SCVHistory.com LW3325 | People | Colma Cemeteries: Henry Mayo Newhall & Heirs; Wyatt Earp, H.H. Bancroft, more.

Graves of Henry Mayo Newhall and heirs, Cypress Lawn Cemetery, Colma, California.

Followed by: Other interments at Cypress Lawn: Hubert Howe Bancroft, "Lucky" Baldwin, Charles F. Crocker, Thomas O. Larkin, more.

Followed by: Wyatt and Josephine Earp, Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, Colma, California. (Scroll backward for quickest viewing of Earp.)

All photographs October 31, 2015.

Above: Laurel Hill Cemetery, n.d.

Burials Disturbed.

The body of Henry Mayo Newhall rests in Cypress Lawn Cemetery in the city of Colma, about a mile and a half south of San Francisco city limits. But that is not where this man who founded Newhall, California, was originally buried.

Henry Newhall sustained life-threatening injuries when he was thrown from his horse during a visit to his 75-square-mile Santa Clarita Valley ranch in March 1882. He was rushed home by train to San Francisco where he died March 13. Two days later he was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, which was located between California, Geary, Parker and Presidio streets in San Francisco's Inner Richmond district (see map below). A notice in the Daily Alta California from March 16 reads:

Yesterday morning the last sad tribute was paid to all that was mortal of Henry Mayo Newhall. Early in the day crowds of friends of the deceased visited his late residence, 1299 Van Ness avenue, and at eleven o'clock the funeral services of the Presbyterian Church were commenced. After prayer and a rendering of a few hymns, Rev. Dr. Scott delivered a feeling address upon the character, works and traits of the deceased, who had been a personal friend of the reverend gentleman for over thirty years.

A large concourse of friends followed the remains to Laurel Hill Cemetery, where the Masonic services were conducted under the auspices of Harmony Lodge. The funeral was a quiet, unostentatious affair, it being the wish of the deceased that no unnecessary display be made over his burial. No flowers were presented, according to the wish of the bereaved family.

Mr. Newhall had been a member of several societies and they paraded in full force in respect for their departed brother. Delegates were present from Oriental Lodge of the Masons, from the Odd Fellows and from the California Commandery of Knights Templar. The following is a list of the pall-bearers: Peter Donahue, Charles Main, Adam(s?) Grant, S.M. Wilson, Lloyd Tevis, William Alvord, Wm. T. Garratt, Judge M.H. Myrick, S.L. Jones, D.C. McRuer, N.G. Kittle, Wm. Harney.

It was unostentatious, all right: They didn't even let him rest in peace.

By the late 1800s, San Francisco's "big four" cemeteries — Laurel Hill (the first and most prestigious), Calvary, Masonic and Odd Fellows — were a disaster. And they were full. More than 150,000 people had been buried there and largely forgotten since the beginning of the Gold Rush. New cemetery commitals were needed to pay for upkeep, but there was no more room.

In 1900 San Francisco banned new burials in the city. The population was still growing rapidly, and the cemeteries sat on coveted real estate. The 1906 earthquake only exacerbated a festering problem. In 1912 or 1913 the Board of Supervisors voted to evict the deceased and reclaim the land. Voters overturned the ordinance, but the die was cast.

In 1924, the city of Colma was incorporated (originally as Lawndale) with the intent of making it the final-final resting place for San Francisco's dearly departed. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors passed another removal ordinance in 1937, and this time it held. In 1939 the first bodies were disinterred from the now-85-year-old Laurel Hill Cemetery (established 1854 as Lone Mountain, renamed 1867) and trucked 15 miles south to the previously existing Cypress Lawn Cemetery (est. 1892). The last remains were relocated in 1947 or 1948, World War II having interrupted the schedule.

Relocation continues at Laurel Hill, 8/27/1946.

Most decedents had no heirs, or at least nobody left who cared enough to pay the $10 relocation fee. An estimated 35,000 bodies from Laurel Hill were reburied in a mass grave (called Laurel Hill Mound) at Cypress Lawn. Those with heirs who cared and had the money, such as the heirs of Henry Mayo Newhall, had to pay for individual treatment.

It was the same story at the other three old cemeteries. A marker at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma reads: "Interred here are the remains of 39,307 Catholics moved from Mt. Calvary Cemetery in 1940 and 1941 by order of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Rest in God's Loving Care."

Two cemeteries remain in San Francisco: Golden Gate National Cemetery for veterans and a small graveyard at Mission Dolores. Almost everyone else is interred in Colma, the so-called "City of the Silent." Its 2 square miles support a population of more than 2 million as of 2018 — just 2,000 of whom are alive and kicking. (As the city's website says, "It's great to be alive in Colma.")

Today there are separate cemeteries and sections of cemeteries in Colma for many discrete nationalities and denominations. Most famously, Wyatt Earp's ashes are buried alongside those of his wife, Josephine, in the Jewish cemetery (Hills of Eternity) because Josephine was Jewish. (He predeceased her; she buried his ashes near her parents.)

Some of the other notables at Cypress Lawn: E.J. "Lucky" Baldwin, Hubert Howe Bancroft, Charles F. Crocker, William H. Crocker, Eddie Fisher, Phoebe Hearst, William Randolph Hearst, Hiram Johnson, Thomas O. Larkin, Frederick Low.

Also in the neighborhood: Joseph Alioto, Pat Brown, Joe DiMaggio, A.P. Giannini, Henry Miller (Miller & Lux), J.A. "Emperor" Norton, Levi Strauss.

What became of the original Laurel Hill site in the Inner Richmond district? The University of California, San Francisco's Laurel Heights campus covers part of it. Most of the rest is covered in single-family homes. Many of the original headstones were recycled into drain gutters at Buena Vista Park and the breakwater near the St. Francis Yacht Club.

— Leon Worden 2018

Outline of Laurel Hill Cemetery in the Inner Richmond district, 2018. Click map to enlarge.

Postscript from Dr. X.X. "Skip" Newhall:

Any cemetery monuments in the damp, foggy San Francisco area are subject to the gradual accumulation of fungus, and Cypress Lawn is no exception. In 2012 it had reached the point where cleaning had to be done. The first photo here shows the H.M. Newhall monument enclosed by a scaffold. The cleaning worked fine, as demonstrated by a before-and-after shot of the torch at the top. — Skip Newhall, 2018

Newhall Family Census.

Newhall family members interred at Cypress Lawn:

(1) Henry Mayo Newhall

13 May 1825 - 13 Mar 1882

Husband of (1) Sarah Ann White Newhall and (2) Margaret Jane White Newhall

Father of Henry Gregory Newhall, William Mayo Newhall, Edwin White Newhall, Walter Scott Newhall, George Almer Newhall

(1) Sarah Ann White Newhall

1829 - 1858

Daughter of William White and Jane Elder White

(First) Wife of Henry Mayo Newhall

Mother of Henry Gregory Newhall, William Mayo Newhall, Edwin White Newhall

(1) Margaret Jane White Newhall

1825 - 1900

Daughter of William White and Jane Elder White

(Second) Wife of Henry Mayo Newhall

Mother of Walter Scott Newhall and George Almer Newhall

(2) Henry Gregory Newhall

March 1853 - 1890

Son of Henry Mayo Newhall and Sarah Ann White Newhall

Husband of Mary Livingston Wyatt Newhall

(2) William Mayo Newhall

15 Oct 1854 - 6 Dec 1934

Son of Henry Mayo Newhall and Sarah Ann White Newhall

Husband of Elizabeth Slade Newhall

(2) Edwin White Newhall

7 May 1856 - 28 Oct 1915

Son of Henry Mayo Newhall and Sarah Ann White Newhall

Husband of (1) Fannie Silliman Hall Newhall and (2) Virginia Whiting Newhall

(2) Walter Scott Newhall

1860 - 25 Dec 1906

Son of Henry Mayo Newhall and Margaret Jane White Newhall

Husband of Nellie Hammill Trowbridge Harlow

(2) George Almer Newhall

19 Mar 1862 - 22 Dec 1929

Son of Henry Mayo Newhall and Margaret Jane White Newhall

Husband of Caroline Newhall

(2) Elizabeth Slade Newhall

1858 - 1933

Wife of William Mayo Newhall

(2) Fannie Silliman Hall Newhall

? - 17 May 1881

(First) Wife of Edwin White Newhall

(2) Virginia Whiting Newhall

20 Mar 1857 - 17 Mar 1927

Daughter of Henry Laurens Whiting and Anna Francis Johnson Whiting

(Second) Wife of Edwin White Newhall

(2) Caroline Taylor Newhall

1874 - 28 May 1951

Wife of George Almer Newhall

(3) Marion Newhall Hill

2 Aug 1887 - 22 Feb 1971

Daughter of William Mayo Newhall and Elizabeth Slade Newhall

Wife of Fentress Hill

(3) Margaret Anita Newhall McBean

12 Oct 1884 - 2 Feb 1972

Daughter of William Mayo Newhall and Elizabeth Slade Newhall

Wife of Atholl McBean

(3) Atholl McBean

11 Feb 1879 - 15 Dec 1968

Son of Peter McGill McBean and Agnes Perkins McBean

Husband of Margaret Anita Newhall McBean

(3) Elizabeth Newhall Chesebrough

24 Dec 1888 - 29 Dec 1930

Daughter of William Mayo Newhall and Elizabeth Slade Newhall

Wife of Arthur Sewall Chesebrough

(3) William Mayo Newhall, Jr.

1892 - 11 Dec 1958

Son of William Mayo Newhall and Elizabeth Slade Newhall

Husband of Gertrude O'Brien Spreckels

(3) Almer Mayo Newhall

14 May 1881 - 14 Jan 1933

Son Edwin White Newhall and Fannie Silliman Hall Newhall

Husband of Anna Nicholson Scott Newhall

(3) Anna Nicholson Scott Newhall

1 Feb 1886 - 13 Apr 1950

Wife of Almer Mayo Newhall

(3) Edwin White Newhall, Jr.

21 Apr 1883 - 5 Aug 1959

Son of Edwin White Newhall and Virginia Whiting Newhall

Husband of Jane Mae Peers Newhall

(3) Jane Mae "Jennie" Peers Newhall

16 Jul 1883 - 19 Jan 1962

Daughter of George James Peers and Katharine E. Robinson Peers

Wife of Edwin White Newhall Jr.

(3) George Almer Newhall Jr.

1904 - 13 Jul 1958

Son of George Almer Newhall and Caroline Taylor Newhall

Husband of Marion Foster Jones Newhall

(3) Walter Scott Newhall

6 Apr 1908 - 21 Dec 1960

Son of George Almer Newhall and Caroline Taylor Newhall

Husband of Catherine Vail Hume Newhall

(4) Almer Mayo Newhall, Jr.

8 Jun 1911 - 10 Jul 1961

Son of Almer Mayo Newhall and Anna Nicholson Scott Newhall

Husband of Mary Frances Kleiser Newhall-Dickson

(4) Mary Frances Kleiser Newhall-Dickson

27 Oct 1916 - 5 Sep 1973

Daughter of James Henry Kleiser and Fannie Armstrong Kleiser

Wife of Almer Mayo Newhall Jr.

(4) Hall Mearns Newhall

30 Oct 1915 - 4 Jan 1964

Son of Almer Mayo Newhall and Anna Nicholson Scott Newhall

Husband of Helen Catherine Siebe Newhall

(4) Jane Newhall

4 Oct 1913 - 27 Jul 2011

Daughter of Edwin White Newhall Jr. and Jane Mae Peers Newhall

(4) Scott Newhall

21 Jan 1914 - 26 Oct 1992

Son of Almer Mayo Newhall and Anna Nicholson Scott Newhall

Husband of Ruth Waldo Newhall

(4) Ruth Waldo Newhall

3 Jul 1910 - 24 Nov 2003

Wife of Scott Newhall

(4) Richard Gregory Newhall

28 Jan 1918 - 6 Oct 1968

Son of William Mayo Newhall Jr. and Gertrude O'Brien Newhall

Husband of (1) Marjory Maurer Newhall and (2) Patricia Condon Newhall

(4) Peter McBean

27 Nov 1910 - 14 Apr 1997

Son of Atholl McBean and Margaret Anita Newhall McBean

Husband of Alletta Nathalie Lorillard Morris McBean

(5) Penelope "Penny" Newhall

18 Jun 1943 - 19 Dec 1955 (died in runaway truck crash)

Daughter of Scott Newhall and Ruth Waldo Newhall

(6) Lucinda Maureen "Cindy" Newhall-Weyant

27 Feb 1964 - 31 Mar 2015 (multiple sclerosis)

Daughter of X.X. (Skip) Newhall; granddaughter of Scott Newhall and Ruth Waldo Newhall

Wife of (1) Lowell Eugene Halbasch and (2) Jeff Weyant