This Wednesday was October 30th, Halloween Eve, and our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group had its annual pre-Halloween tour of the Mountain View Cemetery. Instead of meeting at the Exedra we met in front of the cemetery’s main mausoleum. Forty-six walkers with four K-9 best friends were on hand.
The tour was conducted by long time docent Jane Leroe. Jane has an extensive knowledge of the Mountain View Cemetery and loves sharing it. This was Jane’s women's tour of the historic cemetery. It included some famous, and not so famous, women who made significant contributions in the areas of law, medicine, education, and architecture. The suffragist movement which resulted in women gaining the right to vote in California in 1911 was also part of it.
Jane took us inside to the mausoleum’s chapel for her introductory remarks. Seeing it was a treat. It’s serene with lots of marble. Jane started off with some history. In the early 1860s a group of twelve, leading, local businessman led by Samuel Merritt, a San Francisco physician and the 13th mayor of Oakland from 1867 to 1869, decided the area needed a private cemetery. Two public cemeteries existed, but they were not well maintained, and the group wanted something better for their final resting places. They bought 200 acres of fields far from the center of Oakland at a cost of $13,000, and the Mountain View Cemetery was established in 1863. Twenty-six acres were added later, so the cemetery has a total of 226 acres.
About one hundred and seventy thousand people are buried at Mountain View, and there is room for an additional 170,000. The founders’ contract with Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who also designed New York City's Central Park and Stanford University, called for him to get $1,000, but it is uncertain if he ever got paid.
There were no women involved in the cemetery’s development, but there were women behind the rich men. Some made good use of their deceased husbands’ money when they took up permanent residence at Mountain View. There are also many self-made, successful women buried in the cemetery. Jane noted that many of them never married or had children, often because it was difficult to have it all.
Jane led us through the back of the mausoleum and up a hill to the Colton tomb. Ellen Colton shares it with David. He was the business manager for the “Big 4,” the men who built the transcontinental railroad. These men should probably be called the “Big 4 ½.” After David’s death Ellen was involved in a lawsuit in which she showed the men’s correspondence telling how they bribed law makers.
Then it was to the grave of Clara Bedell, a well-known madame in San Francisco in the latter part of the 19th century. Her “house of ill-repute” was located near Union Square on Post Street in San Francisco. In 1891, at the age of 37, she was found dead in her room. She had mixed opium with some wine and overdosed. Three years after her death she was named the beneficiary of a $10,000 life insurance policy of a local judge.
Jane noted many women with remarkable histories and accomplishments. Miranda Lux provided $500,000 for California schools. Chloe Buckel was orphaned at age four but became a doctor and an advocate for education. Mary McHenry Keith was the first woman to graduate from Hastings Law School. Ina Donna Coolbrith was California’s first poet laureate. German-born Emma Marwedel started the first free kindergarten on the West Coast. Sara Lemmon has Mt. Lemmon in Arizona named after her and was responsible for the California Poppy being named the State’s flower. Mary Williams was the New York World’s only women cartoonist and advocated for women’s suffrage in her work. Kate Kirkham provided free medical services for the poor and created a Fabiola Society hospital that was bought by Kaiser. Anna Head started the K-12 school in 1887 that still has her name today. Architect Julia Morgan is buried in a family plot. She is listed sixth on a plaque with other family members because she wanted to be buried with them, and let her work be her monuments.
Jane told these stories and more in a fact-filled, highly enjoyable tour on a lovely day in a beautiful place. At the morning’s end the walkers expressed their thanks to Jane for a most enjoyable pre-Halloween tour. Everyone was looking forward to seeing her again next year.
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