Milton Cemetery’s caretaker, Bill Bledsoe, found a grave belonging to L. G. Monroe, a five year old who died in 1902 desecrated Wednesday afternoon. Milton Police Department responded to a flipped and broken slab and signs of digging. Bledsoe said he’s been at the cemetery since 2001 and this is the first real act of vandalism he’s seen. Bledsoe said he suspects the vandals assumed the grave was of an adult because the slab is the typical adult size.
The damaged grave is in the gated plot where members of the McWhorter family rest, including the first Florida Supreme Court Justice George Gray McWhorter who served from 1885 to 1887. Bledsoe said family members visit the site every Easter Sunday.
Milton Cemetery is a historic cemetery first purchased by James R. Riley in 1844. Past articles in the Santa Rosa Press Gazette report Riley may have purchased the property because of one burial place located there…that of his father, also named James R. Riley, who passed away in 1817.
The younger Riley was presumed to be a leading citizen of the community at the time and was chosen as one of three “election inspectors” for the city from 1840-1841.
It isn’t known if the land was planned as a cemetery or simply became one out of necessity and use.
The property, which the cemetery now occupies, was considered to be far enough out of town for health reasons, yet close enough for convenience.
A location along the main road was also a major consideration.
County records show no plots being sold in the cemetery, however many were staked out in the 1850’s and 1860’s and bounded with concrete borders, brick walls, and iron fences.
Of interest in the cemetery is the fact that the colonial custom of having burial plots facing to the east was put into practice and continues today.
By 1847, records show a total of four burials in the cemetery including a 14-year old girl, an elderly man, and a New York woman who died during childbirth.
However, the total increased to over 20 during the 1850’s with the majority of new burials being infants and children who succumbed to frequent epidemics of yellow fever.
Beginning in the 1860’s, the cemetery showed signs of family plots being established with markers even mentioning the birthplaces of those buried, including Boston and New York among others.
Of the 43 Confederate veterans buried in the cemetery, none died from wounds inflicted during battles in the area, or during the war for that matter.
Little else is know about the younger Riley, and indeed there is no marked grave in Santa Rosa County bearing his name.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Update: Name of grave released in Milton Cemetery desecration