Yerba Buena Cemetery
Dates of Existence: February 1850 to 1871.
Location: thirteen to fifteen acres, triangular plot bounded by Market, McAllister and Larkin streets.
Number interred: 4450 (1854), seven to nine thousand.
Records: San Francisco Cemetery Records.
Moved to: City Cemetery.
“In 1850, a cemetery known as Yerba Buena Cemetery existed on the present-day site of the Civic Center. This fifteen-acre tract was then in the middle of a sand-dune area, and cemetery maintenance was difficult because coffins were often exposed as the sand was blown away. In 1860, Yerba Buena Cemetery was abandoned, its bodies removed, and the tract acquired by the City and County as a public park. The area was never landscaped or developed, however, and much of it was sold off for commercial frontage on Market Street.”
Source: Location, Regulation, and removal of Cemeteries in the City and County of San Francisco, William A. Proctor, Department of City Planning, City and County of San Francisco, 1950. (Cemetery Library)
“YERBA BUENA CEMETERY.—We are informed by the city surveyor that he has staked out this cemetery upon the town reservation and that there is no difficulty in the way of using it as a place of sepulchre. It is situated upon the Mission road and is not difficult of access. He also informs us that already some fifty interments have been made upon the spot. There is enough town property in that locality to make a cemetery sufficient to accommodate the dead of the city for the next half century—at least such is the opinion of Mr. Eddy, and as he has surveyed the lands we presume him to be a good judge of the matter. The great object of having an abundance of ground reserved for the important purposes of burial should not be overlooked, and we trust that other localities belonging to the town will also be reserved for this sacred purpose.
Source: Daily Alta California, 21 March 1850, page 2.
“THE CEMETERY.—Considerable improvement has been recently made in the Cemetery ground, on the Mission road. The underbrush has been torn up and burnt, and it looks much better than formerly. There should, however, be an enclosure to this dwelling of the dead. It will be a disgrace to this city if they do not provide means to protect the last sad remains of mortality which are buried in the Cemetery.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 10 February 1851, page 2.
“CHINESE FUNERAL.—One of the celestials, who died in this city on Friday afternoon, was buried in true celestial style and ceremony yesterday forenoon. The countrymen of the deceased formed in a long procession, to the number of about five hundred, and followed the hearse to Yerba Buena Cemetery. They were all dressed in their native costume, having a band of white muslin around their arms as a badge of mourning. Many of them carried bottles of liquor in their hands, with which to make merry at the grave. Their singularly picturesque costume, the order and decorum they preserved in marching through the streets, caused very general remark. Numbers of citizens went out to the grave, for the purpose of witnessing the somewhat remarkable ceremony of burial, a description of which has heretofore been given in our columns, on a similar occasion.
Source: Daily Alta California, 27 July 1851, page 2.
“YERBA BUENA CEMETERY — The subject of enclosing this hallowed ground with a good substantial fence was brought up before the Common Council last evening. The Ordinance provides that the sum of $3000 be appropriated for that purpose. The Ordinance was referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Improvements. It is time that some action was taken to protest the remains of the many hundreds whose ashes lie there, from the intrusion of the cattle who roam in that neighborhood. If there is any one thing in the world that speaks the character of a community, it is the mode in which they pay respect to the remains of their deceased fellow mortals. …”
Source: Daily Alta California, 21 September 1852, page 2.
“YERBA BUENA CEMETERY.—It is gratifying to learn that this sacred and long neglected spot has received the attention of the municipal authorities and that it probably will soon be improved. The resolution to appropriate $3000 to enclose it with a good substantial fence has been reported on favorably and will likely soon become a law. As soon as the fence is completed, some pains will be taken to lay out walks, plant trees and beautify its appearance. It is also contemplated by some of our citizens to build a plank road from the Mission Dolores road to the Cemetery. At present it is extremely difficult for loaded carriages and footmen to make their way through the deep and heavy sand. It is an inconvenience seriously felt and which we hope will shortly be remedied.
Source: Daily Alta California, 29 October 1852, page 2.
“YERBA BUENO [sic] CEMETERY
(DRAWN AND ENGRAVED EXPRESSLY FOR THE GOLDEN ERA)
“The above is a correct representation of YERBA BUENO [sic] CEMETERY, the principal burial place of San Francisco. It is situated one mile and a half south-west of the city, on the road to the Mission Dolores, and is about an equal distance between the two places.
“The view is from a daguerreotype taken expressly for this purpose by Messrs. JOHNSON & SELLECK, and shows the entire grounds as seen from an elevation on the south-west corner, immediately back of the keeper's house, which is seen conspicuously in the foreground. That part of the ground on the right of this building is occupied exclusively by Chinese dead, by which it will be seen, that the mortality of this nation in San Francisco has been considerable. Back of the grounds, partly hidden by the hills, with its distinctness obscured by distance, is discerned a portion of the upper part of the city.
“The grounds of the Cemetery were set apart for its present use, in the survey of the city, in the latter part of 1849, and the first internments were made in it in March, 1850. It has now above four thousand occupants, although many bodies have been exhumed and sent to the Atlantic States for final interment. Among this four thousand are to be found the natives of almost every country and every clime of the habitable world. Here the Christian, the Mohammedan and the Pagan, sleep side by side. The ground which has been consecrated by the holy canons of the Christian for the reception of a true believer, has hallowed the dust over the remains of an adjacent Pagan. The swarthy believers in the precepts of Confucius, have here chaunted the solemn dirge of their creed over a departed child of the Sun, while each strain has been mingled with the simple prayer of the Christian for the repose of another soul. The children of the antipodes have met for a common object—they have found a common home. The inhabitant of the mild Italian clime, of the sultry equator, and of the frozen North, have found a final home in the same zone; and the same breeze that moans sorrowfully over the tomb of the European and the American, sighs alike its mournful requiem over the tomb of the Asiatic and the African. How many bright hopes and joyous anticipations have been buried beneath its surface! How many widows and orphans, who are thousands of miles away, have, entombed within they solemn precinct, a husband and a father! Could we but glance over the catalogue of its victims, and know their separate histories, how few would we find of that number, who last hours have been soothed by a friend's solicitude, a wife's gentle attentions, a sister's affection, or a mother's love? Few indeed!—But their rest is the no less peaceful, and they still live in the memories of those for the welfare of whom they forsook their friends and their firesides.
“In the succeeding number of this paper will be commenced the publication of the names of all who have been buried in Yerba Bueno Cemetery, alphabetically arranged, also the former residence of each, together with the names of the persons buried in the Mission and Catholic Cemeteries since the early part of 1850. The only record of them is now in possession of NATHANIL GRAY, City Sexton, who has kindly permitted a transcript of them for publication.”
Source: Golden Era, 23 October 1853, page 4.
“The Era says 4,500 bodies have been interred at the Yuba [Yerba] Buena cemetery at San Francisco. Of this number between 400 and 500 have come to their death by violent means and accidents.”
Source: Nevada Journal, 4 November 1853, page 2.
“Two petitions of a very opposite nature were presented to the Common Council on Monday evening—one from residents in the vicinity of Yerba Buena Cemetery, asking that no more interments be allowed here, on the ground that the city is growing up around it, and that it is therefore bad policy to nourish and increase in size what must ere long become a nuisance: the other petition is from the City Sexton, praying that the fence on one side of the Cemetery be repaired, and that avenues and walls be laid out, with a view, of course, to its permanency as a burial ground. Both these petitions were referred to the Committee on Health and Police, andd we shall wait their report with interest.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 9 August 1854, page 2.
“In February, 1850, the ayuntamiento set aside a large tract of land situated nearly midway between the town and the mission, for the purpose of a public burial place, which was called 'Yerba Buena Cemetery;' but the distance, the approaching rainy season, and other causes, hindered this piece of ground from being used immediately to any great extent for the ends to which it had been appropriated…”
”…now, in Yerba Buena Cemetery there is none better, none worse in all human respects. A mile farther to the west lies the burial-place of the mission, densely packed with the bodies of such good Catholics as preferred being buried in ground consecrated by their own church; and who left money and friends to carry their wishes into effect. Those interred here were chiefly natives of the country or Europeans. The space is small, but the graves are numerous. Scarcely can one find the inscriptions on two adjoining tablets in the same language. Here one is Spanish; the next may be Italian, French, German, Portuguese or English.”
Source: Annals of San Francisco, Frank Soulé, et al. (1854), pages 593-596.
“Yerba Buena Cemetery.
“Editor of the Alta.—Belying much upon the accuracy of the editorial statements of the Alta, I was much surprised in reading that of yesterday, (Sunday's,) in which you say that 'attempts' have been made to pass an ordinance through the Common Council for the removal of the dead from Yerba Buena Cemetery to some other place, and at the same time to give a monopoly to a Cemetery Company to bury the city's dead at so much a head. I say I was surprised at this assertion of your 'notice' of such an attempt. The fact of such an attempt will be apiece of information to the Council as well as to the community. If you will peruse the copy of the ordinance which passed the Board of Aldermen, and which is advertised in the Commercial Advertiser, you win learn that no such attempt has been made. The ordinance as passed prohibits the burial of the dead within the boundaries of Larkin and Johnson streets, which includes Yerba Buena Cemetery, and also for a contract with the Lone Mountain Cemetery to bury the city's dead at $2 each, being $5 less than now paid for the same. The petition from the owners of property in the vicinity of Yerba Buena Cemetery, as presented to the Council, was simply for the prohibition of interments in the same, and the offer as made by the Trustees of Lone Mountain Cemetery to inter all those buried at the city's expense, at $2 each, was favorably received, and the ordinance passed for a contract for the same.
“Arguments in favor of discontinuing burials in Yerba Buena Cemetery are not necessary, as from its locality, being less than one mile and one eighth from the City Hall, and containing less than sixteen acres, and nearly all of the available ground now occupied by between 6000 and 7000 bodies, and being upon what is soon to be one of the greatest thoroughfares of the city, with the market street Railroad upon its eastern aide, certainly it appears no one can desire a Cemetery in such a place, and the sooner burials are stopped in the same the better, as it must be apparent the time is not far distant when of a necessity they will be obliged to do so for the want of room. And as the rapid growth of the city is towards the Mission, it must soon be surrounded by the tenements of the living; and certainly a Cemetery located among dwellings, with daily interments in the same, is not very desirable tor those living in the immediate vicinity; and, furthermore, it is not advantageous to the interests of the owners of property adjoining the same. Your ideas of the sanctity of a burial place, and their locality where the graves would not be disturbed by the ruthless hands of speculators, or the demands of a growing city, are in favor of discontinuing interments in the Yerba Buena Cemetery, and for establishing one of sufficient size, remote from noise and bustle of a city, where the dead may rest in peace —which certainly cannot be believed to be the case in Yerba Buena. The Lone Mountain Cemetery having been established in a location beyond which (in that direction) the city will never extend, and containing sufficient area to supply the wants of this city for very many years to come, and which also seems adapted by nature only for a cemetery, and from the improvements made, and beauty of the place it appears evident it will remain a Cemetery. Should the title to the same ever pass to other hands, it would be continued as a Cemetery by other proprietors. And as to the oft repeated assertion of it being a great speculation, it must originate in ignorance, as the Deed of Trust given by the proprietors to the Trustees, contains a provision for the appropriation of 'sixty per cent out of the entire receipts for the improvement and embellishment of the grounds.' It being the unanimous desire of the owners of property in the vicinity, as well as a large portion of the community, it is to be hoped the ordinance will soon become a law to prohibit burials within the bounds of the city, and of Yerba Buena Cemetery.
Sept. 17,1854.
FRANKLIN.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 18 September 1854, page 2.
“The funeral of Mr. Thomas Murray, who was killed at the fire on First street, took place last Sabbath afternoon The procession was one of the largest ever witnessed in this city. It contained 1062 on foot, 17 on horseback and 20 carriages. Mr. Murray was very much respected by his brother firemen. His last resting place is in Yerba Buena Cemetery.”
Source: California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, 1 February 1855, page 35.
“A CHINESE FUNERAL.—A Chinese merchant, named Loo Nuy, died yesterday morning in Cooper's Alley, on Jackson street, between Kearny and Dupont [Grant], after an illness of one month. He was a native of Canton, where he leaves a wife and children; he also leaves a bereaved and disconsolate widow in this country, having, after the allowed custom of his people, punished himself by taking two wives. He had resided in California about four years, and made many friends, who respected him for his honesty and business habits. His remains were interred in the City Cemetery yesterday. The funeral ceremonies were conducted in accordance with the requirements of his religion, and were both novel and impressive. Immediately following the body, was a carriage containing six Chinese females dressed in white, and having white veils on their heads. They were uttering a low moan or dirge-like chaunt [sic], at the same time scattering to the wind innumerable pieces of Chinese paper, about six inches long and three wide, silvered over in the centre. These were peace offerings to the manes of their deceased brother; following came a long line of friends of the deceased, all exhibiting strong marks of sorrow. The whole affair was so unique and different from the usual style in which the dead “Celestials” are hurried to their last sad resting place, that it caused much curiosity and remark among the 'outside barbarians' who looked on.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 10 October 1857, page 2.
“BOARD OF SUPERVISORS–Oct. 29 …Closing of Yerba Buena Cemetery. A petition was received from residents in the neighborhood of Yerba Buean Cemetery, asking that interments of the dead be discontinued in said Cemetery, and another and more suitable place be selected…”
Source: Daily Alta California, 30 October 1857, page 2.
“THE LIVING BEFORE THE DEAD.—The fence of Yerba Buena Cemetery in San Francisco having blown down in several places, and a suggestion being made recently to appropriate money for repairing it, a Supervisor, rather noted for his bluffness, is reported in the Times to have said: 'There were many other things wanted by the county of more importance than a cemetery fence. His idea was that the living ought to be attended to before the dead.' The remarks were so pertinent, and so pithily expressed, that the measure was defeated.”
Source: Sacramento Daily Union, 22 December 1857, page 2.
“PIONEER CEMETERIES . . .here and at the old Mission Dolores grave-yard were most of the interments made until February, 1850, when the triangular plot of ground bounded by Market, McAllister, and Larkin streets, embracing thirteen acres, was procured. During the sickly season which followed, this new City of the Dead almost kept pace in population with the then distant city of the living. From the time that the Yerba Buena Cemetery was consecrated until the opening of the Lone Mountain cemetery, the number of burials amounted to seven thousand. Here lie, side by side, the rich and the poor — no stately obelisk marking the resting-place of the former, but to the living world, reposing as obscure as the latter. This grave-yard is a most forbidding spot to all who take a melancholy pleasure in seeing the homes of the departed, beautiful by reason of natural scenery, and beautified by the hands of the faithful mourner. The cemetery is situated in the midst of sand-hills, and surrounded by sand-hills, through the ravines of which the bleak western winds sweep terrifically during a great part of the year; the only vegetation, the stunted oak or dwarfish chaparral, scarcely less repugnant than the sand itself.
“The gigantic strides which the city has for a number of years made in this direction, were so vividly apparent to the city authorities, that an act authorizing a special tax of ten thousand dollars to be levied, for the purpose of removing the remains of deceased persons interred in the Yerba Buena Cemetery, was passed during the Legislative session of eighteen hundred and sixty. The amount was duly raised, and now lies in the City and County Treasury, subject to disposition according to the terms of the act. But is is now stated that it is very doubtful whether the above named sum will be sufficient to disinter all bodies buried in this ground; but, at all events, the money will go far towards effecting their removal, and a commencement should be made at once, for houses peopled with living tenants already cast their shadows down on these subterranean cabins of the dead. The opening of the Market Street Railway has given a wonderful impetus to improvements hereabouts, to remove these remains are the busy hand of enterprise invades the sacred precincts of the tomb.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 25 June 1861.
“The Cemeteries of San Francisco . . . YERBA BUENA CEMETERY. In March, 1850, the people resorted to Yerba Buena Cemetery. For more than four years it was the only burial place for Protestants, and 7,000 to 8,000 corpses were buried there. The place looks very desolate now, but in 1854 there were some beautiful little spots within it. The soils is a pure sand, with an undulating surface covered by small evergreen oaks and bushes. When the undergrowth was cut out, the crooked trunk and limbs of their oaks gave a romantic appearance to the cemetery. Under the shade of the trees, were handsomely ornamented graves.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 22 July 1862, page 1.
“CITY ITEMS. Exhuming the Dead of Yerba Buena Cemetery-Interesting Particulars.
” 'How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot?' was a question put by Hamlet to the first clown, or grave-digger. We do not propose to answer the inquiry in more precise terms than the clown did, who, in a general way, replied, 'he will last you some eight year or nine year;” and that, indeed, is about the time required to complete the carnival of the worms and the loathsome advances of mortal decay. Let the proof be gathered from what is to follow.
“It is known to many of our readers that the dead of Yerba Buena Cemetery are being disinterred that the grounds they occupy may be used for the purposes of a public park. These grounds contain about thirty acres, bounded east and south by Market street, north and east by McAllister street, and running to a point at the junction with Seventh street. A capacious brick vault has been constructed on a portion of the plot, as a receptacle for the bones of the dead as they are exhumed. The work of exhuming is under the supervisory control of Captain Swift, and the labor is chiefly performed by Dr. D.C. Porter and an assistant.
“This cemetery was used as a place of burial by the native Californians and seafaring men previous to the population of the country by the Americans in 1849. The earliest dates on the head-stones, with very few exceptions, occur in the latter part of the year 1849. During the years 1850 and 1851, when the rush to California was greatest; when privation, destitution and death were common; and when, to increase the mortality, cholera visited the coast and wrought a terrible work of havoc among its inhabitants, the 'community of the dead' increased at a fearful rate. Long rows of tombs succeeded each other in rapid succession, and that which had previously been a non-productive sand-hill, located in the solitude of the uplands, became a place of hourly visitation for the hearse, with its following train of bereaved mourners. The records show that up to the period when Yerba Buena was forsaken as a place of interment, no less than nine thousand bodies had been consigned to the embraces of its sands. Since the labor of exhuming commenced, the remains of over fifteen hundred of these bodies have been removed.
“Presuming the reader to feel more than a passing interest in the subject, we shall make no apology for communicating to him the particulars which were obtained by us the other day, on the occasion of a visit to the cemetery, from observation and in conversation with Dr. Porter, who is engaged in the work of exhumation. The depth of the graves was usually about five and a half feet, but in the depressions of the cemetery, particularly at the northern base of the hill, the shifting sands have, in some instances, completely covered the marble headstone, and tablets; in others the winds scooped out the sand until the headstones, having no further bold, fell down, and were often destroyed. In such cases, the human remains lie only a foot, two feet, or three feet below the surface. Frequently all traces of the graves are obliterated. Not even a clew [sic] remains by which a row of bodies may be discovered. It becomes necessary then for the workmen to feel for the coffins, which process is performed by thrusting down an iron rod with a sharp point. some six or seven feet in length. The presence of the coffin, or so much as remains of what was once a coffin, is ascertained by the resistance with which the rod meets in its descent. When the name on the slab, headstone, tablet, or whatever other memorial may chance to mark the spot, contains a name or number, the bones of the coffin, when exhumed, are placed in a box, properly inscribed, and kept separate a sufficient length of time for those wishing to reclaim them to put in an appearance. When no one calls to identify or care for them, they are, like all the unknown and unrecognized remains, after being thoroughly dried in the sun to prevent an offensive odor, cast into the common receptacle of the general vault. The bodies in all cases are completely decayed. Occasionally a tuft of hair remains, and a clammy substance more resembling clay than flesh. Sometimes the bones also are much decayed. This is particularly so in the case of young children. The bones, in all instances, are yellow, moist and mouldy. When the sand has been removed by a shovel, the coffin is usually found to be very rotten; frequently so far gone that the bones are scraped for with a small rake in the sand, and collected together only after much patient search. The teeth are nearly always in a high state of preservation. Their enamel bids defiance to the mutations of time, even in the close and poisoned atmosphere of the charnel-house. Among the remains of the earliest buried, it is rarely that anything is found but the bones. Not unfrequently, of the later class of interments, the fragments of a handkerchief or blanket are found. Tortoise shell combs, in a few instances, have been recovered, and the teeth sometimes contain gold fillings, but never to an extent of much value. We refer now to the earlier burials, the graves of which contain only tablets; these were hospital patients, or very poor people. The remains of the wealthier classes are generally removed under the superintendence of surviving friends and relatives. As yet the labors of the workmen have been confined to exhuming the remains of those buried in the low-lands, the graves on the hillsides and hilltops are more pretentious. Some are marked by costly monuments, some with enclosures of iron railing, some with brick vaults, some with stone, some with marble slabs and marble head and foot stones, and a very large proportion with paling fences.
“Near the residence of Captain Swift, at the cemetery, is a large collection of boxes of different sizes-in the smaller of which are contained the bones of infants, the tablets on whose graves were numbered, and may be recognized by reference to the mortuary record. They are held for identification and reclamation. In some of the larger boxes are the remains of male and female adults, numbered also, and held for a similar purpose. Other boxes contain nothing but skulls, which are disposed neatly in rows; and the spectacle, taken altogether, affords to the contemplative mind a sad theme for reflection and profitable study. Dr. Porter informed us that on several occasions be found the skulls with their faces downwards. This he thought might be explained on the principle of combustion. The generation of noxious gases in the body during its process of decay might produce this result, by a violent disengagement of caloric and the sudden absorption of oxygen. One coffin was found standing upon its end, and some few on their sides or resting longitudinally at an angle. A solution to this mystery is furnished in the fact that in cholera times, when the deaths in the Hospitals were numerous, those entrusted with the interment of the corpses were, at times, compelled to divide their labor, so that one man was often left with the management of a coffin which was too heavy for him, and his time would not admit of its proper adjustment in the grave. He therefore covered it up just in the position it assumed when it slipped from his grasp. Occasionally the bones of an arm or a leg are missing; sometimes both arms and both legs; sometimes a skull! Other coffins have been found to contain two skulls! all of which is made plain by the following explanation: the limbs might have been amputated before death to preserve life; or after death to ascertain the nature of the disease. A head may have been cut off after death, for post mortem examination, by the hospital physicians, who were compelled to retain it for several days, for inspection and experiment. Having used it accordingly, it would be cast into the coffin of the next patient buried. The period when these bodies were put in the ground, it will be recollected, was one of contagion, panic and death. The medical men acted as they were compelled to do, not as they might have wished to do.
“While we were engaged in conversing with Dr. Porter, he opened grave No. 636*. Evidently the corpse had not remained in the ground over thirteen years. The clammy outlines of a female face, once beautiful, were for a moment visible, but remained so only a moment after the air had reached them. The remains of a pillow, stuffed with feathers, were under her head, and on her breast a daguerreotype in an unusually excellent state of preservation. We were permitted to carry off this valuable token, and have it now in possession to be seen by those who may wish too [sic] look upon it. It could be easily recognized by any one who had an acquaintance with the lady while she lived. She was above the medium stature, of rare beauty, and in her intelligent expression conveys no intimation to the beholder of that repulsive condition to which the great leveler, Death, has reduced what was once her mortal form. In gazing upon this surviving relic, our heart was touched, and we could think of no more ap propriate language with which to conclude this article than the plaintive melody of Mrs. Hemans:
'Leaves have their time to fall,
And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath;
And stars to set; but all-
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, oh, Death!'
*Our remarks are based on the presumption that the daguerreotype found in this coffin is the likeness of the lady who occupied it. Such, however. may not be the fact. While the bones, the hair and other of the remains indicate the corpse to have been that of a female, the number, 636, does not bear out this conclusion. The inscription of the tablet is dim and defaced, but it is either 636 or 656. If number 656 [sic], the remains are those of Samuel Andre, a native of New York, who died October 27th, 1852. If 656, they are those of Wm. H. Faumann, aged 45, who died Oct. 20th, 1852. About the likeness there can be no mistake. In the event that the number is correct in either case as stated, then the daguerreotype may be considered the counterfeit presentment of a wife, sister or some other female relative or friend. Time may perhaps solve the mystery.
Source: Daily Alta California, 15 February 1866, page 1.
“It is found in removing the remains buried in the old Yerba Buena Cemetery, that many coffins containing, according to the register, bodies of hospital patients and Coroners' subjects, interred between 1850 and 1854, are filled only with cobble-stones and horse manure, and never had any thing human in them. San Francisco was evidently fleeced out of large sums by this operation.”
Source: Weekly Butte Record, 7 April 1866, page 4.
“Board of Supervisors—Removing the Dead …The contract of removing the dead from Yerba Buena Cemetery to Point Lobos Cemetery was awarded to P. Cowell, who contracts to do the work for $2,745.”
Source: Sacramento Daily Union, 22 March 1870, page 2.
“NOTICE. THE CONTRACT FOR REMOVING the Dead from Yerba Buena Cemetery to the City Cemetery, having been let by the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, said contraot calls for the immediate removal of all bodies from Yerba Buena Cemetery to the City Cemetery; therefore all parties having friends buried in said Yerba Buena Cemetery, and wishing to have them interred in any of the other Cemeteries, can have the same attended to, on the most reasonable terms, by applying to the Contractor
at his place of business, No. 834 Market street, nearly opposite Fourth.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 28 March 1870, page 2.
“The Starving Workmen.—We saw some two hundred or more men at work shoveling sand, at the old Yerba Buena Cemetery on Market street, on last Tuesday, and had the curiosity to notice the manner in which they were putting in the time. We said we saw some two hundred men at work, but that needs some considerable qualification, for although there were probably that number on the ground armed with long-handled shovels, there was no time that over twenty-five or thirty of the crowd were at work—the great majority being smoking their pipes and resting their shovels by leaning on them. All of those men were probably under pay, at two dollars per day, by the city, and were a part of the crowd of two thousand that marched in a body to the Mayor’s office last week and demanded work or bread. It is no exaggeration to say that twenty Chinamen would do more work in one day than two hundred such white laborers as those we saw nursing their shovels in San Francisco the other day.”
Source: Times Gazette, 9 April 1870, page 2.
“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.”
(Note: complete article available in City Cemetery section.)
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 19 August 1883, page 16.
“Bodies Exhumed. Ten more bodies have been exhumed by workmen excavating for the western wing of the New City Hall at San Francisco. This makes seventy that have been exhumed since the work begun. Several Chinese bodies were found. This land was formerly used for cemetery purposes.”
Source: San Joaquin Valley Argus, 9 March 1889.
“Site of our new City Hall was a Cemetery Thirty-Years Ago.
“After the bodies were moved from the old Yerba Buena Cemetery grading of the sand hills was commenced for the site for the erection of the new City Hall July 26, 1870, and was completed in the following year. The work of laying the concrete bed for the foundation wall of the new City Hall was commenced September 18, 1871.
“ALMOST half a century ago San Francisco thought she was growing and was destined to take a position in the world for herself so she determined to improve herself for her forthcoming station. At that time her limits were house-tents and sheet- iron structures lining the waters of the bay, which came up to Montgomery street. One of her first moves toward self-improvement was to move her cemetery further out into the country.
“At that time the city was growing toward North Beach, so the territory bounded by Powell, Stockton, Lombard and Chestnut streets was ordered leveled and all the bodies in graves therein were ordered removed to the new city cemetery.
“The site for the new cemetery, which was officially called the Yerba Buena Cemetery, was where the new City Hall now stands. The city fathers thought it would be many a year before the city would reach that then distant place.
“That was in the early fifties. At once the work began of moving the bodies to Yerba Buena Cemetery. Although many of the bodies of these pioneers were unidentified the City Counsel determined to keep a record of all interments in the new cemetery. This was done.
“It has just been discovered that through the usual official carelessness and negligence the records have been almost destroyed.
“The documents covering the period from the opening of the cemetery until the date of its condemnation were stored away in the basement of the City Hall. Laborers raked them together, tossed them into garbage wagons and the fires of the crematory left not a trace behind.
“In 1854 Lone Mountain Cemetery was opened and superceded Yerba Buena Cemetery for general use, but many were interred in the Yerba Buena ground for years afterward.
“At last it was decided for a second time to disturb the bones of those who were first carried to the old grave yard out toward North Beach. The work of removing the remains from Yerba Buena began. It was probably a contract job, as when preparations for the laying of the new City Hall corner-stone were being made groups of boys who came to watch the work remained to uncover scattered bones of pioneers left by the body removers. Many bones were found while the ground was being broken for the site of the new City Hall. Now its massive foundations stand as tombstones over the bits of skeletons that were left there in the early seventies.
[List of Interments…]
“Copy of One of the Lists of Interments in Yerba Buena Cemetery, Which Formerly Occupied the Site of the New City Hall. The List Was Picked Up While Cleaning Up Rubbish Last Week in One of the Offices.”
Source: San Francisco Call, 25 September 1898, page 22.
“Sixteen More Graves Discovered on Site of Yerba Buena Cemetery. Nine more bodies were uncovered by workmen excavating for the Methodist Book Concern's new building on City Hall avenue and McAllister street yesterday, on the site of the old Yerba Buena Cemetery, one of the oldest burial grounds in the city of San Francisco, now in the heart of the great down town district. This makes a total of twenty-five graves that have been discovered on this site since excavation was begun last week. The first grave was discovered on Friday afternoon, with a well preserved headstone erected in 1851. §
When it became known that the workmen were excavating on the site of the famous Yerba Buena Cemetery, a great crowd collected to watch the uncovering of the graves. Many rotted coffins were discovered, but in every case, the bodies had completely decomposed, owing to the damp and sandy nature of the soil, and only a pile of bones remained to tell that a human being had once been interred there.
“By Tuesday night the workmen had uncovered the remains of sixteen bodies and these were placed in a little box and left for the Coroner. No one was sent form the Coroner's office on Tuesday night, however, and when the workmen went to work yesterday morning all the skulls in the collection had been stolen. It is presumed that they were taken by medical students, or ghouls. What remained of the sixteen bodies was taken away by the Coroner's deputy yesterday afternoon, and the bones will be reburied to remain until, perhaps, the advance of civilization once more unearths them in the midst of a populated district.
“FIND ANCIENT TOMBSTONE
“Both the United Irish Societies and the Society of California Pioneers have applied for permission to take the tombstone found last Friday and inscribed, “Sacred to the Memory of Michael O'Leary, late of the City of Cork, Ireland, Who Departed this Life October 22, 1851, Aged 32 Years. Requiescat in Pace.”
“The Irish societies lay claim to the relic, as it is sacred to the remains of one of their kith, and the Pioneers want it for their museum. It is undecided yet which society will take it away.
“What the law is on the subject is a matter of doubt. R. C. O'Connor and T. P. O'Dowd, representing the Irish Societies, appeared yesterday on the site of the excavations to take charge of the tombstone, but were refused permission to take it away, until the matter has been settled.
“The Yerba Buena Cemetery was bounded by Market, McAllister and Larkin streets, and was one of the oldest burial grounds in the city of San Francisco. The remains of many men famous in the early history of the State were interred there. No one knows just when it was established, but it was a recognized cemetery when the surrounding country was sand dunes and the city was a village on the shore line at Montgomery street. When the burial ground on the property bounded by Broadway, Vallejo, Gough and Octavia streets was established, the Yerba Buena cemetery was nearly filled with bodies.
“ABOLISHED BY LEGISLATURE
“The Yerba Buena Cemetery was abolished by the city hall act, passed by the State Legislature of 1869-70, providing for the removal of the cemetery and the erection of a City Hall on the property. The validity of this act was fought long and hard in the courts, on the ground that the tract was sacredly dedicated as a cemetery, and the fight was carried to the Supreme Court of the State in the case of San Francisco vs. P. II. Cannavan, who was at that time a member of the Board of Supervisors. The act was upheld, however, and the cemetery was removed in 1871.
“That portion where the bodies are being found was one of the lowest spots in the cemetery, and it is probable that the graves which are being unearthed may have been covered by sand before the cemetery was removed. The graves are from twelve to twenty-five feet below the surface.”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 9 April 1908, page 16.
”… 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.” (See full article in City Cemetery.)
Source: 8 November 1908, page 17.
“Relics of Dead Found at New Library Site
“Two coffins, which had been buried more than sixty years, have been uncovered at the site of the new Public Library, Larkin and McAllister streets, which is being excavated.
“They were given to the city undertaker for reinterment. Another broken headstone, making three in all, has been turned up by the excavators. It was erected to the memory of Herman B. Harris of Massillon, O., who died in 1851 at the age of 49 years. The site was formerly part of the Yerba Buena Cemetery.”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 2 May 1915, page 33.
“Old Cemetery Site Revealed. Argument on S.F. Burial Ground Settled. San Francisco's old timers have been enjoying debate as hard to settle as the comparative generalship of Grant and Lee, until workmen started clearing the Civic Center site of the new $3,500,000 Federal office building.
“The argument related to the site of the old city cemetery. Test borings have revealed the building site is the location of the old Hall of Records.
“The old city cemetery site is located east of the Federal building excavation. Yesterday workmen on the Leavenworth street extension to Market street, uncovered a marble grave marker bearing the name, “John Connelley, 38, Launceston, V.D.L., Died May 5, 1851.”
“Nobody now knows who John Connelly was, but he evidently flourished among the first of the pioneers.
“Final plans of the Federal building are being drawn in the offices of Arthur Brown Jr., San Francisco architect, and will be completed in about five months.”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 9 June 1932.
“S.F. Excavators Unearth Remains of 3 Pioneers. Ancient Gold Pieces Also Discovered by Workers. Workmen excavating for the new Federal building yesterday unearthed the skeletal remains of three early San Francisco settlers and several gold and silver coins, apparently buried with them in what was probably the city's earliest burial ground. §
The remains were found in a spot near the corner of McAllister and Hyde streets, about 15 feet below the present street level. They had been buried in pine boxes about 2 feet wide and 6 feet long, although little remained of the boxes.
“According to H. C. Hall, civil engineer in charge of the work, more than 20 graves have been uncovered during the course of the excavation, some of them with headstones. Ball said the remains will be left where they were found.
“The coins found included two $10 gold pieces dated 1843 and 1847. Five Spanish coins of the years 1700, 1733 and 1849 were also found, as well as two of Peruvian money.”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 8 March 1934.
“A foundation of bones/Asian Art Museum building site covers a corner of 19th century cemetery.
“As a giant excavator dug a new foundation for the Asian Art Museum, Stuart Guedon stood in the dirt holding a little trowel and looking for pieces of an old one.
”… There are a lot of things buried beneath that skeleton, but nobody expected to find any real bones. Then one day last month, elevator operator Al Richey noticed a white bone in the dirt, uncovered by an overnight rain. …Guedon, the on-site archaeologist, got down with his trowel and started digging. When he was finished, a complete human skeleton was uncovered lying face up, hands folded over his chest.
”…'That would be 1893 right there,' he says while looking at a layer of exposed brick that was terraced like an ancient pyramid. Looking at the old maps, Guedon deduced that this was the old City Hall's foundation beneath a row of windows on the northeast McAllister wing. Guedon's job got more interesting when the excavator dug three or four feet deeper than the City Hall foundation to make room for a sub-basement.
“Some of the remains uncovered had been undisturbed for 150 years. The coffins have been reduced to just pieces of wood and a few nails, but the skeletons are remarkably preserved. The other day one was uncovered with three molars showing in his skull and a wooden button on his midsection. He was estimated to have died at 19. Guedon found another one with a vest still on and a coin in the pocket. They are studied, measured, cataloged, photographed. Then the bones are sent to the coroner. …”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Sam Whiting, 13 May 2001.
“97 pioneers' remains to be laid to rest again/Asian Art Museum may hold rite for souls.
“The remains of 97 Gold Rush pioneers that lay hidden in the earth for well over a century as the city of San Francisco built over them – twice – at long last are being sent to their final resting place.
”…They were unearthed beginning in the late 1990s during the construction of the new Main Library and the Asian Art Museum.
”…Not much is known about the bodies that were found in rotting wooden boxes laid in rows. A forensic pathologist at the morgue has not been able to identify any of them… ”
”…The city was supposed to move the bodies to City Cemetery, near Golden Gate Park. It's unclear whether officials shirked their duty or simply didn't find the deep graves, but plenty of people were left behind. …
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Suzanne Herel, 19 February 2004.
“Resting place found for remains of early settlers. SAN FRANCISCO—The city has finally found a resting place for the remains of nearly 100 Gold Rush-era San Franciscans unearthed three years ago during construction of the Asian Art Museum. Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma… has offered to take the remains of 97… will be buried in a vault in the cemetery's 'Pioneer Garden'…”
Source: Napa Valley Register, Terence Chea, Associated Press, 20 February 2004, page A4.
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