... whose motto is "Where History Comes to Life". So very, very true.
A unique part of Santa Rosa’s history is found in a 17–acre plot of land which borders Franklin Avenue in the northeast section of the City. Here on the weathered gravestones of the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery is written the passage of more than 160 years of Sonoma County’s development, with some fascinating insights into the lives of some of its residents.Family gravesites, whose nineteenth–century dates show many deaths over a brief span of years, attest to the fragility of life in a society without medical means to combat smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid and influenza. The attention to detail, the materials used in the making of grave markers, and the sentiments inscribed on the monuments speak of a society rich in cultural variety and a timeless interest in preserving family heritage.
Colonel James Armstrong is the highest–ranking Civil War veteran here, having served in the 134th Ohio infantry. He became active in the Sonoma County lumber industry in 1874, and in 1880 started the process of donating 490 acres of old growth redwoods as the first parcel toward the 805–acre Armstrong Woods State Preserve.
The McDonald plot commemorates a prominent family who was involved in Santa Rosa’s civic affairs and utility ownership for many years. Lake Ralphine and McDonald Ave were named in their honor.Dr. Annabel McGaughey Stuart, d.1914, was a Civil War nurse and Santa Rosa’s first female physician. Her admiring patients called her Dr. Dear.Feodor Hahman, d. 1883, is referred to as one of the founding fathers of Santa Rosa. It's interesting to put history to the streets we have traversed about town.From The History of Sonoma County 1880 "McMinn, John was born in Dallas county, Missouri, May 2, 1839. Here he received his primary education. In 1852 he emigrated to California with his parents, crossing the plains with an ox-team, arriving in Sonoma County. They settled in Santa Rosa township, on the farm now owned by his father, Joseph McMinn. Since Mr. McMinn's twenty-seven years' residence in this county, his life has been marked with kindly deeds, and he is known to be worthy of the highest esteem and respect."Isaac DeTurk, d. 1896, was one of the early wine producers in Sonoma County, planting vineyards in 1856. He built the Round Barn (lost in the last big fire) at 8th and Donahue to house his prize racehorses, including Anteeo, the fastest trotter in California during the 1885–86 racing season.Lt. Col. John G. Pressley, d. 1895, was a Confederate veteran of the Civil War. The Pressleys came to California to escape the post–Civil War South and became prominent in local affairs.John Ferguson, another soldier of the War of 1812, is buried nearby. Mr. Ferguson is buried there beside his wife, Hannah Jackson Ferguson, kin to President Andrew Jackson.John Thomas Hall, d. 1918, was a British émigré who served under General Pershing during the Mexican border conflicts in 1915. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in World War I and is buried under the maple leaf after dying in the great influenza epidemic in 1918.Winfield S.M. Wright, d. 1892, was one of the richest men in Sonoma County. Wright’s Beach, Wright Road and Wright School are named for him. His wife, Sarah, was a granddaughter of Daniel Boone.Of particular interest is the small tombstone of Davis Wright, a “colored boy,” no doubt a slave child freed when the Wrights reached California, who died in 1865 at the age of twelve. He was a member of the household of Sampson Wright, father of W.S.M. Wright.I found this gravestone quite interesting. He was Sonoma County’s first civil rights activist and a lonely patriot in Santa Rosa’s swamp of Confederate sympathizers. His name was John Richards (d. 1879) and his story demands a further read.We were told by one of the volunteers that this ancient (and very cool) building was a place to store bodies before burial. We had hoped for history than that.Henry Mumford Taylor's gravestone was in the most unique state... one of being swallowed by a tree. Mr. Taylor (1831- 1902) was a farmer for his entire life and left the big city of Santa Rosa for Occidental, at age 22. According to his obituary, "In the early days when habitations were wide apart and primitive conditions made neighbors dependent on one another for nursing in sickness, Henry's ministrations soothed many a sufferer and his hands helped in the last sad hours to lay away the dust of those who knew him not, and whose only claim upon him was the claim that distress can always confidently make upon a true and tender heart." Sounds like a really neat guy!
Before the tree was removed.
I was particularly intrigued by this grave adorned with a mailbox. So me!Orton Leete was a casualty of the last pandemic, also.His grave provided an opportunity for a public service announcement.The strangest (to me) inscription was "Yea though after his skin worms destroy his body yet in his flesh shall he see God." Skin worms? Yikes.Newspaperman, Allen Bosley Lemmon (d. 1919) had the best adornment, lemons. Mr. Lemmon’s Santa Rosa Republican was a small evening paper mostly directed at farmers; every week there was an item covering the doings in each of the small towns in the area. He was born in 1847 and before coming to Santa Rosa had a career in Kansas, where he was a teacher and superintendent of schools while also editing a weekly paper. He was a progressive in the vein of Teddy Roosevelt and when he bought the Republican in 1887, was a good counterbalance to Thomas Thompson, the Sonoma Democrat editor still nursing a grudge over the South losing the Civil War. He owned the paper until his retirement in 1912.John Henry Adams was a train engineer and a farmer. He was born in Santa Rosa but died in Los Angeles.Here is the saddest... the grave of infant Harry Barkas, Jr., born and died during the Depression in October of 1933. The marker is homemade, reflecting the state of the nation’s economy.One of the things I love most about a cemetery is the contrast between what's alive and what isn't. It is always more than what is obvious.“I have always enjoyed cemeteries.
Altars for the living as well as resting places for the dead,
they are entryways, I think, to any town or city,
the best places to become acquainted with the tastes of the inhabitants,
both present and gone.”
― Edwidge Danticat
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1 comments:
Wow. What an amazing cemetery! I love those huge Santa Rosa trees. And all the history. Nice find! I would like to check it out next time we cruise through town. :)
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