Adopt-a-plot being resurrected for Marysville cemetery

For the last couple of decades, the Marysville City Cemetery Commission has endured criticism, vandalism and the eroding effects of time on the hallowed grounds its members seek to represent.

Much of the cemetery, where Marysville's pioneers are buried — recently freed or escaped slaves, Chilean mining pros, Chinese and Japanese immigrants, Jewish merchants and all manner of those who crossed the Sierra Nevada in search of a better life — now lies in a state of ruin.

But next month, the group plans to resurrect Adopt-a-Plot in an effort to bring life back to long-dormant restoration efforts at the historic site.

Commission Chairwoman Roberta Shurtz said she hopes to attract volunteers who can donate time and energy to care for some of the old graves and who will be responsible when coming across artifacts there.

The first new volunteer effort is set for Feb. 11 at 9 a.m. At a recent commission meeting, Shurtz said she expects volunteers to occasionally come across pottery shards — and possibly even bones — while working at the site.

Oversight of such work, and the possible disturbance of graves, is precisely what has sparked criticism of the group in the past.

The cemetery is a sore subject for Dick Marquette, a local historian and cemetery hound.

The octogenarian said he first began visiting the site on a regular basis in the 1930s. Over several decades, he documented stories of the dead buried there that were told to him by their relations. He researched basic information to flesh out the stories, he said.

Most of his sources — and inspiration for this interest — had been local friends and the acquaintances he made during decades as a postal carrier in downtown Marysville.

"Many there have no tombstones or even markers. Some were buried under where the highway overpass was built. There were burials not listed at all," he said. "I knew some of those people because I took care of them before they died."

Two essential components missing from ongoing efforts at the cemetery, Marquette said, have been professional oversight of preservation work and a deep historical perspective.

"There's more to a person's life than what you read off a death certificate," he said. "There's millions of good stories out there in that cemetery."

Basic genealogy research — dates and dry facts — are only the surface aspects of history, he said.

"That's the boring part. Anybody can do that. You have to really work to get the real details and be able to tell an interesting story," he said.

Over the decades, Marquette collected such details from pioneer descendants. He also took personal photographs and video in various sections of the cemetery.

He became discouraged more than a decade ago, he said, when power struggles and politics began to throw the condition of the site into jeopardy.

About five years ago, a high school student working with Shurtz as a volunteer discovered a wedding band while raking ground next to a mausoleum.

The ring, as mentioned in an Appeal-Democrat story, was inscribed with a name and the year 1868.

Marquette said the haphazard treatment of the grounds as evidenced by that incident — and the commission's public response to having found what was possibly part of an old grave site — points to the need for outside help, he said.

"You've got to do things correctly and have things catalogued," said Marquette.

City officials locked the gates of the cemetery nearly two years ago as a result of controversy about the site's mismanagement.

"I've never heard of a public cemetery being locked down like that," Marquette said. "Only in Marysville could this happen."

Those seeking entrance to the cemetery now must contact either Shurtz or City Hall.

Shurtz and other current cemetery commissioners have said they hope to call more attention to the historic site and to attract more interest in helping restore it through the Adopt-a-Plot program.

CONTACT Nancy Pasternack at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4781. Find her on Facebook at /ADnpasternack or on Twitter at @ADnpasternack.