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74
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spr ing
deplorable condition that led a small group of city leaders to form the
Santa Barbara Cemetery Association, with the goal of establishing a
non-sectarian burial ground befitting the increasingly influential and
numerous non-Catholic denizens of the area. (Interestingly, a significant
number of Catholics are in fact buried there, as are Jews and Chinese,
who once had a pagoda and joss house on the cemetery grounds.)
A few stately mausoleums, fashioned in the shapes of classical
temples or ancient pyramids, punctuate the park-like layout of the Santa
Barbara Cemetery. Peering into the sandstone crypt of the Heath clan,
one can read both the history of a family and that of Santa Barbara on
the inscriptions. Russell Heath is listed as “Pioneer and First Sheriff of
Santa Barbara County,” while immediately under his marble tomb is
that of his mother-in-law:
• • •
MARGARET TISDALE
BORN AT GERMAN FLATS IN NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 26, 1804
CAME TO CALIFORNIA WITH HER DAUGHTER
MRS. RUSSELL HEATH IN 1856
SHE WAS FOR MANY YEARS THE ONLY ELDERLY LADY
OF AMERICAN BIRTH IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY,
DIED AT CARPINTERIA JUNE 5, 1882
• • •
Among the thousands of graves are dozens of historic names still familiar
to anyone in Santa Barbara today – Fernald, Stearns, Burton, Buell, Storke,
Parshall, Sansum – testament to the lasting effects of their endeavors. Looking
at contemporaneous dates, one wonders if Santa Barbara’s first resident doctor,
Samuel Brinkerhoff (1824-1883), shares cemetery space with any of his
patients. Did he treat little Ella Schuster, who died in October 1880 at just 12
days old? The small, dual headstone that she shares with her sister Gertrude,
who didn’t even make it to a full six weeks of age before she died in the early
spring of 1888, is one of the most poignant in the entire cemetery. According
to the heartbreaking inscription, these two short-lived daughters of A.C. and
S.E. Schuster were “Budded on earth to bloom in Heaven.” To modern eyes,
they are also a sad reminder of the high infant mortality rates suffered in the
nineteenth century.
Nearby stands a handsome white marble monument, still crisply
conveying the evidence of one man’s westward journey, obviously more robust
constitution, and prescient thinking:
landmarks