Cemetery’s ‘Babyland’ gets markers
Despite its cheerful name, “Babyland” could make you cry.
It’s hard to imagine a sadder place than the section of a cemetery where small children are laid to rest. It’s even harder to imagine any joy in visiting the place. Maybe that is why 26 of the markers in Breckenridge Cemetery’s Babyland were lost over time.
Certainly children are buried all over the cemetery, usually with family. But John Trigg, a caretaker at Breckenridge along with Tommy “Gordy” Gordon, explained why infants often have their own sections.
“A lot of people want family buried with family; some want babies buried with babies. They think that’s the appropriate thing ” Trigg said. “They don’t want them out in the cemetery, they want them buried with other babies.”
He often noticed many of Babyland’s graves had no marker. It wasn’t that the names were lost; anyone could look up the plots in official records and see who was buried there. Instead, family members who had buried their young loved ones never had a permanent stone marker installed. The temporary metal markers eventually fell into disrepair.
Trigg called a monument company to get a price quote on a basic 6-inch-by-8-inch stone for each grave. It was over $1,200.
It was around this time that Flint Knight, an accounts manager at Sterling Monument Company, got involved.
“Why don’t you hold onto your money and let me ... see what I can do, because I think we can get those stones,” Knight told Trigg. Knight and Sterling Monument’s owner, Sam Harris, found they had enough partial pieces of granite to make 26 small but suitable markers that would only feature names and death dates.
“When Mr. Knight came on the scene, we got to talking about it, he went back and talked to his boss,” Trigg said. “Miracle happened.”
Sterling Monument made short work of the job. In less than a month, the 26 pieces of granite were stenciled, carved and finished. They were installed on Nov. 12, finishing a merciful mission for Trigg.