Josiah and Eliza Smith Sturgis
Josiah Sturgis was born on April 23, 1817 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. His wife, Eliza was born on April 26, 1819 in Virginia. Josiah married Eliza Smith in Nantucket, Massachusetts on September 22, 1839. In the 1850 U.S. Census, we find Josiah is a stone cutter of Miscellaneous Nonmetallic Mineral and Stone Products in Massachusetts. He […]
George W. Bailey
Updated information was found from the January 1873 articles in the San Francisco Examiner and the Contra Costa Gazette. On Monday, January 20, 1873, George W. Bailey, his wife Nellie, and one of his two small children took a boat from Sacramento to San Francisco. He then disappeared. George Whitfield Bailey was born in Missouri […]
Woodmen of the World and Women of the Woodcraft
Some of the gravestones in the Alhambra Cemetery bear the inscription and logo of the Woodmen of the World. The Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society was founded in Omaha, Nebraska in 1890 by Joseph Cullen Root. By 1900 it had more than 500,000 members. Symbols which were used by the order included the tree […]
Haußmann/Tavan
The original content of this post was taken from the previous website and updated for republishing in 2021. Haußmann/Tavan were local philanthropists. Money from their estates was put in a trust to provide funds to help maintain the cemetery. Every four years interest is accumulated and used to pay for improvements to the grounds. Karl […]
Hiram Mills
On May 2, 1874 a jury was picked for the trial of Mary Gersbach, a 29 year-old woman from New York who was accused of murdering her husband, Martin, with William Nash at her residence on San Pablo Creek in August 1873. The trial was being held at the Fifteenth District Court in Martinez, and […]
Capt. Daniel Hooker
As of this writing, Capt. Daniel Hooker’s headstone is the oldest existing marker in the Alhambra cemetery (1856) after the area became an official cemetery in 1854. However, there is some evidence of burials on this site as early as 1851. Captain Daniel Hooker was born in 1791 in Vermont. We know that his wife’s […]
James Rankin
James Rankin was a Scottish immigrant who came to the United States in 1865. He was born on April 25, 1848 in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland. According to the 1861 Scotland Census, James was 12 years old and working as a coalminer. On January 21, 1866, James boarded the City of New York at the docks […]
Caroline Holpin, a.k.a. Papinta the Flame Dancer
Caroline Holpin known as “Papinta the Flame Dancer” was born Alice Caroline Hipple on March 16, 1868 in Ramsey, Anoka County, Minnesota. Her husband, William, who was originally from Wisconsin, bought 150 acres in Ygnacio Valley in 1897. The Ygnacio Valley farm, known as “El Royo” was purchased with Papinta’s dance money so William could […]
Elam and Margaret Brown
In 1846, Elam Brown, a widower with 4 children, joined a wagon train and came west. They stayed briefly at Sutter’s Fort, and then came through the Livermore Valley to Mission Santa Clara. Along the way Brown married Margaret Allen, a member of the wagon train, whose husband had died on the trek west. She […]
William and Miranda Hook
William Hook and his twin brother Elijah, were born on Valentine’s Day in 1805. When they were 14 years old their father died and their mother moved the family to Old Franklin, Missouri. This is where the brothers entered the business world, keeping their eyes open for many opportunities. They did much trading between Missouri […]