The history of Santa Rosa's
Rural Cemetery, a cemetery which is fast becoming "urban" as the city
grows around it, is tied to the Mexican-Spanish background of California by an
early day purchase.
Sacks of gold, teams of oxen and blooded Kentucky
horses were paid by Richard Fulkerson to the Carrillo family for a vast section
of land which included the ground now taken up by the cemetery on Franklin Ave.
The hillside was used by the Fulkersons for their own family burials. (Richard
Fulkerson, his wife, Sally, and his married sons and daughters made the
overland trek across the plains from Kentucky by way of Iowa where they made an
extended stay. They arrived in the Sonoma Valley in 1884.)
THE STORY OF Richard
Fulkerson was told by his great, great grand-daughter, Mrs. Elaine Z. Minney of
105 Steiner Court. Mrs. Minney, a descendant of Mr. Fulkerson through his
daughter, Phebe Fulkerson Harris, is the daughter of Mrs. William R. Duncan.
Mrs. Duncan has another daughter, Mrs. Frederick Casani. Richard and Sally
Fulkerson had 5 children: Phebe, Ruth, Mary, John and Steven. Ruth and Mary
married 2 Mize brothers and Thompson Mize,
Ruth's husband, who died shortly after the family arrived in Santa
Rosa, was the first to be buried in the hill cemetery northeast of the city.
Richard Fulkerson built a house on stately southern mansion lines, in the
tradition of the Old South from which his ancestors came. He claimed kinship to
a Virginia gentlemen who popularized the style -- George Washington. The home's
spacious rooms were the rendezvous for Fulkerson children and grandchildren,
travelers and friends until the late 1880's when the house burned to the
ground. Two of Mr. Fulkerson's descendants still live in the neighborhood where
his southern mansion stood: Mrs. William R. Duncan on Wright St. and her
brother, C. W. Harris, a retired Oakland policeman. Mr. Harris lives on
Franklin Ave. on part of the original Fulkerson property.
THE FAMILY tree
branches broadly from Mr. and Mrs. Fulkerson. Phebe Fulkerson -- married to
Jacob Harris, her 2nd cousin -- had 4 children. The first 2 were born in Iowa
and the 3rd, Alice Clara, was born July 1, 1854, on the trail to California.
The long immigrant train halted for the event and Phebe's uncle, Dr. Steven T.
<?> Fulkerson, attended at the birth.
A 4th child, Richard Alexander, was born in Santa Rosa in 1856 and a 5th, Phebe
Florence, in 1858. The parents of Phebe's husband also came from Kentucky. They
were Samuel and Phebe Bice Harris, married in Hardin County, Ky., in 1817.
Samuel Harris was then a young soldier, a veteran of the War of 1812 who fought
in the battle of New Orleans. The elder Harrises followed their son to
California in 1860. Both are buried in the rural cemetery.
IN LATER years of his
life Richard Fulkerson invited members of pioneer families in and around Santa
Rosa to use his family cemetery for their own dead. Many in the community took
advantage of his friendly offer. Sally Fulkerson died in 1882 and Mr. Fulkerson
ordered a large marble tomb to be erected. He joined his wife in this tomb 5
years later. The tomb was built at a cost of $8,000 and is still distinguished
by the original heavy bronze door and a column placed before it at Mr.
Fulkerson's death by his brother Masons. Mr. Fulkerson had asked that his
children also be buried in the tomb if they so desired, but that if they had
other wishes the key to the bronze door be thrown away. His wishes were obeyed
when his children decided not to be buried in the tomb.
JACOB HARRIS was buried
on the hill in 1901. At that time the slopes were clear of shrubs and tall
grasses. From his grave the broad valley of Santa Rosa, sparsely settled in the
immediate vicinity, was visible for miles. The Fulkerson children planted
acacias beside their parents' tomb. Around the family graves, Phebe Florence
Harris, then 9, mother [sic] had brought from the East. (Mrs. Harris had
brought many seeds and cuttings and a favorite red peony in a barrel of sand
with her from her eastern garden.) The marble tomb for the elder Fulkersons was
damaged in the 1906 earthquake. The fine marble cracked and had to be
reinforced with native stone. Phebe Florence Harris, who planted the flowers on
the family graves, died 2 years ago at the age of 91. She also was buried on
the hill where her sweetpeas now run riot, tangling with periwinkle and tall
grasses.
IN THE OLD cemetery
where shrubs, trees and grasses are still interspersed by the pink and purple
sweetpeas, the headstones reveal the names of many pioneer families who
accepted Richard Fulkerson's invitation to bury their dead there. Many of the
early families have moved away or their descendants have died out. But there
are numerous names closely associated with the growth of Santa Rosa. Among them
are: Dwinelles, Finleys, Carithers, Woolseys, Weatheringtons, Brittons,
Barhams, Dibbles and Badgers. Among the great grandchildren of the rural
cemetery's founder are Mrs. Richard (Irene Ketcham) Jacobsen, Ronald V. Ketcham
of Santa Rosa and Richard Ketcham of Napa. Their brothers, Cecil and Paul
Ketcham, are deceased. Among the great, great great grandchildren are Mrs.
Minney's daughters, Diane and Audrey, and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Frederick Casani, Gloria, who now is Mrs. John Muzio of San
Francisco.
ANOTHER GREAT, great
great grandchild Richard Fulkerson, namesake of the founder, died in World War
II. He was the son of Bruce Fulkerson of Monte Rio. Eight cousins of the
original Fulkerson still live in the Redwood Empire. Relics and photographs of
Richard and Sally Fulkerson have been preserved by the Harris and Murdock
branches of the family. The late Glenn Murdock and his sisters, Edna and Ella
Murdock Rogers, are among Richard Fulkerson's great grandchildren through the
Mizes. Descendants of these original families still are being buried in this
hallowed ground which has served as a memorial to the generosity of the pioneer
Fulkersons.
