Pioneer cemetery believed located

Historical societies pool information, pinpoint site at old naval airfield

By Tim Moran
tmoran@modbee.com

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The lost West Side cemetery may have been found.

A 130-year-old pioneer cemetery is believed to have been found on the Crows Landing Air Facility southeast of Patterson, a former Navy base now owned by Stanislaus County. The cemetery was believed to be small, with as many as 25 graves on a quarter-acre. But all traces of the cemetery disappeared, possibly removed by the Navy when it took over the land during World War II.

A handful of local historians for years have doggedly tried to pinpoint where the cemetery was located.

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That search became more urgent when the county acquired the 1,528-acre naval base and began negotiations with Sacramento developer Gerry Kamilos to build a business and industrial park on 4,800 acres that includes the county property.

Patricia S. Snoke, secretary of the Gustine Historical Society, has been researching the cemetery for two decades. She raised the cemetery issue in public hearings in preparation of an environmental impact report for Kamilos' PCCP West Park LLC development.

Snoke's great-grandmother, Ellen O'Connell Bird Niddrie, was buried in the cemetery, along with one of her great-grandmother's sons, Joseph Bird. She knows of two other people buried there : a murder victim named Charles Benjamin Bookout, and Benjamin Tucker Crow, a member of the family that founded Crows Landing.

Snoke wants to make sure her relatives and others buried in the cemetery are remembered and the graves not disturbed by the pending development.

County officials researched the cemetery four years ago and found references to it in old news articles. A researcher hired by the county reported that the cemetery was said to be located at the northwest corner of Bell and Ike Crow roads, north of the old Bonita School.

The Bonita School was built in 1870 and operated for 21 years before it was moved.

Now officials from three West Side historical societies have written to the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors to say they believe they know the exact location of the cemetery.

"We respectively (sic) request that Stanislaus County identify and verify the location so that the graves are preserved and set aside as a pioneer cemetery," the letter says, adding that the historical societies are willing to work with the county on the task. Officials from the Gustine, Newman and Patterson historical societies signed the letter.

Snoke said Wednesday that the three historical societies pooled their information about the cemetery and talked with a person whose family has been in the area more than 100 years to pinpoint the site.

The site the historians have identified is a small patch of ground bordered by three large juniper trees on the west side of Bell Road, north of the old Bonita School site. The pioneer family descendant told area researchers that the gate to the cemetery was between two of the junipers.

County Deputy Executive Officer Keith Boggs spoke with Snoke by telephone Wednesday and agreed to meet at the site in two weeks.

"We are going to, if need be, do some sonar testing," Boggs said Wednesday. Sonar technology can scan beneath the surface using sound waves to detect burial sites.

The county has looked for old aerial photographs that might show the cemetery, but hasn't found any evidence of it, Boggs said.

"We will do everything in our power to put the issue to rest," Boggs said. "We are very eager to know where they think this is. ... We want to do the right and ethical thing."

Even if the cemetery can't be positively located, Boggs said, some sort of marker recognizing its existence might be appropriate. "We want the public to be aware that we are sensitive to all issues," he said.

Kamilos said Wednesday that he has no problem preserving the cemetery. "We've done that in other projects. If there are elements of a project that are historical, we always want to create some kind of preservation," he said. "We need to work with the historical societies."

For Snoke, the prospect of identifying the site means the successful end to a long quest. "I've been working on it for 20 years, and to think the last six months have been so profitable," she said. "It's what happens when everyone works together."

Once the site is positively identified, Snoke said, it should be cleaned up and fenced off. "Put a sign on it and leave it alone," she said.

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Bee staff writer Tim Moran can be reached at tmoran@modbee.com or 578-2349.