Marker of Frankie Bailiff

returned to Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery, Sonoma County, California

Our story begins on September 18, 2019 with an email received from Mr. Bill Sinclair. He recently cleaned out a tool shed and found the headstone of little Frankie Bailiff.

A member of Mr. Sinclair's family had found the headstone over 30 years ago in the Laguna de Santa Rosa near Llano Way and Todd Road. Frankie's marker was placed in the tool shed on the Sinclair family's property where it remained until recently.

Frankie Bailiff was the four year old son of John Bailiff and his wife, Jonetta. John was born in England in 1824 and settled in the Santa Rosa area about 1849. In the book “History of Sonoma County” by Tom Gregory published in 1891, John Bailiff is given credit for building the first frame house in Santa Rosa. John was a successful rancher and died in Santa Rosa in 1900. More about John's life can be read in the book.

Little is known about Frankie. And some uncertainty exists as to his exact date of death.

A weekly publication in Healdsburg, the “Russian River Flag”, printed on December 28, 1882 that death had come “near Santa Rosa, November 29, 1882, [to] Frankie, the youngest son of John and Johnitta Bailiff, age 4y 1m 23d.”

The previously mentioned book, “History of Sonoma County”, also records Frankie's death as November 29, 1882.

However, the recently discovered marker is engraven with a date of death of November 28, 1883, aged 4 yrs 2 mos.

The 1880 federal census taken of the Bailiff family in Santa Rosa on June 29, 1880 records Frankie's age as one year old. This would seem to substantiate a birth year of 1878 as he would not have his next birthday until September. To have died at age four would seem more likely to have occurred in the year 1882.

Regardless of the inaccuracy of the recorded death date, to have lost a child at such a young age must have been traumatic for his parents and the Bailiff family.

In his email to me, Mr. Sinclair indicated a desire to locate the grave of Frankie and return the marker to its proper place. I was very familiar with Frankie and his immediate family as I recently updated my genealogical research on them. I confirmed the burial site with my records and with those of the online site “findagrave.com” and fowarded the information to Mr. Sinclair.

I received a reply the next day that Mr. Sinclair had made contact with someone at the cemetery and was making arrangements for its return.

The next message sent to me by Mr. Sinclair brought news that Sandy Frary, Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery Archivist, had been contacted and was making arrangements with head of maintenance, John Dennison to receive the marker. Everyone was thrilled at the prospect of its return.

Ms. Frary mentioned that the cemetery first documented Frankie's headstone as missing in June of 1996 when a survey of the cemetery had been done. However, the marker had actually been missing much longer, at least another decade.

On the afternoon of September 21, 2019 while working at our farm in Dowelltown, Tennessee I took a quick look at my cellphone checking for email messages. I had one from Mr. Sinclair. Frankie's marker was delivered to the cemetery and photographs were attached. It was back where it belonged.

And I will reiterate here the words of Ms. Frary...

"Yay! Thank you so much for bringing little Frankie's gravestone home. Love the photos."

My sentiments exactly. Thank you Bill Sinclair for the return of Frankie Bailiff's marker. And thank you to Sandy Frary, John Dennison, and others at Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery for the care given to the resting places of these precious family members.

written by Kevin Bandy for the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery's quarterly newsletter, "The Cemeterian", Sonoma County, California 2019

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