North Beach Cemetery
(aka Powell Street Graveyard)
Dates of Existence: 1847 to 1853.
Location: between Greenwich, Filbert & Powell streets.
Number interred: 840 to 900.
Moved to: Yerba Buena Cemetery.
“The number of interments prior to 1850, is thus estimated: …At North Beach burial ground …840”
Source: Annals of San Francisco, Frank Soulé, et al. (1854), page 595.
“During this period a piece of ground near the North Beach was used as a regular graveyard. No permission had been granted by the authorities for that purpose; but after one funeral had taken place, another and another quickly followed to the same quarter, until gradually it began to be considered a public cemetery. It was unenclosed, and to the eye seemed only a bleak and dreary common. Here the same rude style of interment was observed as elsewhere over the bounds of the great encampment forming the city ; with perhaps this difference, that the small painted grave-boards and wooden crosses might be a little more common, But all this while occasional burials in different portions of the city were continuing. People could not be troubled to walk slowly and reverently half a mile, in those busy times, to inter a dead stranger. A shallow hole in the nearest open space served the purpose just as well as the grandest mausoleum would have done. In grading the streets, sinking wells and digging the foundations of houses in after years, the bones of such as had been buried in this fashion have been repeatedly brought to light. … But at last the property near North Beach became desirable for building purposes, and the bodies there buried were exhumed and removed.”
Source: Annals of San Francisco, Frank Soulé, et al. (1854), pages 592-593.
“Cemeteries. We do not possess information of ground having been appropriated for the highly necessary purpose of Cemeteries, either by individuals or by the town of San Francisco, nevertheless we cannot resist the belief that the matter should receive the attention of our citizens. During the winter a large number of deaths have occurred, and but the burial ground near the north beach has proved available for interment. A visit to this place of sepulture is sufficient to shock the sensibilities of men inured even to the battle-field rude burial of the dead. The ground is not enclosed, the graves are headlessly prepared, without regard to order or caution, and there is every appearance of indecent haste having been resorted to in the several interments. If the town of San Francisco, by the rascally perversion of that power which has rested in the hands of her numerous alcaldes, is now destitute of a plot of ground for a decent place of sepulture, then, for the love of Heaven, let us have individual efforts directed at once to the provision of some proper grounds for cemeteries.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 12 March 1850.
“Removal of the Dead. We regret to learn that it is in contemplation to cause the removal of the bodies now peaceably reposing in the burial ground near the north beach. All further interments in this ground have been prohibited for some time; but the present measure is in contemplation because the land is covered by a private claim, and, we presume is required for building purposes. This is a very sad state of affairs if it be the case. A great number of burials have been made there by the friends of deceased parties and by order of the town at its expense, and it is dreadful to contemplate the exhumation of their remains for interment in some other spot. The disturbance of tho dead at any time is particularly distressing, when the most urgent circumstances require it, and the wants of the living and breathing community jostle against the last remains of frail humanity. In many cities, where the daily wants of the community were deemed so urgent as to demand cemeteries and graveyards to be cut through, and the ashes of the dead has been necessarily disturbed, the matter has been accomplished with the utmost difficulty, and riot and even bloodshed has been caused by the attempt. We have already advocated the reservation of ample places of sepulture from the town property for the undisturbed and quiet occupation by the dead, and we have since been told that the Yerba Buena cemetery was sufficiently ample for the purpose. But we did certainly contemplate that the plot selected by the town near the north beach would be held sacred, and that if no more burials were to take place there, at least it would be regarded as consecrated ground. Alas, the beautiful, mournful expression of requiescat in pace ! has but little meaning, if, after a few brief hours rest in the quietude of the grave they must be despoiled of their sad burdens; and, in place of the rounded, grass covered graves and the monuments that mark the departure of some dear relative or friend, the dwelling of the living be erected. We cannot think that any individual who has any title to this spot, would press his claim. If it was covered by any grant or grants prior to its selection as a burial ground, then it is the duty of the town authorities to purchase it upon fair terms, and we cannot believe that any usurious sum would be demanded. If the land has changed hands by consent of the town authorities or by Colton grants, the purchaser or purchasers could never expect to keep it, and could never have the audacity to claim possession of it. Why, the spirits of their ancestors would rise up in judgment against them! We regret that the locality was selected, as ere long the vicinity will probably be built up and thickly populated. but since it has been chosen let it remain. It can be made an ornamental spot, by being fenced and planted with trees; and the effect will not be unbeneficial to a community so peculiarly constituted as ours, when, in the midst of their wild struggle after gold, they may see the cold tombstone rearing its head with its solemn admonition of 'to this complexion must you come at last.' In many of the most populous thoroughfares of our large Atlantic cities the graveyards, containing the relics of the early in habitants are seen, with their grassy graves, their monuments, their plain slate slabs and their weeping willows and elms; and in passing them many a mad roysterer's voice has been hushed and his thoughts turned to the worth of his immortal soul. We have no doubt that there are some of our citizens who have friends or relatives interred in the place spoken of, who would prefer to have them removed even in anticipation of a compulsory movement, but there is many a corpse lying there which has no one left on these shores to look after or weep over. Their last resting place should be protected and respected. We understand that the claim of a Mr. Curl for this land is now before a committee of the Ayuntamiento for investigation and that they are instructed to report upon the expediency of removing the dead. We trust they will give the subject their close and serious attention, that they will not allow the claim, or if it be a good one, purchase the ground and 'let the dead rest.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 28 March 1850, page 2.
“CORONER'S INQUESTS… Justice McGowan also held an inquest on the body of an infant found in the Cemetery, North Beach, in a cigar box, by Mr. Isaac A. Moran. A post-mortem examination was made by Dr. Franklin. Verdict of the jury, 'Died from the effects of abortion.'”
Source: Daily Pacific News, 21 August 1850, page 3.
“THE OLD CEMETERY.—In the month of July, 1847, a mourning train followed to his last resting place all that was mortal of poor Anderson, an officer in the New York Volunteer Regiment, who left his home to come to this golden land to die. His comrades buried him with military honors, far from the city, where it was thought the rude hand of speculation would never disturb his mouldering remains. They buried him in a lonely spot where the music of the surging waves—a music that in life he loved so well—sung a daily requiem o'er his grave. Thus was commenced the first cemetery in San Francisco, in the vicinity of North Beach. As the city became populated, and thousands, attracted by the golden treasures of our land, flocked hither, the cemetery also grew, and the graves of the stranger soon spread around the little knoll which rose above the remains of Anderson, till hundreds had been buried there. When the property in that vicinity became valuable, it was discovered that the grave-yard belonged to a private individual. We passed by there yesterday. The grave of the nameless stranger is trodden under foot, streets are being cut through the cemetery, and that holiest of all earthly spots has been desecrated. A portion of the cemetery, and whose graves are marked or enclosed, that they should remove them to the new cemetery, or ere long the last trace of their last resting place will be blotted out.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 04 February 1851.
“THE NORTH BEACH GRAVE-YARD.—By the authority, we suppose, of the city, Powell street is being extended through this resting ground of the dead. If the extension of the street is needed we cannot object to the work being done. But that necessity is doubtful. If the street be cut through the burial ground, however, necessarily or not, there is a question or two which should be settled. If the dead are to be exhumed, who is to pay for their re-interment? There are persons in this State who have friends, dear friends, buried there, dear although mouldering in their cerements. It would be a shame to put them to this expense; some of them are unable to bear it. Yet their love and reverence for the dead are as pure and affectionate as if they were millionaires. It would probably be better to remove all the dead from that locality at once, rather than the course at present pursued, which seems to be to dig up coffins with as much unconcern as though they were stumps, and let them and their contents lie as carelessly until it suits the convenience of some one or any one to take them away. Some of those who have buried their friends there did not do so until they were assured by the Alcade that the places selected were where they would never be disturbed by public improvement, and being in a public cemetery, they justly thought that private cupidity and speculation should never be allowed to disturb their remains. It is not surprising if no small degree of feeling is now manifested by them when they find the graves of their friends desecrated, as they think, recklessly. As a general thing, civilization may be traced as unerringly by noting the sacredness with which the last dwellings of all are preserved, kept and guarded. What would the philosopher say of us, if his estimate of Californians was based upon what he might observe in and about our cemeteries?”
Source: Daily Alta California, 10 February 1851.
“Common Council. … Concurrences.—The bill of J. P. Kent, of $1OOO, for filling reservoirs was ordered paid. Also, requiring that the bodies interred in the North Beach grave yard be removed to the Yerba Buena cemetery, …”
Source: Daily Pacific News, 25 March 1851, page 2.
“CITY COUNCIL. …Cemeteries—Mr. Minturn introduced an ordinance requiring the street commissioner to advertise for proposals for the removal of the bodies in the Powell street cemetery, and for the re-interment of the dead in the Yerba Buena Cemetery.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 25 March 1851, page 2.
“THE OLD CEMETERY.— An ordinance has passed both Boards of the Common Council, authorising the removal of the bodies from the old grave yard on Powell street, and their interment in the Yerba Buena Cemetery. This is an action highly necessary and proper, and one that should have been taken long ago. It is a disgrace to this city, that the graves of the pioneers in her settlement should have been so rudely exposed, so rudely trampled on, and made a matter of squabble and speculation. It occurs to us that an ordinance to a similar effect was passed by the old Ayuntimento, but never enforced. We hope that this one will not also be allowed to be forgotten.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 28 March 1851, page 2.
“YERBA BUENA CEMETERY — The subject of enclosing this hallowed ground with a good substantial fence was brought up before the Common Council … There is also an old cemetery on Stockton street near North Beach which deserves the attention of our city authorities. The place is now perfectly open — in fact there is a roadstead over the ground, where lies the ashes of many an energetic and enterprising adventurer. The ground should be kept as holy, and some measures taken to prevent the business throng from using such a sacred place as a thoroughfare. We are glad that the subject has engaged the attention of the Council, and we hope that they may take such measures as to secure these places from improper intrusion.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 21 September 1852, page 2.
“NORTH BEACH CEMETERY.—It is a reflection upon the intelligence of our citizens that they should have neglected to enclose this cemetery, where now lies the remains of so many of the gallant adventurers who died in 1849. A few of the graves are enclosed with wooden palings, but the greater part are entirely unprotected and subject to the intrusion of brutes. In fact a public thoroughfare passes through it, and that vicinity particularly is made a receptacle of all sort[s] of filth. Some of the remains have been removed to Yerba Buena cemetery. but the graves remain unfilled, except with offals and nuisances of every description. The ground the cemetery covers, we believe, was given to the city years ago, and it in incumbent on our city authorities to place a substantial enclosure round it. The cost would be but a mere trifle. The subject has been mooted in the Common Council, but no definite action taken upon it.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 24 October 1852, page 2.
“Board of Assistant Aldermen. …Joint Resolution for Concurrence.—A joint resolution was offered, authorising the Comptroller to draw warrants for the sum of $3,000 in favor of Wm. W. Walker, for the removal of bodies from Powell street to Yerba Buena Cemetery. Ordered paid from contingent fund.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 25 January 1853, page 2.
“REMOVAL OF DEAD BODIES.—As the manner in which the dead bodies have been removed from Powell street to Yerba Buena cemetery has excited the attention for a good many, we have inquired into the facts, and as far as can be obtained from reliable authority, they are as follows. The Common Council made a contract with W. W. Walker to exhume and remove the dead bodies from Powell street to Yerba Buena cemetery, at a cost not exceeding $3,000. This bill was recently ordered paid, Mr. Walker taking good care to claim the full amount. It now appears that the job has not been completed; the bodies are not all yet exhumed. The payment of the bill, therefore, was premature. Mr. Walker hired a person named Fitzpatrick to do the work, and the manner in which he is said to have performed it is as follows. The bodies are stated to have been disinterred without much regard to the manner of doing it, so it was done: they were then pitched into heaps by the roadside, thence shovelled into carts and driven off; the coffins which were much decayed were burnt, and the others sold for fire-wood; the fence and palings around the graves were either sold as fire-wood, or as fencing to such as would purchased. Who is Fitzpatrick, and what character does he bear at present? He is a foreigner, and is now under heavy bail to answer a charge of brutal assault on a man named McQueen; subsequent to which attack he has threatened to kill McQueen. It is stated that he has committed other outrageous acts.
“If these things are true, and we understand they are, we leave it to our readers to determine how fitted he is for such an occupation; one that requires the greatest delicacy and attention for its proper performance. It remains to be asked, if Mr. Walker was aware of these transactions? If he ever visited the burial ground while these things were being done? If he did was it with his sanction or not? We have amongst us many honest and respectable poor men of our own country who are here in a state of destitution and who are willing to engage in any honest avocation to earn their sustenance for the present, until they can obtain steady employment. Why then select such a person as this Fitzpatrick is reported to be? Do our Common Council ever inquire into the detail of affairs that are presented to them for their action? We believe that in general they do; but a sad inattention to details is observable in this particular instance, for we are assured, that no such revolting operations are said to have occurred with regard to it would for a moment, been even tacitly sanctioned by the Council had they been aware of them. Strict inquiry should be instituted and if the work has not been performed in manner agreeable to contract, the money should be refunded above what the actual cost with a fair payment for labor, would amount to, but if the contract was loosely voided so as to permit these outrages, then the signers of it should be reprimanded.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 7 February 1853.
“Powell Street Cemetery. NORTH BEACH, May 9, 1853. MESSRS. EDITORS—Some months since, pending the removal of the coffins from the above Cemetery, I attempted, through your columns, to draw the attention of the Common Council to the disgraceful manner in which the disinterment was being carried on. Subsequent to the alleged completion of the contract, previous to the account therefor being audited, I offered to point out to the proper officer evidence of the incomplete manner in which the removal had been effected.
I then stated that to the best of my recollection there were from eighty to one hundred corpses still remaining in the ground in Powell street. The sum of $3,000 was appropriated and the contract entered into for their incomplete removal; and although the half of that sum would have been ample remuneration for the entire service to be performed, yet, despite evidence offered of its partial fulfilment, one liberal Council insisted on passing the job and voting the money.
Powell street, from Chesnut [sic] to Filbert, is now being graded—not by a Council appropriation, but at the expense of our enterprising an meritorious fellow-citizen, H. Meiggs, Esq.—and during the necessary excavations some nine or ten coffins, besides innumerable fragments of human skeletons, have been torn out by the plough and had not the same gentleman stepped forward and procured their re-interments, there they might have been to the present moment.
The portion of the cemetery lying on the line of Powell street embraces more than a tenth of its total area, and the angle at the intersection of Powell and Chesnut contains more unopened graves than any other part of the lot, so that my original estimate, based upon a rough record of interments kept in '48, '49 and '50 was probably not above the tenth.
VERITAS.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 12 May 1853, page 1.
“DESECRATION.—The old cemetery on Powell street, beyond Filbert, has been horribly desecrated within the last year. During the last winter a Mr. Walker was engaged in the removal of bodies under a contract, and the work was done in a most unfeeling manner. The cemetery contained the remains of some of the most respectable of the early residents of San Francisco, but at the hands of the contractor and his sub-contractor the bodies were treated as though they were little better than carrion. Some of the bodies are still left, and lately our public spirited citizen Mr. Meiggs, in grading Powell street at his own expense, has had many of the bodies, some of them rather ruthlessly, taken up by his workmen. However, it is some consolation to know that he has had all the exhumed remains placed in new coffins and removed to their proper depository.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 21 May 1853.
“PIONEER CEMETERIES . . . in 1848. . . Soon after, native residents and strangers were interred on Telegraph Hill, near the present corner of Vallejo and Sansome streets. Although within a stone's throw of the very heart of the commercial portion of the city, many bodies still rest here. After the exodus from every quarter of the globe commenced pouring through the Golden Gate, it was found that, owing to the ravages of fatal disease, a larger tract must be set apart for the burial of the dead. Accordingly a site was selected near North Beach, on Powell street, between Filbert and Greenwich. . .”
Source: Daily Alta California, 25 June 1861, page 1.
“The Cemeteries of San Francisco . . . POWELL STREET GRAVEYARD. When the population of the town began to grow in '46, the graveyards previously in use were considered inconvenient of access, and the dead were interred near the corner of Powell and Greenwich streets; and that was the chief burial ground till March, 1850, at which time objection was made that the place was too near the town, and that the land was private property, the owners never having consented to any such use of their lots. About nine hundred persons were buried there. The boxes were removed by the city about eight years ago, when the enterprise of cutting through the northern end of Powell street was commenced, under the influence of Alderman Harry Meiggs, who expected to become a millionaire by the rise of property at North Beach.”
Source: Daily Alta California, 22 July 1862, page 1.
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