Ron's Log's photos

Including William Randolph Hearst.

Really, not much of a mystery about it. See the next photo.

This tombstone, one of the oldest found in Colma, marked the gravesite of H.J. Hartnagle, who died in 1875. The tombstone was originally located at Odd Fellows Cemetery in San Francisco. It was discovered in 2001 near Holy Cross Cemetery along the old Southern Pacific right-of-way during tunnel excavation associeated with the San Francisco Airport BART extension. In the 1930s, when courts decreed that all bodies in existing San Francisco cemeteries be removed, Hartnagle's remains were transferred to a mass gravesite at Odd Fellows (Greenlawn) cemetery in Colma. During the transfer, the tombstone was somehow separated from the body. It may have accidentally fallen from a railroad car or may have been discarded as many tombstones were when San Francisco cemeteries were evicted. Individual tombstones are prohibited at the mass gravesite. It may never be known how the tombstone was separated from Hartnagle.

When I first saw this, the spelling and grammatical errors made me think it was a transcript of an old document written by an eyewitness. But I was wrong. The Colma Historical Society does not include any retired English majors.

Explanatory plaque in the next photo.

Mount Olivet Cemetery and Streetcar Line In 1896, the Abbey Land and Improvement Company established Mount Olivet Cemetery. During that year, the company also obtained a franchise from the County of San Mateo to run a street car line from the tracks of the "40 Line" to the office building at the entrance of the cemetery. The Mount Olivet local line, as it was called, serviced visitors to the cemetery until 1926 when the "40 Line" was relocated.

This building memorializes the contributions of the Abbey Land and Improvement Company to the development of Colma. The company established Mount Olivet Memorial Park, the sixth cemetery to be built in Colma, and constructed a streetcar line along Mt. Olivet Parkway from the main electric railway at El Camino Real to their office and cemetery on Hillside Boulevard. The Mission Revival style office was designed by the corporation's Vice President, San Francisco architect William H. Crim. The square tower at the southeast corner of the building marked the entry to the Mount Olivet Cemetery office and the arcade served as the boarding area for the electric railway. The bell in the courtyard once hung in the building tower. Cypress Abbey Company donated the building to the town.