Chanate Historic Cemetery

GRAVE MARKERS

As part of their order for burying indigents, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors required that each grave be marked with "a first class double surfaced redwood headboard 6x32 inches, painted with at least two coats of white paint, and lettered with the initials of the deceased and Hospital Register Number . . ." [Sonoma County Records, 14 Minutes 528, 16 July 1902]

In 1939, the new Oak Knoll Sanatorium was built for tuberculosis patients. Later known as Oakcrest and now The Charles Wright Norton Mental Health Center, the new sanatorium was next to the cemetery. At that time, tuberculosis was almost always fatal. The patients knew that the adjacent cemetery was almost certainly their next stop and complained about the depressing view of hundreds of white headboards shining in the morning sun. Soon afterwards, the headboards were all removed and replaced with cement-filled metal cans that look as if they were trash from the county hospital's kitchen. These markers today are called "soup cans." Number 619 was found at the north end of the cemetery but has not been identified. The grave probably dates from the 1920s. The replica headboard was made of lumber from an old redwood water tank.

This headboard would have marked the grave of Lester Swamp, an Oneida Indian from Wisconsin, who joined the US Army in World War I and served in the Philippines. Released from service at The Presidio in San Francisco, he came north to work at a farm near Guerneville, where he contracted tuberculosis. He died at the county hospital eighty years ago (April 20, 1928) and was buried here in the Chanate Historic Cemetery.

Most graves in the Chanate Historic Cemetery are marked only with the soup cans. A few graves have stone markers, probably bought for them by family members. One tombstone, broken in pieces, belongs to Charles Brewster, who died March 27, 1891. Only five pieces have been found so far but the search continues.

Since the restoration of the Chanate Historic Cemetery began in 2003, several family members have come forward with contributions to mark the graves of their loved ones. Five bronze plaques have now been installed.

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