Long Beach Municipal Cemetery - Essay Example

ESSAY – HISTORY LONG BEACH MUNICIPAL CEMETERY HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: The location of the 4.3 acre site of Long Beach Municipal Cemetery is at the northwest corner of Orange Avenue and Willow Street adjacent to Sunnyside Cemetery. The cemetery is said to be the final abode of much of Long Beach’s early residents which also include some famous and well-known personalities of the area such as William Erwin Willmore, the founder of the city, who died a pauper in 1901 – a monument was erected for him 12 years later by Signal Hill Civic League. Before being renamed, the burial ground was known as the Signal Hill Cemetery, which is understood to have been developed as a graveyard for Bixby Ranch employees according to the information provided by the City of Long Beach official website. Despite of the presence of a Bixby Mausoleum on the site, none of the Bixby family members are said to have been buried there as the bodies of George and Helen Bixby were exhumed on February 27, 1923 and now lay in the Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles. The cemetery site is home to some standing headstones that date back to as early as 1900s, while a few flat headstones are also present, they have become so deteriorated over the passage of time that it is not quite possible to read the writing on them as the dates and names have become faded. Records suggest that the City of Long Beach assumed the responsibility of a majority of the ground’s maintenance on 10th of July, 1900, for which the Long Beach Cemetery Association was previously accountable for. As per the information provided in the book released by Questing Heirs Genealogical Society, INC., the first interment at the cemetery took place in 1878, which was of a 17-year-old boy named Milton F. Neece. Other famous internments at the cemetery apart from that of Willmore’s are of U.S Congressman Alexander Hamilton Jones, who died on January, 29th, 1901, Amanda Ellen Wiley Harmon, a deaf inventor who died in 1933 and Grace Bush Eads, the first Long Beach school teacher who departed in 1944. It can be interpreted that the demographics of the community surrounding the cemetery have not gone through a substantial change over the past 50 years, with the racial makeup containing a majority of White population followed by African American members, according to the United States Census Bureau. Even though, diversity in the area does exist with Hispanic and Asian inhabitants it is unclear and inconclusive whether they constituted of a major part of the community around the time when the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery was established. However, indication of Mexican residents is evident from the records obtained from the Questing Heirs Genealogical Society that contain information up to the year 1920 about the three earliest burial grounds in the area of Southern California one of which is the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery. SITE HISTORY: The Long Beach Municipal Cemetery resides at 1151 E Willow Street at Signal Hill’s southeast slope, donated by the Bixby family in addition to sites for numerous parks. Until its purchase by William Erwin Willmore the land is said to have been a division of Rancho Los Cerrito. It is understood that the Bixby family maintained some ownership of the site up till 1974, after which the information pertaining to the possession is scarce. Portions of the cemetery were sold to Sunnyside Cemetery twice, once on November, 11th, 1926 and on March 4th, 1927 for a second time. Some data related to the deceased was lost in fires that occurred in 1936, which is yet to be recollected and retrieved completely. Judging by records dating back to 6th, July, 1914 the City of Long Beach signed a deed with Norman Argetsinger to grant him a lot at the cemetery for a sum of $20. Sources report that a few burials were said to have been moved from the part of land which was sold to the oil company, however, inexistence of concrete evidence in this regard does not fully justify this claim. The management of the cemetery has been assigned to the Parks, Recreation and Marine Department. The staff is responsible for watering the grounds, raking leaves, maintaining plants and trees, weeding and mowing the plot. Moreover, it also falls as a duty upon the staff to correct or straighten any headstones that appear to be shifting, tilting sideways or lowering into the ground. Apart from that, employees also have the permission to either open or close the graves but in a manner which complies with laws set by the state in dealing with the upkeep and restoration of cemeteries. Conflicting, inconsistent and poor information regarding the death records of some of the earliest residents of the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery however, poses a tremendous challenge for the staffs at the burial ground. The Historical Society of Long Beach has been conducting yearly Historical Cemetery Tours at the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery and also the Sunny Side Cemetery for people of all age groups, which take place on the Saturday before Halloween. Ticket charges are $12 per person, $10 for the members of the HSLB and $5 for children aged between 5-12 years, while entrance for children below the age of 5 is free. The tour has acted as a source of revenue generation for the cemetery since its inception in 1995. On several occasions the cemetery has also been used for film shoots, popular instances include the filming of a scene from the movie “Glitter” starring Mariah Carey, the burial ground was also a major contender to be used as a possible location for Terminator 3. It is the scenic yet eerie feel that the cemetery gives with its mysterious headstones and gravestones that makes it an instant choice for use in film production. THEORY AND REPRESENTATION: Tim Grobaty describes the ineffableness of the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery quite correctly in his book titled The Long Beach Chronicles. Despite of the sadness that a visitor might feel upon a visit to the graveyard, there is a sense of serenity that encompasses the feeling of being at Long Beach Municipal Cemetery and thinking about the story behind each tombstone, each marker and each headstone. The much larger Sunnyside Cemetery next to the Municipal Cemetery appears to overshadow its importance for explorers or first time visitors, but as the oldest cemetery in Long Beach the latter appears more sacred with its beautiful tombstones that reflect the artistic aspect of the community that once populated the area. The Long Beach Municipal Cemetery like Sunnyside Cemetery appears to have a portion segregated for children and infants. A feature of the cemetery which stands out is the abandoned flower shop and a narrow path, which was supposedly used to direct horse driven carriages. There are certain distinctly visible graves that indicate an association of their resident with Freemasonary, symbols such as the Order of the Eastern Star amongst several others can be seen on some stones. Graves of U.S war veterans which stand at a total of 68 are often decorated with coins left by visitors as a salute to their service for the nation, indicating a sort of homage or sign of respect for them and their families. It appears that some graves are more extravagant than others as reflected in how the stone has been carved, the flat headstones are more modest in their tribute to the dead as they refer to the deceased as simply “MOTHER” or by a name which is most likely how the deceased was called upon his/her loved ones. A few standing headstones are carved into flowers or even the shape of a heart. The grave of W.E Willmore the city’s founder is a standing structure, in a rectangular shape with a carving that attributes him as the founder of Willmore City and rightly so. A significant number of gravestones do not indicate the year of birth, as mentioned previously, some headstones simply refer the deceased by their first name, which makes it difficult to report and analyze life expectancy rates even though there are a number of graves indicating deaths for the age group of infants to teenagers. A substantial number of people lived up to the age of 60 and above. The surrounding vicinity can be best described as a commercial area with a healthcare centre, sports facilities and small businesses along with oil operations. HISTORY OF BURIALS: This section of the paper will discuss various burial rites from different cultures across the globe and research the problem which suggests that as land for underground burials begins to become a scare resource, what alternatives for underground burials are currently being exercised by communities across the world and whether there is potential in other solutions that maybe employed in the near future to address the aforementioned issue. The Sky Burial in Tibet is an uncommon practice, where the body of the deceased is shredded into pieces by a rogyapa, specifically hired to perform the task. Once dismembered the body is left in open air to be consumed by predatory birds. Even though, this procedure has been termed barbaric by members of other cultures, the Tibetans followers of Buddha assume the body to be a hollow shell once death takes the spirit away. The Fire Burial performed by Bali’s Hindu population is conducted once a mass grave is said to be sufficiently full with enough deceased members for the cremation to be conducted. Unlike general customs associating death with profound sadness and grief, Bali’s Fire Burial is more of a celebration of the life of those who have passed away as the whole village participates in the occasion. For the African Maasai Tribe, difference in social standing haunts the members of the tribe till their death. While chiefs and tribal leaders are bid adieu with an actual burial, common tribesman are left for the predators to feast upon. This practice stems for the belief that an afterlife does not exist and a dead body is a burden on nature which is why it must be completely disposed. In a one of a kind burial rite, the islanders of Kiribati exhume the body after many months have passed since the burial to remove the skull and adorn it at their homes. The idea behind this practice is that by doing so the god Nakka welcomes the spirit of the deceased. Burial rites from various cultures vary significantly and are purely motivated by religious ideologies and beliefs. Yet, underground burial remains to be the most common burial practice in many communities across the globe. However, with land becoming an increasingly scarce resource with the rise in population and limited availability of space for burials, alternative burial practices seem to be emerging worldwide to answer the growing concern over the increasing shortage of land for underground burials. The concept of memorial spaceflights has been receiving growing attention since its inception by Celestis Inc. in 1997. Even though, it has catered to a niche market for the past three decades, as the current scenario works against underground burials it is expected that the percentage of the population which can afford to do so will opt send their loved ones ashes via private commercial satellites so their memory is honored forever. The increasing trend of green burials displays a more eco-friendly approach towards burial rites. Even though, the green burial still involves underground interment, it is done so by resting the dead in bio-degradable coffins and materials while, headstones are replaced with trees celebrating the life of the deceased. Cremation by choice is becoming widely common and accepted, where the body is subjected to intense heat and the remains are placed in urns that the family may either wish to keep or scatter. Traditionally, in Hindu culture the ashes of the deceased are scattered into the River Ganges. In recent times, however, cremation is being slowly replaced with a procedure known as Resomation in which the body is liquefied so that bones can remain. Both Cremation and Resomation fulfill the same purpose which is to allow the body to be transformed into bone fragments, but Cremation is not an eco-friendly solution as it emits carbon dioxide along with chemicals which can be harmful to the environment. Another alternative to the underground burial is that of Eternal Reefs, constituting of humans remains left after cremation, a mixture of the human remains and concrete allows the creation of artificial reefs that are placed underwater specifically in locations where coral reefs have deteriorated or need to be restored. It is a firmly held belief notion by some that future medicine shall come up with an answer that will make the dead come back to life. Thus, the advocates of Cryonics though, very few in number choose to freeze the bodies of their loved ones in hopes of a revival in the future. The feasibility of Cryonics has been greatly questioned by critics and makes it impossible for the common man to practice, which may not make it as viable an alternative to underground burial because it calls for the usage of even more resources and its chances of success are not yet backed by concrete evidence. REFERENCES: Grobaty, Tim. Long Beach Chronicles: From Pioneers to the 1933 Earthquake. The History Press, 2012. Pg. 37 Long Beach Municipal Cemetery, Web. 23rd March. 2013 Long Beach Municipal Cemetery, Los Angeles County, California, Web. 23rd March. 2013 Some Early Southern California Burials. Long Beach, Calif: The Society, 1974. Print. Read More