Lone Mountain Cemetery

Formation and usage Opened May 30, 1854, Lone Mountain Cemetery was planned to cover 320 acres. Many of the burials within the Lone Mountain Cemetery complex were for the wealthy. The paths between the graves were named after known East Coast cemeteries, including Mount Auburn, Green-Wood, and Oak Hill. The cemeteries became a popular place for family outings and picnics on Sunday. In 1860s there was a legal battle in the city over who was to administer Lone Mountain, as a result they decided to incorporate a section of the complex and settled on a name change to Laurel Hill Cemetery (the name of a noted cemetery in Philadelphia). Burials in the 19th-century were not always safe, and as urban graveyards such as Lone Mountain Cemetery eventually ran out of space, which resulted in burials without using coffins. Chinese mourners would leave food offerings for the dead at the cemetery, which in turn brought "hungry vagrants". Removal of cemeteries and remains . In 2017 a 155-year-old gravestone from Laurel Hill was found in the basement of a San Francisco home. The idea started circulating in the 1880s that the cemeteries needed to be moved outside of the city; complaints were made primarily by the nearby property owners who were concerned that the area would discourage any new development in the neighborhood, and for safety. The Catholic Archdiocese opposed the removal of the graves because in Calvary Cemetery they were on "hallowed ground". The battle to remove the cemeteries continued for years, with groups such as the "Cemetery Defense League" and "Save our Cemeteries" fighting to stop city evictions. By late 1910, cremation was also prohibited within the city. The California State Legislature passed the Morris Act in 1921, authored by Clarence W. Morris (1888–1965), which allowed a cemetery to be abandoned if ratified by a majority of lot owners. As a result, many of the gravestones were reused for the sea wall at Aquatic Park, the creation of a breakwater at the St. Francis Yacht Club in the Marina, lining for rain gutters in Buena Vista Park, and erosion control at Ocean Beach. Contractor Charles L. Harney was paid to dump the large crypts and large tomb markers into the San Francisco Bay. In the present-day, every once in a while the full-sized gravestones will emerge at Ocean Beach, particularly after a storm. From February 1940 until after World War II (circa 1945), the process of moving the last remains from San Francisco to Colma was completed. == Laurel Hill Cemetery (formerly Lone Mountain Cemetery) ==

was buried twice in Lone Mountain Cemetery History The Lone Mountain Cemetery (active from 1854 to ) was 55.4 acres at the time of founding and was located between California, Euclid, Masonic and Arguello Streets. He died in 1860 and was buried in Lone Mountain Cemetery. In 1866, his physician John Martyn Harlow exhumed his skull in order to study it, and placed the skull with the iron bar on display at the Warren Anatomical Museum. In 1940, as part of the mandated cemetery relocations within the city of San Francisco, Gage's headless body was relocated to Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. One of the notable grave markers within Lone Mountain Cemetery was for senator David Colbreth Broderick who died in the Broderick–Terry duel of 1859; the Broderick's Monument, which was a tall stone obelisk on a platform with stairs and a low railing surrounding it. During the 1906 earthquake the Broderick's Monument obelisk lost its upper portion. Some of the other notable pioneer burials at this site included Judge Silas W. Sanderson; politician, Samuel Williams Inge; lawyer, Thomas W. Sutherland; lawyer Thomas O. Larkin; surgeon and University of California, San Francisco founder Hugh H. Toland; the builder of the first wharf in the city, Squire Clark; an early sheriff, David Scannell; newspaper editor, James King of William; Commodore James Thomas Watkins; founder of Woodward's Gardens, Robert B. Woodward; the inventor of the cable car, Andrew Smith Hallidie; politician, James Van Ness; U.S. Senator, William M. Stewart; U.S. Senator, John Percival Jones; San Francisco mayor, James Otis; and U.S. Senator, James Graham Fair. == Calvary Cemetery ==

History The Calvary Catholic Cemetery, also known as Mount Calvary Cemetery (active from 1860 to 1941) was 49.2 acres in size, founded by Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany who purchased sloped land on Lone Mountain on August 16, 1860. They moved to San Francisco together for work; and eventually (due to circumstances around a murder) Charles Cora was hung in 1852 by the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance. Right before the hanging, he married Bella Cora, and when he died she buried him at the Mission Dolores Cemetery. She was told that she couldn't be buried next to her husband at Mission Dolores, so she disinterred Charles Cora and buried him at Calvary Cemetery; and when she died, she was buried next to him in Calvary. Notable graves in Calvary included politicians, James A. McDougall; Eugene Casserly; and Delos R. Ashley. Grave relocations The Catholic Archdiocese opposed the removal of the graves because in Calvary Cemetery they were on "hallowed ground". In a 1946 opinion piece Herb Caen described the development of the Anza Vista neighborhood by noting "...The naked light standards and curbstones marking future streets and avenues in the desert that was Calvary Cemetery—where the homes of the living will replace the homes of the dead..." == Masonic Cemetery ==

The Masonic Cemetery (active from 1864 to 1935) was approximately 30 acres located between Turk, Fulton, Parker and Masonic Streets (now the University of San Francisco). and Thomas Bowles Shannon. Grave relocations In June 1901, an unknown number of remains at the Masonic Cemetery were moved to the Japanese Cemetery in Colma. Because of the passage of the Morris Act (1921), the Masonic Cemetery continued to move the graves, until they were stopped by litigation. == Odd Fellows Cemetery ==

, San Francisco The Odd Fellows Cemetery (active from 1864 to 1933) was approximately 27 acres located between Geary, Turk, Parker, and Arguello Streets. After an archaeoforensic investigation the child's remains, the results were matched to the nearest living relative, a great-nephew. Edith was reburied in a public ceremony at Greenlawn Memorial Park with the assistance of the Garden of Innocence organization in Colma, California. == See also ==