Mountain View Cemetery (Fresno)

Mountain View Cemetery is a cemetery in Fresno, California, opened in the 1880s.[1]

Mountain View Cemetery
Headstone at Mountain View Cemetery in 2014
Details
Location
1411 W Belmont Ave, Fresno, California
CountryUnited States
Find a GraveMountain View Cemetery

History

In the early 1880s, Moses J. Church donated 80 acres of land along Belmont Avenue for the establishment of cemeteries.[2][3] He named the combined plot Mountain View Cemetery but subdivided it and allocated it to a number of groups, such as Catholic, Seventh-Day Adventist, Episcopal, Christian, Masonic, Odd Fellows and many others.[3] No fences were installed between the areas. John S. Eastwood performed the initial survey the property in 1888 as Fresno's City Engineer at the time.[4] The 10-acres of donated land earmarked for the Armenian community became Ararat Cemetery.[5]

Upkeep for the cemetery was assigned to the local Odd Fellows lodge.[6] In 1910, citizens became concerned with plant overgrowth and lack of a map showing ownership of individual plots at the cemetery. They formed the "Mountain View Cemetery Improvement Association" and took over some management duties.[6]

Notable interments
A young girl walking through Mountain View Cemetery
  • Frank Hamilton Short (1862-1920), lawyer and a states' rights advocate.
  • Bertrand W. Gearhart (1890-1955), lawyer and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for California's 9th congressional district.[7]
  • Thomas Edwin Hughes (1830-1919), real estate developer and investor who contributed to the initial development of Fresno.
  • Dutch Leonard (1892–1952), pitcher in Major League Baseball who had an 11-year career playing for the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers.
  • John Samuel Eastwood (1857–1924), dam engineer and pioneer of hydroelectric power production.[4]
  • Alma Rubens (1897–1931), film actress and stage performer.
  • Moses J. Church (1819-1900), known for building hundreds of miles of canals in the Fresno area, enabling irrigated agriculture using water from the Kings River.
  • Fulton G. Berry (1832-1910), businessman and namesake for Fresno's Fulton Mall.
  • Josiah Hall, Union army officer.
  • Frank Dusy, (1837–1898), early business leader of Selma, California and a co-inventor of the Fresno Scraper.
  • Thomas R. Meux, (1838-1929), physician who served early Fresno and builder of the Meux Home, which became a museum.

See also

References
  1. "Local Brevities". Fresno Morning Republican. January 23, 1897. p. 3. Retrieved November 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "The cemetery muddle". Fresno Morning Republican. April 18, 1885. p. 3. Retrieved November 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Rehart, Catherine Morison (1996). The Valley's Legends and Legacies. Fresno, California: Quill Driver Books. p. 32.
  4. Jackson, Donald C. (1995). Building the Ultimate Dam: John S. Eastwood and the Control of Water in the West. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 44. ISBN 0806137339.
  5. Sibley, Eugene (July 2015). Ozeran, Janelle (ed.). "A Short History of Fresno County Owned Cemeteries for Indigents: Paupers and Potters Fields". Fresno County Genealogical Society. 50 (3). Retrieved November 7, 2022.
  6. "Make another effort to improve local cemetery". Fresno Morning Republican. March 5, 1910. p. 7. Retrieved November 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Gearhart, Bertrand Wesley, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

36°44′59″N 119°49′36″W

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