A really old graveyard, located in San Luis Obispo, California, was vandalized right around Halloween of 2011. Destruction of gravestones, especially old ones, make it very difficult for genealogists to do their research. Recently, more has been revealed about the gravestones that were damaged by the Halloween pranksters.
There are people who use Halloween as an excuse to go out and cause vandalism. This year, some vandals damaged several of the headstones in the San Luis Cemetery, which is located in San Luis Obispo, California. The cemetery had gravestones that dated as far back as the 1800’s, and that ranged into the 1900’s.
The vandals broke several headstones “into a number of pieces”, and knocked over some other stones. The damages were estimated to be around $20,000. When the destruction was first discovered, the actual graves that were affected by the vandalism were not announced. Now, that information has been revealed. A total of twelve graves have were damaged, including the graves of some people who were rather important to San Luis Obispo.
One of the monuments belonged to Dr. W.W. Hays. Both of those Ws stand for “William”. I’ve no idea what his parents were thinking. Hays grew up in Maryland, and worked as an Army surgeon at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C..
He came to San Luis Obispo in 1866, and was one of the first doctors for this community. He also was one of the presiding officers in the San Luis Obispo Masonic Order’s King David Lodge. He died when he was 63 years old, on July 3, 1901.
The grave of J.H. Hollister was also damaged. He ran a 2,000 acre dairy farm called Rancho El Chorro. Today, this area of land has become the El Chorro Regional Park, which sits on the southeast corner of the campus of Cuesta College.
Hollister was elected to be a county supervisor in 1879, when he was only 23 years old. From there, he was drafted, as a Republican, into the state Assembly, (which was Democratic controlled at the time). He was involved in passing the “Anti-Oleomargarine Law”, which was designed to prevent diseases in fruit trees. He died on November 7, 1913, at the age of 57.
The grave of Walter Murray was also damaged by vandals. He was the person who founded the San Luis Obispo Tribune newspaper in 1869. This newspaper is still in print today. Murray was elected to the state Assembly as a Republican, and later was appointed a district judge, and elected as both an attorney and as county treasurer.
He also is known for being part of the vigilance committee that hunted down some local outlaws. (Specifically Jackie Powers and Pio Linares). Murray died on October 5, 1875 at the age of 49.
When the vandals decided to go into the cemetery and damage some gravestones, they actually caused damages to the graves of three prominent citizens of San Luis Obispo. It is sad that some people don’t have any respect for the dead, their families, or for history. There were nine other gravestones that were damaged that night. One can only hope that a genealogist had already recorded the important information about those people before their headstones were destroyed.
Image by Docent Joyce on Flickr