Unwillingly Unmarked: A Historical Headstone is Destroyed
Jul 06, 2023 12:00AM ● By Story and photos by Seti Long
A blank concrete base is all that remains of the destroyed headstone. It looked identical to the one on the right-hand side, which is the boy's mother's stone, before vandals destroyed his.
GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - A shameful discovery was made at the Gridley-Biggs Cemetery Friday, June 23. Someone had vandalized a historical headstone.
Vandalized isn’t even the correct word. The tomb marker was destroyed.
A 144-year-old tombstone in the old section of the cemetery, specifically the very first plot on the southeastern corner of the property near the entrance to what is known to locals as the “Old Deniz Dairy”, was broken off its base and shattered on the shoulder of Highway 99. Pieces of what looked to be white marble were pulverized, leaving dust and chunks so small that the name and date on the stone could not be read.
Gridley-Biggs Cemetery District Manager Angie Cote was notified by her staff of the discovery, and she immediately called the authorities. Butte County Sheriff’s Office sent Officers Moreland and Smith out to the cemetery to take a report.
Cemetery records indicated that the headstone belonged to a 17-year-old boy named William Holt that passed away January 10, 1879. His mother, Jennett Holt, was buried in the plot next to him a month later on February 18, 1879. Her headstone still stands and is an example of what his would have looked like, had it not been destroyed. Judging from what was found strewn along the highway, not all the pieces of Williams stone were accounted for.
Cote expressed to the Herald that the cemetery constantly struggles with different levels of vandalism but that an incident like this is truly upsetting for multiple reasons. Due to the age of the stone and style, an exact replacement cannot be procured. In addition, the cemetery has no contact information recorded for living family members to notify of the vandalism and that the marker would need to be replaced. It is not the cemetery’s responsibility to replace or repair damaged headstones, but the family’s.
Gridley-Biggs Cemetery staff solemnly boxed up the remnants of William Holt’s tombstone and stowed them away. With no way of telling who is responsible for the damage and no family contacts, Holt will now rest in an unmarked grave.
