The single grave of Asa C. Smith, the 10-month old infant son of F. M. and E. F. Smith tells an all-too-common tale about how hard life was in Kansas Territory in the 1850s.
Little Asa may have died on the Smith family's journey along the Oregon Trail, but he could also have been the child of local settlers who later moved away. We found an F. M. Smith in the 1860 US Census is nearby Mound City KS, but without subscribing to the genealogy website, we could not see the record.
Today baby Asa's single grave sits protected from KDOT mowing crews by decorative and sturdy pipe fencing on all sides. The gravesite is cared for by strangers in the office buildings nearby and volunteers from KDOT.
It was very common for emigrants who died on the Oregon Trail to be buried quickly next to the trail before being left behind as the family continued on. However, most OT graves were marked with simple stick crosses or piles of rocks. Many were not marked at all.
Because Asa has an ornately carved marble tombstone that would have had to have been ordered, made, shipped and installed here over a period of weeks or months, Blasterz think it is more likely that Asa C. was the son of a Kansas Territory pioneer family who later moved away. Families leaving loved ones behind in cemeteries as they went west was a common occurrence along the frontier during the westward expansion era.
Mama Blaster's grandmother's family left an infant sister buried under an ornately-carved marble tombstone in a lonely Knox Co. TX cemetery when the family relocated west to Floydada TX in the 1900s. It was just another one of those tough realities on the Plains.
Little Asa Smith, though gone and left behind, clearly was not forgotten by his family. They ordered him a beautiful expensive tombstone with their names carved on it to connect him to them always.
Today he continues to be remembered in this solitary resting place, but by strangers who plant Iris, keep his grave neat, and leave small toys or other tokens from timt to time.
This out-of-place grave is also the subject of a virtual cache.
From the Johnson County Cemetery project website: (
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"Smith Cemetery
This cemetery consists of one stone on the shoulder of Kansas State Highway 7. The stone is surrounded with large iron pipes to protect it from the mowers. The stone is on the east end of the enclosure facing the highway and is filled with overgrowth and bushes. A child's whistle in the form of a football is tied to the iron pipe beside the stone. Hedge Lane runs beside the highway on the west side, and there is a parking area where you can easily and safely walk to the stone. " [end]
The actual address of this single out of place grave is 10705-11099 Hedge Ln Terrace in Olathe, KS. It can be hard to get to, but hopefully this address will help. Source: Billion Graves website (
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