My Love is Evergreen: Changing a Legacy of Neglect into Care

Memorial Day, or Decoration Day, was established in 1868. Commander-in-Chief John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), issued General Order 11, calling for all GAR posts nationwide to set aside May 30th as a day of remembrance for fallen comrades. At Evergreen Cemetery's Grand Army of the Republic plot, this is its 150th year of commemoration. Decoration Day at this place started in 1867.

Photo courtesy of Tim Rodriguez, Indiana Drones (c)2017

On Memorial Day Monday, May 29th, starting at 9:30 am, patriotic decoration of our cemetery will commence. Veterans' graves are throughout Evergreen Cemetery. Decorating them with flags is an activity that is both lovely and serene.  At 11:00 am, the main access way, Evergreen Street, will close. There will be a small parade, a religious dedication, a Civil War Gun Salute, and a keynote speaker. Did you know that each fold made to our nation's flag, each turn and tuck has meaning and a purpose? Stay and learn.
How many veterans and their families lived here in Santa Cruz? Which war affected our community the most? A pop up museum set up at the Portuguese Hall across the street might have the answer.
Hungry? Stay for the barbecue offered on site.
Free cemetery tours, (a true gift, as now all cemetery tours are $50), will be held in the main cemetery. Just ask anyone wearing a period costume or a green apron to take you.   Designs by local artists of an up and coming renovation of this Grand Army of the Republic plot will be displayed.
 All this and more is due to the dedication and love of a few hundred passionate volunteers.

The Blackburn Plot at Evergreen, dated early 20th century

Opportunities for volunteering have changed into "days of service to the community." Evergreen Cemetery made the list of open volunteering work sites.  Many volunteers came out throughout the years to Evergreen making extensive changes by just raking and clearing out ivy, mowed grass, and well, trash. Since then scores of volunteers have helped clear dead tree fall caused by recent storm damage. Many post on social media gorgeous photos of Evergreen in its seasonality: when it rains, when there are events, like Memorial Day,  and when no one is there, in the gentle light of a summer afternoon. Interest in Evergreen has blossomed. Surely this has never happened before to such a small historic cemetery.
Think again.
There were, in the 1970s through the 1990s, highly publicized, well attended public events and yes, workdays.  Before the 1970s, around 1920 Evergreen had undergone extensive renovation and excitement, transforming itself into an association. Evergreen fell into neglect before and between these two eras and at the turn of the millennium. Sadly, like war,  history repeats itself.
Where are we headed now?

.

Vintage photos are time capsules: Boy Scout Troup cleaning up Evergreen, 1970s

Today's Evergreen has a Committee. Its members began as 'school-tour' docents with the Historical Trust of the 1990s taking students from local schools out into the cemetery. The students whose hands these docents once held to do grave rubbings, return today as adults, some as parents, others as educators, bringing with them a whole new generation of eager students ready to receive the love and passion these docents still share by serving on the Evergreen Committee. Their knowledge and experience are what is different "this time around". They help guide the current newer members towards a brighter future with the hope of ending the cycle of neglect and renovation.

Newly discovered grave site at Evergreen 2015

Today, when you walk through Evergreen Cemetery you will see upright and intact headstones, a beautiful Chinese monument with educational signage, brilliant, vibrant path signs, and new replacement grave markers. Plot walls are defined, some are new, and some in the state of "arrested decay". There is even a new shed.

Evergreen today, 2017, with new signage

Current Evergreen caretakers have yet again made visible permanent contributions that will live long after they are gone. 

Will they be remembered? 

After 6 years of Evergreen-centric volunteering, there are no tangible permanent marks that I personally designed or completed in Evergreen. I know I won't be remembered. But that really doesn't matter. Everything was and is a collaborative effort to preserve Evergreen's future and share its vibrant past. My time felt well spent with the hundreds of other volunteers, all of you, who have passed through this amazing place on your day off, all of you who gave your sweat and soul for a few hours a week to work a piece of land you learned began as an intimate, tender, and familial place to mourn. Maybe you donated food and drink for our exhausted grateful workers or you strolled gently through the grounds and admired the sacred, thanking one of us working there as you passed by. Your interest keeps history alive with hope and vibrant with participation. Your love is Evergreen.

Thank you to all those who have served: THE MANY WHO WALKED IN HERE FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE, Missio Dei Church, Natural Bridges High School, Docents Mary Wood, Nancy Campeau, and Mary Jo May. Interns Ellyn, Winston, Cameron, Kristin, Christine, Sean, Victoria, Eric, Yahfa, and many more who never left their names but whose worksheets I signed. Lori Van Meter(Monuments Historian), E Clampus Vitus especially Chris, Allen, Jim S and Jim C, Steve, and Pete, The Newcomb Family, Lynne and Adele of The Canine Forensic Institute of Woodside, Calvary Episcopal Church,Chuck Woodson(Veteran's Tribute), The Members of the GAR Evergreen Core Team, Charles Mons (Headstone Rebuild and Renewal), Gary Neier (Landscape and Headstone Restoration, Research,  Online Volunteer Manager), Deb Beckmann of Arizona (findagrave research updates), Kate Clark (replacement headstones, interpretive signage, and updated maps), Judy Jones (MAH Trustee), Dusty White (Extension Maps, Tree Tour guide, Symbologist), Tobin Keller(Cabrillo Arts), Sean Monaghan(bronze artist, longtime Evergreen contributor), Patricia Paramoure and John Schlagheck (archeologists), Researchers Anonymous, Juliana Cheng(Chinese Monument, Local Historian), Robert and Joan Nelson(GAR Historians, Evergreen Committee Charter Members), MAH Publications Committee, The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Aptos, Fred Seamon(military historian),Dana and Clive Bagshaw, Homeless Service Center, and all those reading this blog!

This post is dedicated to Stephan, HSC custodian, who lived his life with joy and love. Thank you, Stephan...

For photos and updates please join www.facebook.com/groups/evergreensantacruz
For information or tour booking please visit www.santacruzmah.org/evergreen

Mysterious Mary

Our 148th Memorial Day Celebration at Evergreen this year begins with cleanup. It's one of our favorite events.   We schedule in our volunteers, school groups, and partners, to help us wash,sweep, weed, and prune.

The focus of our clean up this month is The Grand Army of the Republic's plot. Today, with abbreviations as part of our daily conversation, we simply refer to it as the G.A.R. (never 'gar') plot.

1890 app. date Extracted from the Baldwin Collection courtesy of The Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History 

What's in a name?

This special 30 X 40 foot plot, tenderly bordered by a white picket fence, was created in 1884. No one says it better than its founders, the W.H.L Wallace G.A.R. Post #32 :

Santa Cruz Sentinel 1885

This year, as we aim high in our preservation efforts, we have begun to reassess and recount the number of burials within this tiny plot to make sure all are accounted for, preserved, and restored as funding allows. This seemed an easy project to complete as many historians before us worked very hard to collect and maintain much of the information on the plot and the Post who created it.

The Accidental Interee

Last year we began with a standard preservation procedure, checking our roster with church records. Simple enough, but during the check, we encountered a strange notation. The name of Evergreen had been switched by the Church Archivist to Greenwood. This odd change went on for at least 8 years. But our rosters matched (phew!) except for one small item. Mary Salsbury, died March 1886 buried at G.A.R.

The Plot Thickens

I let this fact simmer. One year later, during a standard obituary confirmation of this person's interment,  I found this:

It doesn't seem like much at first. Of course her husband James served in the Civil War and he wanted to have his wife buried in the Soldiers plot and certainly James must be there as well. 

But James' story revealed itself to be a soldier who volunteered in the 141st Infantry of Pennsylvania Volunteers, Company C  August of 1862, discharged in December of the same year, by Surgeon's Certificate of Disease- Malaria. 

James returned to his point of origin: Towanda, Pennsylvania. He became a widower sometime after 1870. Childless as well. (Both children died) James made his way to Felton and by 1880 had married Mary (last name unknown). James then joined the local Wallace Post in 1885, just barely five months before Mary died of uterine cancer. It would appear he joined the post to ensure Mary would have a place to be buried.

Compassionate Care

Mary had no children. James' pension went to a mysterious niece in Pennsylvania and the lot of land he owned in Felton was the source of a legal claim and title transfer as late as 1944. 

James himself died in the Sawtelle Home for Disabled Soldiers, from dementia, in Los Angeles, and was laid to rest in their cemetery in 1913. 

It would be easy to say that this plot was supposed to hold spouses and children in addition to those who served. But in conversation and research into this particular style of interment, the practice was to have those that served in war within a special section, with their spouses and kin outside but nearby the plot, or the soldier would elect to be placed within his family plot with a military stone or marker. This G.A.R. plot was deeded to be 30 x 40 feet, and has remained to this day, this size. The headstones and roster of our plot do not mention any other spouses or children within.

Errors and Errata

We do have four unmarked plots very close to the exterior boundary of this place. We only know of their existence in a hand drawn grid dated to 1974.  We have a strong indicator of the owners from an inscription survey done in 1891 of the same area. Mapping of the nearby open section to G.A.R. area is underway. We also know that the fenced section has always kept its boundaries. But there are no conclusions as of yet. 

Tantalizing Clues.

Only one woman was ever admitted into the G.A.R. as a member and buried within their special plot. With her burial came a secret that now has become fact, supported by evidence, both testimonial and clerical. Women did fight as soldiers in the Civil War.

We will try very hard to gather more data before understanding this puzzle. The fact that two independent and unconnected sources have the same piece of burial information is a strong indicator that something unusual occurred. It may be just a simple gesture of compassion. James was a shoemaker who owed taxes and defaulted on a mortgage.Unfortunately the notes of the meeting which gave the burial permission to James for his second wife to rest within the G.A.R. plot were lost in a city wide fire of 1894. The list of 19th century veterans in the county was damaged in a flood of 1955. 

What next?

Finding documentation of all veterans buried within the county since its inception is the task ahead. Whatever Mary's connection to James, whatever happened that day on March 17, 1886, Mary was deeply loved and honored. Veteran or spouse of a veteran, we honor all those that serve and those that support our service veterans, not just on Memorial Day but every day.

If you would like to help with clean up in preparation of Memorial Day please contact The Museum of Art and History at (831)429-1964 or visit our website at www.santacruzmah.org/evergreen.

photo by Vanda Lamar 2013 Memorial Day at Evergreen.