I took Linda's <http://lancastergraveyardrabbit.wordpress.com/> challenge and went out to Agua Mansa cemetery. I am somewhere between speechless and Chatty Cathy.
First, the cemetery was opened and the museum was closed, but there is a grounds keeper living there to help keep away vandels. I spoke to him briefly. He said the exhibits were removed for a while because there is no money to keep it going.
As we walked around, my jaw dropped opened. Some of the graves were destroyed. Some were okay, some were nice, most were humble. I don't speak Spanish and this is primarliy a Mexican Graveyard. I wondered if two white girls would look suspicious here. I need to do some research to understand just what I saw. There were many spots with no graves but my heart told me that there were people under my feet.
The grave picture above is of Louis Rubudioux. He was a pioneer in these parts. One time I researched a house here in Corona that was lived in by a grandchild of his so I had to do research on his family. The house did get on the City Registry of Historic Places because of the connection.
I was suprised to see this memorial. Notice the picture in the tree, and the wooden cross. I am sure these were placed more recently, so some one must come by to visit.
This cemetery is being taken care of by a historical group and is much better than it was a few years ago. They put a fence around it with barbed wire to keep out the holigans, they hired the care taker and do some watering. Also it is now California State Historical Landmark #121.
At one time there was a thriving farm community across the street from where the cemetery now sits but it was wiped out by a flood in 1862. They tried to rebuilt but it was never as successful.
Later I will post more on this cemetery but I need to understand more.
3 comments:
Wow! It sure appeared different from the other side of the chain link fence!! Looks like I didn't miss anything when it was locked! What a shame, and to think it's got a "historical" designation!
Wouldn't have sent this your way if I'd known!
I am GLAD you sent it my way. Thank you. It was very interesting, I am glad to know about it, I was just in shock, I'll publish more pictures.
You spoke of feeling like there were unmarked graved in the area. They had no marked but you sensed that people were buried there. You may be right. You also spoke of a flood that happened. You may want to go back to the care taker and ask for permission to poke around with a rod (something that will pinatrate the ground) and see if there are buried stones. That's how we had to find where my husbands ggrandmother and baby were buried in TX. Records said they were there, but the stones couldn't be found with the help of grounds keepers even. Their stones (from 1941) had since been buried by dirt and grass. It took some digging to uncover them, but they did. I hope you find more. This sounds like and interesting search.
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