California
SAVING GRAVES
Endangered Cemetery Report
HOPETON CEMETERY
Northwest of Snelling,
Merced County, California
Note: On March 8, 2003, California Saving Graves contacted Merced County District 4 Supervisor Deidre Kelsey regarding this report. The text of our email to her is copied below the Report text and includes Supervisor Kelsey's very prompt reply to us. We have now received information from the Snelling Cemetery District and the text of that correspondence is as follows:
Sent with
email on May 19, 2003:
"Snelling Cemetery District has been taking care of Hopeton Cemetery since
the early 1990's. The District put a fence around the Cemetery and started
a week control program. The District checks the fence every quarter to see
if any repairs are needed. The weed control program is on going.
"The Merced County Genealogical Society is complying [sic] a book that
lists who is buried at the Hopeton Cemetery. They have visited the
cemetery, taken names off the headstones and are using other records to
comply [sic] this book.
"If the District can be of any help, feel free to contact us.
Sincerely,
Maxine Price
Secretary"
Historical Brief:
As early as 1850 settlers came to the rivers and
streams of Merced County and established homes. The vast fertile areas
along the streams were used for livestock raising and agriculture, and almost
invariably the ranch houses on the through road became inns. Finally,
centers of trade grew up about some of them. After the advent of the
railroad, however, trade deserted the old river towns and they became little
more than memories.
Located on the Merced River six miles below Snelling
was Hopeton, at first known as the "Forlorn Hope." It was
chiefly notable for the fact that it possessed two churches before Snelling had
any.
[Historic
Spots in CALIFORNIA, Third Edition; Mildred Brooke Hoover, Hero Eugene
Rensch and Ethel Grace Rensch; Revised by William N. Abelow; Stanford University
Press, Stanford, California; 1966.]
REPORT
Cemetery:
Hopeton (Merced County)
Other:
Sign:
No
Street:
Hopeton road (?)
City:
Hopeton (old site)
Township: Merced
County: Merced
State: CA
Nation: USA
Zip:
95340 (Merced)
Status: Abandoned
Size:
Small
Directions: Northwest of Snelling CA, north
of the Hopeton school, down
Dairy road before the church
Type:
Road-private
Location: Rural
Terrain: Level
Watersource: Yes
Features: Headstones broken, only one
or two standing, tilled for fire
abatement, probably 30-50 sites
Property: Private
Access:
Permission-required
Enclosure: Fence-Broken
Gate: Locks
Established: 1850's
Gravestones: 30-50 Broken, hard to tell
Oldest:
Newest:
Removed: Yes
Relocated: No
Repairs: No
Methods: Other
Restoration: Unsure
Association: Unsure
Records: Unsure
Inventory: Unsure
Availability:
Landscaping: No
Paths: No
Trees: No
Crypts: No
Fencing: No
Brickwork: No
Ironwork: No
Sculpture: No
Fountains: No
Roads: No
Buildings: No
Cement: Unsure
Granite: Yes
Marble: Yes
Native: Yes
Slate:
Unsure
Others: Yes
Wood:
Unsure
Materials: Unsure
Architectural: Unsure
Angels: Yes
Draperies: Unsure
Fraternal: Yes
Hands:
Unsure
Lambs:
Unsure
Monograms: Unsure
Plants:
Unsure
Photos:
Unsure
Religious: Yes
Scrollwork: Yes
Urns:
Unsure
Carvings: Unsure
Condition: Cemetery in
danger of destruction
Unmarked: Yes
Broken:
Yes
Toppled: Yes
Disintegrating: Yes
Buried:
Yes
Weather: Unknown
Pollution: Unknown
Vandalized: Yes
Report:
No
VA1:
Gravestones-Overturned
VA2:
Gravestones-Broken
VA3:
Gravestones-Stolen
VA4:
VA5:
Graves-Desecrated
Overgrowth: None
Overgrowth1:
Overgrowth2:
Overgrowth3:
Overgrowth4:
GroundCover:
Moss:
Vines:
Drainage:
Problem-Seasonal
Problem1:
Problem2: Apathy
Owner:
Business
Use:
Agricultural
Bordering: Agricultural
Change: Unknown
Reason: Agriculture
Visited:
Unknown
Archeology: Unknown
Habitat: No
Contacted: none
name:
Vernon Givens
Email:
dgivens@cisco.com
Date:
3/7/03
Surnames:
Buckley
Other_Information:
Only one or two stones still standing, most are broken and toppled, plowed
under, etc.
Support:
California Saving Graves correspondence with Supervisor Kelsey:
Email sent Saturday
03/08/03 10:07 AM
The Honorable Deidre F. Kelsey
Supervisor, District Four
County of Merced
2222 M Street
Merced, CA 95340
Re: Hopeton Cemetery - Endangered Cemetery Report
Dear Supervisor Kelsey:
California Saving Graves is a chapter of Saving Graves, an internet cemetery
preservation resource website. As part of the service provided by the
websites, we allow people to file Endangered Cemetery Reports in order that they
may receive help and assistance from others interested in cemetery preservation.
Yesterday we received a report about the Hopeton Cemetery in Merced County.
In reviewing the files we have accumulated on California's cemeteries, the
records of the old State Cemetery Board on a listing dated March 1988, indicates
that the Snelling Cemetery District was operating the cemetery at some time.
The cemetery is identified as having been established circa 1850s. The
"owner" of the cemetery was listed as being a "private
individual." No name of this individual is identified on the list.
California is unique in that it's early cemeteries laws were crafted so that
cemeteries used by the public would be owned by the public. Prior to the
federal land surveys that later provided individuals with the federal land
patents to the California lands claimed by them, California enacted legislation
in 1854 which "declared" any place with six or more burials to be a
"public grave-yard."
At the time of the state's first codification of it's statutes, in 1872, the
state enacted the Political Code within which former Political Code sections
3105 through 3111 were contained. Section 3105 provided the following:
3105, Title to cemetery grounds.
The title to lands used as a public cemetery or graveyard,
situated in or near to any city, town, or village, and used by the inhabitants
thereof continuously, without interruption, as a burial ground for five years,
is vested in the inhabitants of such city, town, or village, and the lands must
not be used for any other purpose than a public cemetery.
Section 3109 of the former Political Code provided:
3109, Public cemeteries, under whose control.
The public cemeteries of cities, towns, villages, or
neighborhoods must be inclosed and laid off into lots, and the general
management, conduct, and regulation of interments, permits to inter, or remove
interred bodies, the disposition of lots and keeping the same in order, is under
the jurisdiction and control of the cities and towns owning the same, if
incorporated; if not, then under the jurisdiction and control of the board of
supervisors of the county in which they are situated.
This was later amended in 1911 to read:
§ 3109. Control of cemeteries.
The public cemeteries of cities, towns, villages,
neighborhoods and of fraternal or beneficial associations or societies must be
inclosed and laid off into lots, and the general management, conduct and
regulation of interments, permits to inter, or remove interred bodies, the
disposition of lots, and keeping the same in order, are under the jurisdiction
and control of the cities and towns owning the same, if incorporated; if not,
then under the jurisdiction and control of the board of supervisors of the
county in which they are situated; provided, that in all cases, those owned by
said fraternal or beneficial associations or societies shall be under the
jurisdiction of and controlled and managed by said associations or societies or
by trustees appointed by them.
At the time that the General Cemetery Act of California was enacted in 1931, the
provisions of the former Pol. C. § 3109 was incorporated within the new Health
and Safety Code as Section 8131, and now reads:
8131. If not owned by a city or by a fraternal or beneficial
association or society, public cemeteries are under the jurisdiction
and control of the board of supervisors of the county in which they
are situated.
An Attorney General Opinion was issued in 1998 that related to cemeteries and
the effect of the state's laws. You may access this opinion at the
Attorney General's website via this link: http://www.caag.state.ca.us/opinions/published/98-503.htm.
I am presently out of town and have not had a chance to review the history of
Hopeton and it's vicinity. However, my general knowledge of California
history allows me to believe that it is highly likely the public acquired legal
title to the Hopeton Cemetery by virtue of it's use pursuant to the provisions
of former Pol. C. 3105, and that the public acquired the legal title prior
to 1900. I would also suggest that an implied in law dedication of the
cemetery to it's use as a public cemetery occurred also prior to 1900.
California's historic cemeteries are today in crisis. Hopeton Cemetery is
but one of many throughout the state which lie dormant and vulnerable to the
effects of time, the elements, and the handiwork of vandals. From the
description contained in the Endangered Cemetery Report, I would believe Hopeton
Cemetery has suffered all of these.
This coming week I will be reviewing the archived records of the State Cemetery
Board to determine additional information submitted to it by the Snelling
Cemetery District during it's tenure as the "operator" of this
cemetery. If you would like, I would be happy to share that information
with you.
In the interim, would it be possible for your office to advise us of any
information it may have on this cemetery? It is entirely likely that at
some point in the past, the Snelling Cemetery District obtained some sort of
approvals from the board of supervisors relating to Hopeton Cemetery. The
minutes of the supervisor's meetings might be helpful.
A copy of the text of the Endangered Cemetery Report follows at the end of this
text. I have deleted the name and email address of the reporting party
pending permission to release it.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter. I hope that there may be
some way to help preserve the Hopeton Cemetery so that it is not lost to future
generations of Californians.
Should you have any questions or require further information, please let me
know.
Sincerely,
Sue Silver, State Coordinator
California Saving Graves
Email: ssilver1951@jps.net
Website: www.usgennet.org/usa/ca/state/
Supervisor Kelsey's reply:
Reply sent Saturday, March 08, 2003 6:06 PM
Hello Sue,
Yes I know of the Hopeton Cemetary. It is a part of the Snelling Cemetary
District. I will forward your note to them as well as to members of my staff to
try to get some answers to your questions.