Yerba Beuna Island Cemetery
(aka Goat Island)
Dates of Existence: 1849 to 1938.
Location: Yerba Buena Island (aka Goat Island).
Number interred: 98+.
Moved to: Presidio Cemetery.
Note: Chronicle photograph.
"Three Lonely Graves in Yerba Buena Island," February 1896.
“A Garden of Death at the Fair's Gateway. Pioneers' Bones In Highway to Treasure Isle. On the western slope of Yerba Buena island, looking gateward to the sea, stand 98 pitiful little wooden crosses, hardly bigger than crossed lathing sticks, and beneath them lie the earthly remnants of those who lived in that lonely place and died there.
Doubtless, in his last moments, none surmised that he someday might be in the way on this once isolated hill, or suspected that his bones ever would be disturbed.
Nor could those who laid the dead awain in this forlorn cemetery plot, enclosed by an iron pipe fence, foresee that they were planting a garden of death at the very gates of what was destined to rise out of neighboring bay waters as the Golden Gate International Exposition.
DEATH PLOT LAID BARE
Already workmen, preparing the roadway over which the world will travel to the exposition, have cut away two rows of the eucalyptus trees that shade the burial ground and drop their leaves among the granite slabs. Now the small cemetery stands exposed in all its shabby nakedness, and will stand so exposed to the eyes of the 20,000,000 who will pass that way.
When Assistant Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison recently visited Yerba Buena there was some discussion between him and other naval officials as to whether, because of its proximity to the fair grounds entrance, the cemetery should be removed, either to some more secluded spot on the island or off it altogether.
MOVE EXPECTED
What resulted from this discussion, if anything, is not yet known outside naval administrative circles. But there is said to be strong probability that some definite move will be made to spare exposition visitors the depressing effect of a graveyard at the portals of the fair.
Possibly an ornamented wall, inscribed with a brief history of the island, might solve the problem.
Gold rush visitors to Yerba Buena found what was left of an indian village, found the pits where aborigines cremated their dead, unearthed on other parts of the island skeletons in a sitting position, knees under chin.
MAMMOTH BONES FOUND
During the construction of Treasure Island a prehistoric mammoth tusk more than 250,000 years old was dredged up from Yerba Buena shoals. Authenticity of the discovery was verified by Dr. V L. VanderHoof of the University of California museum of paleontology.
Dredges also brought up human bones — remains of early Indian tribes.
As for the little cemetery, its oldest occupant is Edward Lindsey, an English sea captain, who was buried there in 1852. Three years later his 17-year-old son, Edward was interred there with him under one tall granite tombstone carrying both names. This and all the rest of the old markers have been long since removed and replaced by the Government with uniform small flat granite slabs.
LURED HERE BY GOLD
In her booklet, "The Legend of Yerba Buena Island", Marcia Edwards Boyes recounts that in his youth Captain Lindsey was engaged by the English government to transport prisoners, the first lot of female prisoners being sent to Tasmania. Later he settled in Australia, but was lured here by the California gold discovery and landed in 1850 with his wife and six children. He and his family made sundry pleasure excursions to Yerba Buena island. In accordance with his wishes he was buried there. The funeral procession from San Francisco was a long boat bearing the body and rowed by four intimate friends, and a long line of ships' boats loaded with sorrowing friends and relatives.
There is many another interesting character buried there, too.
More recently grave stones have been cut with the names of sailors and marines. Each year on Memorial days there are military ceremonies and school children strew the graves with white marguerites, with which the island abounds.”
Source: Hitt, Neil. San Francisco Chronicle, 26 September 1937.
1.4 The Graveyards of Yerba Buena Island
Yerba Buena had three burial areas. The first area was the formal cemetery located on the north side of the island, west of Macalla Road and just inland of the road leading to Treasure Island. The second area was at the top of the island where the signal tower is located. The third area, which contained multiple sites, was located inland (west), from the beach of the east cove, and the east point. See Figüre 32. There were also four unmarked graves whose locations have been lost over the years.
FIGURE 32. Aerial View of Verba Buena Island Showing Location of Graveyards. Circa 1917. Note: Photograph taken from above Yerba Buena Island's western shore looking toward the island's east cove and point located at top center of photo.
1.4.1 Indian Graveyards, Pre-1835
Native American remains have been found in two areas on Yerba Buena Island. One is on top of the island where the signal tower stands. The remains of several Native Americans were unearthed in the early 1900s during the construction of the foundation for the signal tower. The second area containing two sites where burials have been found, was convenient to the major habitants. The area of the east cove offered a good beach and access to gentle sloping land between the hill on the east point, and the steep terrain of the hills to the west. Barnacle Bill was the first to mention, in 1849, the Native American fishing village, the temescal (ritual and/or therapeutic sweathouse), and the cremation and burial pits (Ref. X) This area was later to be occupied by the US Army, when it constructed an artillery base in 1868 (see Figure 7), and subsequently by the Navy, when it constructed the Naval Training Center in 1898.
The Island may have been used at different times by at least two different North American Indian tribes. One tribe, the Costanoans, who cremated their dead, inhabited the east cove area at the time of their discovery by the Europeans. Their cremation pits were described by Barnacle Bill in 1849. The Costanoans were of average height, approximately 5’6” tall. The Native American remains that were found in graves to the northeast of the east cove beach area were taller than average. During the early (c. 1890) excavations for the construction of the Naval Training Center (Ref. V, January 21,1899), some of the uncovered skeletal remains were those of men reported to be over 6'6“ in height and at least one woman who was more that [sic] 6' tall. They had been buried in a sitting position, with legs drawn up to their chests and arms wrapped around their legs. During the excavation in 1933 of one of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge support tower foundation, Native American remains were uncovered (Ref. E, p. 12). Dr. E. W. Gifford (Department of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley) was called to supervise the removal and to take custody of the remains.
1.4.2 Cemetery, 1849-1938
The Yerba Buena Island cemetery came into being in 1849. Most of the graves were those of service men who died on the island. Though somewhat different and interesting, the Island’s first and second graves were double graves. Two brothers, John and Peter Black, had planned and attempted a mutiny on board the USS Ewing. Their intent had been to desert to the gold fields of California. They had succeeded by rendering their officer in charge unconscious, dumping him into the Bay, and escaping with three other men. All five men were caught on the Sacramento River near what is today Pittsburg and Antioch. The brothers were court-martialed and convicted on charges of mutiny, desertion, attempt to kill, and running away with a boat. Their sentence was to “die by hanging from the yardarms of the Ewing and the Savannah at 11 A.M. on October 23, 1849”. The sentence was carried out and the log of the Ewing relates: “At 12:30 the body of John Black was lowered and prepared for internment. At 1:30 a boat came alongside from the Savannah with the body of Peter Black, and both were sent to the Island of Yerba Buena for internment.” Less than two years later, an English barrister inquired of Reverend Ven Mehr, a chaplain at the executions, about two brothers who had called themselves by the name of Black. Apparently, the brothers were from a prominent Scottish family, and a relative, unaware of their execution, had left them a legacy of approximately 20,000 pounds sterling. Of the other three men involved in the mutiny, one was given a life sentence, and the other two men received “three years at hard labor”. (Ref. X)
The second double grave was that of Captain Edward F. Lindsey and his son Edward L. Lindsey. Captain Lindsey, who transported convicts to Tazmania, lived there for ten years before coming to San Francisco in 1848 with a load of bricks and lumber for the gold mines. Though a resident of the City, he had fallen in love with Yerba Buena Island and often went there with his family for day outings. He had expressed the wish to be buried on his beloved Goat Island and when he died of a heart attack at the age of 38, his wife, Virginia, fulfilled his wishes. His son, who died 2 years later at the age of 17, was buried with him. Virginia placed a headstone for them that read in part “from the bereaved widow and mother.” In 1979, Captain Lindsey’s ship, the brig Palmyra, was found under what is now the Levi Strauss Plaza in San Francisco. Just about the time Captain Lindsey died, an adrift ship, abandoned by its crew in their rush to the gold fields, rammed the Palmyra and put a large hole in its hull. Rather than try to repair the brig, Virginia had the ship grounded and there it remained, covered over with landfill, until its unearthing 125 years later. (Ref. SS.)
Other graves also include that of a Russian soldier, whose original headboard was burned, leaving only a part of his headboard which read “Lai - loff - Sitka.” An Italian noble committed suicide by digging his own grave near the top of the island and arranging the dirt and some boards in such a way that when he shot himself and fell into the hole, the dirt would be dropped over him. His plan worked, but the soldiers who found the grave the next day exhumed him and the coroner took his remains back to the mainland where he was buried in a pauper’s grave. A few days later, someone else tried to commit suicide the same way, but drank too much and passed out before he could shoot himself. D. R. A. Dowling, one of Thomas Dowling’s sons, is buried atop the island. He happened to be playing on a stone scow when it broke loose of its moorings and was dashed against the rocks. Sadly, the boy was swept overboard and drowned. (Ref. E)
The older graves were marked with various markers. The markers had worn to the point of mutilation and were eventually replaced by uniform granite markers. When the new markers arrived, it was found that the old ones had already been removed; however, no one had recorded their locations. The plot naming the different graves had also been misplaced. The job of replacing the headstones was assigned to a Marines sergeant, who attempted to install them in alphabetical order! Fortunately, the Navy files in Washington turned out to have the correct plot identifications and the headstones were replaced properly. (Ref. E.)
The actual site location of four unmarked graves remains unknown. Of the four graves, the first grave is that of Dowling’s son who drowned. The second grave was that of the mate of the bark Melanchton who was killed in a fall from the rigging on board the ship. The third grave is that of a young woman who came to Yerba Buena Island with her husband, an officer in the Army Engineer Corps. After finding out that he was cheating on her, she supposedly died of grief. Her grave overlooked San Francisco, but it had no marker and in one of the fires that swept the island in the late 1800’s, the fence around her grave burned, leaving no indication of the actual location. The fourth grave is that of a horse, Mathilda, who faithfully pulled the Victoria (coach) of the Commandant from his home to Assembly in front of the Administration building every day in the early 1900's. The horse was quite the character and after her demise she was buried with mementos from all the men serving on the base at the time. These included a Good Conduct Medal that the owner commented she (being Mathilda) deserved more than him. Since Mathilda's grave was marked with a concrete slab, “undefiled by epitaph”, it is no longer known where exactly the “horse of Good Conduct” is buried. (Ref. E)
There are no traces of any of the graveyards in existence today. Sadly, the Indian graveyards were destroyed by the military and by bridge construction. The formal graveyard, located alongside the access road to Treasure Island, was transferred to the San Francisco Presidio Cemetery in June of 1938 to keep it from being a depressing sight to visitors attending the Golden Gate International Exposition.
Source: United States Navy, Mare Island Naval Shipyard Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Environmental Technical Division. Historical Study of Yerba Buena Island, Treasure Island, and their Buildings. Mare Island, CA: Self-published, March 1996.
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