Potter's Field August 20, 2009 A new book on the Chanate Historic Cemetery, Potter's Field, is now available for purchase from Heritage Books. The book may be ordered by going to your local bookstore, Copperfield's Books, Heritage Books, or Amazon.
This book tells the story of the old Sonoma County Cemetery, a place of burial for those who had no family, friends, or money to provide for themselves. "Pauper" cemeteries like this one also served as one of few places where disadvantaged groups could bury their dead; in nineteenth- century California the Chinese were such a group. The history of the cemetery and its eventual abandonment, rediscovery, and restoration is followed by a biographical list of burials in the cemetery. This previously unpublished material is intended for genealogists seeking that distant relation who "went west" and vanished. It is bad enough that these people had to be buried in disgrace. If we can do nothing more for them, we should at least not ignore them.
Additions and Corrections

If a Tree Falls in the Cemetery, Do the Dead Hear It?

March 25, 2009

Sometime during the weekend of March 21-22, a large dead tree blew over in the Chanate Historic Cemetery. In falling, the dead tree damaged a large living tree. Limbs and branches from the trees fell into the cemetery and the adjacent parking lot but the only damage was to a split-rail fence. Limbs and brush fell uncomfortably close to graves such as that of Walter McCoy, but none of the monuments were affected.

The grave of Get Wong (1863-1938), a Chinese resident of Santa Rosa, was nearly crushed by the falling tree trunk. The tree was about 40 years old and had recently died. It was almost two feet in diameter and weighed many tons.

Sonoma County Regional Parks employees responded to the emergency and removed portions of the trees that had fallen into the adjacent parking lot. They called in a tree surgeon to bid on repairs to the damaged coniferous tree, which may have to be removed if it is too badly damaged.

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