Head(stone) Scratcher of the Month: Headstone Humor

Head(stone) Scratcher of the Month: Headstone Humor

Old City Cemetery Committee, Inc. Needs Volenteers

Sacramento City Cemetery was established in 1849 with a donation of 10 acres by Captain John Sutter. The cemetery follows the Victorian Garden style, popular throughout the mid and late 1800's. Among the first interments in the City Cemetery were over 600 victims of the 1850 Cholera Epidemic. Today, the Old City Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 25,000 pioneers, immigrants, their families and descendants. Among the more notable are Captain John A. Sutter, Jr., Sacramento city founder; lawyer and art collector E. B. Crocker; storekeeper turned railroad mogul Mark Hopkins; William Stephen Hamilton, the son of Alexander Hamilton; three California governors and many of Sacramento's earliest mayors.

Old City Cemetery Committee, Inc. is a Non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration, beautification, and preservation of Sacramento's oldest cemetery. The Historic City Cemetery is a work in progress. Although much has been accomplished since 1987 when the Committee tackled the numerous problems of broken headstones, weedy plots and neglect, the Committee has added many volunteer opportunities to handle research, education, fund raising and committee administration.

The Cemetery always needs gardening enthusiasts, help with tours and special events, fund raising for restoration of monuments, enclosures and fences and grant writing. Particular skills we could use now include General Office, grant writing, gardening, fundraising and tours. If a long-term commitment is not possible, the Cemetery welcomes persons or groups who can done-time garden clean up, special event assistance and tours. Please email them at volunteer@oldcitycemetery.com or contact by phone (916) 448-0811 and leave message. They also have an “adopt a plot” program. It offers individuals, groups, organizations, societies and companies the opportunity to play a vital role in saving and preserving a historic Sacramento landmark. By adopting a pioneer family's plot and caring for it, you become a vital part of the cemetery's restoration and preservation program. A few hours of your time each month and a little landscaping imagination can make up for the years of neglect that frequently plagues our old pioneer cemeteries. Click photo to go to website

Head(stone) Scratcher of the Month

Head(stone) Scratcher of the Month: Headstone Humor

Abandoned Cemetery: Mount Moriah , Philadelphia PA

Mount Moriah Cemetery was established in 1855; using the concept of Parisian ornate cemeteries, it utilized ornate Romanesque entrance and gatehouse built of brownstone. It was a grand rural cemetery for the accessible to the middle class.

Mount Moriah began with 54 acres and eventually expanded by 380 acres, enough space to build churches, allow for fraternal organizations to establish their own subsections within its bounds, and intern nearly 100,000 people. Mount Moriah contains over 5,000 war veterans including 400 Civil War Soldier's, a ten-acre Naval Asylum Plot residents of the Naval, a dept of veterans affairs area with over 2,000 burials, as well as sections holding Masons (Keystone Chapter No. 175), Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and American Mechanics. It was also once the resting place of Betsy Ross. It also holds the interns who were moved from 10 other closed church cemeteries as well as of course many other citizens who are unsung heroes in their own right. There are aproximately 80,000 people interned at Mount Moriah Cemetery.

As suburban cemeteries grew popular and many left the area, combined with the high perpetual care, Mount Moriah began to fall into neglect. As neighborhood crime increased, along with homeless rates, theft. And vandalism, the cemetery fell into abandonment.

Even its it state of disarray, the beauty of Mt. Moriah Cemetery is obvious; it is recognized as a historical landmark on the Philadelphia Register of historical places. This cemetery truly needs some TLC- while there are constant clean up efforts and attempts to recruit volenteers, it is a somewhat dangerous neighborhood as well as a huge undertaking, given its size. The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery Group is dedicated to its preservation and actively seeks members to assist in restoration. I urge anyone in the area to join in these efforts.

Head(stone) Scratcher of the Month: Headstone Humor