CLAUDINE BURNETT BOOKS
The Wandering Tombstone
By Claudine Burnett
A broken tombstone rests next to a tree at the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery. It’s hard to make out the name – Charles Tamma, Famma, Wamna – or the death date Jan. 22, 1879 or 1870? Intrepid taphophile Duke Fuller contacted me wanting help in placing it on the grave where it belonged. I’m a taphophile too, someone who is passionate about cemeteries and the history of the people who rest there.
Many may remember Duke from my book Died in Long Beach: Cemetery Tales. Duke avidly hunts for sunken grave markers which have disappeared into the earth at both the Municipal and Sunnyside cemeteries. Subsidence and runoff from the oil wells above the cemeteries have caused many markers to recede further into the earth. Duke’s quest is to find them. He’s not used to having a tombstone with no grave to go along with it.
Duke, a special education teacher, has researched cemeteries not only in California, but numerous other states including Arizona, Oklahoma and Colorado. On the website Find-a-Grave, he manages over 52,000 memorials and has taken over 25,000 photographs. Somehow, he also finds time to help in many para-athletic track and field events across the United States, including the U.S. Paralympic Trials in Florida preceding the Paris Olympics.
Early in October, Duke asked for my help. He had searched local cemetery records for help in finding a grave to go along with the lonely tombstone, and came up with nothing. I remembered the forgotten tombstone, which I mentioned in my book. I was sure the surname was Hanna. From there, and clues on the stone, I investigated further. I found a Charles Hanna in the 1870 U.S. Census. He was 9 years old and living with his family in Anaheim.
Charles Avery Hanna, was born in California on January 17, 1861 to John (1830-1916) and Martha Jane Rogers Hanna (1834-1902). According to the census, he had 4 sisters and 1 brother. His father was a farmer. The parent’s names matched the initials on the tombstone.
In the Anaheim Gazette (1/25/1879) I found a short obituary which said Charles died January 22, 1879, the date on the grave stone. The obituary said he passed away “near Anaheim.” No cause of death was given. A letter in the Gazette (2/1/1879) from the “Dramatic Club,” of which he was a member, mourned his loss.
Since Long Beach didn’t exist in 1879 (it would begin to be developed as Wilmore City in 1881), I wondered why Charles was buried in the Municipal Cemetery rather than one in Anaheim where his parents were later interred. His burial would have been only a few weeks after that of Milton Neece (d.12/1/1878), allegedly the earliest burial at what is now the Municipal Cemetery.
I learned there had been a smallpox outbreak in the area in 1878-79. Perhaps smallpox was the cause of death of both Charles and Milton. Smallpox is highly contagious. It would not have been wise to transport the body back to Anaheim. Could Charles have been employed on the Rancho Los Alamitos when he contracted the disease and buried in what would later become the Municipal Cemetery?
Duke came up with another solution. Perhaps Charles’ grave stone had been stolen and displayed during a high school “spirit week.” Though “spirit week” is supposed to celebrate school spirit leading up to homecoming or other big events, sometimes things get out of hand. Duke remembered back in the 1980s, when he was at Pacifica High School in west Garden Grove, that numerous grave markers were displayed on campus (among other stolen items). He was sure it was an arduous task for faculty to research and return the markers to the correct cemeteries. Could Charles’ tombstone have been stolen and returned to the wrong cemetery?
It’s too sad to think that the tombstone of Charles Hanna would have been stolen by mischievous teens and ended up in Long Beach by mistake! Could his spirit be one of those who wander the Municipal Cemetery, perhaps looking for his grave? Or is he haunting Anaheim Cemetery, trying to find the tombstone marking where his earthly remains lie buried? I decided to look further and hopefully give Charles Hanna closure, putting his marker back where it belongs.
In checking records at the Anaheim Cemetery on Find-a-Grave there is a Charles Hanna allegedly buried there, along with John and Martha Hanna. He died the same day as the Charles Hanna described on the tombstone. He is said to have been born in California, like tombstone Charles, but the 1803 birth date listed in the cemetery’s records, seems much too early for Anglo children to have been born in California. No grave marker exists at the Anaheim Cemetery to verify the birth date. Otherwise, pieces seem to fit.
I did discover more about the Hanna family from John Hanna’s obituary. They arrived in California in 1860 where John worked as a miner, coming to Anaheim in 1868. There John purchased 1280 acres of land from Abel Stearns (of the Rancho Los Alamitos) for $10 an acre. All of present-day Garden Grove, and land west of Katella was owned by John Hanna. John later went into real estate selling all but a 60-acre walnut grove at Miraflores (near Disneyland).
Intrepid grave hunter Duke Fuller, visited the Anaheim Cemetery to see what he could find. Unfortunately, he could not locate the grave mentioned in Find-a-Grave. We are pursuing other leads, but so far nothing.
However, perhaps some of you reading this can be of help. Do you remember removing tombstones from cemeteries, perhaps during your school’s spirit week?
If so, please let Duke and/or me know. You can remain anonymous! You can find us at the Historical Society of Long Beach’s annual cemetery tour on October 26th (1095 E. Willow), along with volunteers enacting stories of some of Long Beach’s dead. Duke is there to help interested folk find graves. I’ll be at the Author’s booth. We both look forward to meeting and talking with fellow taphophiles.
All photos courtesy of Duke Fuller.