The Paige Family

Bryant Numbers: 498, 499, & 500
Names & Years: Hiram Paige, 1837-1863; Marq. D. Lafayette Paige, 1812-1863; and Phebe Paige, 1850-1852
Type of Memorial: Marble obelisk with sandstone base
Stonecarver: Unknown

Inscription:
The inscriptions appear respectively (left to right) on the south, west, and north sides of the obelisk.

Hiram
Son of M.D.L. & R.C.
Paige
Killed at
the Battle of
Chickamauga
Sept. 20, 1863
Aged 25 Y’s.
10 M. & 16 D.

Marq. D.
Lafayette
Paige
Died
Aug. 30, 1863
Aged 61 Y.
2 M. & 15 D.

Phebe
daughter of
M.D.L. & R.C.
Paige
Died
Sept. 18, 1852
Aged 1 Y’r.
9 M. & 12 D.

Commentary: The Paige Family headstones in the Old Colony Burying Ground tell a story of devastating family loss. Most immediately notable is the death on Sept. 20, 1863, of 25-year-old Union soldier Hiram Paige, killed during the Civil War at the Battle of Chickamauga. Company D “Granville’s Own” of the 113th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, successfully stood their ground on Horseshoe Ridge at Chickamauga against multiple onslaughts of the enemy, but no fewer than eight of Granville’s finest lost their lives, including Paige. Another twelve were wounded, and ten more from the Granville unit were missing by battle’s end, according to a combatant’s letter cited in Kevin Bennett’s book, The Civil War and Granville: An Ohio Community’s Outsized Contribution. Paige is memorialized on this handsome marble obelisk in Section III of the Old Colony Burying Ground, but it is not certain that his body was actually brought back to Granville for burial.

When Hiram Paige died on that North Georgia battlefield, he may not have known that back in Granville, his father, Marquis De Lafayette Paige, had passed away only three weeks earlier on August 30, 1863. The cause of the senior Paige’s death at the age of 51 is not known, but the double blow in so short a time must have been keenly felt by remaining family members. They were no strangers to loss, however. The Paige obelisk memorializes not only Hiram’s father’s death, but also a third family member, daughter Phebe (Hiram’s sister), who died in 1852, not yet two years old. Phebe is believed to have originally had her own headstone, just to the left (north) of the obelisk. Now lost, that stone would have been one of four children’s headstones (two of which remain), marking the final resting places of four younger sisters of Hiram (Clarinda, Alma, Luthera, and Phebe). Sadly, the first three died at ages 3, 1, and 6, all within about two weeks of each other in 1850.

Find a Grave link for Hiram Paige: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19656404/hirampaige