Anderson Crenshaw moved from Newberry District, South Carolina, to the Alabama Territory in the fall of 1819, at the urging of his brothers, Walter and Willis Crenshaw, who had moved to the Alabama Territory a short time earlier. Anderson and his wife, Mary Chiles, made a new home for themselves and their children at Cahawba (now Cahaba), Alabama's first state capitol. Anderson opened a law practice and was elected the town's first mayor. The state's first bank was organized in Anderson's office, and he was elected a circuit judge in 1821.
There in Cahaba, Anderson and Mary had their only daughter in 1820. Sadly, the little girl died when she was barely a year old. Cahaba, located at the junction of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers, had regular seasonal flooding. Illness and death notoriously accompanied the wet season. Dank river water rose so high in the town, people had to go between buildings in boats. This flooding was one of the main reasons that the state legislature moved Alabama's capital to Tuscaloosa in 1826.
The death of their infant daughter at Cahaba discouraged Anderson and Mary with that location. They moved to northwestern Butler County in 1822, choosing a home site on the highest point in the county, The Ridge, where kinfolk from Virginia and the Carolinas had settled. They left behind them in Cahaba the burial site of their infant daughter, and also the grave of Anderson's brother Walter Crenshaw, who died there in 1830.
"Indiana Crenshaw" actually died unnamed. In Judge Anderson Crenshaw's family bible, in his handwritten list of his children, the third child was "a daughter born at Cahaba, Alabama on the 13th April 1820 and died (without a name) on the 27 April 1821."
Indiana Crenshaw's marker was placed in the Cahaba Cemetery by Anderson Crenshaw's sons long after the little girl's death and after their parents' deaths (Anderson died in 1847, and Mary in 1873). The Crenshaw brothers -- Walter Henry, Thomas Chiles, Charles Edward and Frederick William -- thought their parents had named this daughter "Indiana," when in fact she was not yet named when she died. Not naming babies until they were a year or two old was a common practice in the 18th-19th centuries when infant mortality was high.
Sadly for history and for genealogists, Cahaba's "Old Cemetery," with Cahaba's earliest burials, suffered neglect and vandalism over the years. Only a few markers survived by the 1960s, when "Cemetery No. 1" (or the "Old Cemetery") was first transcribed. The earlier surveys differ in transcription texts, and Indiana's original marker no longer exists, but one survey listed her gravestone as:
"Indiana, only dau. of Anderson and Mary Crenshaw - D. 27 April 1821. aged 1y, 14d."
Cahaba's Old Cemetery was not the only burial ground to suffer from criminal vandalism and bad behavior. Cahaba's second and larger burial site, the "New Cemetery" was established in 1851. It was severely damaged by vandals in June 1960. The Selma Times-Journal reported on June 15, 1960, that vandals had "turned over and smashed with sledgehammers more than 15 monuments in the New Cahawba Cemetery." Many of these were beautifully carved, century-old tombstones. "More recently there has been repeated destruction of monuments, but never in such wholesale quantity as the last episode," reported The Times-Journal. After these unfortunate events, a gate was installed at the New Cemetery and locked at night.
There in Cahaba, Anderson and Mary had their only daughter in 1820. Sadly, the little girl died when she was barely a year old. Cahaba, located at the junction of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers, had regular seasonal flooding. Illness and death notoriously accompanied the wet season. Dank river water rose so high in the town, people had to go between buildings in boats. This flooding was one of the main reasons that the state legislature moved Alabama's capital to Tuscaloosa in 1826.
The death of their infant daughter at Cahaba discouraged Anderson and Mary with that location. They moved to northwestern Butler County in 1822, choosing a home site on the highest point in the county, The Ridge, where kinfolk from Virginia and the Carolinas had settled. They left behind them in Cahaba the burial site of their infant daughter, and also the grave of Anderson's brother Walter Crenshaw, who died there in 1830.
"Indiana Crenshaw" actually died unnamed. In Judge Anderson Crenshaw's family bible, in his handwritten list of his children, the third child was "a daughter born at Cahaba, Alabama on the 13th April 1820 and died (without a name) on the 27 April 1821."
Indiana Crenshaw's marker was placed in the Cahaba Cemetery by Anderson Crenshaw's sons long after the little girl's death and after their parents' deaths (Anderson died in 1847, and Mary in 1873). The Crenshaw brothers -- Walter Henry, Thomas Chiles, Charles Edward and Frederick William -- thought their parents had named this daughter "Indiana," when in fact she was not yet named when she died. Not naming babies until they were a year or two old was a common practice in the 18th-19th centuries when infant mortality was high.
Sadly for history and for genealogists, Cahaba's "Old Cemetery," with Cahaba's earliest burials, suffered neglect and vandalism over the years. Only a few markers survived by the 1960s, when "Cemetery No. 1" (or the "Old Cemetery") was first transcribed. The earlier surveys differ in transcription texts, and Indiana's original marker no longer exists, but one survey listed her gravestone as:
"Indiana, only dau. of Anderson and Mary Crenshaw - D. 27 April 1821. aged 1y, 14d."
Cahaba's Old Cemetery was not the only burial ground to suffer from criminal vandalism and bad behavior. Cahaba's second and larger burial site, the "New Cemetery" was established in 1851. It was severely damaged by vandals in June 1960. The Selma Times-Journal reported on June 15, 1960, that vandals had "turned over and smashed with sledgehammers more than 15 monuments in the New Cahawba Cemetery." Many of these were beautifully carved, century-old tombstones. "More recently there has been repeated destruction of monuments, but never in such wholesale quantity as the last episode," reported The Times-Journal. After these unfortunate events, a gate was installed at the New Cemetery and locked at night.
Anderson Crenshaw moved from Newberry District, South Carolina, to the Alabama Territory in the fall of 1819, at the urging of his brothers, Walter and Willis Crenshaw, who had moved to the Alabama Territory a short time earlier. Anderson and his wife, Mary Chiles, made a new home for themselves and their children at Cahawba (now Cahaba), Alabama's first state capitol. Anderson opened a law practice and was elected the town's first mayor. The state's first bank was organized in Anderson's office, and he was elected a circuit judge in 1821.
There in Cahaba, Anderson and Mary had their only daughter in 1820. Sadly, the little girl died when she was barely a year old. Cahaba, located at the junction of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers, had regular seasonal flooding. Illness and death notoriously accompanied the wet season. Dank river water rose so high in the town, people had to go between buildings in boats. This flooding was one of the main reasons that the state legislature moved Alabama's capital to Tuscaloosa in 1826.
The death of their infant daughter at Cahaba discouraged Anderson and Mary with that location. They moved to northwestern Butler County in 1822, choosing a home site on the highest point in the county, The Ridge, where kinfolk from Virginia and the Carolinas had settled. They left behind them in Cahaba the burial site of their infant daughter, and also the grave of Anderson's brother Walter Crenshaw, who died there in 1830.
"Indiana Crenshaw" actually died unnamed. In Judge Anderson Crenshaw's family bible, in his handwritten list of his children, the third child was "a daughter born at Cahaba, Alabama on the 13th April 1820 and died (without a name) on the 27 April 1821."
Indiana Crenshaw's marker was placed in the Cahaba Cemetery by Anderson Crenshaw's sons long after the little girl's death and after their parents' deaths (Anderson died in 1847, and Mary in 1873). The Crenshaw brothers -- Walter Henry, Thomas Chiles, Charles Edward and Frederick William -- thought their parents had named this daughter "Indiana," when in fact she was not yet named when she died. Not naming babies until they were a year or two old was a common practice in the 18th-19th centuries when infant mortality was high.
Sadly for history and for genealogists, Cahaba's "Old Cemetery," with Cahaba's earliest burials, suffered neglect and vandalism over the years. Only a few markers survived by the 1960s, when "Cemetery No. 1" (or the "Old Cemetery") was first transcribed. The earlier surveys differ in transcription texts, and Indiana's original marker no longer exists, but one survey listed her gravestone as:
"Indiana, only dau. of Anderson and Mary Crenshaw - D. 27 April 1821. aged 1y, 14d."
Cahaba's Old Cemetery was not the only burial ground to suffer from criminal vandalism and bad behavior. Cahaba's second and larger burial site, the "New Cemetery" was established in 1851. It was severely damaged by vandals in June 1960. The Selma Times-Journal reported on June 15, 1960, that vandals had "turned over and smashed with sledgehammers more than 15 monuments in the New Cahawba Cemetery." Many of these were beautifully carved, century-old tombstones. "More recently there has been repeated destruction of monuments, but never in such wholesale quantity as the last episode," reported The Times-Journal. After these unfortunate events, a gate was installed at the New Cemetery and locked at night.
There in Cahaba, Anderson and Mary had their only daughter in 1820. Sadly, the little girl died when she was barely a year old. Cahaba, located at the junction of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers, had regular seasonal flooding. Illness and death notoriously accompanied the wet season. Dank river water rose so high in the town, people had to go between buildings in boats. This flooding was one of the main reasons that the state legislature moved Alabama's capital to Tuscaloosa in 1826.
The death of their infant daughter at Cahaba discouraged Anderson and Mary with that location. They moved to northwestern Butler County in 1822, choosing a home site on the highest point in the county, The Ridge, where kinfolk from Virginia and the Carolinas had settled. They left behind them in Cahaba the burial site of their infant daughter, and also the grave of Anderson's brother Walter Crenshaw, who died there in 1830.
"Indiana Crenshaw" actually died unnamed. In Judge Anderson Crenshaw's family bible, in his handwritten list of his children, the third child was "a daughter born at Cahaba, Alabama on the 13th April 1820 and died (without a name) on the 27 April 1821."
Indiana Crenshaw's marker was placed in the Cahaba Cemetery by Anderson Crenshaw's sons long after the little girl's death and after their parents' deaths (Anderson died in 1847, and Mary in 1873). The Crenshaw brothers -- Walter Henry, Thomas Chiles, Charles Edward and Frederick William -- thought their parents had named this daughter "Indiana," when in fact she was not yet named when she died. Not naming babies until they were a year or two old was a common practice in the 18th-19th centuries when infant mortality was high.
Sadly for history and for genealogists, Cahaba's "Old Cemetery," with Cahaba's earliest burials, suffered neglect and vandalism over the years. Only a few markers survived by the 1960s, when "Cemetery No. 1" (or the "Old Cemetery") was first transcribed. The earlier surveys differ in transcription texts, and Indiana's original marker no longer exists, but one survey listed her gravestone as:
"Indiana, only dau. of Anderson and Mary Crenshaw - D. 27 April 1821. aged 1y, 14d."
Cahaba's Old Cemetery was not the only burial ground to suffer from criminal vandalism and bad behavior. Cahaba's second and larger burial site, the "New Cemetery" was established in 1851. It was severely damaged by vandals in June 1960. The Selma Times-Journal reported on June 15, 1960, that vandals had "turned over and smashed with sledgehammers more than 15 monuments in the New Cahawba Cemetery." Many of these were beautifully carved, century-old tombstones. "More recently there has been repeated destruction of monuments, but never in such wholesale quantity as the last episode," reported The Times-Journal. After these unfortunate events, a gate was installed at the New Cemetery and locked at night.
Inscription
"Indiana, only daughter of Anderson and Mary Crenshaw / Died 27 April 1821, aged 1 year, 14 days."
Gravesite Details
In addition to the original marker listed in previous Cahaba cemetery surveys (since destroyed), a commemorative marker was placed in the Crenshaw Family Cemetery in Butler County, Alabama, in 1996. A photograph of that marker is on this memorial.
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