Little Godfrey Cordial — Strange Alabama

A small monument marking the grave of a baby in Old Center United Methodist Church Cemetery in Newville is a sad reminder of infant mortality rates in the 1880s.

According to local lore, the grieving mother of the infant asked a man who was traveling to town to order a headstone. She handed him a slip of paper that read, 'Our infant, daughter of J.E and S.J Brannon'. As the gentleman prepared to leave, he asked Ms. Brannon if she needed anything else to which she replied, 'Godfrey's Cordial' an elixir used for colicky babies. He quickly wrote her request down on the paper she'd handed him and headed to the store.

Week's later, when the headstone arrived it read 'Godfrey Cordial'. The cause of death and the child's real name has been lost to time and the headstone remains today.