The Two Graves of Henry Behnke

This mystery has been puzzling me for a while now and it was originally brought to my attention by my fiancé.  Mr. Henry Behnke, one of Stockton Rural Cemetery's eternal residents has not one, but two headstones and they are in separate areas of the cemetery, too!  

Henry Behnke was born on May 20, 1829 and died on March 2, 1862. One of his headstones states his name "Henry Behnke" (found in Block 26, lot 24) while the other just says, "H. Behnke" (found in Block 24) - but both share the exact date of birth and date of death. 

Although a few people have pondered the thought that perhaps there were a set of twins, both with the same date of birth and similar names starting with an "H," that maybe in some freakish accident both lost their lives on the same day.  Although I guess anything is possible, I would say that it is near to impossible and in this case highly unlikely.

You see, the only record I can find where he is mentioned, there is not other mention of another male "Behnke" with him.  According to  "An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County, California" Henry is mentioned very briefly in the biography of a man named John Corsten Grupe.   Grupe went on to marry Catherine Behnke, who I believe was Henry's sister, and this is how Henry's name was mentioned within the biography.

"In the spring of 1852, he (Grupe) went to San Francisco and took ship for New York, going by way of Panama; from New York he shipped at once to Germany and in the fall of the same year returned to New York. In the meantime he had sold his store in New York to his brother, and after stopping there a few days, started on a return trip to California. This time he came by way of Panama. 

In New York he met a number of persons who came to California with him. Among them was Catherine M. Behnke, who he afterward married. The others were Henry Behnke, Hattie and Rebecka Behrmann, Lena Meyer, John Kulmoe, John Wilkins and Henry Meyer, -- nine in all; of these, four only are living.  They crossed the Isthmus on a mule train, then took ship and came to San Francisco, and landed at Stockton on November 10, 1852.

On December 1, he was married to Catherine Behnke, and Henry Meyer was married to Rebecka Behrmann, both on the same day. " --

So we now know that Henry came to Stockton on November 10, 1852 and he died on March 2, 1862. After searching archived Census records I was able to determine that both Catherine and Henry came from Germany just like Mr. Grupe. According to the 1900 Census for the Douglas Township in San Joaquin County, Catherine Grupe was still living, but now a widow. She was living with two of her sons by that point. She was listed as being born in 1831, just four years younger than her older brother Henry, and that she was from Germany.

Unfortunately, this is where I have hit a dead end with learning more about Henry's life here in Stockton, and why on earth he has two headstones. I have found three other Henry Behnke's who lived in San Joaquin County, between the 1850's up to about 18 years ago. 
I can only assume that some of these "Henry's" are related to him somehow.

1) Henry August Behnke was born in 1854 and lived in Stockton in the 1890's because he is listed as a registered voter in the 1896 voting registry.  

2) Henry Behnke, born in 1850 and died 1928 (San Joaquin County)

Could one of the above listed men be his son? 

3) Henry John Behnke was born on February 8, 1918 and died in January of 2000, in Lodi (San Joaquin County). 

Could he be a grandson maybe? 

After searching the abstracts of the Stockton Daily Independent newspaper, dated March 3, 1862, I located Mr. Behnke's death notice. (They misspelled his name though).

"DIED- in this city, at the Avenue House, on Sunday morning the 2nd, Henry BENCKE, a native of Hanover, Germany, aged 32 years. His funeral will take place from the Avenue House at 1 o'clock this Monday afternoon."---

Answers to the rest of this mystery are still eluding me at the moment. 

I recently reached out to the Stockton Rural Cemetery office to see if they could shed some light on the mystery of the two headstones, one being found in Block 24 and the other in Block 26.  After speaking to Clara Navarro, who works in the cemetery office, she had no information to give me. The cemetery staff state that their archive records are in storage, so basically they were not willing to search through the records for this information.

As disappointed as I was to hear this, it does not deter me from my search for answers. I will keep searching to find out just who Henry Behnke was, and why he has two headstones, and I will not stop seeking these answers until they are available. 

I hope you will check back with me in the future as I plan to continue updating this particular blog post with more information as it becomes available.

(Copyright 2018- J'aime Rubio. -- www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

Daisy Dryden's Deathly Visions

(Photo: J. Rubio) 

Tucked away in the middle of the historic Stockton Rural Cemetery in Stockton, California, you will find many locally historic graves and crypts. One that particularly stands out in the "unexplained" department is the final resting place of 10 year old Daisy Dryden and her siblings: brother "Allie" and sister "Nellie." Daisy’s story became famously known for her visions of heaven and the "other side", she claimed to have seen while on her death bed.

Daisy Dryden was born on September 9, 1854 in Marysville, California. She was the daughter of Reverend David Anderson and his wife. She was named Daisy, “because she was such a petite child, with such large, luminous brown eyes, that to us she seemed like the dawn of a beautiful spring morning, and so we gave her that name because it signified the opening of the eye of day.”  The two Dryden daughters, only two years apart, were very much loved by their mother. Though Daisy was mentioned as having brown eyes, Lulu’s eyes were a beautiful blue, and “these two darlings made sunshine whereyer they lived.”

Her mother recalled that Daisy wasn’t a perfect child, but who really is at that young of an age? “There were times when she was self-willed and even to stubbornness. Obedience was often a very bitter morsel. She had a quick temper. There would be a sudden flaming up of fire in those brown eyes, and angry words would follow. And then there would be just a sudden repentance.”

Although Daisy was a lot like most children, at times she was also not like most children. She was very in tune with other people’s feelings, what today we would call empathetic. She also had a very strong faith in God, and once when her mother was very ill, she saw her father crying and took it upon herself to go pray that God would make her better. She told her father that she had prayed and that God was going to heal her, and she miraculously recovered.

She was also not afraid of the dark, which was uncommon for young children, particularly girls. Lulu, her older sister was terrified of the dark and always asked Daisy to come everywhere with her when it was dark.  Daisy would speak as logically as an adult when she’d say, “There is nothing in the dark which is not there in the light.”

Daisy also loved the outdoors, nature and a beautiful view. “Once she said, ‘I should like to climb to the top of that high mountain, because, you say, there are no clouds there, and we might see the angels looking down on us.” – (this is when the family was living in Nevada City, California). “There was a beautiful garden in the front of the parsonage at Nevada City, in which she loved to walk and talk to the flowers.  She had at the time a little watering-pot. One day a lady was passing and said: “Daisy, what are you doing?” “Oh, giving the flowers a drink, and you ought to see them laugh,” she replied. She was very fond of pansies and daisies; pansies because she could see faces in them, and daisies because of her own name. She said one day, when we were in the garden, “Let us have daisies every place we go, if we can have nothing else.”

She was also a little girl with a very sensitive conscience, even praying for forgiveness to God and asking forgiveness of her mother one time for picking blue bells (flowers she was not supposed to pick) and leaving them under the rose bush. As her mother said, “this circumstance showed how tender was her conscience at the early age of five.”

In the summer of 1864, Daisy became ill with “bilious fever,” but it seemed she was going to recover. But her mother stated that by the afternoons Daisy would droop and complain of weariness. The doctor was called and he diagnosed her with Typhoid fever. She lay in bed for five weeks, struggling to break the fever that tormented her poor little body.  It seemed as though she had conquered the illness and even her doctor believed she was “out of the woods,” so-to-speak, and on the road to recovery. He even gave her a shiny new silver half-dollar saying “This is for the little girl who takes her medicine so well.”  But Daisy knew, for whatever reason, that she was not going to get better. Her mother spoke of happy plans of them moving back to Nevada City from San Jose, but Daisy would tell her, “Mamma, you will go to Nevada City, but I don’t think you will take me with you.”

To her family it appeared that Daisy was getting better week by week, but then one afternoon she lost all expression in her face, and stared into thin air. Her father asked her what she saw and she claimed she could see Jesus. That very night she fell ill once again, this time with enteritis, and thus started the four days of visions before her tragic death. According to her mother the first 24 hours were the worst, as Daisy could not eat, drink or take any sort of medicine. After that she claimed she felt no pain, but her mind was very astute. Her sister would sing to her from their school hymnal book, and she could recite poetry she had learned before. She also enjoyed having her parents read the Bible to her. This was around the time she started mentioning that her brother, “Allie” (Albion) would come visit her. Allie had died just seven months before, from scarlet fever. She claimed that he would come to her every day, especially those last three days of her life. Many times when her parents would ask her questions that she felt she could not answer to them herself, she would say, “Wait until Allie comes, and I will ask him.”  

As her mother put it, those three last days of Daisy’s life, she “dwelt in both worlds.” It appeared that from what Daisy was experiencing, she could see through the veil so-to-speak, and into the other realm that mortal eyes do not usually see. Daisy explained to her father, “There is no curtain; there is not even a line that separates this life from the other life.” And she stretched out her little hand from the bed and with a gesture said, “It is here and it is there, I know it is so, for I can see you all, and I see them there at the same time.” For the last few days Daisy had several visitors and with each visitor she claimed she could see to the other side and communicate with their dead loved ones. She also told her mother only “No one, unless they have dying eyes can see spirits.”

Daisy loved when her sister Lulu would sing to her, and she always enjoyed her singing this one particular song:

“Oh! Come, angel band,

Come, and around me stand.

Oh! Bear me away on your snowy wings

To my immortal home.” –

One time when Lulu finished singing it, Daisy stated, “Oh Lulu, is it not strange? We always thought the angels had wings! But it is a mistake; they don’t have any.” Lulu replied, “But they must have wings, how else do they fly down from heaven?” “Oh, but they don’t fly,” she answered, “they just come. When I think of Allie, he is here.”

When asked how she could communicate with the spirit realm without anyone hearing her speak or see her lips move, Daisy, in such a simple and childish reply said, “We just talk with our think,” meaning it was all through her mind. The day she died she asked her mother for a mirror to look at her face, staring at her reflection for several minutes. “This body of mine is about worn out. It is like that old dress of mamma’s hanging there in the closet. She doesn’t wear it anymore, and I won’t wear my body anymore…..you will lay my body in the grave because I will not need it again.”

Her mother opened the shutters to the window at Daisy’s request, so she could look outside at the world one last time. Her father carried her to the window and she bid goodbye to everything she saw.  “Goodbye, sky. Goodbye, trees. Goodbye, flowers. Goodbye, white rose. Goodbye, red rose. Good-bye, beautiful world….How I love it, but I do not wish to stay.”

At 8:30 pm, Daisy told her mother that her brother Allie had told her he would come for her at half past 11. She rested on her father’s chest and shoulder and waited. Lulu kissed Daisy goodnight and started up the stairs to go to bed. She could hear Daisy call out, “Good night and goodbye my sweet darling Lulu.”  By 11:30 pm, Daisy told her father that Allie was there to take her away. She lifted both arms up and reached in the air, saying “Come, Allie,” and took her last breath.

Daisy succumbed to her illness on October 8, 1864, and was laid to rest with her brother, “Allie” (David Albion) who died only 7 months earlier at the age of 6 from scarlet fever. Her other sister "Nellie" (Helen) preceded them in death and all three are buried together in the unendowed section, plot # 25.

Grave of Daisy, Nellie and Albion Dryden
Photo Credit: J.Rubio

Her mother published a book in later years telling about their experience in "Daisy Dryden, A Memoir", published by Boston Colonial Press in 1909.

To this day her story remains a mysterious one. Some people think she was only hallucinating due to her body and mind shutting down, while others adamantly believe she genuinely saw into the spirit realm.

For the record, there are no stories or reports of Daisy Dryden's spirit haunting the cemetery, nor has there ever been any reports of the cemetery itself being haunted. Believe it or not, this place is a tranquil place for those at rest, and in all the years I have visited, I have never had any sort of paranormal experience there. --

To read the Google eBook or Download it for FREE click here: https://books.google.com/books/about/Daisy_Dryden.html?id=TN0NAAAAYAAJ

To visit Daisy’s Find-a-grave memorial, click here: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=127400985

(Copyright, 2017-- J'aime Rubio. www.jaimerubiowriter.com) 

Photos: Copyright, J'aime Rubio, 2014

A Ghastly Murder Remembered - Part 2

In my last story, "A Ghastly Murder Remembered," I explained the murder of Mary Arrivey.  As far as the story goes, Gus Arrivey, crazed and in a drunken state,  murdered his mother in the most brutal way on December 4th, 1911. My last blog post went into the details of the murder as well as the background of both Mary and her son, Gus. This blog however, will be about Gus' mental state and the things he told the physicians who observed him after the murder, including newly found information in regards to his past mental state. His case was so odd that it made its way into the California State Journal of Medicine in 1912.

By his own admission, Gus told the physicians that at the age of  five he had been given his first taste of liquor, and had been fully drunk by the age of twelve. He claimed that his father died when he was just a child, and that he did not know much about his relatives. By September 30th, 1910, Gus was committed to Dr. Asa Clark's Sanitarium for his debauchery and "delirium tremens" attacks. He was released nearly six weeks later, on October 8th.

By the springtime, Gus was at it again with his drunken behavior and hallucinations. This time he was arrested for climbing to the top of a tree, claiming that he was rescuing his mother. He was arrested nearly eight times for drunkenness between the spring of 1911 and the date of the murder in December, 1911.

The night before he killed his mother, he claimed to have looked into a "doctor-book" for a sleeping remedy, to which his mother told him he should see a doctor for his insomnia. He alleges that he went to get medicine which was a mixture of choral and bromide, and he went to sleep. He claimed he woke up again at 4 p.m., saw that dinner was cold and that his mother had went to asleep, so he took another dose and went back to bed again. The events that occurred after these moments will remain the most gruesome, brutal and bizarre story I have ever investigated.

Inmate # 25446

What The Officer On The Scene Saw

According to the California State Journal of Medicine, it stated that the officer on the scene found a woman's body lying in a room of the house.

 "The body was covered up with rags, the woman's throat had been cut from ear to ear, her skull fractured and the abdomen opened, loops of intestines protruding from the wound."--

Gus was found about a block from the home, in the tules, knee high in water. He was carrying around a portrait of his mother, one of her shirts and her hat. He was barefoot and was not wearing a coat or hat, and had beaten a serpentine path in the overgrown grass, claiming that a group of black men were chasing him for killing his mother.

So What Was Gus' Side Of The Story?

The story that Gus gives the physicians is one that is not only bizarre, but perplexing. It is obvious this guy had some serious mental issues and the alcohol only exacerbated the situation. Still, the idea of this "space ship" and other odd things he states left me feeling very uneasy, mainly because he speaks of the events with such ease and no sense of emotion.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Q: What's the matter Arrivey, what  trouble have you been into?

Arrivey: "I haven't been into any."

Q: Where is your mother now?

Arrivey: "She is up in this business going around in the jail- in that new flying machine. She went up in the spirit."

Q: Where is her body?

Arrivey: "Her body lies over in the morgue, I guess."

Q: How did she get killed?

Arrivey: "I killed her. There was a gentleman, somekind of religious man. I think I met him on Sutter and Market Streets. I forget how long ago. He showed me how to talk a signed language- sort of whisper just by moving the lips. It took him no time to teach me that lingo. I talked through the ceiling a while ago. I talked to him at a distance when he directed me."

Q: To do what?

Arrivey: "Kill my mother. I don't exactly remember when- sometime late at night. He was in Mars when he told me."

Q: How did you kill your mother?

Arrivey: "First I think I took something on the table there,  and hit her on the head with it. I don't remember where I had been or when I came to the room where she was. I don't remember what I had been doing that day. I hit her over the head with the glass, and he (the aviator) directed me to split open the womb with a knife. He wanted me to kill the baby. I beat her on the head with a hatchet, and she screamed and hollered 'don't Gussie', and all that."


Gus goes into further detail that the man from the space ship kept telling him that his mother had a baby in there that he wanted to take out. The alleged "man from Mars" didn't want Mary's spirit to go out but the baby's spirit. Obviously, the woman was well past child bearing age, and there was no mention in any records I found of her having been pregnant. This was obviously another one of his delusions. What is so disturbing is how easily he speaks of basically gutting his mother like a fish, on the bed.  I felt sick to my stomach when he finally says that he took her to the porch and slit her throat, eventually admitting he almost cut her head off!  He then washed up and changed his clothes, barricaded the front door with a washstand, piled rags on top of his mother and moved furniture to surround her body and then he ran out the back door into the tules. He stayed there all night.

When interviewed he spoke of the evening outside as if he wasn't cold, although it was recorded to have been very cold that night before. It appeared as if the cold weather and rain did little to affect his mental state. In fact, he had no recollection of it, despite being barefoot and coatless.

He kept saying that a group of black men, and two "white fellows" were chasing him and that they were going to kill him for killing his mother. He also said he brought the matches from his home out to the tules so he could be burned alive as a sacrifice. When asked about the "sacrifice". Gus said,  "He (the man from Mars) claimed it was a kind of offering."

Gus stated that he and his mother got along fine, and never had any "words " although she didn't like it when he "went on a jag." When asked again why he killed her, later he claimed that he didn't know. His story continues to go back and forth, since later he states that he wanted to kill her, he knew what he was doing and he didn't "pay attention" because he didn't think he was committing a crime.

When asked if he knew what he did was wrong, Gus answered:

"Sure, I do, and I expect to be punished...

Q: What do you think they will do with you?

Arrivey: "Well, they will either give me life or death. I prefer death."

Q: You are ready to take your death sentence now?

Arrivey: I guess so. I don't like to stay in jail.

Soon after these questions he adds that after his mother's death and he was running around the field, he claimed that his mother was in the ship above him.

"She was in the machine. She was crying and talking and calling her husband down."-

As the doctors noted, during the entire interview, Gus showed no emotion and relayed the entire story as if he was telling it from another person's perspective. Over the course of a few days, the doctors watched him carefully and questioned him more. As time went on, his story changed a bit and he seemed to have forgotten a lot of things he had said previously. According to the doctors he was still speaking of the man from mars, and describing some more odd experiences.

"I saw something like a star in the heavens and as if there was a searchlight extending from Mars to the Earth- and I thought I saw a flying machine with a man in it, going up towards the star and coming down again. The only other person I remember seeing in the house besides my mother was a man of dark complexion, standing in the back room, but he didn't say anything. He was a middle-sized man, wore a chauffeur cap and leggings. I saw no moving pictures, animals or men of extraordinary size. After I had done this to my mother, I think I remember feeling numb and stupid-like. I had no fear at all."

He continues with his odd explanations of the men chasing him in the tules, as well as a morbid dream he had on the way to jail. Doctors claimed that by the 5th day of his incarceration he was actually acting somewhat normal and having no more hallucinations or speaking of oddities. By January 15th, 1911, the courts deemed him sane, (why I will never understand that), and he was sent to San Quentin for a life sentence. They did add that they knew he committed the murder in a "dream like state" caused by delirium tremens and that he could very well do this again, if given the chance, thus the reason he was given a life sentence.

With all the strange circumstances and the complete brutality of the crime, it is insane that the State of California released this man into society nine years after he butchered his own mother. I haven't been able to figure out what he did to violate the terms of his parole, however it is on record that he did return to San Quentin in 1927 and remained there for the duration of his life.

Conclusion

When I first posted the article about Mary Arrivey's death, I stated facts: her background, what happened, and where Gus ended up. I briefly touched on the actual details of the murder. After digging deeper and uncovering this heinous crime, I am left forever scarred at what I read. We sometimes come across articles in the newspapers, online or even segments we hear on the radio or television, speaking of gruesome murders, but in all the years I have researched and wrote about stories such as this, I have never come across one so disturbing.

My heart goes out to Mary Arrivey, and the pain and suffering she must have went through in her final moments. One can only hope she didn't suffer, although the evidence shows she did. I will never look at this case the same again. I wonder now if maybe the reason this story isn't as well known in Stockton as say the "Trunk Murder of 1906," maybe it was because of the sheer brutality of the case. Maybe it was forgotten for a reason...we can only wonder.

Copyright 2015- J'aime Rubio, originally published 3/21/2015)

All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission by the author/publisher, J’aime Rubio. 

 Sources:

California Prison Records

California State Journal of Medicine, 1912

A Ghastly Murder Remembered - Part 1

Mary Arrivey's headstone sits quietly among the thousands of markers, graves and monuments at the Stockton Catholic Cemetery in Stockton, California. If you look closely, you will notice an odd pattern of scratches on the marker itself. It is safe to say that more than likely we will never know exactly why those scratches were engraved in Mary's headstone, or who did it. The story of how she ended up in the cemetery proved to be one of the most heinous and almost incomprehensible murders I had ever researched.

Mary Arrivey, was born Mary Byrne in 1862. A native of Ireland, she immigrated to the United States at some point in her life, later marrying Augustino Arrivey on December 13, 1881 in Stockton. Augustino was a blacksmith from Louisiana, and was born around 1851. Prior to his marriage to Mary, he was also listed in military records in 1876, as a 7th Corporal in the 2nd Brigade. Although I couldn't find his death record, the city directories later list Mary as a widow. At this point her adult son, Augustin Francis Arrivey is living with her.

The Murder

Mary worked at Stockton Laundry, located at 728 E. Washington, while her son, Augustin worked as a printer at a small newspaper called, "The Mail," an earlier version of the Stockton Evening Mail. According to directories, Mary and her son moved around a lot. During my initial investigation I believed that the incident I am about to discuss took place at 847 LaFayette in Stockton, as her Findagrave memorial suggests.

After further digging, I have found that just less than a block or so away from that location, the home in which Mary was actually living in during 1911, was at 219 S. Locust Street in Stockton. The newspaper claimed that she had lived on Harrison, however the directory speaks of Locust Street as being her home address. I could find no listing of Mary living on Harrison at any point in time. I have to assume, given the address on the directory, that the event actually took place at the original home that stood at 219 S. Locust Street in Stockton and perhaps that was just a clerical error on the part of the newspaper. If I find other evidence later, I will update this blog.

According to the San Francisco Call, dated December 5, 1911, it says:

"Crazed by liquor, Gus Arrivey, a printer of this city, murdered his mother, Mary Arrivey last night in her home...."--

The account goes on to detail that Gus claimed that an airship was circling around his head, when a man in the airship allegedly told him to murder his mother. The heinous and most gruesome crime was committed with a hatchet, while he hacked his mother to death.


He then dragged her body around the home leaving a bloody mess all over the floors. The police found the mutilated body of Mary, along with "disarranged bedding and furniture" that showed signs of a serious struggle.  The police located Gus, two blocks from his home in a nearby swampy, grass area where it appeared he had been there all night. He was found barefoot, hunched down and babbling incoherently.

After such a horrendous act, the investigators were not sure whether Gus was insane, drunk or just pure evil. His sanity was called into question, so Dr. A.W. Holshot examined Gus, and found that he was suffering from "delerium tremens" which is a most severe form of ethanol withdrawal, and was deemed sane to stand trial for the murder of his mother.

According to the book, "King Alcohol Dethroned" by Ferdinand Cowle Iglehart, D.D. (1919) he mentions Gus in his reports: 

 

"August Arrivey, thirty years old, a printer by trade, is

under arrest here, the confessed murderer of his mother, 

Mrs. Mary Arrivey, fifty-eight years old. 'The man in 

the airship told me to do it.' Arrivey continually mutters 

as the only reason for his crime. Because of his actions 

the police believe him insane. Liquor is believed, however, 

to be at the root of the man's crime, as he had for the 

last few years obtained one position after another, only to 

lose them in rapid succession on account of sprees. Mrs. 

Arrivey was found lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen, 

with her skull crushed and her face gashed as if from 

blows from a hatchet. Search of the premises disclosed the 

son, muttering like a child, hiding behind some bushes in 

the yard. Confronted with the dead body of his mother, 

he confessed his crime." This paragraph, which appeared 

in a Stockton, California, paper, a few days ago, is one 

which shocks us for a moment as we read it, and is then 

forgotten as a commonplace incident of life. "--

Gus was found guilty in the 1st degree of the murder of his mother, Mary Arrivey and sentenced to life in prison. He was received at San Quentin State Prison on February 6, 1912, where he served 9 1/2 years. He was then paroled on July 13, 1921, but at some point he violated the terms of his parole, because by 1927, he was back in the system again. He stayed for the remainder of his life behind bars, eventually dying on July 1, 1941. He was buried at the cemetery behind San Quentin Prison.

Conclusion

When I was shown a newspaper clipping of this story by Roland Boulware, the man who entered Mary's information and photograph in Findagrave, I was taken aback by the brutality of the crime. I could not fathom that a son would do such a horrendous thing like that to his own mother. What a sick and demented person this man was to do such a horrible thing.

It also saddened me that we had never heard anything of this story before. With all the infamous stories in our history in the United States, such as the "Lizzie Borden" murders and other heinous crimes, why was this crime virtually erased and forgotten in Stockton's history?

It also made me wonder who may have scratched those lines in Mary's grave? Could it have been a relative? Could it have been Gus? Was it possible that he came to the cemetery at some point before he violated his parole in 1927, and in a drunken stupor he scratched those lines in his mother's headstone?

According to Roland Boulware, he believes the scratches were relatively new when he took the photo several years back. Still, there is no way to know for sure when those marks were left on her grave. In the end, I wrote this blog to honor the memory of Mary Arrivey and tell her story. As morbid as her murder was, this was still a piece of Stockton's history and should never be forgotten or erased again.


TO READ PART 2 OF THIS STORY-- A GHASTLY MURDER REMEMBERED CLICK HERE--

(Copyright 2015- J'aime Rubio, originally published 3/20/2015)

All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission by the author/publisher, J’aime Rubio. 

Sources:
Ancestry.com
California Prison Records
San Francisco Call (12/5/1911)
San Francisco Call (1/17/1912)
"King Alcohol Dethroned,"- Ferdinand Cowle Iglehart (1919)
Stockton Directories (various)
Census Records, Marriage Records
Military Records
Findagrave.com
Photos: San Quentin Prison Photos,
Roland Boulware, grave of Mary Arrivey.
Photos of 847 E. Lafayette- by J'aime Rubio
219 S. Locust, google maps

A Forgotten Township Worth Remembering

Just 28 miles northeast of Stockton, and only six miles north of Lockeford, sits a cemetery forgotten in time. People pass through this area daily without batting an eye, never knowing that the farmland they are driving through at one time was the Elliott Township.  Now considered part of Galt, this area was once a bustling little town full of people and businesses, but you would never know from the looks of it.  All that is left as you drive up to the area is the oak trees and a few visible monuments in a small cemetery off the side of the road. Headstones wore out by the hands of time, basking in the sun and the shade of the trees, showing the affects the elements have had on them is all that is left of the town legacy, the graves.

Thankfully, not everyone has forgotten the cemetery or the people from Elliott Township. A handful of people including the cemetery caretaker, many local volunteers, historians and a young man by the name of Drew Klaege are all determined to bring this cemetery back to life again. I had the pleasure of speaking to Drew and his mother Pam a few weeks back and I was really impressed with the passion this young man has for working on preserving the history and the cemetery of Elliott.

When I asked Drew what sparked his interest in the cemetery, he explained that two years ago he had met the caretaker of Elliott Cemetery, Eric Schneider, and after learning about some of the history he became interested in it.  Although time had passed, the thought was never far from his mind, and when the opportunity arose to become involved in restoration effort of the cemetery, he took an idea and ran with it. 

In order to earn his Eagle Rank in Boy Scouts, he had the opportunity to lead a community service project. Naturally, Drew thought of building a kiosk for the cemetery in order to allow visitors to learn the history of the Elliott Township and those who are buried there. The idea was a home run!

Along with being the leader of the project, which involved designing, planning, financing  he also had to bring his idea to fruition by being an overseer of the job.  The task was not an easy one, according to Pam, "The process of getting the project approved took three separate presentations. After gaining approval from the Boy Scouts, the cemetery caretakers and finally the Galt Historical Society, Drew's project was on its way."

After appropriating the funds totaling  $1,000.00 by way of donations, Drew was able to gather the materials needed in order to build a kiosk for the cemetery. The kiosk will feature the names of those interred at Elliott Cemetery as well as historical information on these people, the town's history and several photographs to be displayed for posterity.

History of Elliott Township 

According to Pam Trassare, Elliott was originally known as Hawk's Corner, for the general store built by Mr. Hawkins on the northwestern side of Liberty Road and the intersection on Elliott Road.  Later, when John Hurd Hickey purchased Mr. Hawkins land,  he and his brother, along with fellow resident Mr. Johnson, renamed the town after the pioneer rancher, Dr. George Elliott who developed the settlement of Dry Creek just two miles north of Elliott. Being that Dr. Elliott had just died a few years earlier in 1858, it is safe to assume that the naming of the town was done as an effort to honor the doctor, posthumously.

By November 25, 1863, it was officially a town with the opening of its very own post office.  Old township records show that at one time there was 51 farmers, 1 merchant, 2 doctors, 2 carriage makers, 1 civil engineer and a stock raiser living within the township. Although a small area, the little town was certainly growing, eventually building a school house for the children. It was recorded that by the 1880's, 70 percent of the men working in the area were farmers.

The photo to the right above was provided to Drew by Don and Gayle Gibson. The image shows the boarding house which was located in Hawk's Corner along with some of the early residents: the Ralphs family and the Hart family.

According to the book"Lockeford's Beginnings: A Pioneer Doctor's Dream" by Delia Marcella Thorp Emerrick, a county tax for schools was passed in legislation, allowing for 5 cents to be taken out of the 30 cents tax for every $100 of property to allow for a school fund.  A name that may be familiar, Dr. George Locke, of "Lockeford," was the clerk for the newly established school district, while G.C. Holman was the school commissioner.   Unfortunately there wasn't enough taxes collected to make a dent in building the school, so it was documented that all bachelors in the area donated $5 each to appropriate the funds necessary to build the school house. The cost was $100, and the building was known as the "Rag School House" due to its construction of wood frames and floors, with canvas walls.

The town seemed to flourish for a good twenty years or so, but according to journals of Delia Hammond Locke, it appears as if the Elliott Township started to feel the effects of the economy by the 1890's and dwindled down to nonexistence. "There was a railroad strike that greatly affected the residents in the town," stated Pam Trassare. "That and the possibility of fatal outbreaks in the area during the same time period could have all played a part."  An outbreak of tuberculosis in Clay Station, as well as a Diphtheria outbreak in Lockeford during that very time period, could very well have affected the population of the small township of Elliott. It seems like the perfect storm: health crisis, economic woes due to the railroad strike, all leaving residents without food, supplies, etc. It was a recipe for disaster, more than likely forcing most residents to leave.  Other historians such as Amy Berkebile have been researching the history of Elliott as well as the residents interred at the cemetery, and there is a lot of history to be told and much left still to be uncovered.

The Cemetery

The Elliott Township Cemetery appears to have been there long before the town officially was. The sign outside says the cemetery was established in 1859. Interestingly, the oldest grave there is dated at 1822. I know in many cemeteries relatives were often disinterred from their original burial place and reburied in other cemeteries to be closer to family, and perhaps that could account for the gap in years from the earlier burials to the year that the cemetery was officially established.

The Elliott Methodist Church was later built in 1876 on the cemetery grounds, although there is no trace left of it today. In all there are 80 residents documented at the Elliott Township Cemetery that caretakers know of.  When I interviewed Drew, he mentioned one particular grave that stood out to him. It was the grave of Joseph Steely.

Joseph Steely

"I like history," Drew explained, " and here was this unmarked grave of a civil war veteran. They just recently found his grave and put a new gravestone, so I became very interested in who he was."

Joseph Steely was born in August of 1828. Although born a native to Ohio, Joseph's family stemmed from Old English roots. He married in 1854, to Rachel Briggs, and later enlisted in the military after the news of Fort Sumpter's attack in 1861.  Documented as First Sargent for Company B of the 3rd Regiment in the Ohio Infantry, Joseph was stationed at Camp Chase in Columbus. He continued his service, reenlisting twice up until the middle of 1864. When his service was finally over, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri and again to Johnson County, Kansas and raised his family there. Sadly, his wife passed away in 1881, and Joseph was permanently disabled after an accident at a saw mill. From then on, he depended on his sons to care for him and the household. Eventually the idea to move to California came up, when his now adult sons had the opportunity.

The California Great Register's list Joseph Steely as being a resident in Elliot in 1884. It also lists him as living in Clements in 1892, 1894 and Mackville in 1896. He later passed away on May 18, 1898 and was buried at the Elliott Cemetery.  His children, sons Marcus and George lived in nearby areas, while his daughter Mattie lived in Clements. In all he had 5 children: 2 sons and 3 daughters. His oldest son, Marcus later committed suicide in 1941 at the age of 81.

There are many people buried at the cemetery with fascinating stories still left to be told. Take the story of Eliza Ann Peter whose broken and forgotten headstone is all that remains left of her memory. Her beautiful epitaph reads,

 "Remember me, as you pass by, 

As you are now, so once was I;

 As I am now, you soon will be,

 Prepare for death, and follow me."

Her cause of death still eludes researchers to this day. In hopes to get answers, I tracked down a gentleman named Jim, who is a descendant of Eliza's husband. Merriman Peter, whom I will be writing about extensively in an upcoming blog, was Eliza's husband. I have found out more about him than I have Eliza, although his story is quite interesting as well. Combined with the research I completed along with Jim's information, I have been able to come up with a short biography on Eliza.

She was born as Eliza Ann Peck on September 27, 1841, in the State of Texas. When she was just a child, her family moved to California, as the Census records for 1852 state that she was 11 years old living in San Joaquin County. She later popped up in archived marriage records, in Sonoma, when she wed Merriman Peter on October 20, 1859.

The Census records for 1860, lists Eliza and Merriman living in Petaluma with an infant (one of their daughters) and a young boy, John (9 years old). This couldn't have been Eliza's son, for she had only been married to Merriman less than a year and she was only 19 years old. Merriman had been married once before, and his wife died in childbirth, so it is possible that this was his son from his first wife he had in Missouri. The child's state of birth was also listed as Missouri, which strengthens my theory.

At some point Merriman moved out to Dry Creek which was just a few miles north of Elliott, and there they settled. Eliza gave birth to three daughters: Marietta (born 1860), Josephine (born 1862) and Amelia (born 1864). Sadly, Eliza died on July 27, 1865, due to reasons unknown. In an old interview published in the Stockton Record, honoring Merriman Peter's life, it briefly mentioned his marriages, noting :

  “Peter has been married three times.  His first wife, taken when he was 24 years of age, in western Platt County, Missouri, died nine months later in child birth.  In 1858, while farming in Sonoma County, Peter again married.  Three children, all daughters, were born before death again reached into the life of Merriman Peter, snatching the second Mrs. Peter away six years after the wedding. Peter, as he explains, then became both a father and mother to his three little girls, until some years later he "finally found a mother for them, a good mother, too, and we raised them up all right."---

Unfortunately, I was still unable to find out the cause of Eliza's death, although it still remained a tragedy.  In the end, I bet if we were to take each and every person buried at the Elliott cemetery we would find a plethora of history and fascinating stories. I was very happy to be able to write this short blog about this lovely and historic cemetery, as well as bring attention to the fine folks who are so passionate and willing to restore it. I hope that more and more people will be drawn to the wonderful history of this place, and that it will never be forgotten again.

 COPYRIGHT- 2015, J'aime Rubio (originally published on April 10, 2015)

Sources:

Census Records, Marriage Records, 

Ancestry.com, Familysearch.com, Findagrave.com

"Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: Memories of Elliott, California"- 

San Joaquin Historian, Peggy Ward Engh, 1996

Records from: “History of San Joaquin County 1879” by Thompson & West.

Interviews with Pam Trassare & Drew Klaege

Photos from: Drew Klaege, Pam Trassare, Don & Gayle Gibson, Amy Berkebile, San Joaquin Historian, Friends of Elliott Cemetery Facebook Page.

"The History of Clements." by Margaret L. Lathrop

Newspaper article c/o Jim Carpenter

"Lockeford's Beginnings: A Pioneer Doctor's Dream" by Delia Marcella Thorp Emerrick