Fernwood Cemetery
Fernwood Cemetery (also Forever Fernwood ) is located on 32 acres (about 12 hectares ) extending cemetery in an unincorporated part of Mill Valley , California . The burial ground on the hills between Mill Valley and Sausalito , adjacent to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area , was originally established by the Sausalito Cemetery Association in 1891 and has been one of the first eco-cemeteries in the United States since 2004 .
history
The current grounds of Fernwood Cemetery were established in 1891 under the name "Sausalito Cemetery" as the cemetery of the town of Sausalito , located south of Mill Valley on the San Francisco Bay . The first burial took place in December 1891, the first sale of a grave site in September 1892. The part of the cemetery known today as the “Sausalito Section” contains the oldest graves, including those of Portuguese immigrants who settled in the 19th century had settled in Sausalito.
In 2004 the cemetery, which had meanwhile been renamed "Daphne Fernwood Cemetery", was sold to the Forever Enterprises joint venture . Under the leadership of businessman Tyler Cassity walked Forever Enterprises the cemetery into a first Ökofriedhöfe in the United States. In contrast to conventional cemeteries, the Fernwood Cemetery offers burials in ecological coffins made of untreated wood as well as simple shrouds and without embalming . In the natural part of the cemetery, the graves are marked with simple field stones instead of elaborate gravestones . Since it is also possible to dispense with any grave markings, RFID transponders are given to the dead at the funeral and their position is recorded in GPS coordinates in order to be able to determine the exact location of the buried.
Graves (selection)
| People) | meaning | Life dates | Image of the tomb |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catherine Domergue | A modern tombstone now stands on the site where Catherine Domergue was buried. Her burial was the first in the "Sausalito Cemetery" established in 1891. The grave is on a steep slope and a number of tombstones were thrown down the slope in vandalism. | † 1891 |
|
| Gaston P. Domergue | Grave of Gaston P. Domergue, husband of Catherine Domergues. He was the first person to purchase a burial site in the newly established cemetery. | 1840-1915 |
|
| João Ignacio Silva | In the oldest part of the cemetery is the grave of João Ignacio Silva, a Portuguese immigrant. The gravestone identifies him as a member of the União Portuguesa do Estado da Califórnia , a Portuguese community founded in California in 1880. Like many other Portuguese in Sausalito, Silva came from the Azores island of São Jorge , which is recorded on the tombstone as "Ilha de S. Jorge". | 1845-1907 |
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| John Perry Gerivazio | Grave of John Perry Gerivazio, another Portuguese immigrant. The immigrants often Americanized their names upon arrival. "Pereira" became "Perry". | † 1911 |
|
gallery
Glance into the room for funeral services
Ascent to the burial places
Old part ("Sausalito Section") of the cemetery
Grave field with natural stones
Web links
- Fernwood Cemetery website
- Video interview with Kathy Curry , 2012 Fernwood Cemetery manager on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ Patricia Leigh Brown: Eco-Friendly Burial Sites Give a Chance to Be Green Forever , in: New York Times, August 13, 2005, last accessed January 2, 2016.
- ^ Entry "Fernwood" ( Memento December 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) in Marin County, California, Cemetery Locator. Last accessed on January 2, 2016.
- ↑ Jim Staats: Tam Valley cemetery owners face $ 600 million lawsuit ( January 3, 2016 memento on the Internet Archive ) , in: San Jose Mercury News, August 24, 2009, last accessed January 2, 2016.
- ↑ On this and the following cf. Peter Fimrite: Marin cemetery: Ashes to ashes, dust to mulch , in: San Francisco Chronicle of August 22, 2004, last accessed January 2, 2016.
Coordinates: 37 ° 52 ′ 35.3 " N , 122 ° 31 ′ 27" W.