In Section 11 of Fernwood Cemetery stands a small marble obelisk, now almost entirely cloaked in a golden-yellow lichen. Time and weather have worn the inscription so heavily that little can be read with the naked eye today. But cemetery records and earlier photographs confirm the name once carved into the stone: Sam Harris Walker.
Sam was born October 4, 1894, and died September 5, 1899, just four years old. His grave lies among members of the Craig and Walker families, and the style of his marker, a simple, pointed shaft on a square base, matches the modest children’s stones commonly placed in Fernwood at the turn of the 20th century.
A small break at the lower corner and the thick lichen growth make the lettering nearly invisible now, but the monument continues to stand exactly where records say it should: Lot 631, Grave 12. Though the stone can no longer speak clearly, its presence preserves the memory of a child whose life was brief, but not forgotten.
