Yosemite Day Six: Yosemite Cemetery, Ahwahnee Hotel and Home

The day to leave this beautiful place showed up way too fast. Since it was only about a 6 hour drive, we decided to stay until noon and then start heading home. We packed up and wandered over to Yosemite Village to have breakfast at Degnan's and then walk over to the Yosemite Cemetery. I don't know why, but cemeteries always hold quite a fascination for me. Imagining what their lives were like...who they were...in this case, what brought them to Yosemite. We went by the Ansel Adams Gallery one more time to look around.

We then wandered over to the cemetery. I will be cutting and pasting information on some of the graves from this website: http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/pioneer_cemetery/. The description of each grave is above the actual photo that it refers to. Somehow I missed Galen Clark's gravesite (but thank you Jen for the photo!), the one I really wanted to see. *sigh*

I loved this beautiful stone bench in the cemetery....and as you will probably see, I became a teeny bit obsessed with photographing it :).

Galen Clark's grave.

In the shelter of the Sequoias brought from the Mariposa Grove and planted by his own hands about 1886, sleeps Galen Clark, “Beloved man of Yosemite.“ From the well, which he dug in the cemetery, he watered the young trees. He chiseled his name on the rough boulder that is his headstone, and dug his own grave. In 1930, his nephews, L. L. McCoy and A. M. McCoy, completed the inscription, adding the dates, 1814-1910.

A large rugged piece of granite and a trim stone cross mark the graves of the Hutchings family. Here lie James Mason Hutchings, his second wife Agusta L. Hutchings, and his daughter Florence, the first white child born in Yosemite Valley.

Mr. Hutchings was born in Towchester, Northamptonshire, England on February 10, 1824. A capable and prolific writer, he did much to bring to the world the news of Yosemite’s beauty. It was he who organized the first tourist visit to Yosemite Valley in 1855. In 1869 he built a saw mill along Yosemite Creek (operated for a time by John Muir). After living for a time in San Francisco, Hutchings returned to Yosemite in 1880 to succeed Galen Clark as Guardian of the Yosemite Grant. It was shortly after this that Hutchings wrote and published his most famous book In the Heart of the Sierras. In 1902 as he and his wife were making their way down the old Big Oak Flat Road the team became frightened and bolted. Both Hutchings and his wife were thrown from the wagon and injured. Hutchings died a few moments later in the arms of his wife.

Florence Hutchings - First white child born in Yosemite. Popular and vivacious Florence Hutchings was only 17 when she died in 1881. Her funeral, like her father’s, was held in the Big Tree Room of the Barnard Hotel called, before Barnard’s time, “The Hutchings House.” Agusta Hutchings followed Florence by only a few weeks.

James Mason Hutchings

A granite stone stands next surrounded with an iron fence. The stone reads, “William Bonney Atkinson, born in Yosemite June 25, 1898, died April 15, 1902.” This youngster, nearly four years old, was the youngest of three children of Charles and Nell Atkinson. His father was an employee of the State of California, which was managing the Yosemite Grant at that time.

Effie Crippen. East of the Hutchings monument is a board marker that more than fifty years has not dimmed. It reads: “Effie Crippen, August 31, 1881, Age 14 years 7 months, 22 days.” J. M. Hutchings, the pioneer, read the Episcopal service in the Big Tree Room of the Barnard Hotel. Among the young friends who sang at the grave was Florence Hutchings, who in a few weeks was also laid to rest “in the grove of noble oaks where Tissiac, Goddess of the Valley, keeps constant watch.” Mrs. Crippen had married Mr. Barnard, proprietor of the hotel, and Effie was the light and joy of this home. School was closed the day of the funeral so that her little friends might attend. Among these was Charles T. Leidig, who told the writer that in the early seventies the school, consisting of five pupils, was held for a brief time in a tent on the present site of the cemetery. The permanent schoolhouse was built east of the Sentinel Hotel on the present camp 19 site.

Sadie Schaeffer - She was a girl between fourteen and fifteen years of age when, with a group of friends she came from Packwaukee, Wisconsin, to visit Yosemite. She was drowned in the rapids of the Merced River, July 7, 1901. A. M. McCoy, nephew of Galen Clark, had just arrived in the Valley and took charge of the burial, reading the Episcopal service. On the tombstone are these words:

SADIE SCHAEFFER

Drowned in the rapids July 7, 1901. 

Oh, that beauteous head. 

If it did go down, 

It carried sunshine into the rapids.

Albert May. The next grave to the north is marked with a marble headstone which reads: “Albert May, Native of Ohio, died October 23, 1881, aged 51 years.” Mr. Hedges says that Mr. May was a carpenter for the hotelkeeper, A. G. Black. In the vacant space between the graves of Thomas Glynn and Albert May was the old well. According to Galen Clark, who dug it, the well was placed in the cemetery in order to make water available for keeping the graves green.

James Chenowith Lamon. A tall granite shaft marks the grave of Yosemite’s first settler. It reads: “J. C. Lamon died May 22, 1875 aged 58 years.” Mr. Lamon built the first cabin in the Valley, in 1859, and he was the first white man to winter in the Valley, spending the winter of 1861-1862 entirely alone.

George Fisk and Carrie Fisk. The graves of George Fisk and his wife, Carrie Fisk, are outlined with small granite stones. Mr. Fisk’s grave is unmarked; he died in 1920. He was an early photographer in Yosemite, and his work was of notable quality. He worked for a time in the studio of Carleton E. Watkins, in San Francisco. The grave of Carrie Fisk, his wife, is marked with a marble headstone bearing the inscription: “Carrie Fisk, Native of Ohio, Age 63 years, died Jan. 1, 1918.” Mr. and Mrs. Fisk were people of fine character, whose friendship was valued.

 At the north end of this row of graves are those of Rose and Gabriel Sovulewski. Gabriel was born in Poland and came to America at the age of 16. He enlisted in the Army and it was while in the service that he came in contact with the National Parks. In 1895, 1896, and 1897 he served as Sergeant. under Capt. Alex. Rodgers and Lt. Col. S. B. M. Young, the military superintendents during those years. During this time he was in Troop K of the 4th Cavalry. The United States Army administered and patrolled the park from 1891, a year after its creation as a National Park, until 1914, when administration was turned over to civilian employees. In 1916 the National Park Service was created.

Sovulewski continued as a civilian, serving in the park the year around, as administrator during the absence of military superiors, and for a time as acting superintendent. His particular interest was in the trails. Many of the 740-odd miles of trails in Yosemite were planned and laid out by him. Thus he was a keystone in park administration until his retirement in 1936. 

Mrs. Gabriel Sovulewski died in August, 1928, having lived in the Valley twenty-two years, greatly beloved and affectionately called “Our Yosemite Mother.

 Rose Sovulewski lived in the valley twenty-two years. She died in August 1928 at the age of fifty-four. Descendants of the Sovulewskis live in Yosemite today.

McKenzie was a member of a camping party that visited the Valley, perhaps late in the summer of 1896. He died at their camp a little to the west of Galen Clark’s house, which formerly stood near the Swinging Bridge. One of the authors (LVD) was in the Valley at the time, and recalls the incident.

 G. B. Cavagnaro’s grave is marked with a fine stone marker and iron fence. Mr. Cavagnaro was a storekeeper in the Old Village here in the valley. He was said to handle everything from a box of paper collars to a side of bacon. Visitors of that early day had to be supplied even as they do today, and here was the man to do it.

 The identity of “A Boy” has been lost. The Mariposa Free Press carried on June 24, 1870 the story of the drowning of a boy, John Morgan Bennett, son of Captain R. H. Bennett, while attempting to cross a branch of the Merced River in Yosemite Valley on a mule. Jack Leidig says that the boy was the first person to be buried in the cemetery. Why this site was chosen we do not know.

 Uh-oh...more stone bench shots...

 A deer grazing outside one of the caretaker cottages.

 The Ahwahnee Hotel

 Gorgeous pathways with fall color all over the grounds of the Ahwahnee.

 Looking back at the Ahwahnee from one of the pathways.

 Beautiful Dogwood trees with fall colors.

Well, it was time to start heading home now, as much as we wanted to stay. It was a really fun trip and I will most definitely not let 10 years go by before visiting this incredible place again.