New Helvetia Cemetery, initially named Sutter Fort Burying Ground, is a defunct cemetery founded in c. 1845 and closed in 1912, formerly located at northeast corner of Alhambra Boulevard and J Street (present-day 924 Alhambra Boulevard) in the

East Sacramento East Sacramento (also known as East Sac) is a neighborhood in Sacramento, California, United States, that is east of downtown and midtown. East Sacramento is bounded by U.S. Route 50 to the south, Business Loop 80 to the west and north, Elvas Ave ...

neighborhood of

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, California. It was the first cemetery in the city of Sacramento. The site is now Sutter Middle School, and has a historic plaque. It is listed as a

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

(number 592), by the California Office of Historic Preservation since May 22, 1957.

History

The

New Helvetia New Helvetia (Spanish: Nueva Helvetia), meaning "New Switzerland", was a 19th-century Alta California settlement and Ranchos of California, rancho, centered in present-day Sacramento, California, Sacramento, California. Colony of Nueva Helvetia Th ...

cemetery was founded by Swiss pioneer

John A. Sutter John Augustus Sutter (February 23, 1803 – June 18, 1880), born Johann August Sutter and known in Spanish as Don Juan Sutter, was a Swiss immigrant of Mexican and American citizenship, known for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area th ...

in c. 1845 (some sources state 1848), under the name the Sutter Fort Burying Ground (or Sutter Burying Ground), and in 1850 the name was changed to the New Helvetia Cemetery when Sutter donated the land. The name

(or New Switzerland) was also used by Sutter for a 19th-century

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

settlement (part of present-day East Sacramento) founded in August 1839. The earliest graves in this cemetery were shallow and marked with wooden boards. This land often flooded, so buried bodies were often moved and reinterred to

Sacramento Historic City Cemetery The Sacramento Historic City Cemetery (or Old City Cemetery), located at 1000 Broadway, at 10th Street, is the oldest existing cemetery in Sacramento, California, Sacramento, California. It was designed to resemble a Victorian garden and sect ...

and the records were not often kept. Adjacent to the cemetery was the New Helvetia Park picnic grounds, and Chevra Kaddisha Cemetery, the first Jewish cemetery in California was located across the street. In 1850, a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

outbreak swept through the city and some 800 people were buried in a mass grave at New Helvetia Cemetery. Other people buried here included Chinese miners,

indigent Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little

income

burials, and the people killed during the 1850

Squatters' riot The Squatters' riot was an uprising and conflict that took place between squatting settlers and the government of Sacramento, California (then an unorganized territory annexed after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo) in August 1850 concerning the l ...

. The northeast corner of the cemetery was specifically designated for Chinese burials. After 1860, the cemetery was deeded to the city. On April 29, 1861, a

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

of the State of California (number CCXLIII) gave permission to disinter the early burials from this cemetery, in order to be "laid out and arranged in a proper manner". Because of the early years of flooding issues, there was continued talk of abandonment and elimination of the cemetery. It stopped operating as a cemetery in 1912. Some graves were relocated to

East Lawn Memorial Park East Lawn Memorial Park is a cemetery in East Sacramento, California. It is owned by East Lawn Memorial Parks & Mortuaries, which also owns two other Sacramento area cemeteries. Founded in 1904, it is the resting place of several former Mayo ...

, and

; the headstones had been stacked and left by the side of the street by the city, many headstones were moved to private houses and used as a building material. The Sacramento County Cemetery Advisory Commission has been working to find the old headstones from New Helvetia, as of 2016 they had recovered 72. By 1945, the land was used as a park. In 1956, the land was used to make way for the freeway and the creation of Sutter Middle School.

References

{{Authority control California Historical Landmarks Cemeteries in Sacramento County, California History of Sacramento, California 1912 disestablishments in California John Sutter Cemeteries established in the 1840s 1840s establishments in California

History

See also

References