GORDON, Ohio — When 13-year-old Trevor Pigg was killed in a car accident, his grandfather's heart broke into a thousand pieces.

        George Pigg had a special bond with his grandson, whom he had nicknamed “Champ.”

        “I think about him every day,” Mr. Pigg said Wednesday, fighting to hold back tears. “We were very close. You can't imagine the pain.”

        So when Mr. Pigg learned that Trevor had written a poem expressing a wish to have a town named after him someday, Mr. Pigg knew what he had to do.

        At first, he thought about constructing a miniature Trevorton in the backyard of his Gordon home with tiny buildings, streets, gardens and even a picket fence.

        Then he got a better idea. Last month, he got the council's permission to rename the village Trevorton for one day, on what would have been his grandson's 15th birthday.

        “I thought about it all winter,” he said.

        Today, Mr. Pigg will hang two homemade Trevorton signs over the two Gordon corporation limit signs, changing the name of this Southwest Ohio hamlet for 24 hours.

        This village of 130 residents 25 miles northwest of Dayton is like a Norman Rockwell picture.

        Swing sets decorate backyards, American flags frame the main street, and laundry is hung out on clotheslines to dry.

        Mr. Pigg said his grandson was smart, athletic, competitive and popular, but he didn't know he wrote poetry or had a desire to have a town named after him.

        The two were inseparable.

        On Sundays, Trevor would come from his home in nearby Greenville to hang out with his grandparents.

        Mr. Pigg and his grandson would drive around in a brand-new pickup truck that Mr. Pigg intended to give Trevor when he turned 16.

        “After he passed away I couldn't drive it,” said the 59-year-old auto worker, his voice breaking.

        “I got rid of it.”

        Trevor was killed Jan. 3, 2001, when he and his three sisters were riding home from church and the car hit a patch of ice and crashed into a tree. Trevor was killed and his sisters injured.

        Thousands of people attended the viewing, with family members standing in the receiving line for more than seven hours.

        Mayor Carol Wallen said when Mr. Pigg approached her about changing the village's name to honor his grandson, she wasn't sure it could be done.

        “I never thought it would be possible,” Ms. Wallen said, adding that she didn't want to turn down Mr. Pigg.

        Ms. Wallen said the solicitor assured her that the name could be changed if the council approved a resolution to authorize it, and the council did by a 6-to-0 vote.

        “They were kind of shocked because they were never asked to do anything like that before,” she said.

        Villagers said they support the name change.

        “Something like that, I don't have a bit of a problem with,” said 57-year-old Jim Buck as he picked up firewood on his property.

        “I'd want something like that for my kid, too.”

        Karen Caudill, 34, calls it a wonderful idea.

        “It's very special,” she said. “I know it would be very special to me.”

        “It makes me feel good I was able to do something he wanted done,” Mr. Pigg said.
       

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