Follow
This project is for those interred in Oak Hill Memorial Park, San Jose, Santa Clara County, California.
Located on 300 Curtner Avenue, it has also been known as Pioneer Cemetery & San Jose Town Cemetery.
The cemetery's origins date back to 1839, during the Mexican period of California, when city officials of the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe began to bury the dead on the northern side of the San Juan Bautista Hills, in modern-day South San Jose. It was known simply as the Pueblo Graveyard.
In 1847, following the American Conquest of California, surveyor Chester Lyman, along with William Fisher of Rancho Laguna Seca, laid out an official city cemetery on a nearby tract, which was simply known as the Pueblo Cemetery, until 1858, when it was renamed to Oak Hill Cemetery (Oak Hill being the northernmost hill of the San Juan Bautista Hills where the cemetery is laid out).
When the city sold the cemetery to A.J. Hocking in 1933, its name was changed for the final time to Oak Hill Memorial Park. The Hocking family's tenure of ownership of the cemetery was marked by the construction of new mausoleums, notably the Azalea and Parkview Terraces, as well as the construction of the Fountain of the Apostles and the Chapel of the Oaks. In 1986, Oak Hill was finally sold to Dignity Memorial.
The Overland Pioneers Memorial is a tribute to the pioneers who settled Santa Clara County. Included are members of the Stephens, Townsend, Murphy Party of 1844 and the Donner Party of 1846. Also included are members of other various parties from 1846.
Notable Interments
- Harold Homer "Hal" Chase (1883-1947) - MLB Player
- John Smith Chipman (1800-1869) - US Congressman
- Henry Curtner (1830-1916) - Businessman
- William Henry Eddy (1817-1859) - Member of the Donner Party
- Arthur Monroe Free (1879-1953) - US Congressman
- Bvt. Brig. Gen. Joseph Sumner Gage (1836-1906) - Union
- Charles Peyton Glocker (1869-1951) - Actor
- Alexander Joseph Hart, Sr. (1869-1943) - Businessman
- Brooke Leopold Hart (1911-1933) - Kidnapping & Murder Victim
- Everis Anson Hayes (1855-1942) - US Congressman
- Bvt. Brig. Gen. William Mather Kilgour (1828-1885) - Union
- Bvt. Brig. Gen. William Penn Lyon (1822-1913) - Union
- Paul Masson (1859-1940) - Businessman
- Charles Henry McKiernan (1825-1892) - Pioneer and Folk Figure
- Antonio Castaneda Nava (1892-1999) - Religious Figure
- Freddie Sanborn (1899-1961) - Vaudeville Comedian, Musician & Motion Picture Actor
- Frank René Sauliere (1905-1963) - Youngest World War I Soldier in the American Expeditionary Forces
- Samuel Morgan Shortridge (1861-1952) - US Senator
- Dr. John Townsend (1783-1850) - Mayor of San Francisco & California Pioneer
- Edward Alexander Walker (1864-1946) - Boxer Rebellion Congressional Medal of Honor
Links