1870-1956 --What Happened to Bakersfield's Old Chinese Cemetery? ver.7
Bakersfield's Old Chinese Cemetery
ver 7, May 22, 2008
By Gilbert Gia
Copyright 2002, Gilbert Gia, Bakersfield, CA
From 1840 until 1900 about 2.5M refugees fled China, many owing to the Taiping civil war that claimed 20,000,000 lives. Thousands of the displaced found their way into Kern County, California. The 1870 U.S. Census of Bakersfield counted 52 Chinese among a population of 259. Later in the decade, at nearby Caliente, 1,000 Chinese were at work excavating Southern Pacific tunnels for a rail line to Los Angeles. With the heavy railroad work completed in the mid 1880s, J.B. Haggin employed at least a thousand Chinese on his farms around Bakersfield, and by 1890 around 1,200 Chinese resided in Bakersfield. They then represented more than 40% of the town’s population.
Chinese residents occupied two segregated areas of town, but in death they were also segregated. Three reports describe a Chinese cemetery that was once north of Terrace Way and West of Oleander Street: (1) "The Chinese in Bakersfield” by William Hoy, 1950; (2) “The Chinese in Bakersfield” by Diane Ogden, 1974; and, (3), a now-lost term paper from 1930 cited by Ogden and entitled “Chinese Graveyard.” Each of those sources suggest that the cemetery was established in the 1870s.
The Chinese Six Companies of San Francisco assisted its members in matters of life and death. In November 1880, the Daily Californian wrote that exhumations were then underway at the "Chinese burying grounds." A Six Companies representative had been inspecting graves along the Pacific Coast to determine which were appropriate disinterments. Here in Bakersfield he was meticulously packing the bones and identifying tokens for shipment to China.
However, not all remains were removed to China. The records of today’s Union Cemetery, which is located about one-and-one-half miles northeast of the old graveyard, identify the grave of Ding Young, who died of fever on April 17, 1878. His remains had been “removed from old cemetery” to Bakersfield’s new Union Cemetery.
Placement of the graves dug around 1870 were probably determined at random, and probably represented both white and Asian burials. But as the grounds assumed district geographical boundaries, and as racial discrimination against the Chinese increased in the 1880s, the majority of burials at the old cemetery were probably those of whites. In fact, many of the remains of Caucasians were later disinterred from the old cemetery. L.J. Stark died January 23, 1894, and Union Cemetery records show that his remains had been “Removed from China Cemetery.” Other remains taken to Union from "China Cemetery" were those of William Howell, Jon Vearner, Ed Tibbet, Myra Hulsi, D. Callahan, and “many, many more,” according to Dianne Ogden’s paper. When whites stopped burring their dead at the old cemetery, Asian burials there became the town’s first undertaker’s entire business.
The old cemetery was not initially known as “the Chinese Cemetery.” In Shotguns on Sunday, Joe Doctor wrote that the fugitive James McKinney, who died in 1903, concealed 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, which suggests that the burial area was more widespread than records indicate.
Because Union Cemetery was established in 1878, the Kern County Gazette referred to the old cemetery as the “old Bakersfield burying grounds." On January 5, 1878, the Gazette described the debate over the two cemetery locations then under consideration. The first was Baker’s old cemetery, which later became Union, and the other was Solomon Jewett’s newly formed Buena Vista Cemetery Association that owned low-lying land in Section 12 just south of one of JB Haggin’s farms and below what is now Brundage Lane. Because of terrain, Baker’s cemetery east of town was a favored location. The Gazette wrote the following about the old burial grounds: “Bakersfield and Sumner should be ashamed. The Bakersfield burying place [the old cemetery] is a high, barren, dry, forbidding knoll of ground, the elevated position of which can never be irrigated in the midst of low surrounding.”
How far the old cemetery extended northward is conjecture. On May 3, 1889 J.B. Haggin recorded a map showing the subdivisions of his ranch on Section 1, T30S, R27E, which is about where the old cemetery was, but the map does not show a cemetery there. In later years, on Lot 3 in Section 1, the County laid out two parallel streets, Bite and Cloverdale, which ran east and west on what was probably the extreme north side of the cemetery. (Cloverdale was removed in 1964 during the construction of Freeway 58.) Mrs. Fanucchi told this author that in 1935 her uncle Luigi Bertalucci farmed 2-1/2 acres off Cloverdale near Hughes Lane and across the street from the Chinese Cemetery [that would be about 300-ft north west of cemetery]. This suggests that in 1935 the cemetery's grounds did not extend north of today's Freeway 58.
Several sources describe the cemetery as located on a small hill, or on a barren, sloping lot. A few eucalyptus trees grew around the perimeter, and on the south, a gate faced Terrace Way. The modest hillock favored the northern section of the grounds, and the terrain descended south toward Terrace Way. In 1950, an article by William Hoy appeared in the January 1950 issue of Historic Kern, a publication of the Kern County Historical Society. It described the old cemetery as an entire, unattended square block on which stood two sacrificial, paper burners. One on them, Hoy wrote, was a tall, square, brick structure with a pyramidal roof.
People today who recall the cemetery said it had only a few grave markers, and some remember a small building on the southwest corner of the property. As children, some of them thought that one of the burners was an incinerator for cremations. In reality, the burners were used for the ceremonial presentation of food, beverage, and joss sticks, which were placed on the altar during burials or during the seasonal observations of Memorial Day (Ch'ing Ming) or Hungry Ghosts Day or All Souls' Day (Ch'ung-Yang Chieh).
Background on ownership: the US Government first surveyed the southern San Joaquin Valley in 1854. After the Civil War, Congress assisted in the development of railroads in order to knit the country together and in 1870 granted the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of California every alternate section of public land on either side of the Company’s proposed rail line. By 1874-1875 the Southern Pacific had connected San Francisco and Los Angeles, and eight years later they sold 640 acres to James B. Haggin for $3,602.40. The old Chinese Cemetery was in Lots 13 and 14 of this section.
Gary Gadeke, Regional Vice President and County Manager of First American Title Company in Bakersfield, traced the subsequent ownership of the property. In a few years Haggin subdivided much of his purchase, and in December 1892 sold Lots 13 and 14 to the Kern County Land Company. None of the transactions to this time mentioned a cemetery, but historical notes already mentioned show this was the site of Bakersfield’s burial ground.
Jacob Niederauer arrived in Bakersfield in 1869, and established himself in the furniture business. By the late 1880s he had added undertaking as a sideline, and by the mid-1890s when the town’s population was about 3,500, Niederauer's advertising showed that undertaking had become his major business. Niederauer was undertaker for the Chinese.
It is likely that the Kern County Land Company owned the cemetery grounds until 1913, because that was when Jacob Niederauer bought Lots 13 and 14, totaling twenty acres, from KCLC. Although Niederaurer’s ownership in both lots suggests that the entire cemetery was in both of them, later information strongly suggests that Lot 14 probably contained most, if not the entire formal cemetery, but that burials also were done within a block or so of Lot 14.
In 1904, a year after Niederaurer’s death, his executor, Franz Buckreus, sold six acres of Lot 14 to E.S. Burton for $600 and the balance of four acres to Dr. A.S. Morton of Kern County and partner W.B. Connelly of Solano County. Morton and Connelly paid $6,000 for the four acres, including “one house in cemetery” and 42 funeral items from Niederaurer’s business. Because Morton and Connelly now owned the cemetery, and because Union Cemetery trustees that year excluded Chinese and Native American burials, Morton and Connelly became providers for Chinese funerals.
Union Cemetery at King and Potomac had long been a lonely, desolate, and disorganized burying place. At his location in 1872, Col. Thomas Baker was buried on high ground that he himself had selected. In 1877 the County bought 40-acres of the burying place from Phillip Colby for $800 with the intention of establishing a "pest house," or hospital, and a county farm. After years of debate, in 1888 the County dedicated Union Cemetery and named Jacob Niederauer as sexton. The cemetery remained under County direction for the next 16 years, but it was an eyesore. Burials continued at the old cemetery. In 1904 the County singed-over the cemetery's operation to a corporation, and that was when the Union Cemetery Board of Trustees included a proviso in the by-laws that no “Indians” or Chinese could be buried there.
Bakersfield’s Chinese population declined in the 1900s, although by 1904 about 900 Chinese still lived in Bakersfield and represented more or less 25% of the city’s population. As the Six Companies declined in influence, local funeral businesses replaced some of their services, and Morton and Connelly prospered. On September 13, 1907 the Morning Echo reported that Morton was supervising the boxing of bones from nine Chinese graves for shipment to China. Although disinterments had occurred at least as early as 1880, the reporter wrote in 1907 that it “could have been the first time that remains were sent to China.”
In January 1908 Morton and Connelly sold the cemetery property to F.S. Dixon of San Diego. The Morning Echo of August 2, 1908 wrote that Choo Li, “the father of Old Chinatown”, had recently died at age 74. Choo Li had lived in Bakersfield for 36 years and had pre-arranged for Dixon & Sons to ship his body to Hong Kong when he died. “Two white horses draped in netting and the wheeler draped in black” delivered his remains to the ceremonial grave and then returned them to Dixon & Sons establishment where the body would be kept for two months until shipment to Hong Kong was arranged. A later article reported that their work was done most professionally.
In 1911 Dixon and Sons reorganized their business and continued serving the Chinese community under the name Templeton Undertaking. The Morning Echo of August 14, 1913 reported that Tan Mou had died in 1896 and he was buried in “the local Chinese cemetery.” In 1913 his remains were returned to China. By 1930 there were fewer than 400 Chinese people living in Bakersfield. The U.S. Census that year marked the first time since 1890 that it did not enumerate the Chinese as a separate, statistical population.
In 1936 A.H. Dixon sold the cemetery to J.C. Flickinger-Frank Digier Chapel, Inc. Neighbors living around the cemetery saw few burials after the 1930s. In May 1939 Flickinger and Digier sold a part of Lot 14 to L.H. Houchin. Although there were still a few burial markers on the cemetery grounds, the burner near the southwest end was in occasional use. By 1939 the cemetery had become an abandoned, bare dirt field with a little hill where neighborhood children rode their bicycles. In 1946, Flickinger sold his interest in the cemetery to Frank Digier.
The neighborhood around the cemetery was rural, quiet, and desirable property. Here was the two-acre Tognini estate at 1942 Terrace Way, the nearby Houchin estate, and smaller houses built in the vicinity of the old cemetery. Land developers were interested in the undeveloped property, but none knew that 14 years later an east-west freeway would cut through the most northern part of the cemetery.
Investor Randall Presley discovered a State law that might apply to the old cemetery and allow him to subdivide the property. First, though, he would have to acquire those parts of the cemetery that had been individually sold-off by the Nederaurer estate in 1904, and, secondly, he would have to deal with the Chinese community.
Over the next several months a series of land transactions brought the area under one title. In March 1956 Houchin sold back to Digier that property which Digier had sold to him in 1939. Digier then owned all of the undeveloped area. The following month Digier sold it to C.D. Holden, engineer and a trucking firm owner who was a partner in Investments Limited, of which Randall Presley also was a partner. Holden approached the Chinese Benevolent Association, Chung Wah, told them he wanted to remove the site's topsoil, and he made them an offer.
Although the Chinese could have derailed Presley’s efforts, they never had owned the land, and Holden now did. But the Chinese community had compelling reasons to cooperate. Relatively few Chinese still lived in Bakersfield, and few of them had ancestors buried there. Also, the Chinese had difficulty finding funds to maintain the appearance of the cemetery. Some of the problem was vandalism. Old stories still persisted around Bakersfield that gold coins and jewelry were buried with the dead, and over the years graves had been robbed and desecrated.
Although some did not want the cemetery disturbed, ultimately those in favor of removal prevailed, and Holden’s attorney applied for a change of land use to residential property. Judge Lambert supervised the petition, and Holden concluded an agreement with representatives of the Chinese community.
Remains were to be disinterred and removed to a parcel Holden had acquired on East 6th Street next to Union Cemetery. The Chinese Association supervised the removal of three hundred remains to the new site. Jack Chow Wong, 77, a pioneer of the community, inscribed three hundred names in a book, and Gregory Lim created a plaque that was inscribed in poetic, antique Chinese verse. It would be displayed at the new resting place. The benevolent association that supervised removal and assumed care of the new site were Mrs. Sing Lum, Earl Wong, Bill Lee, C. Choy, Jack Chow Wong, and D.L. Joe. The Bakersfield Californian reported on the process to its conclusion, and after that, on July 16, 1956, Holden sold the old cemetery to Investments Limited, Inc.
In August 1956 Vernon T. Hiller already had surveyed the property for public streets, and on October 1, 1956 the Kern County Planning Commission approved Presley’s tract map of eleven residential lots around the future Ramona Court. Much grading was done and the old knoll leveled. The lots sold quickly.
In January 1958 Hugo Kulstad, a pediatric dentist, bought Lot 7 on Ramona Court, which by then had been renamed Brookhaven Drive. His house was completed in 1957. The tract map of Kulstad’s lot indicates an old cemetery corner marker in the northeast corner. During construction some small objects were found to suggest that this had once been a cemetery, but nothing especially unusual was uncovered. A physician named Dr. Chow, who probably didn’t know the history of the land, bought a house three doors down from the Kulstad's. A few hundred yards to the east of there on Oleander Drive and next to the Tognini estate, the Sudarsky family was having a house built. Evidence of human remains was uncovered, but nothing came of it. Septic tanks and swimming pools were dug, but little suggested that Brookhaven Drive once had been a cemetery. The topic was mostly forgotten for 36 years.
On July 31, 1993, headlines in the Bakersfield California read, "Chinese bodies Removed and taken to New Graves.” While a septic tank was being relocated to a different location on Lot 7, the backhoe operator noticed the outline of coffins, and construction was halted for a month. Timothy Yin, chairman of the Chinese American Association and four Chinese organizations supervised the second round of removals.
It’s likely that Bakersfield has not heard the last of the old Bakersfield burying place. Back in June 1975, Cheryl Biter, who lived in the Benton Park neighborhood about a mile south-south-west of the old cemetery, was digging in her backyard when she uncovered a Chinese tombstone, which reminds us that the past is just waiting to be rediscovered.
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The first version of this story appeared in the June 2002 issue of The Blackboard, a tabloid published in Bakersfield, California.