Tombstone Tuesday

Jared Sheldon was granted the Mexican land grant for Rancho Omochumney inJanuary1844.The land grant was surveyed for the Mexican government by a young surveyor living in Monterey,William Tecumseh Sherman.He split the grant with his friend William Daylor and together they build successful Ranches on the Consumnes river.Before Sheldon could apply for a land grand he had to convert to Catholicism,take a Mexican name,become a Mexican citizen and find the land.Then improvements had to be made on the land within a year.Jared Dixon Sheldon,a native of Vermont,was killed by miners in a dispute over the flooding of mining claims.He rests in the historic Sloughhouse cemetery in Sloughhouse California.It is hard to believe these huge millstones were brought all the way from Mexico but they were.

The Peculiar and Promiscuous Methods of Burial in Early Mission Days

That is the title of the this article in the Sept.28 1885 edition of the Santa Cruz Daily Surf.I don't know that I have heard the word "promiscuous" used in relation to a cemetery before!
The article further says that the excavation for the walls of the new church "revel a subsoil composed of about equal parts of adobe,decayed coffins, and dead Indians"."A promiscuous lot of "remains" of Spanish and Indian origin,buried in the most heterogeneous manner possible to imagine".Big words for the time and place wouldn't you say?That there were over 3 thousand documented burials in a area of less than a quarter of acre.It was a crowed place no doubt!
The article further states"some of the redwood coffins are in a astonishingly good state of preservation,but the mortality contained therein has resolved itself to brown mold and a few detached bones."I have to wonder why would you open a coffin that is in a good state of preservation?And why would the church allow such a disturbance of the dead?
"Some of the coffins are of very creditable workmanship and adorned with crosses formed of silver headed nails."
It talks of a mass grave of 15 buried without coffins that was supposed to be from a smallpox epidemic.Then goes on to mention several Indian burials;"Two stalwart skeletons in possession of aborigines of some dignity and importance in their day.Their skulls are of capacity sufficient to protect a liberal supply of brain matter, and they carried to the grave with them long strings of beads and shells and there are indications that pipes and other articles now impossible to identify were also deposited with them."
A very different time and place.All of them,native Indian,Spanish settlers,Mexican immigrants,Irish loggers and those first white men who "jumped ship" and stayed, were scooped up and hauled to the new cemetery,six wagon loads.Reburied together in what is now the Old Holy Cross cemetery
There they rest in a little open meadow.Unmarked and mostly forgotten by everyone.I was glad I found out about this place and I really enjoyed visiting a learning about it.I can't wait to go back.Maybe I will take some flowers,and say the names I know out loud,to remember.

Grave Robbers

With all the recent publicity about the Burr Oak Cemetery in Illinois and the terrible things done for profit there I thought I would share the following article.Grave robbing is nothing new but it is the scope of the crime at Burr Oak that has appalled so many people-and maybe the idea that we should be better than that by now.
These articles are in the January 13 and 16,1903 San Francisco Call newspaper
GRAVE ROBBERS' NEFARIOUS DEED IN LOS ANGELES
Grave robbers broke into the tomb of Donna Maria Pico, wife of Pio Pico, the last Spanish (actually,Mexican)Governor of California a few days ago and removed the remains, which had beers buried for nearly fifty years. The well preserved skeleton was found by a boy this afternoon in old Calvary Cemetery, fifty feet from the Pico family vault. All the flesh had fallen from the bones, but on the hands, which were folded over the breast, was found a pair of gloves, and shoes and stockings encased the feet.
It is supposed that the vandals expected to find valuable jewels on the body, as the Picos were wealthy at the time of the death of Donna Maria in Santa Barbara in 1854,but if they obtained anything there is no evidence of the fact. The body rested In a niche in the vault, protected by a marble slab, on which were inscribed her maiden name, Maria Ignacia Alvarado, wife of Pio Pico, and a verse in Spanish. Inside of a hermetically sealed box rested the coffin, richly trimmed with gold and silver fringe and lined with silk, while the body was clad in rich laces, velvets and satin, all in a good state of preservation. The remains had been embalmed, which accounts for- the good condition of the skeleton. Old Calvary Cemetery has been abandoned for many years and is in a state of dilapidation. Many of the early Spanish families used it as a burial ground but a large portion of the bodies have been removed. Don Pio Pico's body, which rested be side that of his wife,was not molested

Tombstone Tuesday

Old Holy Cross Cemetery -Santa Cruz CA. Jose Brijido Rodriguez is one of the early Californianos,he was baptized at Mission San Antonio de Padua,his father was a soldier.I believe this lady,Francisca R. Escamilla, in the same plot is his wife but that he was not her first husband as I found a record of her marriage to one of the Castro's.She was baptized at Mission San Francisco de Asisi,her father a soldier of the Presido there.Her parents originally came from Guadalajara.
This family plot is in a sad state but at least they have headstones,very few early Spanish/Mexican Californians do.
Sources- The Huntington Library, Early California Population Project Database, 2006. Photos are my personal property.

An Upturned Cemetery

From The Santa Cruz Daily Surf Sept. 26,1885 "In digging the trenches for the foundation of the new Catholic Church on Mission Hill, a large number of bodies were unearthed.The bones of many were in a excellent state of preservation.Coffins were found in several instances buried one above the other, the upper one being not more than 1 and a half or two feet below the surface. One of the skulls was about three-eighths of a inch in thickness. In the end of one of the trenches a large pile of bones was found,as though a great many bodies had been buried a t the same time. The results of further excavations will be watched with interest."
Remember not just Indians and Spaniards were buried here.Many of the American pioneer family's of the area were laid to rest in this cemetery as well.California had only been a state 35 years but these people were already forgotten and in the way.One has to wonder at the lack of over site by the church in this matter.They seem curiously absent,other than the mention previously of the Father calling for removal of family at the Sunday service, no mention in any of the articles I have read about the church overseeing or involved in the relocation of the people who first celebrated the Catholic faith here.I have one more article to share about this that says volumes about what happened here.

The plot thickens-or doubles as the case may be

I received some new information on the traveling nature of my 3rd great Grandmother Maria Euginia Ynes Robles de Castro grave site from the Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz county.I had requested a search for a obituary as the society has extensive holdings of early newspapers on film and will do some research for a modest fee.They were not able to find a obit for her.Already by 1867 the lives of the founding Spanish family's were at best reduced to a one line mention and more often not worth mentioning at all.When we do research on our family's it is good to remember that those who were poor,or out of society's(whatever society was the In one of the time and place) main group may not be reported in the news papers and other main records of the time.Often they don't even make it into the census.But it does not mean they were not there.Having baby's,birthdays,party's and fiestas.Living and dying with ceremony and passion as best they could.It just did not make the local news.
Both Ynes and her husband Jose Saturnino Trinidad Castro are listed as buried at Old Holy Cross.As both of their death dates precede the date I have for that cemetery being consecrated I will assume they made the move from the mission cemetery.I need to ask some more questions about the sources for the records the society has and confirm the founding date for Old Holy Cross.They apparently have a compiled records of interments for this cemetery.Now I really need to get back to Santa Cruz and visit the Genealogy room at the main library!The Genealogical society maintains a wonderful collection there and if you have research to do in the area I highly recommend it.
They also were able to send me some of the local news paper stories about the removal of the body's and I will share those in another post.It makes for some eye opening reading.

Tombstone Tuesday

I can't always get over to the coast or down valley to explore were my own family rests so sometimes I go visiting in my local cemetery's.I am close to the gold country of N.Cal with its rich history.This headstone is in the little cemetery of St. John the Baptist in Folsom CA. I have been photographing there lately.I had to fight my way into the Oleander bush to get this one.I have to go back so I can get how old he is and what it says on the bottom! Darn leaf!

Cemeterys-and other people

Spousal support units and graveyards. It’s a delicate thing. “Can we stop at this cemetery since were going to be in the area”? “Okay, who’s there that you’re related to?” “Um, no body I know of.” “So now we just go to any old cemetery and look at any old dead people, not just yours!?!” “Well it looks like a very interesting place! And the art! Think of the art! (Thank god art covers just about anything you can think of these days!)”

Actually, he’s very understanding about my weird ways and obsessions.

Our vacation in April included a 30 mile detour to Old Holy Cross cemetery in Santa Cruz CA.

A bribe of lunch at Gail's deli and bakery in Capitola helped sweeten the deal.And I pointed out how crowded it was at the deli so we had lunch at the cemetery.

He got a nap in the car after lunch and I got to make a visit to a old,often neglected cemetery full of the history of early California.A sad example of how the first settlers have been treated and to photograph the-likely-final resting place of my 3rd great grandmother. Maria Eugenia Ynes Robles de Castro, a woman who's life was lived under the flags of 3 nations.