HANDCART-L Archives

From: "David D. Smith" <>
Subject: Wallace Family
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 1997 17:32:53 -0700

Sherry:

In your message about the cemetery to Scott Romney on the newsgroup
Handcart-L
At 08:30 PM 12/2/97 -0700, you wrote:

...snip...

Deseret News Archives,
Sunday, May 29, 1994

S.L. CEMETERY ALIVE WITH LOCAL HISTORY

...snip...

- The first ones, dated 1848, holding two small children of the Wallace
>family. The youngsters died the year after Mormons settled the Salt
Lake Valley.

....snip....

I was just wondering if you know the names of the small children of the
WALLACE family mentioned in the above article. I realize that this may
be a shot in the dark, but my great grandaunt, Mary Melissa WALLACE, I
think is one of these children. She died 27 Sept 1848 and according to
family rumors was the first person buried there. I have no listing for
the other
child and would like to find out who it is. I do have twins, Heber
Davis WALLACE who died 9 March 1859 and his brother Brigham Davis
WALLACE who died 17 April 1859.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Genealogically yours,
Alison Forte ;-)
Calgary AB CAN

Researching:
BECKWITH, BERTONE, CIFFELLI, COFFIN, DAVIS, EPHILIPPIS, DEFRANCESCO,
DUDLEY, FORTE, FERRARA, GILMAN, MILLER, NIVEN, PALUMBO, PATERSON,
ROBINSON, THOMAS, WALLACE, WING, ZAPPITELLI. ;-)

Dear Alison:

I found this history about the people you ask of. It has some history
that might be of interest to the other readers.

Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 20, p.154

The Salt Lake City Cemetery is ideally located on the northeast
foothills of the majestic Wasatch Mountain Range, in a beautiful spot
overlooking the entire city and valley. It contains about 120 acres of
ground, lying between N and U Streets and Fourth Avenue and the Wasatch
Boulevard. The Jewish and Catholic cemeteries directly adjacent on
Fourth Avenue and the Boulevard are privately owned, but the Japanese
cemetery west of the Mausoleum is part of the Salt Lake City cemetery
proper.

Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 20, p.155

[p.155] It is laid out in rectangular plats lettered from A to X in the
order of their development. Between the plats are the principal streets.
These, extending from east to west, are named Main, Center, Cypress and
East Streets. Each plat is subdivided into blocks whose dimensions are
two by six or eight rods. A single lot, one rod square, will hold eight
adult graves. On the sexton's records, each grave is numbered by plat,
block, lot and grave, so that each grave is located exactly.

George B. Wallace and his wife Melissa lost two children the first year
they were in the valley and they buried them on the hillside of the
northeast bench. (George B. Wallace, 14 Aug 1847 and Mary M. Wallace, 27
Sep 1847, verified by the sexton office Dec. 12, 1997).

The Journal History of the Church for 1849 has the following entries:

"Feb. 17, 1849.... The Council met in Phelp's schoolroom at 10:30
a.m.... Daniel H. Wells, Joseph Heywood and George B. Wallace were
appointed a committee to select a suitable place for a burying ground."
A few weeks later Pres. Brigham Young attended a Council meeting in the
schoolroom. "Daniel H. Wells, of the committee on selecting a site for a
burying ground, said the committee were now prepared to report. They
thought the most suitable place was northeast of the city. Twenty acres
was included in the survey."

It was natural that Mr. Wallace should lead the committee to his two
little graves. They were the first burials in that location and became
the first entries on the record. A beautiful granite monument now marks
the spot on Plat C, Lot 6. The Civil War veterans have a fine flagpole
on the same plat.

In January of 1851, an ordinance having been passed by the General
Assembly of the state of Deseret "Incorporating Great Salt Lake City," a
city council was organized which administered the affairs of the
graveyard. The following extracts were taken from the minutes of the
council:

Feb. 1856. Mayor Jedediah M. Grant instructed the committee on municipal
laws to take some measures in fencing the burying ground.

N. V. Jones represented to the council that in the western part of the
15th Ward, where water can be obtained by digging at a depth of three
feet, the inhabitants inter their dead in many instances on their lots,
and the waters continually filtering through the corpse must be
unwholesome and liable to engender disease. The committee was also
instructed to get up an ordinance forbidding any persons to inter their
dead on their lots, and requiring such persons as have interred their
dead on their lots to remove them to the burying ground in the
graveyard, unless by petition they are otherwise permitted to bury on
their lots.

April 1856. The subject of permitting certain deceased persons interred
upon their city lots remain undisturbed was taken [p.156] into
consideration by the council. When it was motioned and carried that the
deceased family of President H. C. Kimball now interred upon his city
lot be suffered to remain; That the remains of the departed father and
mother of George A. Smith viz. John Smith, patriarch, and wife, his
consort, be permitted to remain where they are interred.

Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 20, p.156

June 23, 1863. Ald. Clayton and members of the council said that
complaints had reached them in regard to the manners in which graves had
been dug verging some of them 15o from the line; Coffins also made too
long; also that the road leading through the graveyard was open for
teams passing to camp, and the ground was desecrated by parties of men
resorting there for drinking and recreation; also that the wall was old
and rusty; and that for the proper interment of the dead a new hearse
should be obtained. Messrs. Sheets, Burton and McKean were appointed a
committee to bring in a report to the council.

July 7, 1863. The special committee reported as follows;

To the Mayor and City Council

Gentlemen—Your committee to whom was referred the subject of changing
the road passing through the cemetery, and repairing the wall, with
other matters pertaining thereto, respectfully report that they have
located a road beginning at a point on the Old Road east of the cemetery
and running a south-easterly direction until it intersects South Temple
Street. The estimated cost for grading said road is from one to two
hundred dollars, and the wall around the cemetery is in a very
dilapidated condition and the estimated cost for repairs and putting up
suitable gates is from ten to twelve hundred dollars. Your committee
would recommend the measures be taken at an early date to have the newly
located road graded, the wall around the cemetery repaired, and that a
good hearse be procured at the expense of the city. (The report was
adopted and the committee instructed to complete the work.)

John C. Gray resigned as city sexton. The council appointed Fredk. A. H.
F. Mitchell to be sexton effective July 20, 1863.

Sept. 15th. The new sexton complained that graves protruded into the
road, and that vehicles drove over lots, knocking down head boards, etc.
He asked for improvements of the roads and bridges, and for a stone
house 12 x 14 feet to be erected to serve as a shelter and to house
tools. Corner stones are to be placed to mark the plats, the east gate
is to be closed, and a complete plat of the cemetery is to be made. The
sexton asked five dollars be charged for use of the hearse, horses, and
two men on the day of a funeral. Feb. 22nd. Resolution passed the
council prohibiting the burial of murderers in the city cemetery. May
10, 1864. The council approved the following charges to be made by the
sexton:

Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 20, p.157

Coffin, per running foot $1.75 Recording $ .25
Digging grave 2.00 Recording certificate .25
Grave over 4 feet 3.00 Lot 12.00
Conveying Coffin to City 1.50 Lot in Ravine for less.
Conveying dead to grave 3.50 Porter engaged per day 2.00

The beautification of the cemetery has depended upon the water supply.
Some families cleared their lots, fenced them in, or surrounded them
with a stone coping, and planted trees and hardy shrubs that survived
with the natural rainfall. In 1881 a well was dug to the depth of nearly
1,000 feet, then abandoned. For thirty years, the opening was guarded
with a barbwire fence and warning notices of "Danger" and "Keep Out."
Finally in 1915 the well was filled in. Today this Block 19 contains the
Chinese cemetery with its delicately lettered granite headstones
scarcely protruding above the green grass and very near the site of the
old well was placed a Chinese joss house, a square cement box where,
when a burial took place, a part of the clothing of the deceased,
prayers written on paper, and incense were burned.

When the high water line was piped in from upper City Creek and the
equalizing reservoir built, water under a good pressure became available
to every part of the cemetery. Many of the upper plats are equipped with
a sprinkling system. With the water came beauty. In 1900, the Park Plat
just north of the sexton's house was opened with perpetual care. A large
section of this plat is reserved for the veterans of the Spanish
American War. A fine flagpole is there and the number of white marble
headstones is attractive.

In 1906, perpetual care was extended to the whole cemetery and by 1915
such a growth of trees and shrubs, many of them evergreens, had
developed that the hillside was nearly a forest.

A number of the plats in the cemetery are of special interest. The
Strangers' Plat is northeast of the main entrance in Plat B, Block 4 and
contains the remains of those who died in early days while en route to
or from California during the gold rush.

To the northeast on a grassy western slope in Plat T is what is known as
Pauper's Field. Here are buried those without relatives or friends to
care for them or are unknown to the authorities. No matter who the
person is, he has a decent burial. Either a minister, Mormon elder, or
the sexton dedicates the grave.

At the head of Center Street are five blocks given by the city to the
LDS Church for the burial of their indigent poor, and others. Near the
southwest corner of the first block is a handsome monument erected by
Mormon elders to the memory of Chief Whaanga, a Maori chief who joined
the Church years ago and came here from New Zealand with many of his
people.

Sincerely,
Sherry Smit

This thread:

• Wallace Family by "David D. Smith" <>