What Happened To Bakersfield's Chinese Cemetery?
What Happened To Bakersfield's Chinese Cemetery?
What Happened To Bakersfield's Chinese Cemetery?
www.gilbertgia.com
By Gilbert Gia
1
Southern Californian, Aug 27, 1874: When Chinese tried to built on
Chester Ave the paper wrote, “We cannot be persuaded that they are
desirable to have as close neighbors.” Historians have thoroughly
documented the segregation of Chinese in California.
2
William Hoy, “The Chinese In Bakersfield,” Historic Kern, Journal of
the Kern County Historical Society, May 1950, (This was part of a two-
page, transcribed radio script. In The Chinese Laundryman by Paul Chan
Pang Siu, Siu describes one of Hoy's stories as an “unpublished radio
talk, San Francisco, September 16, 1940”; “The Chinese in Bakersfield,”
is a 1974 term paper by Diane Ogden. In it, Ogden alluded to a term
paper from 1930 entitled “Chinese Graveyard.” In 1974, Ogden was a
Bakersfield College student of Kern County historian William Harland
Boyd.
3
Joe Doctor wrote in Shotguns on Sunday that in 1903 fugitive James
McKinney hid his guns “on the west side of the cemetery beneath the
brush where ‘L’ runs out to the south.” The extension of “L” Street is
two or three blocks east of the old cemetery grounds. This raises the
possibility that the boundaries of old city cemetery extended further
west than other sources indicate.
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history of that old city cemetery and explains why it has
4
Buena Vista Cemetery Association had been recently established on
Solomon Jewett’s low-lying land in Sec 12 near a JB Haggin farm just
south of what is now Brundage Ln.
5
Southern Californian, Dec 30, 1875
6
Kern County Gazette, Jan 5, 1878
7
Feb 14, 1877; The Bakersfield Californian of Oct 24, 1907 shows that
the Pest House was in use.
8
This is within present Union Cemetery. The old burying place that was
near Terrace Way was probably in use during Col. Thomas A. Baker’s
lifetime. However, in 1872 he was buried on high ground he had selected
himself at what is now Union Cemetery. Baker had observed the
destructive effects of Kern River floods of 1862-3 and 1867-8.
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graded space, probably near by, for 7,500 grave sites and
exclusively.
roof,13 and the grounds had only a few grave markers. The
9
Kern County Gazette, Feb 9, 1878 and Apr 13, 1878, "A Visit to the
Cemetery"; Kern County Californian, Jan 16, 1886, p 2, Board of
Supervisors meeting of Jan 8, 1886. Board ordered that “a fund be
hereby established to be known as the Union cemetery fund…”
10
Ledger of Minutes, Grand Army of the Republic, Hulbert Post, [archived
at the Kern County Museum]: “12-6-1889, resolved for post to pay for
removal of the remains of three ex-soldiers buried in the Chinese
cemetery to the GAR Plot at Union Cemetery: Henry C. Loomis, d 1874,
Joseph R. Clavert, d 1887, John Cannon, d 1888, [Cannon’s remains had
been buried in Potters Field at the old city or now, Chinese cemetery.]
11
According to a listing of burials, that prohibition appears to have
been rescinded by the early 1930s. (William Harland Boyd, Chinese of
Kern County, 1857-1960, an Oral History, 2002, pp 240-5)
12
In Author’s 2002 interview with funeral director Ray Mish, he said he
first saw the grounds in 1947 and it was “a good three blocks square.”
13
Hoy, op cit.
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burners were used during funerals for ceremonial
which included the old cemetery in Lots 13 and 14.18 The new
14
Ibid
15
Sec 1, T30S, R27E drawn May 3, 1889
16
Author’s 2002 interview with Julia Bertolucci Fanucchi
17
Cloverdale St was removed in 1964 during construction of Fwy 58.
18
Haggin acquired much property in Kern County via the use of straw
buyers. Lots 13 and 14 appear on Kern County map “Sec1, T30S, R27E,
MDB&M as shown on sales map #1 of Lands of JB Haggin filed May 3, 1889
in recorders office.” An annotation on it in a later year: “Reset
cemetery corner according to map filed in RSI, R+G, March 19, 1904.”
The date corresponds to the probate of the Jacob Niederaur estate.
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owner was James B. Haggin.19 In December 1892, Haggin sold
Jacob Niederaur.
19
Gary Gadeke, Regional Vice President and County Manager of First
American Title Company in Bakersfield, traced subsequent ownership.
Land transaction mentioned next in this paper come from Mr. Gadeke’s
title search.
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Morton and Connelly paid $600, which included “one
Union Cemetery.23
20
Recorded, KC Hall of Records, Mar 19, 1904. Although part of the
Cemetery might have been in Lot 13, there is little doubt that the
grounds occupied all of Lot 14. This cemetery land would have been of
marginal economic use to the KC Land Company.
21
William Hoy, Chinese Six Companies, A Short, General Historical
Resume Of Its Origin, Function …, 1942. UC Bancroft Lib.
22
Kern County Gazette, Nov 20, 1880; Hoy, op cited, reported that
disinterments were done about every ten years.
23
Ledger of Minutes, op cit: “1-17-1890, Niederaur given contract to
remove remains when he has time; 4-18-1890, Niederaur presented bill of
$30 for removal of remains; US Gov headstones placed on graves.”; L.J.
Stark died January 23, 1894. Union Cemetery records show that his
remains had been “Removed from China Cemetery.” According to Dianne
Ogden, other remains taken to Union from the "China Cemetery" were
those of William Howell, Jon Vearner, Ed Tibbet, Myra Hulsi, D.
Callahan, and “many, many more,” wrote Ogden
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As the population of Chinese in Bakersfield
diminished, there was less need for services from the Six
underway “could have been the first time that remains were
F.S. Dixon of San Diego. The same year marked the death of
Choo Li, “the father of Old Chinatown.” The 74-year old had
Dixon & Sons to ship his body to China. “Two white horses
24
Morning [Bakersfield] Echo, Sep 13, 1907. This citation does not say if
Morton was supervising Whites or he was supervising Chinese.
25
Ibid.
26
Morning Echo, Aug 14, 1913
27
Morning Echo, Aug 2, 1908. Held for two months before shipped to Hong
Kong
28
Pronounced dee-ZHAY
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neighbors who lived near the cemetery saw but few funerals
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1950s, investor Randall Presley relied on a State law to
Wah, that he had bought the cemetery site for its topsoil,
offer.
Chung Wah could have told him No, but he did own the
29
Author’s 2002 interview of Ray Mish. See also Jun 3, 1975 Bakersfield
Californian interview with Bill Lee. The old Bakersfield cemetery was
known by various names. In a Morning Echo obituary of Feb 22, 1918,
Wong Dong, merchant and 40-plus-yr resident of Bakersfield, was buried
at "Old City Cemetery," but in 1932 Ng Ping You was buried at "Chinese
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Wah did not have resources to protect and maintain the
cemetery to residential.
in the task included Mrs. Sing Lum, Earl Wong, Bill Lee, C.
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Choy, Jack Chow Wong, and D.L. Joe.33 Jack Chow Wong, 77,
quickly.
33
Bakersfield Californian, Aug 25, 1956
34
The plaque recognized the hardships faced by Chinese immigrants,
expressed the reason for disturbing the remains, expressed regret, and
thanked those of the non-Chinese community who helped Chinese
immigrants in early years. A part of the plaques reads, “It happened
that a Westerner by the name of Horton [sic, Holden] was willing to
change the use of his land so that the early residents of Chinese
descent would have peace.” (Boyd, op cit, p 237)
35
Author’s 2002 conversation with Allan Choy. The monument was erected
by the Bakersfield Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, June,
1958. (Boyd, op cited, p 237)
36
Leveling should have revealed evidence of human remains. No newspaper
reports of that were found.
37
Ramona Ct was renamed Brookhaven Dr.
38
Author’s 2002 conversation with Mildred Kulstad Gieg. Tract map shows
a cemetery marker in the NE corner of Lot 7.
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house. Evidence of human remains was uncovered there, but
39
Author’s interview with Jerry and Milly Sudarsky, 2008
40
Tract 1917 is a subdivision of Lots 13 and 14. Modern-day Lot 7 is in
Tract 1917. Author’s 2002 conversation with Mildred Kulstad Gieg
[pronounced GEE).
41
Bakersfield Californian Aug 5, 1976, D10
42
Bakersfield Californian, Jul 31, 1993
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American Association, and four other Chinese organizations
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