San Mateo County Cemeteries: Eternal Home

Eternal Home Cemetery was established in 1901 on 2 acres acquired by Congregation Ohabi Shalome.

"The cemetery is but the gate to the Eternal Home. The name we have chosen for this spot symbolized the supernal destiny of man, symbolizes the change from the transient and mortal to the everlasting and the undying." Rabbi Isador Meyers

Between 1903 and 1926, there were two cemeteries on the site, Eternal Home and Chevra Kadisha. 

A monument to those moved from the cemetery of The Stockton Street Congregation (Congregation Shaair Zedek f.1890) after it was dissolved in 1910 is located in the section that was originally Chevra Kadisha.

In 1926, the cemetery was sold to Sinai Memorial Chapel which had been established in 1902 with the mission to provide a dignified burial for all Jews (Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed) regardless of their ability to pay. Over the years it has expanded to it's current 25 acres.

Among the highlights is the Court of the Twelve Tribes of Israel located near the road and separated from the rest of the cemetery by twelve pillars along the walk. All of the tombstones in this section are of uniform size and color.

The Holocaust Monument was erected in 1983 by Bikur Cholim of San Franciscodedicated to the memory of the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust which was erected by several organizations including Bikur Cholim of San Francisco, the San Francisco Zionists and the American Jewish Congregations of Northern California.  The memorial was restored and moved to a new location in 2012.

There are over 15,000 burials in the cemetery as well as cremains.

Eternal Home Cemetery - Find A Grave Over 5000 burials listed with 93% photographed.


Eternal Home Cemetery
1051 El Camino Real, Colma
Phone: 650-755-5236
Sinai Memorial Chapel

San Mateo County Cemeteries: Oakwood Community

Google - Map see link on left

Located on the grounds of Sacred Heart School at 140 Valparaiso Ave in Atherton, this small burial ground serves the nuns of the religious of Sacre Coeur of Jesus (RSCJ).  Also located here is a retirement home for the religious community.  

Alden R. Tagg, on surveying this cemetery in August of 1998, noted that "Stones are mostly alike, at ground level, rectangular most with Alpha/Omega symbol, others with a cross, all with "RSCJ' prominently marked.  The area is well cared for.

"The cemetery is laid out in rows which are oriented roughly N-S, with a central path and a statue in the trees at the western end. Facing toward the statue, left is northerly, right is southerly. The school track is adjacent north, a road is adjacent west and south, a very visible water tank tower is east across another road."


Oakwood Community Cemetery - Find A Grave  Lists 282 burials, 98% have photographs

San Mateo County Cemeteries: Japanese Cemetery

Lying directly across from Olivet Memorial Park is the small but very picturesque Japanese Cemetery. Established in 1900 by the Japanese Benevolent Society,  the burial grounds are open to Japanese people of all faiths.  The Japanese Benevolent Society of California was established in 1890 and over the years has met its mandate to assist those in need.  It has served as a unifying force for the Buddist, Shinto and Christian Japanese communities.

SF Chronicle Friday, July 10, 1936  pg 17

The cemetery was opened in June of 1901.   In 1906 the Meiji Emperor of Japan  gave a grant to the Benevolent Society "for the relief of sick, disabled or destitute persons of the Japanese race” in California and to provide “a suitable burial ground for deceased Japanese.” Bodies were moved from Laurel Hill Cemetery and Masonic Cemetery as the San Francisco movement to close cemeteries took effect.

More than 5000 burials have taken place since 1901.  Among the graceful and often majestic stones you will find a tower honoring the three crewmen from the Kanrin-Maru who on landing in 1860 brought the first Japanese embassy to the US, a monument to Ministers and Members of the Buddhist Churches of America, a War Memorial to unknown soldiers, and a monument to bodies moved from Laurel Hill Cemetery.


Japanese Cemetery
1301 Hillside Ave, Colma
650-755-3747

Japanese Cemetery - FindAGrave - lists 155 burials
Japanese Benevolent Society-Jikeikai
Japanese Cemetery Annual Clean-up 
Praying for deceased souls in Colma Japanese Cemetery

 

San Mateo County Cemeteries: Chinese Christian

Although San Francisco had prohibited burials within the city as of the beginning of January 1898, an extension had been granted for the burial of Chinese in City Cemetery, due to the inability of the Chinese Six Companies to purchase land for a cemetery in San Mateo County.  Finally in July "Patrick Brooks sold 2 acres of land for $1,000 to the Chinese Christian Cemetery Association in an area that is now Daly City.

Chinese Six Companies (六大公司) refers to the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. The Six Companies consisted of the Sam Yup Company, Yeong Wo Company, Kong Chow Company, Ning Yung Company, Hop Wo Company, and Yan Wo Company. In 1882, they extended their earlier cooperative efforts and officially established the benevolent association in San Francisco.

SF Chronicle 24 Jun 1911

Troubles for the Six Companies did not end with the purchase of the cemetery land in 1898.  Many Chinese were buried in Colma as an interim resting place before their bones were returned to China.  In 1911 with over 3000 bodies under contract to be moved, San Mateo County imposed a rate of $10 for a permit to remove each body.  The effort to remove the burials without a permit went all the way to the Supreme Court. The decision was that the Board of Supervisors could impose the fee.  There was an effort to reduce the fee to $3.

Many Chinese came to the United States hoping to make enough money to live comfortable lives on their return to China. Even in death it was important to many to return to be buried beside their ancestors where living relatives would honor them.  There are many good articles on Chinese burial customs y u'll find a few links below.

SF Chronicle  12 Nov 1911

 

Chinese Cemetary Association, 34 Jason Court, San Francisco, CA 94133 Phone: (415) 982-4148

• Chinese Christian Cemetery - Find A Grave Only a few listings
• Six Companies - Found
• Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association
• Daly City Cemeteries 
• Chinese Cemetery Association miscellany, 1955-1999 - UC Berkeley 
• Tung Sen Cemetery - More on burial practices
• Chinese Burial Traditions
• The Final Journey Home: Chinese Burial Practices in Spokane

San Mateo County Cemeteries: St. Denis Cemetery

WMD 2016 (2) 

Today all that remains of St. Denis (Dennis Martin) Cemetery is an obelisk standing within the grounds of the Stanford Linear Accelerator.  
In 1850 Dennis Martin settled on 1000 acres of Rancho Cañada de Raymundo that he purchased from John Coppinger.  A young Irish immigrant, he was a good Catholic who invited missionary priests to stop in his house and say mass.  Feeling need for a church he remodeled a redwood building that had been used as a school house, creating a church in the shape of a crucifix.  The church was dedicated as St. Denis, his patron Saint, by Bishop Alemany dedicated it on 8 June 1856. (1)

St. Denis Cemetery was laid out about 300 feet from the church.  

WMD 2016

A lawsuit filed by Maria de la Soledad Ortega Argüello and Jose Ramon Argüello claimed that the land was in fact part of Rancho de Las Pulgas, rather than Rancho Cañada de Raymundo In 1864 Dennis Martin, along with the estate of Coppinger and other purchasers of land in the vicinity lost their final appeal to the land. (3)  

The loss of his land included that on which the church lay.  Dennis moved to a smaller farm that remained in his possession, but never fully recovered from the loss of his thriving business. In 1882 he moved to San Francisco.  When he passed away in 1890, estranged from his daughters,  his remains were buried in St. Denis Cemetery. (4)

In the meantime St. Denis which was originally in the care of the Jesuits passed into the hands of Rev. Denis F. Dempsey, the pastor of San Mateo.  It was one of the established missions, which also included Colma and Redwood City. With the dedication of Church of the Nativity in 1872 the church was abandoned. By the time Dennis Martin was buried there, the church had been torn down, replaced by straw sheds and the cemetery lay neglected.

Eventually the land was purchased by Senator Leland Stanford who ordered that the cemetery be maintained.  However, by 1953, it was in ruins.  That was the year that the cemetery was exhumed, originally housing was to be built there. That plan was abandoned and eventually SLAC was built in 1962. 

One hundred and seventy four grave sites were identified at the time of the exhumation of St. Denis Cemetery, but remains were found for only 24 individuals.  The remains of Dennis Martin weren't among them.  All remains were re-interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in Menlo Park.   There is a stone marker in Holy Cross commemorating the burials and a stone and brass marker located at the entrance to 3000 Sand Hill road.

In 1950 Father Thomas McKeon of Church of Nativity provided a list of burials found in the records of St. Denis Church to Palo Alto Historian, Guy Miller.  Dennis Martin Cemetery, which lists 45 burials between 1856 and 1862, has been digitized and is available on FamilySearch. If there were in fact 174 burials in the cemetery, I have not found a listing of the rest.  Perhaps the cemetery includes burials that were not Catholic. 

See the Menlo Park Historical Society's Notes on the Dennis Martin Cemetery  for further details and maps of the location.

___________________________________________________

1. Parish History - St. Denis Parish, Menlo Park & Portola Valley provides a more detailed history of the parish.
2. Pictures by William M. Donovan for this blog. You will find up close pictures of the obelisk, plaques and some maps on St. Denis Cemetery by Jym Clendenin.  This page is linked to Notes on the Dennis Martin Cemetery mentioned above.
3. This case was discussed in a previous blog post, NARA: Private Common Law Case Files 1855-1863 
4. Bo Crane has written a biography, The Life and Time of Dennis Martin, San Mateo Pioneer which is available on his website or from the Menlo Park Historical Association.  Bo will be the speaker at the SMCGS Meeting on Sept. 24, 2016

San Mateo County Cemeteries: Cypress Lawn Memorial Park

San Francisco Call, Volume 71, Number 100, 10 March 1892

San Francisco Call, Volume 71, Number 100, 10 March 1892

Cypress Lawn Memorial Park was established in June of 1892.  On 17 Sep of that year the Call (vol 72 # 99) reported that the Cremation Company had signed a contract with the cemetery and a crematory would be in built at a cost of $25000.  It was to be finished by 1 Feb 1893.

San Francisco Call, Volume 72, Number 1, 1 June 1892

In Jun 1893 (SF Call 7 Jun 1893) Bishop Nichols of the Episcopal church dedicated Ionia Cemetery within the Cypress Lawn grounds.




Between 1939 and 1941 over 35,000 burials were moved from Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco to Cypress Lawn.  In 1950 William Proctor, of the SF Dept of City Planning, wrote a detailed report entitled LOCATION, REGULATION, AND REMOVAL OF CEMETERIES IN THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO  that covers the removals and the reburials at a cost of over half a million dollars.

Cypress Lawn is one of the cemeteries highlighted in the 2005 PBS special A Cemetery Special.  It is available to buy but can also be found on Netflix, Amazon Prime and other Video Streaming websites.




1370 El Camino Real 
Colma, CA 94014 
Phone: (650) 550-8808 
Website

• Cypress Lawn Heritage Foundation (Pay a fee, which includes membership to request records for a burial)
• Birth of Cypress Lawn
• FindAGrave - Cypress Lawn lists over 179K burials with 18% photographed and cemetery maps. 

Map from Topozone.com 

San Mateo County Cemeteries: Home of Peace

San Francisco Bulletin
28 Oct 1865
p3 The Cemeteries of San Francisco

Home of Peace Cemetery was was dedicated in Nov 1888 by Congregation Emanu-El on 20 acres at the foot of the San Bruno mountains. 

It was the third cemetery established by the congregation, the first opened during the gold rush on Vallejo St., the second Navai Shalome, (the Peaceful Abode) in 1860 in the area that is now Dolores Park. Across Eagle street Giboth Olam (Hills of Eternity) opened early the next year. 

In 1888 the two congregations bought adjoining land in San Mateo County and all burials were removed from San Francisco and reinterred individually. 

San Francisco Chronicle
30 Nov 1888 p8

San Francisco Chronicle
27 Dec 1888

Today there are designated sections for two bay area synagogues; Congregation Beth Sholom (San Francisco) and Peninsula Temple Sholom (Burlingame).   

Some of the famous buried there include: the Fleishhaker Family (banking); Adolf Sutro; Levi Strauss; the Sellerbach Family (Crown Zellerbach); and IW Hellman (founder of Wells Fargo).

 

Home of Peace Cemetery 1299 El Camino Real, Colma (650) 755-4700

Home of Peace on FindAGrave  over 3000 listings over 80% photographed

SMC Cemeteries: Greenlawn Memorial Park

Woodlawn was originally purchased by some Odd Fellows members in 1903 as cemeteries were being closed in San Francisco.


Non-sectarian burials started in 1904 independent of IOOF.  In the 1930s some 26000 burials were moved from the Odd Fellows Cemetery in San Francisco (located near Masonic and Golden Gate Aves).  Those bodies are located in a section of the cemetery that is not open to the public.  A memorial marks the interments. Tombstones from the IOOF cemetery were used to construct the Aquatic Park seawall.


Today there are over 50000 burials in Woodlawn.  The cemetery maintains a strict privacy policy, requiring a permit to take pictures of any tombstones.  Records are held in the cemetery office for burials starting in 1865.

Some of the special burial plots located in Greenlawn include: the National Association of Master Mates and Pilots of America (Union Plot), the Theatrical Mechanical Association plot, and a monument to Americans who served in the armed forces of the British Empire and the Commonwealth of Canada.  There is also a section of Chinese burials.

 Website    650-755-7622

• Woodlawn on Find A Grave - just under 3000 burials listed
• A Second Final Rest 

San Mateo County Cemeteries: County Poor Farm

Over the years many burials took place at the County Relief Farm.  Other sources give a date of the start of the cemetery as 1894, but I would suggest that burials took place from the time the farm was opened.  In 1894 the registers started to indicate where those who died at the Poor Farm were buried.  Some were interred on the farm, others were taken to outside cemeteries.  Even after 1894 not all records indicated where the deceased was buried. And not all numbers are recorded in the registers





Support for earlier burials can be found in two facts. First the lack of information for many of the earlier burials in any other records. Second when the Institute for Canine Forensics brought cadaver dogs to search for burials on the Poor Farm Cemetery grounds they found more burials than had been recorded.




 We will never know. No decipherable markers remain in the burial grounds.  There are some ruins that appear to be the remnants of wooden markers, but they might be something else.  It is unlikely that there was ever anything other than inexpensive wooden markers.  Those with family or resources for burial were usually buried elsewhere.


Not everyone who was buried at the County Poor Farm had been an inmate of the Poor Farm/Hospital.  Outside indigents were brought to be buried through the years.  Not everyone who died at the hospital was buried on the grounds.  Many were removed to other cemeteries.  A few were interred and then disinterred and moved.  Some of those buried in the cemetery after 1906 have not been located in the CA death index.  This might be due to the misspellings found throughout the records.  It is also possible that some of the records were miscopied from the original sources and the deaths were attributed to the wrong person.

For those who find an ancestor buried here, the cemetery is located along the south side of highway 92 just east of Ralston Road.

San Mateo Times - 3 Aug 1929
(The register gives a date of 7 Aug 1929
states buried in grave ?
an example of the caliber of records)

• County Poor Farm Sources
• SF Genealogy - San Mateo County Poor Farm and Hospital (Includes list of known burials)
• FindAGrave - San Mateo County Poor Farm Cemetery
• SMCGS Flickr Album - San Mateo County Poor Farm

SMT - 25 Nov 1915 p 15
Buried in Grave 244

San Francisco Call 20 Nov 1907
Buried Grave 99

SFC - 6 Aug 1911
Buried in Union Cemetery

San Mateo County Cemeteries: Hills of Eternity

In Judaism death is viewed as a natural part of life. 




In 1850 the Congregation Sherith Israel established a cemetery in the area now known as Pacific Heights (Vallejo St. between Gough and Franklin) in accordance with the two basic principals that are part of the natural life cycle: k’vod ha-mayat — the dignified and respectful treatment of the dead — andk’vod he-chai — the honored treatment of the mourners.


Ten years later they dedicated a second cemetery the area that is now Dolores Park.  On 22 Jan 1867 the San Francisco Bulletin (V.XXIII I.89 P. 3) reported the incorporation of the Hills of Eternity Cemetery Association.....  

Twenty one years later, on 30 Nov 1888 the Bulletin (V.LXVII I.47 P. 3) reported the opening of a new cemetery in San Mateo County..

Click here to read entire article

Hills of Eternity Memorial Park (Giboth Olam ) consists of twenty acres of  the foot of the San Bruno Mountains.  Endowed care helps keep the landscaping throughout the cemetery.  In addition to in ground burials, the Portals of Eternity Mausoleum, which was designed in neo-Byzantine style by Samuel Hyman and Abraham Appleton in the early 1930s, and the Gardens of Eternity Mausoleums offer above ground burial and niches for cremains. 


Hills of Eternity has designated sections for several Bay Area synagogues including: Congregation Beth Am, Congregation Beth Jacob, Congregation Kol Emeth, Congregation Or Shalom, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, and Peninsula Sinai Congregation.

Three of the four Jewish Cemeteries in Colma, Home of Peace, Hills of Eternity, and Salem Memorial Park, share staff and record-keeping.  Contact the office for help in locating burials within the cemetery.

Hills of Eternity Memorial Park

1301 El Camino Real
Colma CA 94014
(650) 755-4700

Hours   8:30 to 4:00, Sunday through Friday.

For more information:

Congregation Sherith Israel
FindAGrave 13032 Burials listed 80% photographed
Cemetery Travel: Week #116
Roni & Jerry's Genealogy - Portals of Eternity shows a map for the mausoleum as well as some pictures inside and out.
American Jewish Archives - Congregation Sherith Israel - San Francisco 1866-1900
International Jewish Cemeteries Project