After our Palomar Mountain explore, our day wasn't quite done so we made a detour to the town of Julian.
In the mid-nineteenth century, mining towns appeared throughout California only to become ghost towns as miners hurried to new deposits elsewhere, leaving abandoned buildings in their wake. The town of Julian, founded during a gold strike in 1869, did not disappear but, instead, became a community. Men and women chose to stay in Julian because of the close relationships that developed among families and the viability of agriculture, particularly apples, in the region.
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| Jail c. 1914 |
We have been to Julian several times yet this is our first visit to The Haven of Rest Pioneer Cemetery. This historical cemetery began in the 1870s amid the clamor for gold in the hills surrounding the newly established Julian. For many pioneers, the toil of hard life ended on the hill above Julian. According to a plaque within the grounds, "Primitive living conditions, violence, alcohol, disease and fatal accidents, all common in the Julian Gold Mining District, created an urgent need for a graveyard. Such use began on this then private property with the burial of stillborn babies under a sheltering oak tree. The earliest burials recorded are those of two teenage boys who died in the Winter of 1875. Soon other victims were buried, some with their books on in unmarked graves, some in family plots and some alone in what became, in fact, a community cemetery."The Julian Cemetery Association was incorporated in 1923 to prevent the building of a hotel on this land (which would have plowed over numerous graves). George Hoskings was one of two men to donate the land this resting place has become.Julian’s melting pot of ethnicities contributed to a vital business community. Census records indicate that English, Polish, Welsh, Jewish, Italian, and African American residents called Julian home in the town’s earliest days. We found the statistics on this plaque to be incredible. "33 of the 55 Black residents, listed in the 1860 U.S. Census for San Diego County, lived in the Julian area."
Albert and Margaret Robinson, an African American couple who met in Julian, owned and operated the Hotel Robinson.
America Newton, a former slave from Independence, Missouri, was also well known around town. She made her living washing clothes, and she was often seen riding in her buggy with clean laundry to be delivered.Sadly, many of the headstones are missing though I thought the punched tin replacements were very interesting.Many of the town’s original buildings remain standing and are used for shops, restaurants, and other small businesses. While most California mining towns gained fame for their boom years, Julian boasts of a history beyond the Gold Rush. I love that each time we've visited, we've discovered something new. We will be back.
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1 comments:
Although I am not a fan of pie (sorry...) I am a fan of cemeteries, and I haven’t been to the one in Julian. I will have to check it out sometime! (Eric and A1 will eat my portion of pie for me.)
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