El Cajon Cemetery

San Diego County, California

Compiled by

Members of the San Diego Genealogical Society

1050 Pioneer Way, Suite E El Cajon, CA 92020-1943

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Cover Original watercolor painting by

John Swink © 2007

© copyright by SAN DIEGO GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY 2007

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El Cajon Cemetery San Diego County, California

Contents

Preface v Acknowledgements ix Map of El Cajon Cemetery xi El Cajon Cemetery burials 1

Memorial Day – Monday, May 29, 2006

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Preface El Cajon Cemetery is located on over twelve acres of rolling hills just east of El Cajon, in San Diego County, California, at 2080 Dehesa Road (at the junction of Dehesa Road and Vista Grande Road – GPS: 32° 47’ 18.47”N, 116° 54’ 30.84”W). Once considered the outskirts of town, it is now surrounded by homes and urban development. In 1990, the cemetery faced closure due to lack of space. The El Cajon Cemetery Association purchased an additional 5.25 adjoining acres, now referred to as the ‘new section,’ and burials began there in April 1996. Approximately 250 burials per year take place at the cemetery. There is an onsite office and a full-time staff. The cemetery has a total capacity for 16,135 burials which include 10,052 caskets, 4,279 ash lots and 1,804 infant burials in both the original ‘dry’ section and the lawn sections (the original lawns and the new ‘endowment’ section). Burial costs have changed over the years. In 1903 a burial cost $2.50, with a corner lot priced at $10. By 1923, the price was $4, and had increased to $8 by 1928. During the Great Depression, lots were selling for as little as $1. In 1951 the price had risen to $15 and then to $25 by 1954. In 1960 the cost was $60. In 2007, the cost for a lot is $800 in the original, dry section and $1,800 in the lawn sections. El Cajon Cemetery was officially founded in early 1903 when local businessmen and ranchers incorporated the El Cajon Cemetery Association with 1,000 stock shares issued at $5 each. The purpose of the Association was to “improve and beautify this property with trees, shrubbery and flowers and make it a credit to this beautiful and thriving valley,” reported the El Cajon News. A Board of Directors was appointed and officers elected with By-Laws being adopted on June 8, 1903. At the time, with El Cajon’s population about 575, fifteen burials were reported to be in the cemetery, including the earliest markers for Mariah F. Hall (1889), and her husband John R. Hall (1891). The Hall family has been involved with the cemetery’s management since it was founded. The El Cajon Cemetery Association purchased the original cemetery land (less than one acre) from local businessmen Dwight S. Bascom and John G. Burgess. Newspaper accounts reported the cost as $225 but San Diego County Recorder’s records, dated 16 November 1904, show a purchase price of $10. Bascom and Burgess had purchased the property from the Aaron G. Harbaugh family of Cleveland, Ohio, with that deed recorded on 12 October 1903, for a price of $1. The Harbaugh family had acquired the property sometime prior to 1888. Originally, the westernmost section of the cemetery was part of the 1845 land grant from Alta California’s Governor Pio Pico to Doña Maria Antonia Estudillo, wife of Don Miguel de Pedrorena, as repayment of a $500 debt. In 1868, Isaac Lankershim, a San Francisco entrepreneur, bought the bulk of the Pedrorena's Rancho Cajon holdings. However, years of litigation with homesteaders and squatters ensued before the land could finally be subdivided. In 1888, a section of the San Diego Flume, a 35 mile long elevated wooden water aqueduct, was built across the western boundary of the cemetery property and it remained in use until the early 1930s.

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In 1971 El Cajon Cemetery was dedicated in a ceremony sponsored by Native Sons of the Golden West, Cuyamaca Parlor No. 298. The Native Sons had been taking care of the cemetery for years, weeding and cleaning it before Memorial Day each year. A stone monument was built at the base of a flagpole and a dedication plaque was imbedded in it.

El Cajon Cemetery Dedication Plaque

For over forty years now, La Mesa Post 282 of The American Legion has placed a United States flag at the grave of each U.S. military veteran buried among the magnolia and pepper trees in this serene cemetery in observance of Memorial Day. Annually since 2002, on the Sunday evening before Memorial Day, El Cajon Elks Lodge 1812 of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, in conjunction with Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Sgt. William Pittenger Camp 21, has held a graveside ceremony honoring all American veterans. Graves were dug by hand at El Cajon Cemetery until 1995. Alan House began digging graves there part-time in 1967. He became the cemetery Manager in September 1984 when John Amundsen retired. John Amundsen, previously manager for the Alpine Cemetery, had been hired in 1967 to renovate and manage El Cajon Cemetery.

Alan House digs a grave for the three Graveline brothers, March 1980.

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Nearly 8,900 El Cajon Cemetery burials have been identified, with most dating after 1967. A number of the early burials were unrecorded due to lax recordkeeping. Others may have been lost due to deteriorating markers, vandalism or neglect. The majority of the burials, from 1979 onward, can be documented with burial permit copies stored in the onsite cemetery office. Some burials, from 1903 to the mid-1960s are written in the ledger books of the El Cajon Cemetery Association. Originally used to record the sale of stock, later entries documented who had purchased lots (but did not name who was buried in them). These, totaling close to 300, were cross-referenced to other sources to determine who was actually buried in the lot. Searching death certificates at the office of the San Diego County Recorder identified approximately one hundred additional burials. Mrs. Madge Sperry, current El Cajon Cemetery Association President and a descendent of John R. Hall, maintains the official records for the El Cajon Cemetery Association. These records, a card file located at her home, contain a card for each burial as well as one for all ‘pre-need’ lot sales. Mrs. Sperry also maintains large paper plot maps of the burial grounds. Over 9,400 records are contained in this book. Included are the almost 8,900 burials (from the late 1880s through June 2007) plus details from pre-need gravestones set in the cemetery. It is our sincere hope that you find something of value to you within these pages. Peter Steelquist President San Diego Genealogical Society

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Acknowledgments Karna Webster, editor of the San Diego Genealogical Society’s quarterly publication San Diego Leaves & Saplings, initiated this project in July 1999. The work began with a thorough survey of every gravestone in El Cajon Cemetery. Members of the San Diego Genealogical Society who performed the initial survey were: Judy Evans Roy Evans Jim Hutchinson Marilyn Hutchinson Phyllis McWilliams

Twila Moore Jim Parton Sue Parton Lynne Robinson Donna Swink

Don Taylor Cleo E. Wall Karna Webster Sharlene Williams

Data from other sources was added to the gravestone information. Details from death certificates, burial permits, newspaper obituaries and El Cajon Cemetery Association records were incorporated. Marna L. Clemons conducted extensive research in an attempt to discover all documented burials and include them in this work. The compiled data was proofread and compared to the records of the El Cajon Cemetery Association. Volunteers from the San Diego Genealogical Society who conducted this aspect of the project were: Diane Altona Lynda Barlow Shirley Bracey Marna L. Clemons

Twila Moore Nancy Nichols Lynda Osborne Donna Swink

Donna Trapnell Karna Webster Charlotte Zaino

Charlotte Zaino, Shirley Bracey, Ed Ward and Audrey Ward complete

the final survey of El Cajon Cemetery gravestones in June 2006.

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A subsequent reading of gravestones was completed in June 2006 with new information and notations incorporated. The final survey was completed by: Shirley Bracey Marna L. Clemons Barbara Cogburn Pamela Journey Shirley Lamendola Twila Moore Bill Orsborn

Doree L. Racicot Lynne Robinson John Scott Bridget Slatten Robert O. Stuebing Brooke L. Tompkins Richard A. Tompkins

Audrey Ward Edward Ward Karna Webster Alberta White Clifford Williams Sharlene Williams Charlotte Zaino

Bridget Slatten compares compiled data to gravestone inscriptions, June 2006.

The San Diego Genealogical Society sincerely thanks the staff of El Cajon Cemetery – Alan House, Joe Dodson, Jesus Manuel Valdez, Hank Schwegel and Fulgencio Marroquin for their invaluable cooperation and friendly assistance over the years. We are grateful to Mrs. Madge Sperry, President of the El Cajon Cemetery Association, for her gracious hospitality and encouragement. A heartfelt thank you to Sharlene Williams who braved sprinklers to transcribe gravestones, researched the history of the cemetery, excavated sunken gravestones, and provided financial support for this project. Our special thanks to Marna L. Clemons who took over the project, did extensive research, coordinated the final survey and prepared it for publication. Without their efforts, and those of the many other volunteers, this book would not have been possible.