Clara E. Little (1868–1885)

Headstone GPS Coordinates:

Birth: 5 April 1868, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Death: 9 May 1885, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None.

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None

Until the 1950s, a beautiful, ornately carved headstone stood in Seabeck Cemetery in memory of seventeen-year-old Clara E. Little, who died on May 9, 1885, from unknown causes.

Clara was the youngest child of one of Seabeck’s earliest families. Her father, Gilbert Little, and mother, Ellen (or Helen) Little née Walker, immigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1858. Gilbert was born in Wanlockhead, Scotland, though his family later moved to Dreghorn, Ayrshire. There, Gilbert and his two brothers worked in the coal mines, while his sister supported the family as a seamstress after their father’s death. Gilbert met Ellen in Ayrshire, and they married around 1856.

Shortly after their marriage, the young couple set sail for America. Ellen was likely pregnant at the time with their first child, Archibald Little, who was born in Chile during their journey to the west coast of the United States. By late 1858, the family had likely arrived in San Francisco, California. In 1860, they were living on Whidbey Island, Washington, where Gilbert and Ellen welcomed two more children, Isabelle and William.

Around 1863, the Little family moved to Seabeck, where Gilbert found work as a millworker for the Washington Mill Company, earning $50 per month. On April 5, 1868, their youngest child, Clara E. Little, was born.

Clara appears in both the 1870 and 1880 census records, living with her family in Seabeck. She was listed as a student and was able to read. Whether she was taken by illness or a tragic accident on May 9, 1885, is unknown, but her death was a devastating loss. Clara was laid to rest on Monday, May 11, 1885, at 5:00 p.m. in Seabeck Cemetery.

Her headstone reflected both heartbreak and hope for eternity. It featured a Lily of the Valley motif—symbolizing purity, innocence, renewal, and the return of happiness—and bore a poem that read:

“Hush Mother, I live still;
a bright loving angel;
earth was too cold for me;
here immortality;
safe, weep not.”

Clara’s headstone was photographed in the early 1950s, preserving its beauty. In February 1956, however, heavy winter rains and strong winds toppled an old-growth fir tree in the cemetery. The tree fell directly onto Clara’s grave, snapping her headstone in half and destroying nearby wooden plot fences. A second photograph documents the broken remains of the stone.

Today, nothing remains of Clara E. Little’s original headstone. The SCRP hopes to one day commission a replica, restoring a lasting memorial to a young life lost too soon.