Wilburn Littlejohn 1895-1924

Love's Last Tribute

Wilburn Littlejohn was the son of John Littlejohn and Delphia Ellen Reid, families found in early Pontotoc and Lafayette counties. William Faulkner refers to the Littlejohns and other families in his book "The Hamlet" when he says "they came from the northeast, through the Tennessee mountains by stages marked by the bearing and raising of a generation of children.....They brought no slaves and no Phyfe and Chippendale highboys; indeed, what they did bring most of them could (and did) carry in their hands."

Many Littlejohns are buried in Cambridge Cemetery in northeastern Lafayette County, including Wilburn's parents. This grave "spoke" to me because of its oval shape and and the words "love's last tribute" on the marker. Interestingly enough, Wilburn's mother, Delphia Reid, was sister to my husband's GGG grandmother, Harriett Reid, who moved to Itawamba County and raised a family there with her husband William Elisha Bowen. You just never know who you are going to "meet" in a cemetery!