Cemetery Spotlight: Maynard A. Bazinet

It's hard to stroll past a little one's gravestone without it tugging at your heartstrings. This stone in the St. Rose Catholic Cemetery belongs to Maynard Amadee Bazinet (May 1, 1897-January 2, 1900), who died at two years of age, just as the new century had begun. The grave reflects the youth of the child with a lamb at the top and the following inscription: "Sleep on, sweet babe and take thy rest. God calls away when He thinks best."

Maynard's parents, Charles Amadee and Elizabeth Jane Bazinet, are buried beside him. (If you are curious about the names, Maynard's grandfather, Civil War veteran Charles Bazinet, was French Canadian, hailing from Quebec.)

While the couple were blessed with two more daughters, their young son's death marked the start of a series of misfortunes that would plague them in the following years. Just days after the toddler died, his teenage aunt, Bessie Bazinet, died in Cuba City, after a short illness. The following year, a lightning strike during a severe storm hit the family's barn, burning it to the ground and slightly damaging their home. 

The bad luck continued when, in 1903, Maynard's father, who worked as a teamster and agent of the Standard Oil Company in Cuba City, was kicked in the head by a horse and lay unconscious for over a week. While Bazinet survived (and even received a $200 check from John D. Rockefeller for his troubles, thanks to his connection with the Standard Oil Company), a full recovery was never made. He was judged insane in 1905 and died at the Grant County asylum in Lancaster the following year.

For a time, Maynard's mother remained at the family's Clay Street home in Cuba City with her daughters, Gertrude and Florence, and worked as a dressmaker. She later moved to Platteville, and then on to the Lancaster area, where she lived with her daughters and their families for the rest of her life.