Guidelines for Graveyards Proposed – Abandoned El Dorado Cemeteries a Grave Concern for Supervisors

El Dorado County supervisors may soon require a special use permit before new cemeteries are approved so that maintenance doesn't become a problem, as it has in some old graveyards around the county. Somebody's going to have to commit to take care of them, said Supervisor Bob Dorr of overgrown and abandoned graveyards during a recent workshop presented by the county's general services department. There might be some historical value here that would help with our tourist industry, Dorr said of the 21 old graveyards proposed as pioneer memorial parks. A better way to handle them is not to legislate but to find some of these (historical) groups, Dorr said. But the problem lies deeper than that. Of the more than 100 cemeteries that exist in the county, the exact location of two dozen is unknown. Where somebody was buried 75 to 150 years ago is a problem, said Supervisor Jack Sweeney. We need to identify the sites and protect the sites. If somebody builds a house and cuts a septic line into a grave, it's a problem. Ever since (California) became a state we had the responsibility as a county to find where people are buried, and we haven't done a good job taking care of that, Sweeney said. It's one of the things that need to be cleared up and brought into compliance. Of the more than 100 cemeteries in the county, 19 are maintained by county funds, according to research done by the general services department for the workshop. The county should only be maintaining nine, which are a combination of county owned and abandoned with no legal ownership of record, says the workshop summary. For various reasons, however, the county has stepped in to provide maintenance for older private cemeteries.
Old cemeteries are not the only problem. With many active graveyards filling up, the county needs to seek out new locations. Senior planner Pierre Rivas told the board that cemeteries have been overlooked during discussion of the 2010 General Plan. The subject has been neglected so far in the 2010 plan, Rivas said. The policy advisory committee identified this as a service that we need to address. Future locations of cemeteries should be determined, Rivas said. It might not be difficult because cemeteries are usually quiet and scenic and therefore compatible with a lot of different types of land use, he said. The need for new cemeteries becomes apparent as people seek resting places for the remains of family members. Harriett Segel, who lives in El Dorado Hills, said she had several friends who recently buried family members and some settled for out-of-county locations because they couldn't find space locally. It's just not easy to be buried in this county in a family or established cemetery, Segel said. With so many people now living in the El Dorado Hills area, it would be a good idea to plan for a local cemetery, Segel said. Bill Butts, caretaker of Georgetown Pioneer Cemetery, said his is one of only four active cemeteries on the Georgetown Divide, with the others in Kelsey, Greenwood and Pilot Hill. Butts said Georgetown's 4-acre graveyard has headstones dating back to 1850. It has 1,500 recorded grave sites and is getting pretty close to full. I think the older cemeteries are pretty well filled up, Butts said. We're not actually selling any plots till someone dies. We have a new cemetery in the works that will be a county cemetery, he said. We're in the process of getting the ground, which will be here on Georgia Slide Road. If the proposed ordinance reviewed by supervisors is adopted, the new cemetery will have to be approved through a special use permit. Sweeney said old graveyards would be exempt from the permit process. The intent of the permit is to provide for proper maintenance, explained Rich Buchanan, real property manager for the county. The regulations would ensure that roads are repaired, rubbish is collected and shrubbery trimmed, he said. Buchanan proposed penalties for violators, which could be up to $500 and/or six months in jail. Of all the cemeteries that allow new burials, only Middletown Cemetery in Placerville is owned by the county, according to general services research. There are 18 privately owned cemeteries in El Dorado County that still sell plots, and 35 privately owned cemeteries that no longer allow burials. Many of the cemeteries are not cared for properly, supervisors agreed. Butts said maintenance costs at Georgetown Pioneer Cemetery are paid for by donations from family members. He gets a small amount of money as a caretaker but no salary, he said. We have enough money to keep it clean, Butts said, of the donations, which include the $100 charge for a burial. Georgetown Cemetery also gets help from inmates of Growlersberg Conservation Camp, who spruce up the cemetery every year just before Memorial Day weekend, Butts said. He said they take great care during maintenance and in determining where new graves will be dug. There are some (graves) that are so old there are no markers on them, he said, but we know someone is there. [Sacramento Bee, Thursday, 2-20-1992. Submitted by KKM]

Commitment Sought to Halt Cemetery’s Demise

When her time finally comes, Margaret Stone doesn't think she should have to go all the way to Sacramento to be buried. Stone, a Grizzly Flat resident, has a Catholic cemetery in her own community, but it has deteriorated with each passing year until today it is mostly overgrown and nearly unrecognizable as a burial site. Stone is among people who are asking the Diocese of Sacramento, which includes El Dorado County, to help protect and preserve St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery in Grizzly Flat. The cemetery is one of several pioneer Catholic cemeteries in El Dorado County, including St. John's in Coloma and St. Michael's in Rescue that critics say have been "abandoned" by the church. Stone and other members of the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission are asking the diocese to reclaim the Grizzly Flat Cemetery to save it from further deterioration and allow people to visit and restore it. On Monday, Stone took Monsignor Patrick M. Nolan on a tour of the cemetery site. Nolan, diocese director of Catholic cemeteries, wasn't pleased with what he saw. "Time has dimmed the memories here. We have to establish that the church has legal right to this," Nolan said after walking the site. "We need to go on record that graves have to be respected in perpetuity," Nolan said. "The expectation is the church will take care of these cemeteries. Unfortunately the church has no resources to do that now." Nolan oversees Catholic cemeteries in 20 counties. Although he served as parish priest in Placerville for four years, Monday was his first visit to the Grizzly Flat Cemetery. Even finding the cemetery has become more of a problem as nature and man encroach on the site. The cemetery was dedicated in the 1850s when Grizzly Flat was a booming mining community. According to a history of the county published by Paolo Sioli, "In 1855 the Catholics were sufficiently numerous to erect a neat and commodious place of worship." By 1857 the town had several churches, four hotels, and a population of approximately 1,200 people. As time passed the community shrank and St. Joseph's Church disappeared. A memo from a county public works official in 1977 said the county had provided maintenance on both the Protestant and Catholic cemeteries in Grizzly Flat over the years. But it noted, "Maintenance at the Catholic cemetery has been cut back in recent years because vehicle access has been cut off as the land in the area was subdivided." Tom Hickey, Folsom Prison Museum curator and a local historian, thinks the diocese should follow the example of the county's Jewish community. "They went out and reclaimed seven of their (pioneer) cemeteries," Hickey said. Hickey said the diocese has been "actively marketing" its cemeteries in Sacramento but is "abandoning others" like the Grizzly Flat Cemetery. Both Hickey and Stone said that if the church reclaimed the site, plenty of people would be willing to maintain the cemetery. The approximately 100-foot-by-100-foot site is in a picturesque wooded area. Few of the graves are identifiable, and many are completely overgrown. The burial dates on headstones range from the late 1880s to 1967. During the eight years Stone and her husband, Marshall, have lived in Grizzly Flat, they said they've seen a steady deterioration of the cemetery. A fence, for instance, that once encircled the grounds is mostly gone. In the last few years, the Stones said a barn-like storage building was constructed adjacent to the cemetery, and "construction materials, equipment and junk" were placed alongside and within the cemetery's fence line. In addition, Margaret Stone said, one of the crosses atop a headstone was found on the ground. Bill Carey, county building official, said the property owner had no permit to erect the storage building, and the county ordered it removed. By Monday's visit to the site, the structure had been taken down, and sections were stacked on the ground. Despite some past confusion over who owns the property, Monsignor Nolan said he is optimistic the diocese can do something about the cemetery. "I think we can assert our ownership," he said. [Sacramento Bee, Thursday, 8-7-1997. Submitted by KKM]

Historic Cemeteries Suffer from Neglect, Abuse

Along the old Pony Express route - where today's Green Valley Road passes through rolling hills of El Dorado County - Scottish immigrant James Skinner was a man of distinction. The early California settler, renowned for his wine, brandy and vinegar, raised seven children on a sprawling ranch founded in 1856. Yet today the marble headstone for Skinner and his wife, Jessie, is defaced with graffiti and stands alone in a field behind a Cameron Park shopping center. No one knows what became of headstones for at least three Skinner children also buried there. A scavenger made off with a broken grave marker for Skinner's good friend, David Reid. The pieces were recovered through a local "tombstone amnesty program," seeking items looted from obscure pioneer cemeteries. As California gears up for the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold, preservationists in the Mother Lode say the region must face an enduring shame: the abandonment or desecration of hundreds of Gold Rush-era graveyards. From Sacramento to Virginia City, Nev., remnants of old cemeteries - from family plots to community graveyards in towns that vanished into history - can be found in open farmland, in golden hills by new subdivisions, in wooded areas being cleared for new shopping centers. Many of these final resting places of early settlers have been ravaged by vandals or thieves, disturbed or threatened by construction, or have simply withered away from neglect. Preservationists say state and local officials have failed in their historic obligations to preserve them. Some old cemeteries - such as the Fort Jim and Dog Town public graveyards in once-thriving mining camps near Placerville - have disappeared. Researchers using news clippings and funeral notices nearly 150 years old are now trying to find the graves. Other forgotten burial sites - such as the old Prairie City Cemetery recently discovered by Caltrans crews clearing a Folsom hillside for a highway interchange - are being unearthed or encroached upon by development. "A lot of these old cemeteries have just faded away. People left and there were no descendants to keep them up," said Sue Silver, director of the El Dorado Pioneer Cemetery Commission. "And then someone can come along and put in a service station or fast food restaurant and we're going to have graves underneath and no one will know it. This is historic country, the place where the Gold Rush started, the heart of the Mother Lode. Why is this happening?" Preservationists are demanding, and winning, pledges from some builders to protect old cemeteries near their projects and to aid in the search for graves. More than 100 pioneer cemeteries, all more than a century old, exist in El Dorado County alone. Silver says 40 are in danger due to vandalism or abandonment. Meanwhile, newcomers moving to the Gold Country are encountering the past and being put to the test on preserving it. "History Abounds!" read one real estate ad. It declared that the buyer of one 5-acre lot in the town of El Dorado would own his or her very own "miners' cemetery." A house was built on the property, and a sign erected honoring seven men said to have been buried there after a 1850s mining accident. Silver says records indicate their headstones are remnants of a larger cemetery from a mining hamlet called Logtown. In Rescue, when Pat Smothers built his house on a shaded hillside, he took on a personal crusade to protect two graves that he found in his back yard. He said that youthful scavengers had once tried to dig into the plot of an early settler from Pennsylvania named Jacob Bish. And someone kicked down the headstone of pioneer R.H. McDougall, who died when he was crushed by a boulder at his mining claim on nearby Weber Creek. Local historians believe 20 more graves from a lost town called Rose Springs exist on Smothers' property, and hope to eventually find them. Meanwhile, Smothers runs off kids who zoom by in all-terrain vehicles and sternly lectures anyone poking around. "I want to take the boys and say, "Hey, this is your history. Why do you want to destroy it?' " In Amador County, a sesquicentennial commission has launched a program to restore 175 damaged headstones at historic cemeteries. Church volunteers cleared weeds and debris and cleaned gravestones at the Jackson City Cemetery, whose occupants include James T. Farley, elected to the U.S. Senate in 1878; and Mike Tovey, a Wells Fargo "shotgun messenger" killed by a robber in an 1893 stagecoach ambush. But vandals recently tore through the nearby Jackson Catholic Cemetery whose denizens include Andrew Kennedy, founder of the legendary Kennedy Mine; and Marie Suize, a French immigrant known as "Madam Pantaloons" for her arrests for wearing men's clothing. The vandals spray-painted graffiti and kicked down stones, including monuments for victims of a 1923 cave-in at Jackson's Argonaut Mine. In Plymouth, after the city spent $1,000 to repair gravestones in its cemetery, intruders returned to break more monuments. "We are plagued with a constant attack by vandals," groused John Lovell, chairman of the Amador County Cemetery Board. "Nobody knows why. Nobody knows how to stop it. But we advocate stronger penalties." Jessie Saner, 84, of Ione was heartbroken when scavengers stole the 1850-vintage wrought iron gates from the cemetery the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers preserved near Sloughhouse. Her many ancestors there include great uncle John Roades, a rancher who helped rescue members of the Donner Party, and great grandfather Jared Dixon Sheldon, a flour mill operator killed in a feud with miners on the Cosumnes River. "I'm just very disappointed in human beings," said Saner, who donated to help build a chain link fence to keep intruders out. In Virginia City, two California men were arrested last spring for stealing 2,500 pounds of iron gates and other ornaments from its cemetery. The graveyard includes the patriarch of Nevada's Storey County, former Texas Ranger Capt. E.F. Storey, who came with the discovery of gold and led troops fighting Paiute Indians in the 1860s. Kelly Dixon of the local Comstock Historic District said the men sold the material to a South Lake Tahoe welding store, which then resold it. After the looted items were located, she angrily confronted a homeowner who purchased the 19th century wrought iron "to build a gazebo." In Sacramento, city officials in 1995 allocated $40,000 for security measures to protect the Old City Cemetery - the resting place of Sacramento founder John Sutter Jr. and thousands of early settlers - after vandals damaged 100 headstones. But City Cemetery tour coordinator John Bettencourt said he grieves for about 20 small pioneer cemeteries elsewhere in the county that have been abused by vandals and left to decay. They are places such as Belleview Cemetery - abandoned in a meadow south of Jackson Highway - where dozens of monuments for settlers such as a man named Emeline Warnock, who died in 1890, are kicked over. Weeds overwhelm other markers, such as one stone that reads: "Baby Buell, Oct.-Dec.1880." In Cameron Park, volunteers worked to preserve dozens of aging gravestones at the abandoned St. Michaels Catholic Cemetery, which includes a family plot for German immigrant Jacob Zentgraf, an 1850s winery and dance hall owner. The graves lie in a field by a new Lewis Homes subdivision and a small Pacific Bell switching station. Tom Hickey, a Folsom Prison museum curator and local preservationist, says dozens of markers at St. Michaels vanished over the years. He fears the Pacific Bell station and an entry road for the subdivision were built over unmarked graves. "It's morally offensive to me," he said. Bill Sullivan, vice president and regional manager for Lewis Homes, said a search with ground-penetrating radar revealed no evidence of additional graves. Pacific Bell spokesman Jack Raudy said the company "firmly believes in good faith" that its station wasn't built "on any part of that cemetery." Recently, the Roebbelen Land Co. of El Dorado Hills, planning to build a major shopping center nearby, promised to save a pioneer Missouri Flat Cemetery, whose aging tombstones stand amid vast woods of valley oaks and manzanita. Project director Bob Brown said the firm will conduct an archaeological survey to determine the extent of the cemetery, then provide fencing and security - and a path so the public can see it. Hickey, who said 60 unmarked graves could be located, said he will adorn each with a marker giving tribute to early settlers. "We may never know their names," he said. "But we know who they are and how they got here: They were the pioneers who built California." [Sacramento Bee, Monday, 8-11-1997. Submitted by KKM]

Report: Cemeteries Need Upkeep - El Dorado Agencies Struggle to Pay for Plot Maintenance

Providing adequate funds for ongoing maintenance is among the greatest challenges for public agencies that oversee cemeteries in El Dorado County, according a report on cemetery services. "People really don't think about cemeteries," said Jose Henriquez, executive officer of the El Dorado Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). The study of public cemetery services is among a series of municipal service reviews that LAFCO is required to conduct under state law to determine whether public agencies are providing adequate services. The review is a prerequisite to updating spheres of influence, agencies' potential service areas. "Used to, the family took care of the cemetery," said Jack Sweeney, who represents the county Board of Supervisors on the commission. "Now the state has regulations, and no one does it because they have no money." Henriquez said insurance regulations have made it more difficult for agencies to allow families and volunteers to maintain plots. Some cemeteries have endowment funds that generate interest to cover maintenance costs, while others are supported by special assessments or general fund revenues. The study focused on the four agencies for which LAFCO must establish spheres of influence: the city of Placerville, County Service Area 9 in the Georgetown area, Happy Homestead Cemetery District in the South Lake Tahoe area and the Kelsey Cemetery District. The review also covered the county government's cemetery administration. Placerville does not operate an active cemetery, with plots available for current burials, but city parks employees maintain the inactive Old City and Uppertown cemeteries. The city provides minimal maintenance, and staff members indicated that improvements sometimes are postponed because of funding constraints and competing needs. Three cemeteries in the Georgetown area are maintained under a zone of benefit, with property owners in the area paying an annual assessment to cover maintenance costs. Georgetown Pioneer Cemetery no longer has plots for sale, according to the report, but 500 are available in the Georgia Slide and Renke Annex cemeteries. In addition, 3.7 acres are available for expansion within the Renke Annex. The Happy Homestead Cemetery is the only known cemetery service provider, public or private, in the El Dorado County portion of the Tahoe basin, according to the report. Though it is unlikely to reach capacity in the foreseeable future, the report says that land availability and costs present a long-term challenge for the district. The Kelsey Cemetery District operates the Kelsey Cemetery, described as a "natural" cemetery that requires minimal maintenance. Cleanup is provided annually by crews from the state Department of Corrections' Growlersburg Camp and periodically by volunteers. El Dorado County, through its General Services Department, operates two active cemeteries -- Pilot Hill and Placerville Union -- as well as 11 cemeteries classified as "pioneer memorial parks" which no longer accept interments other than previously purchased plots. Like Placerville, the county pays for cemetery maintenance through the general fund. The report notes that the county is constantly lobbied by public and private groups to accept responsibility for additional historical cemeteries but is faced with funding constraints. The report recommends that the agencies do more to publicize the historic nature of their cemeteries as public resources, perhaps developing pamphlets for self-guided tours, highlighting the graves of prominent people and providing information on local history. Such activities could help increase public awareness and support for maintaining the sites, the report says. Commission member Francesca Loftis said most people will require cemetery services at some point and suggested it would be appropriate for all county residents to contribute to cemetery maintenance through a special tax or assessment. But commission member Sweeney said the cemeteries maintained by public agencies represent only a fraction of cemeteries in the county, many of which date from the Gold Rush era. "All the old ranches have cemeteries," he said. Many people also are buried in cemeteries owned by churches and fraternal organizations, "and you can't tax them," Sweeney said. [Sacramento Bee, Thursday, 8-7-1997. Submitted by KKM]

Pioneer Cemeteries: No Room Left to be Buried

Only four cemeteries in El Dorado County are less than 140 years old – Happy Homestead Cemetery in South Lake Tahoe, Westwood Hills Memorial Park in Placerville, Green Valley Mortuary and Cemetery in Cameron Park, and New Georgia Slide Cemetery in Georgetown. All the remaining cemeteries currently in use in the county are all over 100 years old. In 1992 the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution which designated live cemeteries as “active cemeteries’’ in the county. They were El Dorado Cemetery Association, Georgetown Cemetery, Happy Homestead Cemetery, Middletown Cemetery, and Pleasant Valley Cemetery. The county has failed to prevent the use of some 18 other public pioneer burying grounds. Interments have occurred at Lotus, Kelsey, Frenchtown, Bryant, Clarksville, Smith’s Flat, Spanish Dry Diggings, Oak Hill, Latrobe, Uppertown, Camino, Blair-Winkleman, Coloma Pioneer, Diamond Springs IOOF, Fairplay, Greenwood, Jayhawk, relocated Mormon Island, and Pilot Hill cemeteries. Four of these - Smith Flat, Spanish Dry Diggings and Mormon Island – were designated by the county Board of Supervisors to be “Pioneer Memorial Parks’’ in 1992, which by law means they are closed for future interments. Research into what early burial records there are for these cemeteries shows that none has historical burial records and none has a historical plot map delineating the early grave sites. The only “records’’ that exist to document the graves at these places are what are known as “tombstone inventories’’ -- listings of the remaining tombstones within these grounds. Searches of county burial permits that are available from 1910 to September of1953 reveal large numbers of burials that occurred and hundreds of graves that exist with no markers whatsoever. No records, no maps, no markers. Hundreds, if not thousands, of unmarked graves dot the grounds of the pioneer cemeteries in this county and yet we, the people, continue to use them as if they are a renewable resource. Most of these places are small, less than 1 acre parcels, and they have been used for nearly 150 years. How many historic older graves have been breached and desecrated already will never he known. But what is known is that if we continue to use these cemeteries, we will continue to desecrate these grounds until they are beyond repair, restoration, or preservation. At Georgetown Pioneer Cemetery, the county has discovered that only 5 percent of the cemetery is “virgin’’ ground, where once it was believed there was 40 percent of the cemetery available for burials. This is a phenomenon recent research is finding at nearly every pioneer cemetery in the county. Research has identified unmarked burials at many of the cemeteries still in use in the county. At Georgetown Pioneer, 265 were identified. At Camino, 37 unmarked burials were noted. Even at El Dorado Cemetery, nearly 400 unmarked sites are believed to exist. At the county-owned and operated Middletown Cemetery, research has revealed over 200 unmarked graves. In fact, from about 1917 until June of 1950, nearly every cemetery in the county was being buried in by funeral directors who cited that there was “no person in charge of the cemetery. These notations can be found on the historical county burial permits during that entire period of 33 years. It wasn’t until 1950 when the county created the position of Superintendent of County Cemeteries that some semblance of supervised interments began to occur. By the 1960s, however, it was found that unsupervised burials were again occurring. Twenty-one years ago, the county Public Works Department commissioned a cemetery survey that was performed by historian Betty C. Laarveld. After completing the survey, she coined a phrase which could be appropriate today: “God help you if you die in El Dorado County because there is no room left to be buried.’’ In 1891 California pioneer John Carr, having arrived in this state in 1851, wrote to the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West in a book “Pioneer Days in California,’’ about the adventures and sights of the new state, which he had viewed firsthand. In his introduction, Carr wrote the following, which recounts his memory of his arrival at the summit of Emigrant Canyon in the Sierra: “We arrived at the summit in due time, where we could look down on our land of Canaan - our promised land. Now, after a lapse of nearly 38 years, when my mind wanders back to the time when I first stood on the summit of the Sierra Nevada mountains and looked over the great plains of California, soon to be reached, the thought comes, how many of that grand army, 100,000 strong, of the youthful manhood of the land, who like myself stood on the summit of the lofty Sierras and took their first view of the then to be great State of California, how many of them are now in the land of the living? Alas, but few of us are living! Many fell early in the fight. How many of them accomplished their desires? I am afraid but very few. Many of them have filled unknown graves, far from home and kindred with no kind friends to drop a tear or plant a sprig over their unmarked graves in the mountains and gulches of California. But their deeds live after them. They planted on the shores of the broad Pacific a mighty empire, whose foundation is laid in liberty, truth, civilization and justice and which will remain a monument to their memories forever.’’ Carr wrote of the many pioneers - mostly those bound for the mines of California - who were felled in their quest for the earth’s riches. Many of these early residents of the state are indeed buried in remote locations, perhaps in graves once marked by a small wooden cross or rock cairn marker. Many died on the route to California over the plains of this great nation. Men, women and their children, succumbed in great numbers of illnesses and their graves were reported to line the wagon-wheel-worn roads leading to, and into, California. Today, those graves can no longer be seen. Once the emigrants arrived from over the plains, they arrived in Placerville. Early newspaper accounts of their arrivals filled the columns and told of the many hardships suffered by these hardy, determined folk. In an early account which was located in the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper, the readers were told that emigrants were arriving weekly by the hundreds. Many brought the illnesses they contracted on the way to California with them, and hundreds died weekly upon arriving in Placerville and were “taken weekly to the burying ground on the hill,’’ the article stated. The hill referenced in this early accounting of death in Placerville could be any number of the cemeteries located on the hillsides of Old Hangtown. In Placerville alone, there are six individual burying grounds - one of which has been built over since the 1950s. They are Uppertown, (Old) Placerville City, Pioneer Cemetery, Union Cemetery, Methodist Episcopal/Federated Church, and the Jewish Cemetery. It is most likely these early emigrant burials occurred at either the Pioneer Cemetery, which is no longer in existence, or Old Placerville City, which has been vandalized to the point where fewer than 1 percent of the tombstones exist today. In El Dorado County, there are more than 100 cemeteries that date to the pioneer days of the state. In the first four years of statehood, El Dorado County had the largest population of any county in California. In 1852 the census taker for El Dorado County noted that he had listed 25,000 people as resident, with over 20,000 men declaring they were registered voters. The census was only two-thirds complete at the time the census taker made these remarks. It is recorded history that hundreds of thousands of people immigrated to California for the first five years between 1848 and 1853. Of those multitudes, historians have concluded that one-fifth of them died within six months after arriving. Even thereafter, during the years when men gave up their mining to settle into farming or to carry on their other usual trades, death was always a fact of life. Mothers and babies died during childbirth. Children suffered childhood diseases for which there were no known cures at the time. Men suffered heart disease. Epidemics raged through cities and settlements wiping out up to one-third of the populations before subsiding. Cholera was the most feared, having taken 826 lives in Sacramento City alone in a three-month period in the fall of 1852. Small pox arrived with the emigrants and spread throughout the Mother Lode, as well as the cities. Whooping cough, typhoid fever and pneumonia were prevalent killers in California. The world of medicine had not yet caught up with man’s diseases and few had even a modicum of hope to survive. Those who died were taken to their graves by what family they had with them at the time. Newspaper death notices chronicled their demise and notified family and friends still residing in the “Atlantic States.’’ The newspapers would arrive in the East before a letter, and the death notices were the quickest way to notify their loved ones of these losses. The pioneer cemeteries of El Dorado County can be found and located wherever there was a substantial population in a community that survived any period of time of at least a year or more. Even where mining activity lasted just a year or so, graveyards are found and (still) discovered - some with readable tombstones, others with only rock or wooden markers. But they exist all over this county. On the northern boundary of the county, before the construction of Folsom Dam in 1954, the communities of Nigger Hill, Salmon Falls, and McDowalsville each had their own cemetery. Because of the creation of Folsom Lake, the graves from these cemeteries were relocated to the new Mormon Island Cemetery south of Green Valley Road, where they were consolidated with the graves moved from Mormon Island, Doten’s Bar, Condemned Bar, and others. Traveling east from Salmon Falls through the communities of Cave Valley, Cooper’s Ravine (later Hogg’s Diggings), Pilot Hill, Garden Valley, Greenwood, Georgetown, Georgia Slide, Bottle Hill, Mameluke Hill and Volcanoville, each had their own burying ground. At A.J. Bayley’s Oak Valleyhouse on Highway 49, there is also a cemetery where it is believed that members of the traveling public were interred next to the members of the Bayley family. Turning southward along the Georgetown Divide are the communities of Kelsey (where gold discoverer James Marshall died in 1885) and Chili Bar, each having their own cemetery. Three of our oldest cemeteries are located at Uniontown (now Lotus) and Coloma. Coloma Pioneer (also known as Coloma Protestant) and St. John’s Catholic Cemetery certainly contain some of the earliest pioneers of the gold rush era. At White Oak Springs, a small community dating to 1849, now just a stand of trees between Weber Creek and Indian Creek on the Lotus Road, is a long forgotten cemetery that few knew existed. It is also one of the oldest cemeteries in the county. In the area of Rescue, the Rose Springs or “Tennessee Burying Ground’’ is now overgrown with oak trees and brush, its two remaining tombstones are all that remind us that the families of the communities of Rose Springs and Gray’s Flat used this place to bury their loved ones. It is currently landlocked and has been abandoned to private ownership despite the fact that is it a county public cemetery. Also at Rescue is Jayhawk Cemetery, where the early residents of Pinchem Tight, Jayhawk, Upper Sweetwater, Kanaka Valley, and Deer Valley buried their family and friends. That death was a fact of life can be no better illustrated than through the pages of the diary of pioneer James S. Russell, who died at age 100 at his home in Sweetwater Creek in 1930. Among his other tales and documentation of life in the early days, Russell’s diary chronicles the many interments and burials he either personally attended or which he personally dug the graves of his friends. The diary documents these 236 deaths all which occurred within the small communities of the western county from 1861 until April of 1930, one month prior to his 100th birthday. By May 1930, Russell’s daughter Nettie Starbuck, wife of Marcus Starbuck, began making entries in his diary. It was she who made the final two entries which read: July 29: “Grandpa passed away today. Aged 100 yrs. 2 mo. 18 days.’’ July 31: “Grandpa laid to rest today.’’ Life was no different in the other communities in the county. Early obituaries, which became more and more common sometime after the mid-1880s, publicly announced and mourned the loss of friends and family members. According to “The Life and Work of the Reverend. C.C. Peirce’’ written by Charles Elmer Upton in 1903 during his tenure as a traveling minister, Rev. Peirce officiated at 1,385 funerals in El Dorado County between 1861 and 1903. Rev. Pearce’s funeral services were held at 40 cemeteries in the county. One after one, all of original pioneers have died and left behind their prodigy and legacies. The tombstones found throughout our pioneer cemeteries represent all the many names we find today in the chronicles and histories of this county. they are our forebears and their sacrifices and lives should not be forgotten. Neither should their final beds of rest be left to languish instates of neglect, abuse, and over-use. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday, 9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]

Report: County Owns Cemetery, Not Lodge

When the parents of Maryette Jackson buried their young daughter (2 years, 7 months, 22 days old) on a hill in Diamond Springs in the summer of 1850, they could never have imagined their child’s resting place would be the subject of controversy nearly 150 years later. The Diamond Springs Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows claims they own the cemetery near Pleasant Valley Road and George’s Alley there, but a recent staff report by the El Dorado County Department of General Services concludes unequivocally that they do not own it. The graveyard belongs to the county, the report states. Case closed? Deputy county counsel Thomas Cumpston doesn’t think so. After reviewing the report, he concluded that although “it appears’’ that the public owns the cemetery, under either of two “very improbable’’ scenarios, the Odd Fellows could own it. “First, it might be that ... a county judge did deed the property out (to the Odd Fellows) and the deed either was never recorded or General Services’ research failed to uncover it,’’ Cumpston wrote in an inter-office memo to General Services Director George Cuttrell. An even less likely scenario may play into the Odd Fellow’s favor. Had the cemetery been private property, the organization could have taken over use of the property by adverse possession by using and caring for the graveyard for a period of five years. “We’ve been burying members of the Odd Fellows and members of the community in that graveyard for 145 years,’’ local Odd Fellows historian Barney Noel said when the cemetery conflict erupted late last summer. Although time and the secrets of the Odd Fellows have obscured the history of the graveyard, the law indicates that the cemetery has been public since the Gold Rush days. Nevertheless, Noel said his organization intends to keep burying the deceased of Diamond Spring in the 2-acre graveyard. “But that cemetery is dead,’’ Sue Silver of the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission said. “There’s no more room,’’ she added. Commission research shows 95 documented burials without headstones and 60 more probable burials in the Diamond Springs Cemetery, including a man named Findlay “killed by Logan at Coon Hollow’’ in 1853; small pox victim, 25-year-old Gideon Blake; and Lorenzo Harris, murdered for a governor’s reward in 1854. Mr. Stowell was also buried in the Diamond Springs Cemetery after being killed in an accident at the Pacific Saw Mill. A mine cave-in killed Sebastian Beckman in 1861, but nobody knows what misfortune befell town beauty 36-year-old Esther Welton, wife of W. Welton, in the fall of 1852. “There’s a point at which these cemeteries become not just the sacred burying grounds of El Dorado County’s earliest residents. They’re irreplaceable cultural resources. That’s why we have to care for them now,’’ Silver said. The cemetery controversy revolves around two adjacent parcels of land in downtown Diamond Springs that now form one tree-shaded graveyard. The 1871 Diamond Springs town site map shows a public cemetery on lot 7 of block 7. Next door is lot 4 of block 7, deeded to Francis Clow. According to P.J. Reinhardt, who prepared the General Services staff report, lot 7, which makes up a good portion the contested graveyard, was already a public cemetery (as opposed to an Odd Fellows cemetery) when the township map was laid out. An 1868 state law granted local judges the authority to grant deeds to the residents of cities, towns and villages. The law also allowed judges to hold public lands, such as roads, public squares and cemeteries in trust for the residents. Reinhardt and Cumpston both acknowledge that Superior Judge Charles F. Irwin held lot 7, block 7 as a public cemetery and never granted a deed to anyone – Odd fellow or otherwise - for this parcel. The status of lot 4 is less clear. The General Services report concludes that the Diamond Springs Odd Fellows don’t have a valid legal claim to that part of the cemetery either. Judge Irwin deeded the lot to Francis Clow in 1876. There is no evidence at the El Dorado County Recorder’s office that lot 4 was ever transferred to anyone else. Technically, Clow’s descendants own the property, the report states. Although Noel contends that there have never been two separate cemeteries, he claims that Margaret Harrris, the wife of a prominent member of the organization, deeded the lot 4 to the Odd Fellows in 1904. The deed states that the property “shall perpetually be held in trust for free cemetery purposes.’’ The evidence currently available suggests that Margaret Harris did not “hold record title and probably did not own’’ lot 4 of block 7 when she deeded it to the Odd Fellows, Cumpston states. “Mr. Harris did own, and Mrs. Harris did inherit lot 7 of block 4 in Diamond Springs. This (similar but reversed numbers) may have prompted confusion,” Cumpston notes. He suggests running a professional title search for the parcel to follow the Clow family line of title and the Harris line backward’’ to find evidence of transferred title. Cumpston said he will ask the Odd Fellows to make available any evidence of its operation of the cemetery. After reviewing the Odd Fellows’ records, the county counsel will make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors regarding the future care and custody of the cemetery, he said. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday, 9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]

High-tech Tools Uncover Truth about Pioneers’ Graves

EL DORADO - A high-tech survey of the cemetery here confirmed suspicions: It’s crowded underground.
The dead of El Dorado County have been buried on the hill above Church Street ever since Revolutionary War veteran Stephen Turley was laid to rest on Christmas Eve 1851. The cemetery was incorporated 13 years later, during the last days of the Civil War, but the earliest detailed records of burials weren’t kept until the1880s, according to cemetery sexton Sue Silver, a Cameron Park resident. “We have records of who dug the well and how much they paid for the well bucket - the well bucket was always disappearing - but we don’t have an early plot map,’’ Silver said. An early sexton kept the cemetery plot map on a window shade, and when she died, an unknowing relative threw the shade away, according to Silver.
Concerned that what appears to be virgin graveyard ground might be occupied by Turley’s contemporaries, the El Dorado Cemetery Association commissioned geological consultants Jerry S. Nelson and William E. Black to survey the146-year-old cemetery. Using ground penetrating radar (GPR), Nelson and Black surveyed 11 possible gravesites Tuesday. Impulse radar systems have been used as a shallow subsurface exploration tool of engineering applications since the 1970s, Nelson said. “It’s used to locate hazardous waste contaminants, washouts below pavements, and determining depth to bedrock,’’ he said. In recent years it has been used more and more frequently to survey older cemeteries, Nelson said. As Black dragged a sled-mounted antenna over a known grave, a printer in the back of his truck spit out a strip chart. Wavy lines indicated disturbances underground. “We call that reading `ground truth,’ ’’ Nelson said. The geophysicists then compared the strip chart to readings made of apparently open areas.
Initial evaluation of four of the 11 plots indicate that they are clear of historical graves. “There was no disturbance in some of the sold plots. This is good news,’’ Silver said. In the remaining seven locations, the geophysicists identified anomalies including unidentified objects and features as shallow as 2 feet, El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission vice president Susan Mickus said. “Some of the anomalies have been identified as early gravesites,’’ Mickus said. “This confirmed our pre-site evaluation of surface and subsurface disturbances,’’ she added. Further investigation is pending. These investigations may include test holes, Mickus said. Because of the existence of unmarked graves in the cemetery, the El Dorado Cemetery Association will be adding additional burial ground to the cemetery.
Owners of Forni Ranch, which borders the graveyard, have agreed to donate approximately an acre-and-a-half to the cemetery, Silver said. “The association would like to hear from families who have unmarked graves in the cemetery so they might be identified,’’ Mickus said. For information call: 677-8525. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday, 9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]

Historical Plaque in Greenwood Cemetery Generates Criticism

Eighteen of Dan Silverberg’s ancestors lie buried in Greenwood Cemetery, along with an unknown number of pioneers, ranchers’ wives, miners, children lost to disease or accident, and Lewis L. Meyers, commonly thought to be the first child born to a settler in the Greenwood area. On Memorial Day, a women’s group called the Golden Key Club of Greenwood dedicated a large stone monument in honor of Myers, whose headstone, like the headstones of many buried in Greenwood in the past 144 years, has been lost. The plaque describes Myers as “The First White Settler’s Child: Born in Greenwood March 25, 1850; Died March 25, 1921; Buried in the Family Plot Greenwood Pioneer Cemetery.’’ Silverberg, a longtime resident of Coloma, believes that the word “white’’ on the monument is racist. “Race is the least important thing when you’re talking about a cemetery. Everyone’s bones are white,’’ Silverberg said. He noted that several Spaniards and Chileans are buried in the cemetery and that thousands of Native Americans, Chinese and African Americans lived in El Dorado County during the gold rush. He told the Greenwood Cemetery District board that he would pay for the cost of changing the wording on the monument, but board president, Robert Bennett, refused. “I see nothing wrong with it,’’ Bennett said. “There’s nothing rabble-rousing about the word `white.’ It’s just a matter of identification.’’ Silverberg does not question the fact that Lewis B. Myers was the first child born to a settler in the Greenwood area or that he was buried in the cemetery. In the spring of 1849, Myers’ father and two other men opened the first general store in the area, and the town was called Lewisville, according to an1883 document called an Historical Souvenir of El Dorado County. The name of the town was later changed to Greenwood Valley because there was another Louisville in the county, the document states. “People tell me, if it were the first black child, we would have put the word “black’’ on it. But that very situation has already happened, and they didn’t do it.’’ Silverberg is referring to two plaques dedicated to the memory of the Monroe family in Coloma. The state historical commission placed a plaque on the Monroe home stating the family was freed from slavery in 1850 when California became a state. The plaque makes no mention that the family was “black.’’ The people of Coloma also erected a large granite grave marker in the Coloma Pioneer Cemetery listing all of the Monroes buried there, but not referring to the family’s race, Silverberg said. “At one time they owned half of Coloma. You would have to know who they were to know anything about their race. That’s the case on any headstone,’’ Silverberg said. Silverberg now contends that the Golden Key Club placed the Myers monument in the cemetery without proper authority. After consulting with Sue Silver, president of the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemetery Commission, he concluded that the Greenwood Cemetery District is not a legal entity, and therefore trustee Bennett has no authority to OK a monument or to refuse to change it. An 1872 law made any cemetery in use for five years prior to 1872 a public cemetery. Silverberg is currently researching whether the Board of Supervisors or the El Dorado County Superior Court judges have authority over public cemeteries in the county. “It’s a tempest in a teapot,’’ Bennett said. “There are so many worthwhile causes, it seems to me this fellow is wasting his time,’’ he said. However, Silverberg remains passionately opposed to the Myers stone. “Today it’s nothing. But it’s a community statement that speaks for me and my family and everybody buried there. And if it’s not changed, it will be there forever for conscious racists to identify with,’’ he said. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday, 9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]

Kelsey Cemetery to Get Makeover - Local Residents Encouraged to Pitch In

KELSEY - This cemetery, five miles north of Placerville, remains a forlorn and neglected site. Fences are broken, and the area is overgrown with weeds. But Jean Bailey knows what it would take to fix it up to its former grandeur. “It just needs T.L.C. right now,’’ she said. “It needs a lot of work.’’ The Kelsey Cemetery, a victim of 10 years of neglect, will soon get a makeover as a local group mobilizes to save it. Bailey, the secretary for the board of trustees for the Kelsey Cemetery District, said the efforts to fix up the graveyard began as a string of phone calls. “Around April, the county took over (the graveyard), because I kept calling the county, wanting to know what’s going on, because plots weren’t allowed to be sold or anything. There were people wanting to be buried, and they couldn’t,’’ she said. Bailey spoke with Walt Schultz, then the county supervisor for District 4, and with Penny Humphreys, who took over Schultz’s job. Both of them promised to help out, she said. When Humphreys took office, one of her first actions was to form a board of trustees to oversee the cemetery, Bailey said. The board held its first meeting Jan. 12. Already, the board members have begun some work, repairing the fences. They have also set up another meeting to discuss the work that still needs to be done. “(The grounds are) just full of thistle in the northwest corner, mostly. And the facade of it is made of a couple of two-by-fours, and they’re rotted at the base of it,’’ she said. “It needs painting and just needs a general fix-up.’’ Other work includes installing electricity. The cemetery will also need water, either by putting in new pumps or connecting with water from Georgetown, Bailey said. “So when people go up there, they can water the flowers up there, without having to haul it, as we have been doing,’’ she said. One challenging project will be identifying the bodies in the graveyard and where exactly they are buried. There are some unmarked graves in the cemetery, which Bailey calls typical for any old cemetery. Bailey hopes to bring in ground-penetrating radar to determine where the graves are. She also calls on people who have old records and receipts showing which plots they purchased to step forward. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday, 9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]

Probe Targets Placerville Cemetery – Co-Mingling of Remains Alleged at Historic Burial Ground

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Department and the State Department of Consumer Affairs are investigating allegations of commingling of cremated remains at the 130-year-old Placerville Union Cemetery. Sheriff's Sgt. Hal Lamb said the investigation began several months ago. The investigation reportedly was prompted by a tip from a former employee at the Chapel of The Pines Funeral Home in Placerville. The investigation involves whether funeral home directors associated with Chapel of the Pines, which also managed the cemetery, oversaw the illegal dumping of cremated remains into other people's burial plots. Disposal of cremated remains into other burial plots is illegal. Disposal of remains, whether on land, sea or air, requires a permit. Ron DeMaderios, a state investigator for the Department of Consumer Affairs' Cemetery Board, said he was called in by El Dorado County law enforcement officials to help prepare a possible case for prosecution. DeMaderios declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation, but said the department hopes to provide information as quickly as possible to the public and families involved to alleviate concerns. Lamb said he is hoping to deliver the case to the district attorney's office "in the next week or so." The most recent director at Chapel of the Pines was fired a month ago and is a target of the investigation, according to a source who is familiar with the investigation. A call Wednesday to officials at Chapel of the Pines was not returned. The extent of the suspected commingling of remains has not yet been released by authorities, and information on the origin of the remains was not immediately available. Investigators are attempting to determine, using DNA and other tests, who the remains belong to. Also under investigation is the financial status of the funeral home, which is owned by the Loewen Corp., a British Columbia-based corporation that is reorganizing its finances under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chapel of the Pines has managed the Placerville Union Cemetery in the past, but over the past couple of months the historic burial ground has fallen into disrepair with un-mown grass and uncollected trash. The cemetery has also become a home for transients. A group of local residents headed by City Councilman Carl Borelli and Joel Ashworth, a former manager of the cemetery, want to make sure maintenance is resumed. The cemetery covers 6 1/2 acres and is "one of the great historic cemeteries in El Dorado County," Ashworth said. "All I know is my mother and father are buried up there, and I just want to make sure that it's a peaceful place for people to go and pay respect to their loved ones," Ashworth added. Ashworth said the investigation doesn't appear to have imperiled money available for maintenance. He said a gardener is scheduled to come in Friday and that transients are being told they are not welcome. [Sacramento Bee, Thursday, 7-13-2000. Submitted by KKM]

Pioneer Graves at Georgia Slide

May marks the month when families across the nation take a little extra time and effort to clean family gravesites and communities clean cemeteries in preparation for Memorial Day Weekend. May is also a month when many families hold family reunions and swap stories of the family. These are stories that should be recorded and handed down from generation to generation. In 1934 the late Peter F. Morgan made some reflections of the area on the Georgetown Divide that were preserved in the pages of the “Georgetown Gazette.’’ He shared many interesting details of old gravesites, some that now are long hidden in the chaparral. The information is the kind that needs to be repeated often. Hopefully it will inspire other readers to write their memories for future generations:
June 22, 1934. Many lone burial plots near Georgetown -- “I have noticed that there has been considerable interest taken lately in locating lonely, and in some instances almost forgotten, graves of some of the Pioneers who were buried outside of public cemeteries. I know of several such graves. One on the old Trimble Ranch, now owned by Ernest Hanson (present-day Hanson Hollow Road off of Wentworth Springs Road above Georgetown), is marked by a marble monument.’’
Faithful til the end -- “On the ridge between the head of North Canyon and Dark Canyon there are now three graves side by side marked with large pieces of white quartz. I was told by an old pioneer, John McLerran, that two darky slaves and their master were buried there. He said that the master was stricken with small pox and the darky boys stayed with him and nursed him faithfully until he died. Then they were both stricken and died and all were buried near their cabin.’’
Dead Man’s Gulch -- “There is a lone grave on the south side of the road going from Georgia Slide Road down to where the McCollough family used to live near the Van Mine. There is another grave on the north side of Dead Man’s Gulch. I think the gulch derived its name from the grave of a young man buried there. My old partner, George Beattie, a pioneer of 1850, told me that two young miners from Kentucky were mining in this gulch and that they were finding a good deal of coarse gold. In those days they always went `heeled’ and one accused the other of stealing. They both drew their guns and the quickest one killed his partner and then cleared out. I don’t think he was ever caught. The grave is plainly marked with a slab of blue slate at the head and one at the foot.’’
The ghost of old Bragg -- “It was near this grave that I saw my first ghost. It was on the eve of my old schoolmate Addie Holmes’ wedding. She and my sister, Maggie, were very close friends and Maggie was to be her bridesmaid. She had a very handsome silver cake dish which I was to take to Addie to put her wedding cake on. There were quite a few guests at the Holmes ranch for the wedding. As we were having a good time, I stayed rather late. It was a dark night and the trail that I had to travel passed very near the grave at Dead Man’s Gulch. When I reached the place near the grave, of course, I was straining my eyes to see the ghost and sure enough, he was right on the trail. My hair was standing straight up and the cold sweat came out of my body. I stood still and looked back and then ahead. There he was and now he was coming toward me. My heart was in my throat and I could not move. I seemed to be glued to the ground. When he got close enough for me to see, it was old Bragg, our neighbor’s big white Newfoundland dog. Then with old Bragg by my side I was not afraid of all the ghosts in the country. There is quite a little cemetery on the hill just above where the Stanton family used to live at Georgia Slide. I believe there are six or eight graves there. Mr. Beattie said they were first buried in the flat in front of where the Stanton family afterwards lived, but when the miners sluiced that ground, they moved the bodies up to the hill above the Stantons.’’
Sacred to the memory of David E. Ramsey -- “There are also several graves down Canyon Creek between Mexican and Shoemaker Gulches. I remember when we were boys, the Stanton, Kenna, Beattie, Barklage boys, Tom Murphy and my brothers and myself went to hunt milk cows. Then we would gather flowers in the spring and decorate those graves. One grave had a cedar head-board on which was written: Sacred to the Memory of David E. Ramsey, A native of Vermont died in 1850, aged 30 years. Remember me as you pass by, As you are now, so was I. As I am now so you will be, Prepare to die and follow me.’’
The ghost of Billie Bennett of Pepper Box Flat -- “In the summertime we would often play around the creek until it was quite late before we would round up the cows and start them home. Our parents would scold us for staying so late, but the next night we would be late again. At this time Mrs. Claresse’s father, Billie Bennett, was just a young man who lived with his father at Pepper Box Flat. Some of our folks got Billie to give us a scare. He wrapped a white sheet around him and when we boys came up near those graves on the hill we heard a terrible moaning and groaning, and then we saw a tall white ghost raise up from the ground and come toward us. We drove the cows home in a hurry and it was some time before we stayed out late again.’’
The above article brought a number of favorable comments from the community, including an unsigned letter to the editor that included: “An orchid for Pete Morgan, whose memories are the most accurate and beautiful, giving a side light on the culture of the home and children of that pioneer period. How many children, boys especially, would gather wildflowers and place them on the graves of Pioneers? The boys of this age would have bee-bee guns, shooting song birds and window panes. Pioneer families had culture, kindness, and religion in their homes.’’
Memorial Day Post Script: When I further researched my files on Peter Morgan, I found an interesting Memorial Day fact: Peter Jones Morgan, son of Peter F., was 53 years of age when he died, suddenly on Wednesday, May 29, 1946. Morgan, who had been helping his cousin, Miss Kathleen Flynn, with some work at the cemetery in preparation for Memorial Day, had returned to the Flynn home and as he mounted the steps was stricken fatally with a heart attack. Coroner A.J. Orelli stated when he examined the body that Morgan was dead before he touched the ground. He was born August 41 1892 at Georgia Slide, the third son of pioneer parents, Mr. and Mrs. Peter F. Morgan.’’ [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday, 9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]

History of County Found in Rescue Area Cemeteries

Nearly every mining camp, emerging town or community which was established during the days of the California gold rush, has been found to have its own burial ground. Beginning with the mining community of Pinchem-Tight located on Deer Valley Road near the crossing of Pinchem Creek, the people of Rescue and its surrounding vicinity also located grounds in which to bury the deceased of the community. Some of the localities represented by the area surrounding what we know as Rescue today, were Green Springs, the Pleasant Grove House, Green Valley, and the White Oak Ranch, all located along Green Valley Road. Green Valley Road was originally the Sacramento to Coloma Road even before Marshall discovered gold at the latter in January 1848. The community of Jayhawk, located just east of the old site of Pinchem-Tighton Deer Valley Road, emerged after mining activity at Pinchem-Tight dwindled out in the late 1850s. By the 1890s, the community of Rescue was established at the junction of Green Valley and Deer Valley roads. Historic cemeteries dot the roadways leading from present-day El Dorado Hills into the Green Valley and Rescue communities. Traveling from west to east, the Rust Family Cemetery, St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery, Skinner Ranch Cemetery, and the Litten-McDonald Family Cemetery, are all visible from Green Valley Road. Just east of Rescue, representing the early community of Rose Springs is the Rose Springs Cemetery, which is not visible from the road, and has been landlocked by emerging subdivisions. Each of the families of Rescue and vicinity had a place of their own in the history of these communities. It is fitting they may be remembered for the many contributions they made to the birth and growth of Rescue and vicinity.
Jayhawk Cemetery (Deer Valley Road, west of Green Valley Road): The western-most section of Jayhawk Cemetery is the ground demarking the original graveyard. In it are the very earliest pioneers of Pinchem-Tight,Green Valley, Jayhawk, and Rescue. The benefactor of Jayhawk Cemetery, Peter Fleming on whose land the grounds were first begun, is buried in a small family plot near the center of the site. After his death in 1902, his son Arthur and daughter Elizabeth Fleming Rust deeded the cemetery to the trustees of Jayhawk Cemetery in 1904, formally establishing the cemetery grounds as a separate parcel from the family homestead. Of particular note is the final resting place of Stephen Willets. Mr. Willets served as an Assemblyman in the California legislature in the 17th Session of1867-1868. He first ran for the Assembly in 1859, but was not successful in that campaign. Mr. Willets was also active in county politics, being elected as County Recorder in 1860. The grave of the late assemblyman was never marked with a tombstone befitting his service to the state. The Jayhawk Cemetery Association, through the efforts of Mrs. Pearle Wing (now deceased) and her daughter, Ila Wing Brazil, has provided the grave of Stephen Willets with a simple concrete marker and lettering. The final place of rest of Mr. Collins Booth is also marked with a plain concrete marker which simply states “Mr. Collins.’’ According to the Mountain Democrat, Collins Booth died at Jayhawk in April 1886. His body was found and an inquest was held by the coroner, Mr. Spencer. The newspaper article about his death reported that he was a “darkey,’’ a term now recognized as derogatory but which helped to identify Mr. Booth as the only recorded pioneer of African-American descendance known to be interred at Jayhawk Cemetery. One cannot speak of Jayhawk Cemetery, or any of the others for that matter, without mentioning James S. Russell. Mr. Russell arrived in California very early and through his journals and diaries, we learn that he was the primary grave digger for the community. He located his home at Upper Sweetwater, near the Sweetwater Creek bridge on Starbuck Road between Green Valley and Deer Valley roads. Mr. Russell performed this service for the community from 1861 until 1900. Before he ceased digging graves, he worked with his son-in-law, Marcus Starbuck, for whom Starbuck Road is named. After Mr. Russell retired from grave digging, Marcus continued in his footsteps. James S. Russell died 1930, just a few months after his 100th birthday. At the cemetery are concrete markers on graves of some who are only referred to as “Mr.“ and the last name. One of these is “Mr. Cooley.“ James Russell’s diary entry for March 14, 1886 says: “Cooley shot and killed over in Deer Valley this afternoon. “The newspaper stated that Mr. E. Cooley was shot and killed by a man named Frers. Russell served on the coroner’s jury on March 15 and attended Mr. Cooley’s funeral on March 16. Henry Frers killed Erwin Cooley in a dispute over a reservoir. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life at Folsom Prison, where he died of old age in 1898.
Rust Family Cemetery (south side of Green Valley Road, west of Bass Lake Road): The Rust Family Cemetery is located east and across Green Valley Road from the Pleasant Grove House, west of Bass Lake Road. The little family burying ground is located on a knoll overlooking the house and is enclosed by an ornamental iron fence and concrete coping. At one time, Green Valley Road ran to the south of the cemetery rather than bisecting the house and the graves, as it does today. The patriarch of the family was William Wallace Rust who came to Californiain 1850, arriving at San Francisco in May of that year. He eventually settled at the Pleasant Grove House in 1864 where he and his wife, Louisa, raised 13 children. He was a blacksmith by trade, having worked as such at the Green Springs ranch around 1854. His old blacksmith shop is still on the premises of the old home site. Mr. Rust lived at the Pleasant Grove House until his death in 1913 at the age of 86. Members of the Rust family interred in the little cemetery plot are Mr. Rust, his wife, Louisa (d. 1889), son Frank (d. 1887), and daughters, Alice (d.1869), Marena (d. 1869) and Hattie (d. 1873), and son, Thomas (d. 1936). It is interesting to note that since the Pleasant Grove House served as one of the area’s roadhouses along the Sacramento to Coloma Road from about 1849, there is reason to believe that this burial location was used as the roadhouse cemetery many years before the Rust family purchased the property. Studies of cemetery locations throughout the gold region support this possibility.
Skinner Family Cemetery (south side of Green Valley Road, west of Cameron Park Drive): The family cemetery of Green Valley pioneer, James Skinner, is located on a little hill which once overlooked the Skinner winery and store. These were located at the intersection of present day Green Valley Road and Cameron Park Drive. It is now hidden behind a commercial shopping center and its isolation from view has allowed it to become the victim of wanton vandalism and destruction. Of the four tombstones known to have existed in the late 1970s, only one remains at the site. Another, returned by an anonymous party to the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission in the fall of 1996, is in six broken pieces and awaits repair and replacement to the cemetery. James Skinner and his family came to California in 1852, and purchased the property which was later known as “Skinner’s’’ in 1856. There he and his wife Jessie raised a family of seven children. Mr. Skinner planted a vineyard on his property which over the years became quite well known for his extensive manufacture of wines, brandies, and vinegar. The first of the family to be interred in the little cemetery was son John A. who died in 1868 at the age of 19. Buried there with him are his father James (d. 1885), mother Jessie (d. 1898), and brothers William (d. 1936) and Alexander (d. 1935). Longtime family friend and farm hand, David Reid, who emigrated with James Skinner from Scotland in 1842, died in 1899 and is buried with the Skinner family.
Litten-McDonald Family Cemetery (Green Valley Road, east of Cameron Park Drive): This small cemetery is located to the north of Green Valley Road in a field across the road from the present day Rescue Elementary School. This location was originally called White Oak Springs, then later it was referred to as “White Oak Flat.’’ The Litten family called their home the White Oak Ranch, a name it retains today under the ownership of Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey Smith. Patriarch Arthur Litten was born in Illinois and came to California via the plains, arriving in August 1853. He first mined at Dry Creek outside Placerville, then moved to Rock Bridge on the South Fork of the American River, becoming a merchant. Mr. Litten remained there until 1859 when he purchased the family ranch of 269 acres on the Folsom to Coloma Road. By 1883, he also owned a ranch near Uniontown (now Lotus) where he raised angora goats. Arthur Litten and his wife, Elizabeth (nee Ebbert), raised four daughters on the home property. Their daughter, Julia, married John Charles McDonald and the couple continued running the ranch after the death of her parents. Hence, the little cemetery is known as the “Litten-McDonald’’ cemetery, representing the two family names. Mr. Litten’s daughter, Julia McDonald, was instrumental in establishing Green Valley Road as we know it today, and worked diligently to have this route designated for use in connection with the Lincoln Highway, the earliest known east-west, cross-country highway established by the government. She also wanted Highway 50 to be traveled via Green Valley Road, but the competition between that route and the Sacramento to Placerville Road route via present-day White Rock Road, was not successful. Arthur Litten died in 1910 at the age of 79 and is buried next to wife Elizabeth (d. 1913) in unmarked graves. At the family’s request, none of the graves at the little cemetery bear tombstones. Through various sources of information, the following family members are believed to be interred in this little burying ground: Estella Litten (d. 1943), daughter of Arthur and Elizabeth, John Charles McDonald (d. 1915), Julia Litten McDonald (d. 1947), Litten McDonald (d. 1930), son of John and Julia, and Martin Ebbert (d. 1911), brother of Elizabeth Litten. According to one source, the cremated remains of longtime ranch hand Bob Nelson may also have been placed in the cemetery, but this has yet to be documented.
Rose Springs Cemetery (presently inaccessible): Only two tombstones remain at this little graveyard which was established near the Rose Springs House, a roadhouse on the Sacramento to Coloma Road in the earliest years of the county. They mark the graves of Jacob Bish and R.H. McDougall. According to research, the earliest documented burial was that of Charles Lloyd in August of 1864, and the last known interment was the funeral of Mr. Bish. In this century, the cemetery was also known as the “Tennessee Burying Ground,’’ due to its location near Tennessee Creek. In addition to representing the roadhouse, the vicinity also took on the name Rose Springs. It is the earliest name associated with the cemetery, though it was also referred to as “Greenville” for a short time at the end of the1890s. The cemetery is known to have also been of service to those living at Gray’s Flat, located south of Rose Springs on present day Ponderosa Road. Little is known about the people who were or may have been interred here. The lack of burial records or obituaries precludes a more complete list, though it is suspected many others burials occurred than those presently documented. Today Rose Springs Cemetery occupies roughly one acre of land and is completely surrounded by private, subdivided properties. The grounds are overgrown, and a stand of young oak trees has taken over the premises. The access road, historically used by the community, is barely visible and the only access to the grounds is over private property.
St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery (Hastings Drive, north of Green Valley Road, west of Cameron Park Drive): Sold to Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany of San Francisco by Green Valley Ranch owner Fred Engesser in 1882, St. Michael’s Catholic Church was the first house of worship to establish at Green Valley. The small 75-foot-by-520-foot parcel was conveniently located on Green Valley Road (then called the Folsom to Coloma Road) between the Engesser residence and the store of James Skinner. The church building was quite small, and the property was also used for the burial of the Catholic parishioners. The earliest documented burial at St. Michael’s Cemetery was that of Mrs. Maria Zentgraf, wife of prominent area vineyardist, Jacob Zentgraf, in 1889. With his brother Antone, Jacob arrived in the U.S. from his home in Saxe-Weimar-Eisnach, Germany in 1852. They came to California in 1853 and settled on land in 1854 along Sweetwater Creek. The Zentgraf vineyard and winery was a most successful business which would sustain the Zentgraf family all the way into the 20th century. With six sons to assist him (only George ever married), Jacob’s winery became well-known not only locally but nationally as his products received awards throughout the country. Today Maria’s final resting place at St. Michael’s is surrounded by the graves of husband Jacob, six of her seven sons, and her mother-in-law. The monument erected by Jacob in her honor in January of 1890, still stands prominent in this small, nearly forgotten graveyard. In recent years, the property of St. Michael’s church and cemetery has become a victim to progress and development. The length of the property has been cut in half by Tourmaline Way, and in 1989 Pacific Bell installed a building partially atop the MacDonald family plot. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday, 9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]

Pioneer Cemeteries Neglected and Abused

The remains of a century old Lebanese cedar tree brought by wagon from Sacramento to St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery in Green Valley were recently found cut down and lying across graves in the Zentgraf family plot on by Sue Silver and Tom Hickey, members of the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission. This tree, the last of three of the Lebanese variety of trees sent by ship around the Horn of South America for placement in Green Valley cemeteries and by George Zentgraf and two neighbors, was planted around 1900 in honor of Zentgraf’s parents, El Dorado County pioneers Jacob and Marie Zentgraf. In addition to the cedar, a nearly 100-year-old Digger pine tree was also found cut down, it’s felling destroying a small diamond-shaped concrete marker for the grave site of Joseph Fischer, another early area pioneer. Downed branches, portions of tree trunks, and sawdust piles were found strewn throughout the cemetery grounds, and all were on top of the graves of some of El Dorado County’s earliest pioneers. A descendent of the Friedman pioneer family who is buried at St. Michael’s, Ed Humphrey arrived at the site after receiving a telephone call about the condition of the cemetery. Humphrey shook his head in amazement. He said he had left his three sisters, all seniors themselves who are here for a family visit, at home so that he could come over to inspect the grounds and take photographs of the site. St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery, the first and last pioneer Catholic church to open in the Rescue/Green Valley area, was established sometime around 1880 to serve the needs of the many Catholic families in the vicinity. The church then established a small cemetery adjacent to the church building and from as early as 1881 the Catholic residents began to bury their loved ones at the long awaited cemetery. This little church cemetery is not the first of El Dorado County’s pioneer cemeteries to be neglected and abused over the years. With the construction of the Sly Park dam and Jenkinson Lake, the Sly Park Ranch cemetery was inundated with water and lost to historians forever. The Ringgold Cemetery, once the burying ground for a bustling mining town between Placerville and Pleasant Valley Road, has been allowed to quietly go away on county-owned agricultural lands being held for the construction of the Texas Hill Reservoir. Only one tombstone is in evidence today. Likewise, the Weberville Cemetery, less than a half mile from Ringgold, was obliterated when a residential dwelling was allowed to be built atop it. It has been said that the tombstones at this site were used in the foundation of the home. On Cedar Ravine near the Weber Creek bridge, the Darlington Ranch Cemetery was designated a Pioneer Memorial Park by the County Board of Supervisors in 1992.There are no tombstones or markers left at this site which remains atop a small knoll above the foundation ruins of the pioneer Darlington family home. Public pioneer cemeteries are vanishing. Throughout El Dorado County, the public pioneer cemeteries of the gold rush era seem to be disappearing at an astonishing rate. “It’s almost as if the county has declared war on its cemeteries,’’ Commission member Hickey said. Among those cemeteries that no longer bear signs of being, but for which the locations have been documented by historians, are the Fort Jim Grave Yard and the Dogtown Cemetery in the Newtown area, now on private property; the JurgensRoad/Weber Creek Cemetery in the Deer Valley area, on property believed to be for sale; the O’Neil Family Cemetery which is now a parking lot below the offices of the Association of Realtors at the comer of Sunset Lane and Mother Lode Drive; the Rupley Ranch Cemetery located below the Rupley House on Highway 50, now also on private property; and the Barnett Ranch Burying Ground on South Shingle Road, which is now partially inundated by a small manmade lake. Among others which have been decimated or partially destroyed are the Margona-Hall Cemetery along Highway 50 east of Ponderosa Road where portions of it may have been taken out for the construction of an antique store building adjacent to it; the Johnson Ranch Cemetery (commonly referred to as the Blair’s-Winkleman Cemetery), located south of North Canyon Road in the Camino area, has been fenced and claimed as a family cemetery, even though a larger portion of it lies outside the now-fenced zone; and the Logtown Cemetery, located within the Sierra Vista subdivision on Kelly Park Lane and Highway 49 where a sign declares that seven young miners died in a mining accident in 1853, despite the fact the existing tombstones tell otherwise. The historic cemetery was recently included in a real estate ad listing for sale the 5.96 acres of land on which it is situated. Nearly all of these previously mentioned cemeteries are El Dorado County public pioneer cemeteries which have been ignored, abandoned, abused, and neglected by those to whom the State of California mandated their care and safety in 1872. That law prescribed that the title of cemetery lands, containing the remains of six human beings which had been continuously used by the people of a town or village or incorporated city for at least five years previous to 1872, vested to the city or county. From recent studies, it appears that the county may have already lost nearly as many cemeteries as it has currently showing on its cemetery inventory list established in 1992. Several others, it is believed, will be next if their conditions are not closely monitored. The El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission is a non-profit organization committed to the preservation, protection, and restoration of the grave yards of the county’s earliest pioneers and residents. In addition to the inherent sanctity and reverence commanded by these burial grounds, these cemeteries are considered invaluable historical and cultural resources to historians and genealogists alike. With California nearing its 150th birthday celebration, the Commission feels there can be no better time than now to restore and preserve the pioneer cemeteries of El Dorado County so they might survive to be appreciated in another 150 years. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday, 9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]

Georgetown Cemetery to Expand - Faced with a Possible Shortage of Burial Plots, One Old-time Georgetown Family Stepped in to Make Sure Members of the Community Could Better Rest in Peace

The Renke family recently donated approximately three-quarters of an acre of kidney-shaped land on the east side of the Georgetown Pioneer Cemetery to the cemetery. The new land could create 200 new burial sites on the already nearly-full land, said Georgetown Cemetery zone-of-benefit advisory committee chairman Larry Anderson. “Right now it’s 99.9 percent full,’’ said Anderson. “Stuff that isn’t full has been sold.’’ While the committee has established a second cemetery, Georgia Slide, to handle most of the current and future requests for local burial sites, a handful of longtime Georgetown families still wished to be buried in the old pioneer cemeteries where their ancestors had been laid to rest decades before. Families that have already purchased plots will now have access to better quality ground, as opposed to land that has proven to be too rocky or otherwise impenetrable to use without great expense to the family, explained Linda Bloodsaw of El Dorado County General Services’ special districts branch. “This will provide a little bit of additional room to some of the old-time families,’’ said Bloodsaw. “The donation (of the land) is meaningful and valuable to the people of this community.’’ The land in question once belonged to Clay Renke, a local businessman who had looked to develop the land into duplexes. Yet when he passed away in the summer of 1997, his children, who had no interest in the development, decided the land would better serve the community as an addition to the cemetery. One of the children, Craig Renke, got in contact with an old schoolmate, Anderson, and the two of them have spent the past two years ironing out a deal. As part of the deal, the three Renke children - none of whom currently reside in El Dorado County - are also guaranteed two burial sites each, should they wish themselves, their spouse or their future children to be able to rest next to their ancestors. Yet aside from the small burial site request by the Renkes, the advisory committee need only pay the escrow and transfer fees. The committee is getting the money for these fees - approximately $2,000 - from zone-of-benefit taxes it has collected over 16 years. When escrow clears, the land can be used, said Anderson. Once the land belongs to the committee, decisions will have to be made on how best it can be used. While no one doubts the need for additional burial sites, there are also the possibilities of cremain nitches - smaller slots in which to keep cremated remains - and a cemetery office. “We’ve been trying to get enough property to take care of the community,’’ explained Anderson. “It was very nice of (the Renkes) to give this to the community.’’ [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday, 9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]

On the North Side of Highway 50 Lies a Little Obscure Cemetery, Old Uppertown Cemetery, Which has been Around Since the 1850s

On the north side of Highway 50 lies a little obscure cemetery, Old Uppertown Cemetery, which has been around since the 1850s. At the south end of the cemetery sits the home of George and Joan Wiglesworth where George has lived since 1956. Wiglesworth has lived his entire life within that vicinity, give or take a few hundred feet. “George was born ...” said Joan, pointing, “.His family home was right there where Broadway turns into Carson Road, of course before the freeway was put in. He’s 86 now, so he’s been around here a long time.” Wiglesworth, a retired house painter, and his wife Joan, 70, are members of the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemetery Commission and the El Dorado County Historical Society. They have made it their commitment to replace all of the historical markers in El Dorado County that were originally put up by the Heritage Society in the ’70s — 65 to 66 in all. “There are very few of us old retired folks that are going around to these old cemeteries and replacing the signs,” said Joan. On Thursday, March 15, Wiglesworth hung up the sign marking the site of the Old Uppertown Cemetery, just beyond his own backyard. The sign reads: “Old Uppertown Cemetery, Burials Date from 1850, Historic Site, El Dorado County No. 56.” Wiglesworth had the sign made by Western Sign Co. in Diamond Springs. “The sign blew down behind our house. My husband and I decided to replace it ourselves. The historical society reimbursed us,” said Joan. The search for these signs actually started a few years ago, but the Wiglesworths and members of the historical society need the help of the population in finding some of them. Some may have blown down, or been torn down for firewood, according to Wiglesworth. “I don’t know where all of them were put up,” said Wiglesworth. “People could call in about it.” The Wiglesworths have only a partial list given to them by the Heritage Society. Another sign is awaiting its final destination in their garage. It is one that they hang below the larger historical markers. Mike Lubinski from Ski Air in Placerville, an air conditioning contractor, put metal edging and backing on each one. “He did that as a contribution,” said Wiglesworth. The sign reads: “Here rest many of the men and women who first saw the beauty and value of this land and chose to remain and build the El Dorado County we cherish today. You are welcome to visit this and other pioneer burial grounds for historical study, genealogical research or a peaceful walk. Help us preserve these graves and markers for generations to come. In California desecration of a cemetery is a felony. — El Dorado County Historical Society and Pioneer Cemetery Commission.” There are 50 of these signs so far. Besides belonging to the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission and the Historical Society, the Wiglesworths take pride in taking care of the Old Uppertown Cemetery. In fact Wiglesworth has five brothers and one sister buried there. “Joan has pictures of every headstone,” said Wiglesworth. “We have names of over 200 people that are buried here, but we have only 105 markers,” said Joan. Joan named off some of the old El Dorado County residents that were put to rest there. “We have old Dr. Moore over here from 1850 ... then there’s a couple of others from 1850. We have one down over the hill here called “The Maiden.” She was 16 years old and a mother when she died. People didn’t live long then.” Wiglesworth has watched over the cemetery since he was a child. “A number of years ago the city gave him a plaque,” said Joan. “He had been watching the cemetery for 45 years. George gets really upset when something happens here.” Joan remembers a few instances when there were problems and has photos of vandalism that has occurred there over the years. Drifters leave beer bottles on the 75 steps leading down to Mosquito Road, she said, and one time a car rolled into the cemetery and knocked down some headstones. One solution to some of the destructive activities is in the works. “The city, actually Ron Mueller of (the City of Placerville) Parks and Rec, has just enacted an ordinance to get the fence around here (the cemetery) and to work on the upkeep of the cemetery,” said Wiglesworth. “They always do come before Memorial Day to mow and clean this up. I have mowed once here (recently), I need to do it again,” he added, gesturing toward the area behind his backyard. Wiglesworth remembers when that section of Highway 50 was constructed in 1954. “I wrote to Cal Trans. They said ‘No way are we going to get close to that cemetery.’ I watched it being built,” said Wiglesworth. “They had to miss the cemetery. That’s why there’s a bend in the freeway,” added Joan. The Wiglesworths enjoy the cemetery, and like to see others enjoying it too. “It’s so nice up here when they have it mowed and taken care of,” said Joan. “We have people coming up here all the time to have picnics in the summertime.” The signs that the Wiglesworths are trying to locate mark historical sites of old buildings, churches, post offices, and schools, as well as cemeteries. There are several stage coach stops and even some signs marking where early settlements are, including the Jurgens Settlement, an early day gold mining town that was here in 1854. If anyone has information regarding the whereabouts of these historical signs, call George or Joan Wiglesworth at 622-5316. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Thursday, 3-22-2001. Submitted by KKM]

Cemetery to be Scanned

El Dorado County supervisors on Tuesday voted to spend $7,500 for ground-penetrating radar and land survey services at Fairplay Cemetery. The board unanimously decided to take the actions after expressing concerns about conditions at the still-operating cemetery, including reports that old grave sites are being disturbed. "This is a heart-wrenching issue that keeps coming up," said Supervisor Helen Baumann, who represents the Fairplay area. As part of Baumann's motion, the board asked the county's Cultural Resources Preservation Commission to review the status of "uncared-for cemeteries." County staff members were directed to report back on the commission's findings and make recommendations regarding the use of ground-penetrating radar and land surveys at additional cemeteries. George Martin, county director of general services, reported to the board that because the majority of cemeteries within El Dorado County date back to the Gold Rush, records and associated maps often are incomplete or nonexistent. As a result, he said, land survey services are necessary to update cemetery plot maps. To prepare accurate plot maps, ground-penetrating radar is needed to pinpoint both marked and unmarked grave sites. Pat Booth, manager of the county's real property planning and administration division, said the cultural resources commission can help determine which of the more than 100 cemeteries in the county "we should zero in on." Sue Silver, president of the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission, told the board of an e-mail she received this week from Bay Area resident John Maylone whose descendants, including his grandfather, were buried at Fairplay Cemetery. Maylone said that when he visited the cemetery last fall, he discovered that his grandfather's grave was gone and in its place was a "massive cement block." He said he is afraid that the next time he visits the cemetery the grave will be covered by someone else's marker. Silver asked the county to make a determination as to whether Fairplay Cemetery is a private or public cemetery. Tom Cumpston, deputy county counsel, said he was not prepared to say the county owns the cemetery. The status of the cemetery, he said, is "a murky subject" and it would require time-consuming research to determine its ownership. Baumann also said the question of ownership is "very difficult." But she said it is the responsibility of the county to help citizens in the area. "If it's a private cemetery, why are we spending tax dollars on it?" Silver asked after Tuesday's meeting. "I know of at least 10 other private cemeteries that beg to have ground-penetrating radar," she said. [Sacramento Bee, Thursday, 4-26-2001. Submitted by KKM]

Cemetery for Lost Souls Finds a Home

In the two plus decades that the El Dorado County Historical Museum at 104 Placerville Drive in Placerville has been open, it has collected many items of local historical interest. Included in these were numerous headstones, many of which had been lost, abandoned, vandalized, or just discarded at numerous places throughout the county. Some came directly to the museum and others through the El Dorado County Department of Transportation. In most cases the history of these headstones was unknown even to the person who may have found them in an old barn, half buried, or just along the road. The museum had no real place of honor for them, so for many years they were simply stored together on the museum property at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds. The lack of a proper site for these headstones came to the attention of the El Dorado Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution when a NSDAR regent of that chapter, Jeannette Barrett, became a museum commissioner.
Barrett who is also the vice president of the Pleasant Valley Chapter of the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, was seriously concerned about this lack of respect for these headstones and set out to do something about it. Barrett felt that the NSDAR, whose motto is: “God Home and Country,” should be the caretaker of these headstones and sought permission from the El Dorado County Historical Museum to do so. Obtaining that, she discussed the matter with Bonnie Battaglia, president of the Pleasant Valley Chapter of the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, who also is the registrar for the local chapter of the NSDAR. Soon a partnership was formed between the two organizations. They sought research help from the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemetery Commission, along with financial help and materials from local businesses. Using volunteers, a proper place at the El Dorado County Historical Museum for the “Cemetery of Lost Souls” was prepared and landscaped, and the headstones properly arranged. Finally, by the middle of this year, the cemetery was completed and, on July 4, it was formally dedicated in a very moving and well attended ceremony at which the history of some of those named on the headstones was given. That is not the end of the story. Through a lengthy process involving letters from researchers and experts in the field, Barrett and the members of the El Dorado Chapter of the NSDAR obtained permission from their national headquarters to have an official NSDAR marker installed at the cemetery, which is now in a beautifully landscaped area in front of the museum. The marker reads, “These lost or abandoned headstones are under the protection of the El Dorado Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.” The dedication of the marker will occur at 1 p.m. on Sept. 12 and will coincide with this year’s first meeting of the El Dorado Chapter of the NSDAR. The El Dorado Chapter is inviting for the dedication of the marker all the donors of time, money and help, along with the NSDAR National Historian from Washington, DC, Dr. Elva Crawford, State NSDAR Historian, Anne Donahue, the State Regent, Linda Calvin, and her officers and, of course, the public. About the cemetery and the event, Barrett stated, “As far as I know this will be the first NSDAR marker done in El Dorado County. Without the help of the Pleasant Valley Chapter of the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, the Museum Commission, museum director Mary Cory, and the many gracious donors and volunteers, this major historical preservation project could not have been completed.” For more information call 621-5865. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Wednesday, 8-29-2001. Submitted by KKM]

Church Project Wins OK - County Planners Want a Fence Around Cemetery, More Land to Widen Road

Plans for a new church complex in El Dorado Hills were complicated by efforts to protect a historic resting place and ensure adequate roadways. The El Dorado County Planning Commission approved a development plan for the Lakehills Community Covenant Church on Thursday after debating whether the church should be required to install a fence around the adjoining Clarksville Cemetery and provide additional right of way for widening White Rock Road. The church proposed to divide a 19.81-acre site on the north side of White Rock east of Latrobe Road into three parcels ranging from 1.92 acres to 12.34 acres for a project to be developed in phases. It includes a multipurpose building, classrooms, worship center, wedding chapel, administration building and soccer field, as well as 380 parking spaces. Steve Rudolph, an attorney representing the church, took issue with two conditions recommended by county planners. Included was a requirement that the church install a 6-foot-tall wrought-iron fence around the Clarksville Cemetery. The cemetery is on a hill east of El Dorado Hills Town Center, and the church's property borders the cemetery on two sides. Rudolph said the church was willing to erect a fence along the boundary it shares with the cemetery. But, he said, "the other property owners should fence the other sides, or the cemetery owners should fence it." He also proposed a chain-link rather than wrought-iron fence. Susan Mickus, representing the El Dorado County Cemetery Advisory Committee and the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission, said the fence is needed to protect the historic cemetery, which includes several family plots still used for burials. Because the cemetery is relatively isolated, she said, it has not suffered the vandalism that has plagued many other cemeteries in the county. But development of the church property will make the site more accessible. Mickus supported the church's request to fence two sides of the property, but she urged the use of wrought iron. "For a 150-year-old cemetery, chain link removes the feeling of time and place," she said. The cemetery currently is fenced with barbed wire. The commission supported Mickus' request. While approving the church's parcel map and development plan, the commission postponed action on a condition recommended by the county Transportation Department requiring dedication of an unspecified amount of right of way for widening White Rock Road. Rudolph said the Board of Supervisors accepted the church's dedication of three-quarters of an acre in 2003. "That was quite a chunk of land," he said, arguing that no additional dedication should be required. Orvin Lambert, a Transportation Department engineer, said that if the right of way were not needed, the county could abandon it. The commission directed Lambert to further research how much right of way the county might need and to report at the commission's next meeting. [Sacramento Bee, Sunday, 9-11-2005. Submitted by KKM]

County Accepts Burial Ground – El Dorado Agrees to Manage the Historic Placerville Cemetery

El Dorado County officials have agreed to take steps to assume management of the historic Placerville Union Cemetery. The Board of Supervisors directed staff members Dec. 13 to pursue discussions with the city of Placerville, Green Valley Mortuary and the state Cemetery and Funeral Bureau. Members of many of the county's pioneer families are buried in the cemetery on Bee Street, where graves date back to the Gold Rush. The Rescue-based Green Valley Mortuary has, at the state's request, managed the Placerville operation for the past five years. But the state Department of Consumer Affairs' Cemetery and Funeral Bureau recently asked the county to assume legal possession and control of the cemetery. If an agency doesn't commit to provide permanent management, "the state will put a chain and a lock on it, and people won't be able to view one of the most historic cemeteries," Jim Wiltshire, assistant county chief administrative officer, told the board. Approximately $230,000 in endowment funds are available to cover improvements and operating costs, but they can be spent only by a public agency, said Paul Phipps, an owner of the Green Valley Mortuary. Phipps said the Placerville cemetery has operated in the black during the years his firm has managed it. The state had closed the cemetery, which has been under private ownership since the 1870s, because of a misuse of endowment funds and other legal problems. The cemetery's corporate board has dwindled to one member, Phipps said, and the state now requires all cemeteries to be operated by someone with a cemetery license. "We're not willing to put our license on the line" to assume permanent responsibility for the operation, he said. Green Valley has taken care of monthly financial activities, handling banking, tax returns, plot management and public inquiries, Phipps said. But due to incomplete records, the cemetery has not sold any plots for five years. Because the records are so old, there are blank spots on the map, Phipps said, explaining that some plots thought to be vacant have proven to be occupied. The grounds need to be improved, he said. "The water system is very archaic," Phipps said, adding that because of leaks, the water is turned off in the winter. Phipps and Wiltshire said Placerville officials have indicated that the city would be willing to provide water for the grounds if the county assumed management responsibility. "The city manager said the city is not in the cemetery business, and the county is," Wiltshire said. "I said the county is not in the water business, and that's how we began talking about the division of roles." Wiltshire said the state has given the county a time window to resolve the long-term management issue. "We needed this hearing to satisfy the state that we're moving on this," he said. Supervisor Helen Baumann noted that former colleague Carl Borelli is buried in the historic cemetery. "I know this has been a difficult situation for members of the board. I appreciate all that you've given to the county," she told Phipps. "I feel we can move forward with the city in maintaining it as a pioneer cemetery." Rescue resident Virginia Crespo said it is important that the county become involved. Crespo said she had served on a citizens’ advisory committee that documented the status of pioneer cemeteries in the county. "There's no doubt that this is one of them," she said. "I'm glad to see that there is progress being made." Joel Ashworth, manager of the Placerville Union Cemetery from about 1964 to 1988, presented the board with a history of the burial grounds. "It is a beautiful cemetery," he said. "It needs to be preserved." [Sacramento Bee, Sunday, 1-1-2006. Submitted by KKM]

Diggers Strike Casket in Biz Park, Officials Say

An excavation to determine the boundaries of a pioneer cemetery hit too close to home when equipment struck what officials believe to be a coffin on property in the Barnett Business Park in Shingle Springs last Friday. Lt. Craig Therkildsen with the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department said the property owner, Ken Wilkenson, suspected that the El Dorado House Cemetery was on his property but dug to confirm. After hitting what appeared to be a coffin, Therkildsen said, the digging stopped. Staff from the county's Development Services Department, as well as an historian, were on site, according to department Director Greg Fuz. Information on whether or not a permit was issued or needed was unavailable. The El Dorado House Cemetery has an unknown number of graves with the Bentley-Parmeter family plot, according to Sue Silver, past president of the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission. It was established in the 1850s after the death of an owner of the El Dorado House, a roadhouse that served those traveling from Placerville to Sacramento, according to local history. "This was a known and identified cemetery. It was not an isolated grave or discovery," Silver states in an e-mail sent to Supervisor Helen Baumann's office. "It was fully documented, including the history of the road house and the family histories of those interred there." Baumann said she didn't receive any notice that the property owner planned to dig but heard about the incident after the digging stopped. "I know that there are gravesites in Shingle Springs and in that business park," Baumann said, and that people are not suppose to dig where gravesites are located. Sheriff Jeff Neves said cadaver dogs had previously identified the dug area as a site where human remains may be buried but the owner chose to dig anyway. Therkildsen said the owner was "convinced" of the existence of the cemetery on his property after striking the coffin. George Sanders with General Services said photographs taken at the site show that the area was filled back in with dirt after the discovery. The Barnett Business Park is located off Durock Road in Shingle Springs. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Friday, 7-7-2006. Submitted by KKM]

A Needed Civic Improvement

Old Placerville Cemetery, El Dorado County

For the past week, two men have been busily engaged in clearing the underbrush and cleaning up in the old city cemetery. The place had been allowed to run wild for several years and as a result was in very bad shape; however, a week’s active work has materially improved it and it is now in quite presentable condition. This old cemetery should be an object of civic care, for its historical value if for nothing else. Many of the old pioneers are buried there, several of whom made history in their day. Some of the tombstones found there date as far back as 1851. The city trustees are to be complimented upon their action in this matter, and it is to be hoped that it will be an initial step toward more city improvements. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, 2-14-1914. Submitted by Kathie Marynik.]