City Cemetery
(aka Golden Gate Cemetery, City Burying Ground, Point Lobos Cemetery, Potter's Field)
Dates of Existence: 1868 to 1901, but some graves may still exist today.
Location: 33rd Avenue and Clement, north and west to the beach.
Number interred: 18,000 to 27,000.
Moved to: different cemeteries in Colma, San Mateo County (including Italian and Salem Memorial Park).
Records: San Francisco Cemetery Records.
Notes: Included a number of cemeteries, including Beth Olam, Caledonian, Chinese (6), Colored Masons, French, German, Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), Greco Russian, Italian, Japanese, Knights of Pythias, Master Mariners, Old Friends, Potter's Field, [Independent Order of] Red Men, Russian, Salem, Scandinavian, Seamen's, Slavonic-Illyric, and St. Andrew's.
Maps:
Footnote:
In the summer of 1993, during renovation and expansion of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, “about 300 corpses from the Gold Rush era—two of them still clutching rosaries, others were wearing dentures and Levis—were unearthed from what appears to be an old pauper's graveyard. Some experts say another 11,000 bodies might lie underneath the museum grounds” according to a Los Angeles Times article (12 November 1993, A-23). The City Planner's office has copies of the excavation activities. According to the archeaologist, there were over 700 individual coffin burials. All the remains and artifacts were turned over to the Coroner's office (Medical Examiner). The Medical Examiner's office had the remains reburied at the Skylawn Cemetery in San Mateo, and the artifacts were given to the City Museum. Most of the finds were centered around the Legion of Honor's courtyard. The archeaological firm proposed a more extensive dig, but the Museum felt it was out-of-scope of their activities, so they said no. Another interesting item was that an early resident, recalling the construction of the museum, mentioned that remains were found and put into a pit in one of the corners of the building, although she couldn't recall which corner. So, it appears that remains are still there, somewhere.
(One of the scientists that worked on the 1993 site, Michele Buzon, has given SFgenealogy permission to post a map of where more than 700 hundred burials were discovered. According to their research, “[a]rchaeological evidence and historical records suggest that these individuals were interred between 1868 and about 1906.” The research goes on to indicate that the individuals were of “poor, working-class people of European ancestry” in addition to the Chinese. Her website is here. Her research was published in Historical Archaeology, The Society for Historical Archaelogy, Volume 35, No. 2, Summer 2005; Health and Disease in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco: Skeletal Evidence from a Forgotten Cemetery , Michele R. Buzon, Phillip L. Walker, Francine Drayer Verhagen, and Susan L. Kerr. Abstract.)
“BOARD OF SUPERVISORS …Golden Gate Cemetery. The City and County Attorney submitted maps and reports of the survey of Golden Gate Cemetery, which has been made in accordance with the rules of English landscape gardening, and combining, as far as practicable, the most desirable elements of the different rural cemeteries of the United States.
“The cost of laying out the Cemetery in accordance with the survey is given as follows:
“Grading avenues, $7,484 70; macadamizing, $24,797 96; springs, windmills and connection pipes, $5,615; reservoirs, $6,550; distributing water pipes, $11,178: office, chapel, stable and vaults, $11,300; improving entrance park and reservations, $11,170. Total, $78,095 66.
“Lots.
“The Cemetery will contain the following number of lots: Family lots, 6,505; area of same, 3,263,695 square feet; single graves, 46,343; area, 1,456,776 square feet; graves for indigent dead, 8,256; area, 265,162 square feet; Chinese graves, 4,968; area, 158,971 square feet. Total area, 5,144,599 square feet. Total area of Cemetery, including walks, avenues and paths, 8,718,000 square feet. The graves in the family lots will be 1,002,331, and the total number in the Cemetery, 161,898.
“The report was received an placed on file.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 28 November 1871, page 1.
“SALEM. History and Description of the Cemetery of the Jewish Congregation Beth Israel. . .
“Undoubtedly one of the causes, among many which operated toward the defeat of the Charter proposed by the Board of Freeholders, was the repugnance which existed among all classes toward the provisions in relation to the cemeteries, it being the generally accepted theory that the authorities might order the removal of the bodies of the dead. To the minds of a great number of our people, the very contemplation of such an act seemed sacreligious. That he might fully understand the 'Cemetery' question and, as to that matter, be able to vote intelligently upon the proposed Charter, a gentleman who furnishes the following facts for the ALTA, devoted several days to an inspection of the various resting place of those whom it has been said:
'Ah! how many wait forever
For the steps that do not come
Wait — until the pitying angels
Take them to their peaceful home.'
“But as almost all the pieces which are now known as 'The City of the Dead', have been frequently written up, a description of them would, at this time, be superfluous. Yet there is one cemetery which has not received any attention in that respect, and a brief account of it will not be out of place. Not far from the junction of Point Lobos and Cemetery avenues, and midway between that point and the Cliff House, situated in the City Burying Ground, is a neatly fenced in plot, containing about eleven acres of land, over the entrance to which will be read the words 'Cemetery of the Congregation Beth Israel, Salem (Peace). Consecrated in the year 5638, December 2, 1877.'
“THE HISTORY OF THIS CEMETERY. It is not uninteresting. About three-and-a-half years since, the Congregation Beth Israel worshipped in a small building at the corner of Mission and Mary streets, nearly opposite of the United States Mint. At that period, the Jewish interments were made in the two cemeteries lying between Eighteenth and Twentieth, Dolores and Church streets. It was the intention of the Congregation to secure the building of a new house of worship as soon as funds for that purpose could be obtained. While attempting to further that design, an incident occured which caused them to delay it, and to occupy their attention with the procuring of a new cemetery. They obtained money for that purpose, and after considerable trouble and inconvenience, they at last succeeded in this object, obtaining the plot mentioned, as a gift from the city, which generously responded to their application in that behalf, upon the sole condition that rich and poor should be charged alike for burial. The congregation then purchased a hearse for $500, and adopted as a scale of prices the sum of $10 for the grave of an adult and $5 for that of a child, except where parties were unable to pay even these small sums, in which case the interment was to be made free of charge. Mr. Conrad Manerhorn, a practical gardner, was engaged as Superintendent, at a salary of $60 per month, and the cemetery was dedicated by Revs. Elkan Cohn and A.J. Messing, since which time there have been 109 interments.
”…The Societies Achim Rachmonim and B'nai Israel have taken a portion of the grounds for interments of their members, while to the left the Congregation Sherith Israel and Ohabei Shalome have obtained lots, which they intend using when their present cemeteries become filled. The Beth Israel has also given a small portion of the Congregation Shaary Zedek, on Stockton street, since which time the latter have had about twelve interments. The Protestant Italians, French Benevolent Society, and German General Benevolent Society, have also cemeteries in the vicinity of the 'Salem' grounds…”
Source: Daily Alta California, 27 September 1880.
“GRAVE NO. 1,116.
Where Thomas W. Wood is Buried in Potter's Field.
Miserable Ending of an Old Soldier After Thirty-five Years' Service—Death Preferred to Dependency.
“What is the number of Thomas W. Wood's grave?”
“About when was he buried?”
“Yesterday.”
The Superintendent of the Potter's Field—dreary burial place of unclaimed and indigent dead—took down a common bill file, and soon turned to a “permit to inter,” bearing the name “Thomas W. Wood.”
“Number 1,116,” the Superintendent said.
The number was marked in pencil on the top margin of the permit. On the bottom margin was the single word “Morgue.” The number was the Superintendent's memorandum of the grave. The word “Morgue” was the City Undertaker's memorandum for the driver of the dead wagon. Thomas W. Wood's body was taken from the Morgue by the City Undertaker and buried in grave No. 1,116, in the Potter's Field. The cause of his death was suicide. Such was the brief history shown by the official 'permit to inter,' to which the Superintendent turned. The permit further showed that death occurred February 11th, burial the 16th, and that the age of the deceased was fifty-seven years.
What did the unusual length of time between the death and burial mean? This: That Thomas W. Wood had served in the army and navy for thirty-five years, and the officers at the Morgue thought some other than a pauper's burial was due him. They had kept his body, therefore, as long as possible. Their efforts to find some society willing to give the body a Christian burial were unavailing.
The be sure, he had only been a private in the army and a marine in the navy. Yet from 1847, when he was but twenty-two years old, until only a few weeks ago, worn out, and fifty-seven years old, he had served faithfully.
“Will you direct me to his grave?” the reporter asked.
“Certainly,” the Superintendent replied. “Come this way.”
THE SOLDIER'S GRAVE.
The path led through a field in which a few sturdy sage-brushes were beginning a war on the prevailing sand dunes. On the opposite side of a broken-down fence stood a black dead-wagon and a mournful-looking, dirty, white horse. Beyond the dead-wagon a man stood in a put up to the waist, digging a grave in the soft, find sand. He threw the sand into a half-filled grave, separated a foot from the one he was digging. The half-filled grave was marked by a plank, painted a rusty white, and numbered, in black figures, “1,118.” Another next beyond was “1,117.”
“That's Wood's,” the Superintendent said, pointing to the third grave from the digger.
He pointed to a rusty white plank, nearly buried in the drifting sand, marked “1,116.” There was no mound, no grass, no fence or flowers. There was a drifting waste of white sand, studded with four thousand one hundred and eighteen rusty-white and weather-beaten planks.
“Have you put in this morning's two?” the Superintendent asked of the half-buried gravedigger.
“Yes sir,” the man said, nodding out of the sand between him and No. “1,116.” Then he bent over his work and threw more sand from the half-made grave into the half-filled grave, marked with plank No. “1,118.”
“The two brought out this morning have been buried,” the Superintendent said to the reporter.
“Why is he digging another grave, then?”
“Oh, it saves work. A grave has to be filled up, and it may as well be filled with the sand from the next grave made.”
“But the drifting sand may fill this before it is used.”
“It won't have time. We average forty a month. That's more than one a day. Two to-day.”
WHERE THEY COME FROM.
“Where do they come from?”
“From the Morgue, mostly. Some come from the City Hospital, some from the Poor House, and some from the Foundling Asylum.”
A wire “straight line” ran along the row of graves in which the digger worked, that each plank should be placed in exact line. Long even rows of numbered planks stretched away toward the Golden Gate.
“How many are there?”
“I numbered up to three thousand, and then began with “one” again, and he is now digging 1,119 for to-morrow.”
The reporter looked down the long silent aisles formed by the thousands of planks, in exact rows, and then thought of the sources which supplied the bodies over which the white sand drifted. “Found in the bay;” “midnight brawls,” “resulting in murder;” worn-out tramps, who waysided in the Poor House before lodging finally in Potter's Field; and among them all the body of Thomas W. Woods, native of Fairfax, Virginia, who had nothing in his pocket, when searched at the Morgue, but a bundle of “Honorable Discharges” from the army and navy.
“Does each plank mark a single grave?”
“Not all. Sometimes we get two foundlings at once, and then we put two in one grave. It saves ground and the cost of a head-board. Such graves only have one number, but the records are marked 'head and foot,' which shows that two bodies are in the grave.
A SOLDIER'S LIFE.
ON June 3, 1847, young Thomas Wood enlisted for the Mexican war. He was honorably discharged July 13, 1848. He reenlisted at various times for various terms, never remaining out of the army more than a few days until 1870. After serving through the war of the Rebellion, he was discharged in 1865, reenlisted for five years and received his last honorable discharge from the army October 30, 1870. This last certificate of honorable discharge, found in his pockets with all the others, is countersigned, “Character very good.” On December 21, 1870, he first enlisted in the marine corps of the navy, at the Navy Yard, in Washington, D. C. His last two honorable discharges from the marines are countersigned, “Character excellent.” All of the certificates state that the honorable discharges are granted for expiration of term, except the last, dated Mare Island, November 27, 1881, which states that the discharge is granted upon report of “Board of Medical Survey.”
After thirty-five years of continuous service, —— or old hulk, worn and battered by campaigns and cruises, by battle, and action, and ——; the poor old hulk, condemned after over a third of a century of service, is supplied with a parchment certificate of good character, and sent adrift, and old hulk, indeed, it were better if he had been, for the craziest old worthless hulk in the navy, after years of service, is laid up in ordinary, and kept, if not in decent repairs, at least from going to pieces.
The Board of Medical Survey condemned him as too much worn for further effective service, and knowing no way, at his time of life, to earn a living, having given his youth and middle-age to his country, he drifted to this city, without occupation, home or friends. He had in the world $25 and the red tape certificate of the Board of Medical Survey, that, having worn out in thirty-five years honorable service for his country, the honorable Board had cut him adrift.
At the Morgue, the hotel man, with whom Wood had deposited all his money, told the rest of the story. It is simple. Wood was temperate; drew only such money as we necessary for a bare cheap living, and when his money was all gone and no more to come, the old man, rather than find himself a penny in debt, or ask for a penny he did not earn, poisoned himself.
In his pockets were his bundle of honorable discharges, nicely tied with red tape, and a number of affectionate letters from a married daughter living near the old home, back in old Virginia.
The Coroner's deputies, accustomed as they are to stories of hopeful or faithful lives, miserable ended, saw something in this which appealed to fraternal sympathy and to the fraternities of veterans of various titles. To the navy and army department offices they appealed while the body remained at the morgue, but in vain.
The burial could be delayed no longer. The dead wagon carried away the old private's body, and the burial, according to stipulations, took place at a cost of $2.60 to the City and County of San Francisco.
The dead wagon drove over the field where the sage brush battles with the sand, to the sand dune beyond the tumble-down fence. The contract box, with the old soldier's body, was dumped into grave 1,116, and the sand from graves 1,117 and 1,118 was shoveled over the box, with no one by to say even the poor words “dust to dust, ashes to ashes!”
The Superintendent field away the permit to inter, which alone shows, that Thomas W. Wood, thirty-five years a soldier and marine, lies beneath the white sand in grave 1,116.
Source: San Francisco Call, 18 February 1882.
“HOMES OF THE DEAD.
“The Cemeteries at Lone Mountain.
“CUSTOMS OF THE CHINESE.
“The Indigent Dead-Spiritual Banquets of Pagans in the Potter's Field.
“A short time since several human skeletons were disinterred by laborers who were making an excavation on the sandlot at the now City Hall. It was supposed that they were the remains of those buried in Yerba Buena Cemetery and in this connection a perusal of the following singular historical incidents will be of interest. The City Cemetery, comprising a tract of about 800 acres, situated on the hills bordering the waters of the Pacific ocean, was established by the Municipal authorization twelve years ago and was designed to be used for the burial of the indigent dead. At that time the old Yerba Buena Cemetery, which was full and had been closed, was selected as the site for the new City Hall and instructions were given for the removal of the bones of the deceased, who were there buried. The remains of the dead who were without any surviving friends or relatives were disinterred at the expense of the municipality, and, with the cribs and headboards, were removed to the City Cemetery. The number was 500, including 200 classed as unrecognized dead. The recognized dead were reburied in Section 8 of the cemetery, while the unknown dead were placed close together in an adjacent small corral. An immense headboard was set up, with the inscription:
“In memory of the unrecognized dead who died between the years 1849 and 1860, and were removed from Yerba Buena Cemetery in May, 1870. The graves had no distinct marks and the bodies were unrecognized.”
“DESECRATION AND REPAIRS.
“For a number of years the City Cemetery was only partly fenced and was broken into by the cattle in the vicinity, that shattered the tombstones, trod over the sacred spot and ate the grass which had grown over the graves. The City Cemetery was allowed to continue in this disgraceful condition for years until recently, Superintendent Hanlan was directed by the Board of Supervisors to repair the fences and to put the plot into decent condition. From time to time the various sectarian, religious and benevolent societies have been granted plots, by the Supervisors, upon which largo sums of money have been expended in improvement. The Jewish societies interested in it have erected a tank and windmill and a house for bathing the dead before burial, in Salem Cemetery, at a total expense of $5000, Tho Italian Benevolent Society has also been to an expense of about $4000 in improving and beautifying its three-acre plot, which contains a house and is tastefully laid out in walks, with evergreens, etc. The lot of the French Mutual Benevolent Society, comprising five acres, has a vault, water pipes with every facility for irrigation, rare plants and flowers and is picturesquely encircled by a line of cypress trees. It is the intention of Dr. H.D. Cogswell, the irrepressible donor of water drinking granite and bronze drinking fountains to soon build in the plot of the Ladies' Seamen's Protective Society a suitable monument dedicated to the sailors who are there buried.
“LOVED, BUT UNRECOGNIZED,
“Section 8 of the City Cemetery was the pioneer Potter's field, in which the paupers used to be buried in 1870. In last October it became necessary to open a new section for the burial of the indigent dead of the city-the men and women who die in the public institutions and from violent causes, or who are unknown and without any ostensible friends or relatives. Side by side in the new section of Potter's field, lying only four feet apart, each grave marked by a plain wooden slab, on which is painted a number, are buried Caucasians, Africans, Asiatics and the silent representatives of all nationalities and races. But few marble headstones mark the graves and only twelve of the rude headboards bear even the names of the apparently neglected and forgotten departed. Here within the past twelve years have been laid to rest the remains of some 4000 men and women. In 1870 the Chinese were notified that no more burials would be allowed in Laurel Hill Cemetery, the section allotted to them having been filled. The new lot granted to them in the City Cemetery is located on the western slope of the hills and comprises twenty-one separate sections, each of which is enclosed for the use of the several Chinese societies.
“CELESTIAL STIFFS.
“On the Ming Yung Company's plot is a large open brick chapel, representing a court for the worship of Joss. The plot also contains two big brick furnaces, in which the clothes of the dead Chinese are burned before burial. Similar but less pretentious appliances are employed by the remaining pagan societies. The dead are fed four times each year, when loads of ornamented and dressed chickens, pigs, ducks and sweetmeats are conveyed in express wagons to the cemetery and the Chinese assemble in hundreds, explode bombs, discharge pistols and hold like superstitious religious ceremonies, with the view of driving from out the locality Satan and other evil spirits.
“The noise and hubbub on these occasions in like that of a Fourth of July celebration and has often been attended by serious accidents. The food taken to the graves is usually left to appease the supposed hunger of the dead Mongolians, with the exception of the pork, which is taken back to the butcher shops in Chinatown, where it is retailed at an advanced price. The ducks, the chickens and the sweetmeats instead of contributing to the nourishment of the dead Chinese, generally become the plunder of the live tramps and the hoodlums, whose sacrilegious appetites are thus appeased and who greet with much joy the recurrence of these spiritual banquets.
“The Christian Chinese and Japanese are burled by themselves in a plot granted by the city to the Rev. Otis Gibson. Over 4000 Chinese and 4429 indigent dead of other races have been buried in the City Cemetery. In addition to those numbers there are 84 in the French, 120 in the Italian and 204 in the Jewish cemeteries. Such is, in brief, a history of the homes of the dead at Lone Mountain.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 19 August 1883, page 16.
”… The following resolution, introduced by Supervisor Burns was then read:
“WHEREAS, In the year 1868, the city and county reserved in the northwestern portion of this peninsula a tract of land 200 acres in extent for cemetery purposes, at a cost of $127,465; and whereas, when this reservation was made it was in an isolated part of the city and county, it being contemplated and believed at this time that burials would be prohibited sooner or later, for sanitary reasons, in many of the cemeteries then used, and whereas, in addition to the interment of the remains of decedents removed from Yerba Buena Cemetery and indigent decedents, various grants of portions of said cemetery have been made to charitable and benevolent associations which have made improvements thereon, and used the portions granted for burial purposes; and, whereas, there can be no question that continued internments in said Golden Gate Cemetery will be a positive advantage to the improvement of the outside lands lying north of the park and prejudicial to the sanitary well being of that part of the city and county; and whereas, the location and renovation so made is, in the view of the improvements projected and the increasing demands of the public, a most eligible site for recreation purposes, and if connected with our public park would be a most valuable adjunct thereto as a healthy resort for our people; therefore,
”Resolved. That inasmuch as the question of restricting burials in said Golden Gate cemetery should be considered with a due regard to the rights of all persons concerned, and the present and future wants and necessities of the public, the subject be and is hereby referred to a special committee consisting of three members of this board to be appointed by and to act in conjunction with his Honor the Mayor, to consider further interments therein; also if in their judgement further internments should be prohibited, to examine and report as to the interments made, the character and value of improvements made in plats [sic] or lots in said cemetery, and whether, if deemed proper that the remains therein interred should be removed to and reinterred in other cemeteries, what probable expense, if any, would be installed upon or should be borne by the city and county; also whether the plats or lots, wherein interments have been made, could be improved and allowed to remain without detriment of the use of said tract of land as a public park; also whether there exists any necessity for the city and county to acquire lands for cemetery purposes; also whether the said reservation should be placed under the care and control of the Board of Park Commissioners to improve and beautify it for the uses and purpose of the public and whether the increased appropriation authorized to be made by the last session of the Legislature for the improvement of the public parks will afford said board the means to carry out such systems of improvements.
“Supervisor Burns moved the adoption of the resolution. The motion was carried, Curran and Lambert voting no.”
Source: San Francisco Morning Call, 26 April 1887.
“THE CITY'S CEMETERIES.
“A Removal to San Mateo County Will Probably Be Made.
“The committee appointed by Mayor E.B. Pond, in accordance with the resolution passed last Monday by the Board of Supervisors, for the purpose of studying the advisability of closing the city cemeteries, the removal of the bodies there interred, and the purchase of land for the burial of the indigent dead, met in the Mayor's office yesterday afternoon. Supervisors Pescia, Morton and Burns were present.
“The report of John Moran, inspector of the city cemeteries, was read and is as follows:
“The various burial grounds contain over 200 acres, in which are interred over 27,000 bodies, as follows: Section 2, indigent dead, 12,000; Section 11, 2,500: Jewish plots, 2,000; Italian, 300: French, 170; Knights of Pythias, 7; Old Friends, 5; Caledonians, 5; Netherlands, 6; Grand Army, 20; German Benevolent, 40; Master Mariners, 2; Ladies' Seamen's Aid Society, 17; Russian Greek, 15: Selavonians, 14: Colored Odd Fellows, 7: Red Men, 15: Scandinavians, 1; Chinese, about 10,000, It is impossible to get the exact number of Chinese interred in the cemeteries, as records have not been fully kept.
“The only conclusion arrived at the meeting was that Dr. Pescia and Mr. Morton should visit San Mateo county next Sunday, look over the ground, and see whether it would be practicable to remove the city's burial ground to that place.”
Source: San Francisco Examiner, 5 May 1887, page 6.
“REAL ESTATE. … Thomas Magee, in his Real Estate Circular for July, says: The location of the City Cemetery, situated as it is, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the bay, also the northwestern part of our city, which is rapidly being improved, renders its immediate removal, if for no other than sanitary reasons, a necessity. The Board of Supervisors should at once cause the discontinuance of further interments and make some provision for the disinterment and removal of the remains therein interred. This magnificent tract of land comprises some 200 acres, and it is now, and in a short time will be much more, needed as a place of recreation for the public. As we understand, the cemetery is used for the interment of the indigent dead and the interment of the remains taken from Yerba Buena Cemetery. A few beneficial societies have grants for burial purposes only. If reasonable allowance was made by the city they would offer no objection, but would be in favor of removing their interments to some location more remote and therefore more secure from disturbance. The recommendation of the last Grand Jury we think very pertinent. A location ought to be obtained in San Mateo county, and suitable provision made for the removal of all remains from this tract of land, than which there is no finer location for a park.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 9 August 1888, page 1.
“Jewish Graves.
“Hebrew Congregations At Variance.
“Protests by Shaarey Zedek Beth Israel Against Closing the City Cemetery.
“The congregations of Shaarey Zedek and Beth Israel are up in arms against the Point Lobos Improvement Club's attempt to cause the condemnation of the Golden Gate Cemetery. Both congregations have burial plots in the cemetery assured to them by a city ordinance passed in 1867 and by subsequent legislative enactment. The tidal wave of improvements which has swept over ultra western portions of the city has been assigned as a reason for the existing agitation against the cemetery, but from the investigations instituted by a Chronicle reporter yesterday it would appear that so far as the two Jewish cemeteries are concerned, the agitation comes from a deeper source and has a different significance.
“As the readers of the Chronicle know, ill feeling has existed for years between the members of the rich congregations of Sherith Israel and Emanu-El, whose cemeteries have until recently been at the end of Nineteenth street, and the flocks of the poorer churches, because, according to the latter people's statements, the rich congregations charged more for a plot in their ground than poor people could afford to pay. The charge was $30 to $40 for a grave. At the Golden Gate Cemetery a grave may be had for $8. Since the rich congregations have opened cemeteries at San Mateo they have reduced rates to $22.50. The poorer classes say their richer brethren have run their cemeteries to make money.
“A member of the Congregation Shaarey Zedek interviewed yesterday said he thought the agitation against the Golden Gate Cemetery found its animus in the fact that the president of the Point Lobos Improvement Club, who is a wealthy Jew, belongs to a rich congregation which is opposed to the poor churches.
“Samuel Polack, president of the Congregation Shaarey Zedek, says he has protested to the Supervisors against the closing of the Jewish plots in Golden Gate Cemetery as contrary to moral law. The members of the Congregations having plots in the cemetery are very indignant over the action proposed by the improvement club. They intend to fight the matter to the end.”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 20 March 1890, page 3.
“CITY CEMETERY REMOVAL. The Real Estate Exchange Recommends Condemnation of the Entire Plat. A Directors meeting of the Real Estate Exchange was held yesterday afternoon. W. H. Bovee presided. All the Directors were present. Adolph Sutro appeared before the Board of Directors regarding the removal of the City Cemetery. He thought the proper way to obtain the land was for the United States to condemn the whole cemetery plat, and also to obtain a release from the city for the whole plat at the price the United States Government is willing to pay for the fifty-five [55] acres required for purposes of harbor defense. He thought as the Government proposed to beautify the balance and turn it into a park, the benefit to the city would be equal to the value of the land.
“Mr. Harold Wheeler, attorney of the Board, reported. after careful investigation of the subject, that in his opinion the only legal and proper method to release the City Cemetery to the Government would be by condemnation of the whole plot by the Government. Any act of the Legislature would not give proper authority to the city. The city cannot be empowered by any act to cede that land. The title was acquired in the same manner as the Golden Gate Park, and the only method to release title would be by condemnation by the Government. He thought no legislative act would give authority, but the Legislature should be asked to pass an act authorizing the city to purchase land elsewhere for a city cemetery. Then if the Government condemned the City Cemetery the city would be empowered to purchase another plat for cemetery purposes. The Board then instructed the Committee on Cemetery Removal to confer with the attorney of the Exchange, and the Mayor and other city officers, regarding an act to be introduced in the Legislature authorizing the city to purchase lands for purposes of a cemetery.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 14 February 1891, page 2.
“Desolate and Forsaken.
“Neglected and Forlorn Condition of the City Cemetery.
“The Sunken Graves of the Poor.
“A Plot of Ground Covered With Long, Dry Grass and Rattling Brush—Rotting Headboards and Sticks for Footboards.
“The blue waves of the bay dance gaily in the sunshine at the foot of the hills on which is the city's public burying ground.
“The Jewish section is full of green foliage, and the little grassplots are neatly trimmed and cared for.
“High up on the hillside the gateways of the Chinese subdivison stand firm and tall.
“A land of graves, uncared for and seemingly forgotten. Here lie the city's pauper dead. The dry grass tangles thick and long, and here and there are bunches of scraggly brush—skeletons of dead bushes. But there is not a tree in the whole place. Not a slender fir tree, and not a bit of green vine or growing twig.
“The neglected graves stretch out row after row. At the head of each was once a board numbered with the number of its silent owner. There are no names upon these headboards, and wind and weather have worked hard to obliterate even this simple mark of identity. Many of the numbers are illegible.
“Here and there are sunken holes, which mark the place where once a mound was lifted.
“It behooves a curious wanderer in this city of the silent to watch his footsteps carefully, for the sodden ground is treacherous and full of holes.
“The old footboards lean tipsily over the graves or fall in decayed forlorness on the ground. Toward the end of the rows the boards are only charred sticks, burned out of all resemblance to what they once imitated. There are a few scattered single graves, which are fenced in alone and lettered with the names of the sleepers. The fences are crazy and dilapidated, and the earth within looks little cared for.
“The grass is littered with rubbish. Old shoes, old hats, rusty tin cans and bits of paper lie scattered about.
“Upon one lonely mound, set a little way apart by a rotting railing, there lay a broken cup that once held a plant. It was the only evidence of human thought or care in the whole dreary place, and that had evidently lain broken and forgotten for many months.
“The Chinese burying-ground above is very crowded, so when the Chinese burn the clothes of the dead, as is their custom, they often toss them into the city plot and set them afire there.
“Yesterday the ground was strewn with garments so sodden with damp decay that they refused to burn. So they lay flapping gaudily above the sleeping citizens in the plot below, like some flaunting mockery of their low estate.
“The different societies and nationalities have plots on all sides, but they are generally well kept and decent.
“The ground alone is wretched and forlorn. High on the hill there are clustered a few graves close to the edge of the cliff where it sheers into the water.
” 'Them's mariners,' said the gravedigger, who stood dreaming on his shovel, and flicking a curly dog with a coffin rope. 'They're put there so'st they can see the ships come in.'
“The mariners have decidedly the best of it, for though their little plot of ground is bare enough, in all conscience, it is not quite so miserable as the rest.
“The wind rushes in from the sea and shakes the rattling branches of the scattered brush. Sometimes it overturns a tottering board or blows a broken paling from a falling fence.
“The place looks as if the gravedigger and his curly dog were the only visitors that ever came to visit it.
“Except the wind.
“That is always there.”
Source: San Francisco Examiner, 3 February 1891, page 3.
“ THE GOLDEN GATE CEMETERY. A jury in the Circuit Court Hearing Evidence in a Condemnation Suite. The trial of the United States against the City and County of San Francisco for the purpose of a condemnation and valuation of 54 acres of land, now being known as the Golden Gate Cemetery, was commenced yesterday in the United State Circuit Court before Judge McKenna and jury.
“The Secretary of War some time ago recommended that the land be condemned so as to be available for fortification purposes.
“The city disputes the Government's claim that the intended fortifications are of greater public need than the cemetery now occupying the tract.
“United States District Attorney Garter represents the Government at the trial, and John H. Durst, the City and County Attorney, assisted by John J. Stevens conduct the opposition.
“Two expert real estate men have been selected to value the land in controversy. These are, for the Government, Thomas Magee, and for the city and county, R.P. Hammond, Jr.
“Among the other witnesses subponaed are J.J. O'Farrell, George Toy and C.D. Carter, all dealers in real estate.”
Source: San Francisco Morning Call, 2 June 1892.
“Golden Gate Cemetery.
“The City Cemetery, as selected and set apart by the Outside Land Committee of the Board of Supervisors, and subsequently dedicated for burial purposes, is a tract of land commencing at the southeast corner of Thirty-third avenue and Clement street; thence west on the southerly line of Clement street 4,720 feet to the west line of Forty-eighth avenue; thence at right angles 760 feet to the north line of California street; thence north 24 degrees 25 minutes east 675 feet 5 inches; thence north 42 degrees 41 minutes east 862 feet 7 inches; thence east and parallel with California street 3,790 feet to the east line of Thirty-third avenue; thence south on said line of Thirty-third avenue 1,950 feet to the place of beginning, and comprises some 200 acres.
“This land was reserved in 1868, and paid for by the city and county from the assessment made on Outside Land property other than that reserved for public purposes. The cost of the entire tract was $127,465, and was valued and paid for at the rate of $650 per acre for 191 55-100 acres, and $350 for the remaining 8 45-100 acres. This tract of land was selected for cemetery purposes by the Committee on Outside Lands, in an isolated portion of the city and county, so as to encourage interments therein, it being in their judgment probable that sooner or later burials would be prohibited, for sanitary reasons, in many of the cemeteries now used. …
“The indigent dead, buried at the expense of the city, have been interred in this cemetery, suitably numbered head and footboards erected, corresponding with the register kept by the Keeper, which shows the number, names, nativities, etc., of the decedents. …
“A number of charitable associations have had plots assigned to them for the burial of their dead, and have exercised the privilege by making suitable improvements commensurate with their obligations to accommodate the requirements of their respective associations…
“Your committee are of the opinion that it would be advantageous and of great benefit to restrict further interments in said Golden Gate Cemetery, and that whenever practicable, as soon as a more remote location is obtained and improved, the remains interred in said cemetery should be removed.
“From information obtained from John Moran, the Inspector of Vaults and Disinterments, your committee ascertained that the first interment in Golden Gate Cemetery was made on July 3, 1870; that the pioneer dead that could be identified, removed from Yerba Buena Cemetery—the site of the New City Hall—and interred there numbered 267, while in an inclosure of 12 by 20 feet are interred the remains of those disinterred from Yerba Buena Cemetery, the names and number of whom are unheralded and unknown.
“The indigent dead interred number 6,454, while nineteen associations and societies have interred in their respective plots the remains of 980 decedents.
“The Chinese societies, numbering twenty-six, have at present the remains of 4,072 persons interred.
“These interments represent the actual number on May 10, 1887, to be 11,773, a recapitulation showing interments as follows :
“Pioneer dead from Yerba Buena Cemetery that can be identified…267
“Indigent dead…6,454
“Associations and Societies..980
“Chinese…4,070
“Total…11,771
“In addition to the unidentified remains from Yerba Buena Cemetery, interred in a plot 12 by 20 feet, of which no estimate can be made.
“In August, 1893, the Superintendent of the City Cemetery reported that there were 11,000 indigent dead interred at that date, and about 7000 other interments by associations and societies. …
“The conclusion arrived at by your committee, that it was inexpedient and for the sanitary well being of the community that further interments should be prohibited, the remains therein interred removed, and this eligible site beautified and improved for park purposes, necessitated action looking to an acquisition of land for cemetery purposes to provide places of interment for the remains removed and for future interments…
“The recommendations of your committee are, therefore:
“That further interments in Golden Gate Cemetery should be prohibited.
“That a tract of land should be purchased in San Mateo county or contiguous thereto for a city cemetery.
“That the remains of decedents interred in Golden Gate Cemetery should be removed on the acquisition and improvement of a cemetery in San Mateo county and reinterred therein.
“That the expense consequent to said disinterment, removal and reinterment should be borne by the city; also, that the city should compensate the associations and societies for improvement made on their respective plots.
“The plots should be first allotted in the new cemetery to all associations and societies having plots in Golden Gate Cemetery prior to other grants being made.
”…As a result of the removal of the cemetery, the city will acquire for park purposes 200 acres of land, worth about $2,500 per acre, and about $40,000 for permits for the disinterment of the remains of the Chinese. …
“The first official steps taken by the United States Government toward the condemnation of a portion of the City Cemetery for coast defense purposes was on September 3, 1891, when the Hon. Kedfield Proctor, Secretary of War, declared that better protection for the harbor of San Francisco was expedient, and ordered that the necessary proceedings to gain possession of the property in question be instituted forthwith. …54.05 acres condemned by the Government …On December 29, 1892, the amount of the award, $75,000, was paid by the United States Government into the City and County Treasury [for the military reservation.”
Source: San Francisco Municipal Reports for the Fiscal Year 1892-93, Ending June 30, 1893, Board of Supervisors, 1893, pages 171-178 (Appendix).
“CITY CEMETERY SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.
“SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 1893.
”To the Honorable the Board of Health Of the City and County of San Francisco —
“GENTLEMEN: I have the honor of presenting for your consideration my annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893.
“Of the several societies having burial plots in the City Cemetery, there have been interred as follows :
“From Italian M. B. [Mutual Benefit] Society…191
”[From] French [M. B. Society]…14
”[From] Jewish [M. B. Society]…33
”[From] German [M. B. Society]…9
”[From] Knights of Pythias M. B. Society…3
”[From] Slavonic Illyric [M. B. Society]…1
”[From] St. Andrew's [M. B. Society]…1
”[From] Orthodox Eastern Greek Church…18
”[From] Grand Army of Republic…27
“From Ladies' Seamen Society…3
”[From] Old Friends' Society…1
”[From] Colored I.O.O.F…1
”[From] Indigent dead…457
”[From] Select plat…127
”[From] Chinese Six Companies…562
”[From] Japanese…9
”[From] Christian Chinese…2
“Total interments for the year…1,459
“DISINTERMENTS.
“White…9 “Chinese…62
“Total disinterments for the year…71
“Very respectfully, THOMAS EAGAR, Sup't City Cemetery.”
Source: San Francisco Municipal Reports for the Fiscal Year 1892-93, Ending June 30, 1893, Board of Supervisors, 1893, page 782.
“CITY—North of Point Lobos avenue from Thirtythird avenue to Forty-eight avenue.”
Source: San Francisco City Directory, 1895.
“CITY—Thirty-fourth avenue, near Point Lobos avenue. Beth Olam, Caledonian, Chinese (6), Colored Masons, French, German, Grand Army of the Republic, office 35 Eddy street; Greco-Russian, Hebrew (Beth Olam and Salem), Italian, Japanese, Knights of Pythias, office 6 Eddy street; Master Mariners, Old Friends, Potter's Field, [Independent Order of] Red Men, Russian, Salem, Scandinavian, Seamen's, Slavonic-Illyric, St. Andrew's.” [closed in 1900]
Source: San Francisco City Directory, 1896, 1900.
“No Future Burials in City Cemetery.
“The Supreme Court has passed upon the matter of the regulation of burials within this city. The Supervisors, in 1879, granted a portion of the old Golden Gate Cemetery to La Societe Italiana di Mutua Beneficenza to be used as a burial place of its members [Italian Cemetery], and immediately thereafter the society took possession of the ground and commenced the interment of its dead. In 1897 the Supervisors passed an ordinance prohibiting further burials within the City Cemetery. The society brought notion [sic] to restrain the carrying out of this ordinance, but the Superior Court ruled against the contention that the Board of Supervisors are not possessed of the jurisdiction to pass such an ordinance. The Supreme Court holds that the Supervisors have the power, and hence, no further interments will take place in the City Cemetery. Of course this ordinance has no bearing upon the bodies already within the cemetery.”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 29 December 1900, page 7.
“A petition to the Board of Supervisors, signed by J.L. Farren and dated May 2, 1899, was read. Farren asked for a contract for the removal of the bodies of all Chinese that were buried in the City Cemetery. He guaranteed to remove all of them within three years without expense to the city. He said that the Chinese had purchased tracts of land in San Mateo county for cemetery purposes, and their burials were thereafter to take place there. The petitioner urged that the proposition would be good for the city, as it would get twen[t]y acres of land, worth $5000, as soon as the Chinese cemetery was closed.”
(Note: This blurb was part of a longer article about Charles G. Nagle's interactions with the Chinese Six Companies.)
Source: “Taught How To Evade The Law,” San Francisco Chronicle, 2 July 1902, page 11.
“BOYS' BONFIRES CAUSED MUCH LOSS
“A Sweeping Blaze in City Cemetery Burned Over Two Blocks–Other Small Fires
“Residents in the neighborhood of Point Lobos and Twenty-third avenues were treated to the sight of a spectacular and rather remarkable fire yesterday afternoon in the City Cemetery. Boys in the vicinity had lighted a fire in a vacant lot near the burying ground. The fire got beyond their control, sped along the dry grass and leaped into the confines of the cemetery in the Italian and Jewish quarters.
“The boys became frightened, ran to the nearest corner and notified a bystander, who sent in a fire alarm. It took the two engine companies that responded two hours to subdue the flames, as the fire spread over a territory of two blocks. Wooden grave marks at the heads of the mounds were licked up and destroyed by the fire and fences surrounding plots were wiped up. When the firemen had finished their work the scene was like that of the wake of a prairie fire. The district covered was a blackened, steaming and smoking waste and great harm had been wrought. It will be impossible to identify some of the graves, whose sole markings were plain wooden slabs, as a portion of the district swept by the fire is not covered by records, so there will be some unmarked graves in the City Cemetery. …”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 27 June 1903, page 8.
“GOLDEN GATE CEMETERY SITE FOR CITY PARK.
“Movement Started to Convert Oldtime Graveyard Into a Beautiful Public Garden
“Location Rivals Sutro in Grandeur of Prospect and Natural Advantages
“Supervisors in Favor of Utilizing Big Tract Formerly Used as Burial Ground
“San Francisco may soon come into possession of a new park commanding a view of unsurpassed beauty. A movement has been launched and given official support to convert the old Golden Gate cemetery into a public garden. The burial ground comprises 146 acres adjoining Fort Miley and lying on the ocean heights and bluffs from Forty-third avenue westward as far as the slopes above the beach. The site, in the grandeur of its prospects, rivals Sutro heights and would lend itself well to artistic adornment.
“The project originated with Coroner T.B.W. Leland, who has jurisdiction over the cemetery, and he has placed the suggestion before the health committee of the board of supervisors. He has been assured of the co-operation of Supervisors Payot and Giannini, and the matter will before long be given consideration by the full board.
“IS GREWSOME LOCATION
“It is more than 10 years since interments have been permitted at the old graveyard and through neglect in the past the spot has become rather a grewsome [sic] location. Fire swept over the place a few years ago and destroyed the wooden headpieces. Rains have washed bones from their resting places on the slopes and have scattered these human relics promiscuously over the ground. Coffin handles and fragments of Chinese altars have also been strewn about by the elements. Amid these uncanny surroundings dwells a colony of squatters, who have turned parcels of the territory into vegetable gardens.
“After examining the plat and investigating the records, Leland made the proposal that all the bodies be exhumed and reinterred in the San Mateo cemeteries and that the acreage be dedicated to park purposes. Leland was impressed by the magnificence of the view from the heights now occupied by the cemetery. To the north lies the entrance to the bay, to the west the Farallones and the unlimited sea, and to the south and east lies within the reach of the eye the entire city of San Francisco, the islands of the bay and the cities and hills of the farther shore.
“Leland and his chief deputy, John Kennedy, have studied with care all the documents relating to the cemetery. When originally acquired in 1868 it comprised 200 acres, but in 1891, at the Instigation of Redfield Proctor, then secretary of war, the government condemned 54 acres and created Fort Miley. For this the city was paid $75,000.
“INCLOSED WITH FENCE
“The cemetery had been duly inclosed by a board fence in 1870 and the records show that a well was sunk and a keeper appointed. The bodies were removed from Yerba Buena cemetery and inhumed in Golden Gate graveyard.
“A potter's field was established and there the city's poor were buried. The ground was then divided into plats and sections assigned to the Grand Army, the fraternal and benevolent societies and to the foreign communities. A list of these associations reveals the names of organizations which have long since passed out of existence. One of the most interesting monuments in the grounds is one dedicated by the sailors to a woman who had befriended them.
“The cemetery is something of a landmark and has always been pointed out to tourists who take the car to the cliff by way of the bluffs. The car passes the section assigned years ago to the Italian residents and for that reason the place has come to be known in some quarters as the Italian cemetery.
“While Leland has made no exact estimate as to the cost of transferring the bodies, he believes it will not be excessive. Under the hands of the city's experts at landscape gardening it is the belief of the city officials that the tract could be converted into one of the most beautiful gardens in the state.
Source: San Francisco Call, 8 November 1908, page 17.
“GOLDEN GATE CEMETERY MAY BE PUBLIC PARK—Supervisors to Ask Removal of Remains From the Old Burial Ground — All of the bodies in the Golden Gate cemetery, which for 40 years was used as one of the city's chief burial grounds, will be ordered removed, if the recommendation made yesterday by the supervisors' health committee is confirmed by the board.
“Notices were ordered sent to the fraternal organizations notifying them of the city's intention to make a park of the site and to request their co-operation by the removal of the remains of their deceased members.
“Chairman Payot and the members of the committee hold that the best use which may be made of the magnificent, yet deserted site of the cemetery, overlooking as it does the Golden gate, the bay, and ocean, is to turn it into a permanent park lined with the Presidio and the Golden Gate pleasure ground.”
Source: San Francisco Morning Call, 10 December 1908.
“GRAVES DESECRATED IN GOLDEN GATE CEMETERY — Vandals Wreck Tombs and Expose Bodies in Old Burial Ground — Supervisor Payot and Coroner Leland visited the site of the old Golden Gate cemetery yesterday to investigate the acts of vandalism committed about the exposed graves. Mrs. E. H. D'Donnell and Mrs. C. H. Rockwell, officers of the Richmond women's improvement club, had called Payot's attention to the desecration of many of the graves, particularly that of the tomb of Russian woman, Mary Gribbich, whose body, brought from Sacramento, had been interred in a handsome marble lined vault in 1892. The massive slab covering the tomb had been broken and pried away, revealing the costly garments and the rings worn by the dead woman in her last resting place.
“Mrs. O'Donnell reported that curious crowds had been visiting the spot and unknown persons had cast rubbish upon the remains until the body was almost covered from view by the stuff.
“Other exposed remains, she said had been similarly treated. Payot notified the police to use more vigilance in guarding the plot, and the coroner ordered the tomb of Mrs. Gribbich restored and resealed.”
Source: San Francisco Morning Call, 16 December 1908.
“The land of City Cemetery evolved once again when 'golf lovers' landscaped Lincoln Park Golf Course in 1902 (Lincoln Park Golf Course 2020). The three-hole course, which was still visibly a cemetery, was eventually upgraded to 18 holes by 1917 as the cemetery was completely obliterated. …Only two monuments remain of the obliterated City Cemetery: the Kong Chow Altar (a structure dedicated for Chinese funerary ceremonies) and the Ladies’ Seaman’s Friend Society obelisk (a grave marker for the buried sailors).”
Source: Karapanos, Nikoletta D. (2024) “Stable Isotopes and Social Media: The Untold Life Histories of Individuals Buried in San Francisco’s City Cemetery during the Nineteenth Century.” [Masters Dissertation, Sonoma State University]
“Municipal Club Is The Latest Things Among the Golfers.
“More than 125 golf enthusiasts met in the assembly room of the Phelan building last night and organized the Lincoln Park Golf Club. A constitution and by-laws were adopted… At the present time only six of the nine holes at Lincoln Park are finished, and one of the first objects of the new club will be to have the course completed.”
Source: San Francisco Call, 24 September 1914, page 7.
“Cornerstone of Spreckels Palace Laid
”…By Mollie Merrick.
“The smiles of the spring sunshine were reflected in the faces of thousands of San Franciscans who yesterday gathered in Lincoln Park to view the laying of the cornerstone of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Adolph B. Spreckels to their city. …
Source: San Francisco Examiner, 20 February 1921, page 3.
“Lincoln Park
“$7500 Voted. . .
“Recommendations were made by the Supervisor's Finance Committee yesterday for the appropriation of $7,500 to assist in the removal of bodies from the old Italian cemetery near Lincoln Park. All bodies from other cemeteries in that vicinity have been removed. It is with the view of clearing that part of the city of the old burying grounds and the enlargement of Lincoln Park that the appropriation has been recommended . . .”
Source: San Francisco Examiner, 21 October 1919, page 6.
“City Scrapers Tear Open 1500 Graves in Old S.F. Cemetery
“No effort made to re-inter bodies rooted up by teams.
“By Vid Larsen.
“They're building a big memorial for dead soldiers in Lincoln Park. It will cost $250,000. It will stretch across a knoll in the park. From the knoll one can see the Pacific and the Marin-co coast line; the white houses jutting up from the Richmond district; a startling view of San Francisco in the background. In that memorial will gather in the future thousands of persons.
1500 Bodies Uncovered.
“They may not know that scattered a few inches under their feet are the broken bones of some 1500 human beings. They may not know that just 25 feet from where Marshall Foch planted the tree and just a few days after he planted it the bodies of a woman and two babes were torn from the ground by a scraper and a team of horses. Nor may they know that four horses trampled over those bones and that a scraper dragged them 25 feet further away from the tree and reburied them.
“The site of the $250,000 memorial to the dead was once a cemetery. It still is, but the bones are now scattered. In the excavation work for the memorial workmen have uncovered about 1500 skeleton-filled coffins. No provision was made for the reburying of the bodies. Workmen have cut down about nine or 10 feet in their work. Sometimes as many as four or five bodies have been pulled out in an hour.
“Saw Graves Opened.
“I visited Lincoln park. Just as I arrived one large and two small skeletons were ripped out of one grave. In the grave were household utensils. Besides the skeletons lay the coffin boards. Wrapped about them were the shrouds. Workmen steered clear of the mess. “It's horrible.” It was the foreman talking. “We've taken up about 1500. We've uncovered all of them now, I think. It's clear sailing now.”
“Men Won't Touch Them.
” 'The men don't like them. Won't touch the bones. The only thing we can do is to scrape them over and cover them up again.'
“Later, the two Daily News men walked over to the memorial site. There were piles of bones not completely covered by the dirt. Along the ledge just where the hill drops abruptly were many coffins—cut in half by the steel teeth of the excavating machines.
“Coffin Sticks Out From Bluff.
“Here was the bottom end of a coffin sticking out of the sand bluff. Further along the bluff the head of the coffin. A skull there. The coffins poked out all along that cliff. At night, after the workmen have gone, small boys of the neighborhood kick their toes into the dirt. Why? One said that $35 had been found in one of the coffins. An expensive ring in another, he said. And the skulls—sometimes students at the Affiliated colleges bought them.
“Anyway, it was fun.”
Source: The Daily News, 23 December 1921.
“Break Law in Taking Up Bodies, Is Charge
“Skeletons have been ripped out of graves in Lincoln park in violation of laws and in violation of a court promise that this would not be done.
“This was the charge made Saturday by C. W. Eastin, attorney, representing cemetery plot holders of the city.
“Eastin charged that the scraping up of bodies on the hill of Lincoln park is a violation of the law as well as a violation of a stipulation made between him and the city of San Francisco.
“Skeletons have been torn up in the excavation work for the $250,000 soldiers' memorial.
“This was revealed Friday by a story and pictures in The Daily News.
“The bodies have been torn from their graves, scraped over a few feet and then covered with a thin layer of dirt. Bones have been broken, coffins smashed and in some cases coffins and skeletons have been cut in half by the teeth of the excavation machines.
“Lull Signs Promise.
“On Feb. 27, 1920, Eastin said Saturday, City Att'y Geo. Lull signed a promise for the city that no bodies would be removed from the old City cemetery without giving Eastin 30 days' notice of such a removal.
“This was done because Mary E. Bush sought injunctions against the city park board, auditor, supervisors and treasurer to prevent any bodies being torn up to make room for any improvements in Lincoln park.
“The stipulation was signed, Eastin says, because the city did not want to have the injunction hanging over it.
” '“No human bodies shall be exhumed, disintered or removed,' from the cemetery, 'without a 30 days' notice to the plaintiff and her attorney.'
“Gave No Notice.
“That is the first paragraph of the stipulation signed by the city attorney.
“No notice that bodies would be torn from their graves on the knoll of Lincoln park has ever been given either to the attorney or his client, it is alleged.
“Eastin next week will bring legal action against the city officials. He will also ask for an injunction preventing the further removal of bodies.
“He will also ask that the original injunction suit taken from the calendar when the stipulation was signed be replaced on the calendar and heard.
“Eastin was first told of the removal of bodies by The Daily News.
“Violate Laws, is Charge.
“Not only does Eastin allege that it is a violation of the court agreement to remove the bodies, but that is actually in violation of the law.
“More than that, he says there is grave doubt that building a war memorial or even the public golf links at Lincoln park is legal.
“This because the U. S. government granted the land to the city for the express purpose of its being a burial ground.
” 'Courts have held,' he said Saturday, 'that is means the land cannot be used for any other purpose.
” 'In other words, the city technically has not right to use that land for any other purpose than as a burial ground for the dead.
” 'I do not know yet whether we will attack the building of the memorial, bet we will certainly insist that the bodies of the dead be treated decently.' ”
Must Stop, is Edict.
” 'This barbaric ripping of bodies from graves and scattering bones all over the lot must stop, and those responsible for doing it face punishment.
” 'I have pictures and facts showing that bodies were torn up as if they were so many stumps of trees.
” 'All through history humanity has protected the final resting places of its dead. Every possible law has been passed to protect the right of burial.
” 'There are laws which say that no power on earth can direct a funeral without consent of the closest kin.
” 'And laws have been passed protecting the sacredness of this plot. ' ”
Is a Felony.
” 'For instance, section 290 of the penal code says: Every person who mutilates, disinters or removes from the place of sepulchre the dead body of a human being without authority of the law, is guilty of a felony.
” 'These bodies have been removed from Lincoln Park without authority of the law—in fact, in actual violation of laws. Those who removed them, in my opinion, are guilty of a felony and could be sent to the state penitentiary.' ”
Source: The Daily News, 24 December 1921.
“Vestiges of Lincoln Park
“Lincoln Park Golf Course.
“At the turn of the 20th century golf was growing in popularity in San Francisco and private golf and country clubs were quickly being established. There was no municipal golf course in the city for use by those who could not afford the private clubs.
“The City of San Francisco banned burials within city limits in 1901 and ordered the Golden Gate Cemetery to move. This allowed the first municipal golf course to be constructed in 1902: a three-hole course created on the site of the former Potter’s Field. These original three holes are now the first, twelfth, and thirteenth holes of the present day course. The City golf course remained a popular three-hole course for 6 years.
“In 1909, the SF Board of Supervisors turned approximately 150 acres of former cemetery land over to the Parks Commission. This became Lincoln Park, named by the Board of Supervisors in honor of President Lincoln. City Cemetery relocation and golf course construction began that year.
“The links were open to the public in 1912 and by 1914 the course had expanded to 10 holes. The course had a full 18 holes by 1917, when it hosted the first City golf tournament. The Lincoln Park Golf Course was San Francisco’s only municipal golf course for 23 years. It is still an active course and boasts some of the most scenic views of any urban golf course.”
Vestiges of Lincoln Park, May 2022.
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