Labor in the Cemetery

San  Francisco Call - 13 Oct 1892
CDNC Collections

In 1892 over 80 men with the Granite-cutters Union went on strike demanding 50 cents and hour and 8 hour days.

San Francisco Call 4 Apr 1903
CDNC Collection

In April 1903 it was reported differences settled between the Cemetery Workers Union and several had been San Mateo County Cemeteries.

SF Chronicle 4 Jun 1903 p39

However, it appears that the agreements did not go without a hitch, two months later it was reported that a Boycott against Cypress Lawn had been called off  after arbitration by Mayor Schmitz.  The 23 men who had gone on strike were to be reemployed and the 8 non-union scabs would all be let go within 2 weeks.


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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