“Our darling boy”

A popular gravestone motif is the broken column, an obvious symbol for a life cut short. Often a wreath is draped on the broken column to represent victory in death.

The white marble marker at the grave of Simon Craig McDannald (d. 1863) caught my eye because it is a broken obelisk with wreath—and because it marks the grave of a child. Young Simon’s gravestone seems unusually adult-like, except for its small size and the touching inscription, “Our darling boy.”

SIMON CRAIG
son of
A.C. & P.O.
M^cDANNALD.
DIED
Mar. 9, 1863,
AGED
6 Yrs. 4 Mo.
The epitaph is on the back of the stone:

The joys of earth to
us are blight[f]ul since
thou left us for thy
Heavenly home.

Blendon Central Cemetery, Franklin County, Ohio