TURLOCK MEMORIAL PARK Genealogical Society of Stanislaus County, California, Inc. Modesto, California 2001 This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter. All persons donating to this site retain the rights to their own work. INTRODUCTION Turlock Memorial Park is a private non-profit cemetery owned and operated by the T urlock Cemetery Association. It is located at 575 North Soderquist Road in Turlock, phone (209) 632-1018. The cemetery mailing address is P. O. Box 1666 Turlock CA 95381. Scott Atherton is Cemetery Superintendent. CEMETERY HISTORY The creation of both the city of Turlock and the original Turlock Cemetery was the work of an area pioneer, John Mitchell. Mitchell arrived from Connecticut during the Gold Rush years and engaged in a variety of pursuits until he settled into the life of an agriculturist. At his death in 1893 he controlled over 100,000 acres of land, thousands of sheep and cattle, a vineyard, wheat farms and warehouses. When the Central Pacific Railroad was being built through the Central Valley, Mitchell gave them right of way on his property and established the town of Turlock in 1871. In 1875 a young man, Edmond Warner, was buried on a plot of Mitchell's land on the outskirts of Turlock on what is now West Main Street. Six months later in May of 1876, Mitchell formed a private corporation to establish a cemetery. Shares were sold for $10.00 each. This corporation was later dissolved and in 1885 a group of Turlockers formed the Turlock Cemetery Association. Mitchell deeded over five acres encompassing the original burial sites for the future growth of the cemetery. The cemetery now is comprised of 70 acres, 30 of which are available for future development. Over the years the cemetery changed from a bare earth, sporadically-tended property to a beautifully landscaped, modern memorial park with a full time professional staff. In 1964 the Association Board of Directors changed the name of the cemetery to Turlock Memorial Park but it remains a private, non-profit, non-sectarian park fulfilling the needs of a growing community. METHODOLOGY Turlock Memorial Park maintains a card file index of each interment at the cemetery. In addition to burials, some cards are records of cremations performed at the crematory either for burial at other cemeteries or for delivery to families. The card file was started in 1955 but included information on early burials. At a minimum the cards contain name and burial location or disposition of cremated remains. The card file was used to create an alphabetical list as the starting database for this publication. The data entry for the 25,000 + cards took over one and a half years, and was accomplished by one volunteer, Pauline Priest. In August 1955 the cemetery began using interment orders containing information such as birth/death dates and locations, names and residence of relatives, veteran's status and grave marker orders. Volunteers of the Stanislaus County Genealogical Society hand entered these details on a printout of the original alphabetical list and then entered them into the computer. Because some of the early cemetery records were lost in a fire, three additional sources were incorporated into the database: a microfilmed cemetery grave-marker survey of the early section of the cemetery, early burial permits of Stanislaus County indicating burial in Turlock and death information from the California Death Index. Specific information obtained from these sources is noted in the remarks. If conflict exists between two sources, this is noted. EXPLANATION OF SPECIAL USAGE AND ABBREVIATIONS Last Name Individuals with two possible spellings for the surname are listed as Smith/Smythe. However, if the variant spelling is far different, a second entry has been made with cross-reference in the remarks column. In some cases different record sources have different spellings of family and given names. These differences are noted in the remarks. First and Middle Name Individuals who were known by more than one first name have the second name entered in parentheses. Birth Date Month designations are the first three letters of the month, followed by the day, followed by year. For example: Mar 10,1975. Death Date Many death dates taken from grave markers are the year only. The designation "bur" prior to the death date column indicates that burial information contained more detail than the grave marker Location The block and lot designations in the cemetery. Special designations used are: CF = Chapel of Flowers, a mausoleum CM = Chapel of Memories, a mausoleum DD = Double depth interment lot, usually for family members RWG = Redwood Garden, an urn interment area FD = Flight of the Doves, cremation niches Ship Out = cremations performed at the Turlock Crematory not buried in the cemetery. The remarks column indicates the disposition of the urn or ashes. Remarks In order to include the maximum information in a limited space, the following normal punctuation may be eliminated: comma between city and state, comma before titles, period after an initial. In exceptional cases, spaces will be eliminated, but each element of the remarks will be denoted by the semicolon. In addition, only deaths occurring outside of Turlock are entered. Therefore, no entry indicates death occurred in Turlock. All cities listed without a state designation are in California. Commonly used city names may have vowels removed to conserve space. By perusing the remarks column, one should be able to discern the complete name of the city. L.A. and S. F. are used to represent Los Angeles and San Francisco. Generally L. A. is followed by CA to distinguish it from the two letter postal designation for Louisiana. Last names of individuals mentioned in the remarks column may be eliminated if they are the same as the deceased. Some common given names have been abbreviated: Chas, Wm, Robt, Geo, for Charles, William, Robert or George. A given name followed by a comma and an entry means the city of residence of the person named. Note that several communities in the Turlock area bear the names of families, e.g. Stevinson, Newman, Patterson. Abbreviations used in the Remarks Column Two letter postal service initials for locations within the United States are: Alabama AL Kentucky KY North Dakota ND Alaska AK Louisiana LA Ohio OH Arizona AZ Maine ME Oklahoma OK Arkansas AR Maryland MD Oregon OR California CA Massachusetts MA Pennsylvania PA Colorado CO Michigan MI Rhode Island RI Connecticut CT Minnesota MN South Carolina SC Delaware DE Mississippi MS South Dakota SD District of Columbia DC Missouri MT Tennessee TN Florida FL Montana MO Texas TX Georgia GA Nebraska NE Utah UT Hawaii HI Nevada NV Vermont VT Idaho ID New Hampshire NH Virginia VA Illinois IL New Jersey NJ Washington WA Indiana IN New Mexico NM West Virginia WV Iowa IA New York NY Wisconsin WI Kansas KS North Carolina NC Wyoming WY Others include: PI = Philippines Islands, CAN = Canada, MEX = Mexico Family Abbreviations All relationships indicated are from the perspective of the deceased in the following form: John, the deceased, is the father of (f/o) Mary, husband (h/o) Susan. m = mother; f= father; h = husband, w = wife, d = daughter; s = son; b = brother. sis = sister; a = aunt; u = uncle; n = niece; neph = nephew; cou = cousin; g _ or gr_= grand ; gg_= great-grand_; _il = _ inlaw; st _ = step _; ex or x = former; h_ = half_. b or bp = birth place, bd = birth date d or dp = death place, dd = death date BP = burial permit - Burial Permits of Stanislaus County from 1889 to 1948 are housed in the archives of California State University Stanislaus Library, Turlock CADI = California Death Index; Source: The California Department of Health Services, Office of Health Information and Research, Vital Statistics Section http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi mdn = maiden name aka = also known as or alias unk = location unknown or no entry listed. Cremations done at Turlock Memorial Park for surrounding cemeteries routinely come to Turlock without a birthplace designation. nmd = named An individual whose name appears without a relationship given. dec or dec'd = deceased fpref#, fp# = family plot reference number. This number represents the original deed for the cemetery plot which can contain additional family names. fp or fm plt = family plot * = additional information available at the cemetery SN* = veteran's service number listed at cemetery mkr = cemetery marker name inscription; fam mkr or fm mkr = cemetery marker including the same family name as the deceased LDS = microfilm of an early grave marker survey done by members of Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-Day Saints entitled: Cemetery records, Turlock, Stanislaus County, California compiled by the Genealogical Committee of the L.D.S. Church. Location: Family History Library US/CAN, Film #2101 Item 18. TMP = Turlock Memorial Park COMMUNITIES SERVED BY TURLOCK MEMORIAL PARK The community of Turlock is positioned close to the border between Stanislaus and Merced Counties. Communities in Stanislaus County are: Ceres, Crows Landing, Denair, Empire, Grayson, Hickman, Hughson, Keyes, Knights Ferry, Modesto, Oakdale, Patterson, Riverbank, Salida, Turlock, Waterford, Westley. Communities in Merced County are: Atwater, Ballico, Cressey, Dos Palos, Gustine, Livingston, Los Banos, Merced, Newman, Snelling, Santa Nella, Stevinson, Winton. Turlock MemoriaI Park served as crematory for the following regional cemeteries. Hills Ferry Cemetery District 1334 West Stuhr Road Newman, CA 95360 (209) 862-0501 Los Banos District Cemetery 16575 Center Avenue Los Banos, CA 93665 (209) 826-0882 Dos Palos Cemetery District 1800 Elgin Avenue Dos Palos, CA 93620 (209) 392-2698 San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery 32053 West McCabe Road Gustine, CA 95322 Patterson District Cemetery 10800 Highway 33 Patterson, CA 95363 (209) 892-8654