Western Frontier Figure. Inscription reads: "A Pioneer who crossed the plains to California who died and was buried here. The immigrant trail followed along this ridge and through Nevada City. This lone grave perpetuates the memory of all lone graves throughout the state of California"∼A family buried their two year-old-son along what was to eventually become highway 20, near the Washington Ridge in Northern, California. The grave was initially marked by an inscribed wooded plaque nailed to the overshadowing pine tree and was tended by unknown hands and after that by the Native Sons and Daughters of The Golden West. The State Highway Commission ignored the original specifications for the road at this point sufficiently to leave the grave of this child undisturbed.
From: "Historical Notes of the Early Washington, Neveda County, California Mining District" by Robert I. & Grace I. Slyter p. 67
LONE GRAVE
"Beside Highway 20, on Washington Ridge, is the grave of Julius Albert Apperson. Died May 8, 1858. Aged 2 yrs. and 25 days.
A little boy, about two-years old, the son of Mr. Apperson of Washington Ridge, was terribly burned last Friday evening. He was playing near the house with some other small children, who had built a fire, when his clothing caught fire.
The family of Julius Albert Apperson was not, as seems to be the belief, emigrants at the end of their long journey to California. The father was a tanner employed at a Nevada City tannery. The children were burning shavings from the house the father had just completed. This house was later called the 'White Cloud House."
The Nevada County Historical Society --Vol. 15, #1; January 1961; gives details of this tragedy which has been obtained years earlier from John Milton Apperson, then aged 82, an older brother of the burned boyand who was also one of the children playing with the fire. Mr. Apperson was then a well-known resident of Tehama County. When a young man he had lived in Washington.
In 1863, Martin Luther Marsh, a pioneer lumber man of Nevada County, erected a permanent marker over the grave.
"May I bring you up to date on your article of the 'Baby Grave' on Highway 20? For many years my mother, Gladys Porter Sherman, was, and still is, interested in the grave. About 1945 a small fence was erected and painted white, but through the years the winter storms wore and tore it and in 1957 my parents erected a new fence, painted it white and placed a granite headstone. The little white rocks that were there around the grave in 1898 were placed in cement to form a cross. The tree markers were new also in 1857. Mother's trips were by horse and buggy with her stepfather, Sherman Marsh, when on each Decoration Day they placed flowers on the grave.
Her visits are still made each year, if only to wash the dirt (a)way that gathers on the headstone, so it can be read."
Sincerely, Edna Curtis
From: "Historical Notes of the Early Washington, Neveda County, California Mining District" by Robert I. & Grace I. Slyter p. 67
LONE GRAVE
"Beside Highway 20, on Washington Ridge, is the grave of Julius Albert Apperson. Died May 8, 1858. Aged 2 yrs. and 25 days.
A little boy, about two-years old, the son of Mr. Apperson of Washington Ridge, was terribly burned last Friday evening. He was playing near the house with some other small children, who had built a fire, when his clothing caught fire.
The family of Julius Albert Apperson was not, as seems to be the belief, emigrants at the end of their long journey to California. The father was a tanner employed at a Nevada City tannery. The children were burning shavings from the house the father had just completed. This house was later called the 'White Cloud House."
The Nevada County Historical Society --Vol. 15, #1; January 1961; gives details of this tragedy which has been obtained years earlier from John Milton Apperson, then aged 82, an older brother of the burned boyand who was also one of the children playing with the fire. Mr. Apperson was then a well-known resident of Tehama County. When a young man he had lived in Washington.
In 1863, Martin Luther Marsh, a pioneer lumber man of Nevada County, erected a permanent marker over the grave.
"May I bring you up to date on your article of the 'Baby Grave' on Highway 20? For many years my mother, Gladys Porter Sherman, was, and still is, interested in the grave. About 1945 a small fence was erected and painted white, but through the years the winter storms wore and tore it and in 1957 my parents erected a new fence, painted it white and placed a granite headstone. The little white rocks that were there around the grave in 1898 were placed in cement to form a cross. The tree markers were new also in 1857. Mother's trips were by horse and buggy with her stepfather, Sherman Marsh, when on each Decoration Day they placed flowers on the grave.
Her visits are still made each year, if only to wash the dirt (a)way that gathers on the headstone, so it can be read."
Sincerely, Edna Curtis
Western Frontier Figure. Inscription reads: "A Pioneer who crossed the plains to California who died and was buried here. The immigrant trail followed along this ridge and through Nevada City. This lone grave perpetuates the memory of all lone graves throughout the state of California"∼A family buried their two year-old-son along what was to eventually become highway 20, near the Washington Ridge in Northern, California. The grave was initially marked by an inscribed wooded plaque nailed to the overshadowing pine tree and was tended by unknown hands and after that by the Native Sons and Daughters of The Golden West. The State Highway Commission ignored the original specifications for the road at this point sufficiently to leave the grave of this child undisturbed.
From: "Historical Notes of the Early Washington, Neveda County, California Mining District" by Robert I. & Grace I. Slyter p. 67
LONE GRAVE
"Beside Highway 20, on Washington Ridge, is the grave of Julius Albert Apperson. Died May 8, 1858. Aged 2 yrs. and 25 days.
A little boy, about two-years old, the son of Mr. Apperson of Washington Ridge, was terribly burned last Friday evening. He was playing near the house with some other small children, who had built a fire, when his clothing caught fire.
The family of Julius Albert Apperson was not, as seems to be the belief, emigrants at the end of their long journey to California. The father was a tanner employed at a Nevada City tannery. The children were burning shavings from the house the father had just completed. This house was later called the 'White Cloud House."
The Nevada County Historical Society --Vol. 15, #1; January 1961; gives details of this tragedy which has been obtained years earlier from John Milton Apperson, then aged 82, an older brother of the burned boyand who was also one of the children playing with the fire. Mr. Apperson was then a well-known resident of Tehama County. When a young man he had lived in Washington.
In 1863, Martin Luther Marsh, a pioneer lumber man of Nevada County, erected a permanent marker over the grave.
"May I bring you up to date on your article of the 'Baby Grave' on Highway 20? For many years my mother, Gladys Porter Sherman, was, and still is, interested in the grave. About 1945 a small fence was erected and painted white, but through the years the winter storms wore and tore it and in 1957 my parents erected a new fence, painted it white and placed a granite headstone. The little white rocks that were there around the grave in 1898 were placed in cement to form a cross. The tree markers were new also in 1857. Mother's trips were by horse and buggy with her stepfather, Sherman Marsh, when on each Decoration Day they placed flowers on the grave.
Her visits are still made each year, if only to wash the dirt (a)way that gathers on the headstone, so it can be read."
Sincerely, Edna Curtis
From: "Historical Notes of the Early Washington, Neveda County, California Mining District" by Robert I. & Grace I. Slyter p. 67
LONE GRAVE
"Beside Highway 20, on Washington Ridge, is the grave of Julius Albert Apperson. Died May 8, 1858. Aged 2 yrs. and 25 days.
A little boy, about two-years old, the son of Mr. Apperson of Washington Ridge, was terribly burned last Friday evening. He was playing near the house with some other small children, who had built a fire, when his clothing caught fire.
The family of Julius Albert Apperson was not, as seems to be the belief, emigrants at the end of their long journey to California. The father was a tanner employed at a Nevada City tannery. The children were burning shavings from the house the father had just completed. This house was later called the 'White Cloud House."
The Nevada County Historical Society --Vol. 15, #1; January 1961; gives details of this tragedy which has been obtained years earlier from John Milton Apperson, then aged 82, an older brother of the burned boyand who was also one of the children playing with the fire. Mr. Apperson was then a well-known resident of Tehama County. When a young man he had lived in Washington.
In 1863, Martin Luther Marsh, a pioneer lumber man of Nevada County, erected a permanent marker over the grave.
"May I bring you up to date on your article of the 'Baby Grave' on Highway 20? For many years my mother, Gladys Porter Sherman, was, and still is, interested in the grave. About 1945 a small fence was erected and painted white, but through the years the winter storms wore and tore it and in 1957 my parents erected a new fence, painted it white and placed a granite headstone. The little white rocks that were there around the grave in 1898 were placed in cement to form a cross. The tree markers were new also in 1857. Mother's trips were by horse and buggy with her stepfather, Sherman Marsh, when on each Decoration Day they placed flowers on the grave.
Her visits are still made each year, if only to wash the dirt (a)way that gathers on the headstone, so it can be read."
Sincerely, Edna Curtis
Bio by: Joe Costa
