The London and Greenlaw Gravesites

The London and Greenlaw Gravesites. Rest Atop the Nearby Knoll. The graves of the Greenlaw children inspired Jack London to request that his ashes might someday lie next to little David and Lillie. , John and Lillie Greenlaw, Scottish and Irish immigrants, lived on this land in the 1870s. John, a ship builder, tried his hand at ranching by planting a vineyard. Unfortunately, phylloxera, a disease caused by a root louse, infected the vineyard as well as many across California and Europe, causing a disastrous grapevine epidemic. John Greenlaw abandoned his vineyard dream and moved his family, leaving behind the two children's graves., Jack London first visited this spot about 1905, and revisited it in his novel, Burning Daylight, in 1910., He came out abruptly upon the cypresses. They were enclosed in a small square of ancient fence; the pickets he could plainly see had been hewn and sharpened by hand. Inside were the mounds of two children's graves. Two wooden headboards, likewise hand-hewn, told the story: Little David, born 1855, died 1859; and Little Lily, born 1853, died 1860. , [FICTIONAL DATES]