Harold Baxter, the bright little boy who was so dear to many of us, was buried at the cemetery on Thursday afternoon.  Harold’s gentle manners and beautiful deportment won him many friends among the children, and grown people also, and we are grieved that his young life, so full of promise and goodness, was cut off so suddenly.  We tender our sincere sympathy to the bereaved friends and relatives.

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Harold Akin Baxter.

Was born near Cartersville, Ga., July 23, 1873 and died in Atlanta, Ga., April 29, 1885.  He was the only child of our late fellow townsman, Mr. T. W. Baxter, by his first wife, nee Miss Eliza Akin, a daughter of the late Col. Warren Akin.  The disease which carried him away was a malignant type of scarlet fever.

Thus died a child of unusual promise.  Intelligent far beyond the average, courageous, bright, full of life and sprightliness, with a certain nobility of character which shone from beaming eyes beneath a brow of fine expanse, it would seem in this case indeed that “death loves a shining mark.”  In his books he was apt and quick, and in the few years of his life had acquired a considerable degree of information.  Out of his books, the activity of his mind amounted almost to intellectual restlessness.  Of keen discernment, clear judgment and quick decision, he gave promise of an intelligence which, when mature, would have made him a marked man in any community.

His manners were unusual for one of his years.  Those of our readers who remember the sweet gentleness of his sainted mother, and how beautifully were blended in her a mind of unusual strength with a heart rich in all that makes woman lovely, were not surprised to see in her son so gifted a boy.

In almost inspired verse, the poet sang:
“Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb.”
Ah, faithful tomb!  To thee we commit our flowers.  Keep this opening bud, as thou didst the Rose of Sharon, until in immortal beauty it blooms in that land where flowers never fade!
A. N. D.

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The Cartersville American
May 19, 1885, page 3

Harold Akin Baxter.
Resolutions Adopted by the First Baptist Sunday School of Cartersville on his Death.

Sunday School First Baptist Church, Cartersville, Ga., May 10, 1885.
To the Superintendent and School:

We, your committee, appointed on last Sabbath, to draft resolutions touching the death of one of our school, beg leave to make the following report:

It seems but a few days since there was in our school a bright, happy boy, full of life and energy and loved by all who knew him – but today he sleeps the sleep which knows no waking until the resurrection morn.

On Saturday, the 29th day of April, 1885, our community, and especially the members of this school, were shocked with the sad intelligence of the death of Master Harold Akin Baxter, at the Kimball House, in Atlanta, Ga.  And on the 30th day of April, 1885, some of us were permitted to join in the sad duty of placing away in its last resting place in our cemetery the mortal covering of his noble little spirit to await the time when it shall put on immortality.  But let us not wish him back among us in this world of sorrow, because we learn here in our Sabbath School what he learned when here with us, that it was our Savior who said, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.”  We feel constrained to believe that his departed mother was anxiously awaiting the time when it would please the Lord to dispatch his messenger, Death, after her darling boy.  And oh!  What rejoicing there must have been in Paradise when little Harold was first embraced in the arms of his loving mother and two of his grandparents in the Gloryland.  We would say to his father, grandparents and relations left behind, to weep not for him, but like David take consolation in contemplation of the thought that although he cannot come back to them, they can go to him. Their loss is his eternal gain.  Therefore be it resolved,

1. That as individuals and as a Sabbath School we deeply feel and sadly mourn the loss of this earnest-hearted, noble-spirited boy, whose first bright years were spent in our midst, and whose refined, gentle manners and bright, active mind, whose warm generous heart, noble manly spirit had won all hearts to him.
2. That we are thankful for the splendid example which this bright boy has left to his young associates.  In the purity, honesty, sweetness and earnestness of his young life he filled the highest type of noble boyhood.
3. That while we feel the impotence of words to express our sorrow in his death, we desire to tender our unfeigned and heart-felt sympathy to the grief-stricken parents and relatives, and mingle our tears with theirs in their and our sad bereavement.
4. That copy of these resolutions be spread upon the minutes of our school, and also that a copy be sent to the parents of our dead schoolmate.

Respectfully submitted.
James B. Conyers
W. J. Neel
B. F. Godfrey
Committee.