Alhambra Cemetery - Potter's Field, Martinez, CA
It has been reported that a smaller cemetery fire occurred sometime in 1935. We think this was the inspiration for the County of Contra Costa replacing all of the original cemetery markers with these small rock embedded concrete ones that we refer to as "Stones". The exact date of placement is unknown. However we have two witnesses who believe they saw them as early as 1940 and another two who believe they didn't see them till the early 1950's.
Our first observation regarding the stones was the discovery that they are not all numbered but instead a great number are blank as well. We further noticed that a number of stone sequences have a blank following a number with another blank following another number and so on. Appearing as if they were markers for a husband and wife. There are other sequences with several blanks together, which led us to the conclusion that only adult males received numbers while woman and children received blanks.
This could have been an effort to use a single number to denote an entire family in the County records. Unfortunately the records were either never properly kept or lost resulting in most people buried here to become anonymous. We are working diligently to find out whatever names we can along with any of their personal information. Any help you may offer in this matter would be most appreciated.
Our first observation regarding the stones was the discovery that they are not all numbered but instead a great number are blank as well. We further noticed that a number of stone sequences have a blank following a number with another blank following another number and so on. Appearing as if they were markers for a husband and wife. There are other sequences with several blanks together, which led us to the conclusion that only adult males received numbers while woman and children received blanks.
This could have been an effort to use a single number to denote an entire family in the County records. Unfortunately the records were either never properly kept or lost resulting in most people buried here to become anonymous. We are working diligently to find out whatever names we can along with any of their personal information. Any help you may offer in this matter would be most appreciated.