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History of the Temecula Public Cemetery
Land for what eventually became the Temecula Public Cemetery was donated by a widow, Mercedes Pujol, who came from Spain in 1884, to settle the estate of her late husband Domingo Pujol. She sold much of her property, but with philanthropic foresight, she deeded the land for a cemetery, and also gave land for a school, a town site and a rail station.
The land was a pioneer cemetery, maintained by families of the interred, until 1928, when Public Cemetery Districts were formed in California to provide lower cost burial facilities to residents. Alex Escallier and James Freeman were two of the three men who were responsible for the new cemetery district. Frank Salas was hired as a groundskeeper. Frank, who was 73 at the time, dug all of the 6-foot graves with a hand shovel. The graves sold then for $200.00 and Frank charged $75.00 for opening and closing the graves.
Annie Santa Maria served as a trustee for fifty years, the longest term of anyone’s service. In 1968, while Annie was president of the cemetery board, the board put a moratorium on the purchase of more than two graves per family, because cemetery space was limited.
A section of land east of the original section was purchased in 1987, opening Section 2. The first burial in Section 2 was in 1993. There are 896 graves in Section One, and 296 graves in Section Two. Section 3, adjacent to St. Catherine of Alexandria Catholic Church opened in 2000 and has 181 burials to date. Section 4th section, the first section with dual depth graves. Section 5, near the cemetery, is set with 1,219 addition dual depth graves.
A hexagonal columbarium of mahogany colored granite with a capacity for 192 cremated remains was erected in 2001 overlooking the original section of the cemetery.
The Temecula Public Cemetery District strives to perpetuate Mercedes Pujol’s vision to give residents of Temecula a beautiful cemetery, a memorial park for the final resting place for generations to come.
Interesting Markers
The oldest grave is Lovica Welty’s. She was the daughter of Richard and Mary Welty, who owned the Welty Hotel and the Welty General Mercantile Store. The marker for Lovica’s short life of sixteen years shows the dates 1873-1889.
A marker that attracts attention simply reads, “LADY AND BABY”. No one seems to know who they were or the story behind the epithet.
In a cemetery this old, it is not uncommon to have several unmarked graves. Some are unmarked because of the expense of a marker, others because the deceased didn’t have family to provide one, and others may have had wooden crosses that deteriorated over time.
There are several unmarked graves in the old section, or original section. Although the cemetery always had an overseer, record keeping was not done as carefully as we do today. Therefore several of the graves that are unmarked or marked “UNK”, for “unknown”. The graves in the older section are not in a single orderly row as our more recent ones are, nor do the markers all face the same direction.
People Buried in Temecula Cemetery
Mahlon Vail, who managed the nearly 90-thousand-acre Vail Ranch is buried near Eli Barnett who promoted the building of the First National Bank of Temecula in 1914. The Ludys, Cobbs and Culvers ranched on the same land, prior to the Vails.
Alex and Pete Escallier, shareholders in Eli Barnett’s bank venture, are buried in the cemetery. The Escallier family has the most graves – a total of 21 - including one marked “SIX GUN”, a nickname that stood the test of time.
Other families represented in the cemetery include GONZALEZ, BURNHAM, LUDY, FRIEDEMANN, SWANGUEN, MAGEE, MACHADO, KOLB, NICOLAS, SERVEL, FREEMAN, HICKS, RORIPAUGH, MC SWEENEY, FERNALD and TOBIN.
About Markers
Most of the large upright markers in the cemetery were mined from the granite in the Temecula hills. While Alex Escallier was one of the cemetery board members, they adopted a resolution to stop placement of upright markers, thus limiting the need of additional groundskeepers. (Upright markers are obstacles to lawn mowing.)
In 1997 there were 695 grave markers on the cemetery grounds, today 10 years later we have doubled that figure with 1,492 markers.
Written by Rebecca and Darell Farnbach