Stone Gardens: The headstone of a child murdered in Franklin County in 1871 contains the names of both her killers

In the quiet, forested hills of Franklin County near the small community of Cass, lies one of the most haunting and accusatory graves in the Ozarks: the final resting place of little Deny C. Lee Hill.

Deny C. Lee Hill (sometimes spelled Dennie or Denny, was born on June 29, 1868, in Johnson County, She was the young daughter of Richard William “Dick” or R.W. Hill and Mary E. Hill. At just three years old (contemporary reports listed her as four), her short life ended violently on November 19, 1871.

Bill Cinouthage 16, and Joe Forbush, age 18), worked as farmhands fl family. After eating dinner as usual, Forbush went out to chop wood. A little child came out of the house, and he picked her up and started toward the creek. He was soon joined by Chinouth.

 After proceeding some distance from the house, the two men horribly outraged the little child and, after cruelly murdering her, threw her body into a deep part of Mulberry Creek.

The killers’ plan was to rob the house while the family was away searching for the missing child. They even joined the search party after hiding their stolen goods. When Deny was missed by her parents, Richard Hill and neighbors commenced a diligent search. After searching all night, the body of the murdered child was found in the creek, with its neck broken and body horribly mutilated.

The two men were arrested when suspicion fell upon them. They made a full confession. While being taken to jail, on "attempting to escape" they were both killed by the guard.

The most remarkable feature of this gravesite is its “talking tombstone” --an incredibly rare folk monument that directly names the killers.

s direct public accusation was the family’s way of ensuring the truth would never be forgotten. It stands as a raw form of frontier justice when formal justice moved too slowly for the outraged community.

Deny C. Lee Hill rests in Richard W. “Dick” Hill Cemetery (also known as Dick Hill Cemetery), located off Arkansas Highway 215 near Cass in Franklin County on land tied to her father’s family.

This poignant “talking tombstone” remains one of the most powerful and heartbreaking examples of 19th-century folk memorialization in Arkansas — a stone that still speaks more than 150 years later.