no police investigation or anything, unless of course they knew whose baby it was and they just wanted the whole thing to go away, but, burying it in a shoe box ... unimaginable !!

KC

KC - I don't disagree. It sounds like something from an old Appalachian Mountain Folk Song.

Maybe someone on the forum will have something to add. I just felt fortunate to have been around in those times.

It would have made a good tv movie. Almost the antithesis of an Andy Griffith Show - Or, maybe even an Andy Griffith Show without the 'polish'. You probably could verbalize it better than me/I

I don't know anything about this case except... I moved to Sylacauga in 1942 from Chilton County. The first time we visited that cemetery to honor some of our passed relatives we were shown that infant's grave and my recollection is that it appeared to be very old at that point, still in 1942.

I heard Brownie Bean once tell a story that he was passing through the cow pasture which is bordered by that lower corner of the cemetery late one afternoon, quite close to dark and a very large ferocious looking animal which he described as looking much like an African lion suddenly charged through the dense row of Privet hedge that enclosed the cemetery at that time. He said he started running while it chased him for some distance and at some point just disappeared.

Take it for what it's worth.

Horace

Horace, This will take some reading - please bear with me.
When I was just out of college, I ran with a bunch of guys and gals from Comer and Sylacauga High. There was Badie Black, Averette Penick, Jimmy Lee Smith, Jimmy Holmes (the younger one), Belle Turner, Doug Murphee (Now a Sylacauga City Councilman) and some others I can't remember their names.

I was going to take them to the Cemetery to see the UNKNOWN INFANT's Grave at Dusk. I told them that the Grave would emit Smoke and we could see it if we got there just before dark.

During the day - since we lived in Sunnybrook - I went up to the path leading to the grave and brought a white bed sheet and buried it in some leaves. I, then threw a small rope across a tree limb and tied one end to the bed sheet - so when we walked to the Grave, I could be the last in line and pull the rope and make the bed sheet come across the path like a Ghost.

Badie Black was with us and unbeknownst to us, he had a small .22 pistol with him. Well, I pulled the rope - remember, it was almost dark - and the bed sheet came across the path and wrapped Badie Black up like it had attacked him.

Badie started screaming and shouting, "We're all gonna die" and pulled his pistol out of his pocket and waved it in the air but couldn't get the gun to shoot.

He has never forgiven me to this day. A true, true, true story

I have a theory..only a theory about the mystery of the "Unknown Infant:

1. You have an idea now that the infant was buried before 1942...might have been in the 1920's or 1930's.

2. Fact is many graves at those times did not have bought markers,only stones from the fields marked the grave with no name.

3. After some years passed,the stones may be removed..but,someone remembered that an infant was buried there...imprint of the grave surface may have been visible. They did not know the sex of the baby.

4. Some one bought a marker or made on and placed it there out of concern.

5. The sex of the infant was not know. If someone had found the baby's body,I think it's sex would have been known.

6. Lathan's childhood antics give us another clue. Through the years folks have talked,wondered,gossiped or played pranks about the grave.

7. The mystery grew and grew with the years. Like smoke from the shell and lion-like animals chasinig people.

It is a wonderful story and I favor leaving it in tack and not know the real meaning of the mystery.

It really tugs at my heart knowing that this child, an innocent little baby, not wanted by anyone, thrown away by its Mother, torn apart by dogs, and buried in a shoebox, is still remembered after all these years !! Just goes to show you that, regardless of how insignificant one might believe themselves to be, every little life has value.

KC

Seriously,if you enjoy stories like this..revisit
"LEDGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW".

No, I don't enjoy stories like that !! I just think it is a sweet testement to one little life, that was so unimportant at the time, but whose memory has endured through the years, and more than likely, has outlasted the memory of those involved.

KC

KC,
Yours was/is one of the sweetest sentiments ever posted on this forum - Blessings to and for you

Thanks KC...see you in July? Hope so.

Horace