1888 Chinese Shrine
This shrine was created by the Chinese community in 1888 and was added to the register of Historic Landmarks in 198? when it was completely refurbished and restored to its original. Each Spring the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California celebrates Ching Ming here and the honoring of our ancestors. This marker is also an indicator of where the cemetery's section for indigent or unclaimed bodies where buried prior to 1924. Chinese people were included in this section though they were required to pay for their plots, as in other parts of the cemetery. map

442nd Nisei Memorial Japanese-American unit in World War II
Composed of all volunteers, the 442nd fought in the Italian campaign. The 442nd is the most decorated unit in United States history. In less than two years of combat, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team earned more than 18,000 individual decorations including one Medal of Honor, 53 Distinguished Service Crosses, 588 Silver Stars, 5,200 Bronze Star Medals, 9,486 Purple Hearts and
Eight Presidential Unit Citations (the nation's top award for combat units).

The 442nd/100th sustained 9,486 wounded and over 600 killed suffered, the highest casualty rate of any American unit during the war. The plaque on the memorial reads: "This memorial is reverently placed here by the Japanese American Community, under the auspices of the Southern California Burial and Memorial Committee, in memory of American soldiers of Japanese ancestry who fought, suffered, and died in World War II that Liberty, Justice, and Equal Opportunity in the Pursuit of Happiness might come to all democratic and peace-loving people everywhere regardess of race, creed, color or national origin. Dedicated: May 30, 1949." map

Kiyoharu Anzai
Birth: August 19, 1879
Death: October 1970
Known as the "Mayor of Manzanar" as well as the "Schoolmaster," Anzai is born in Japan, completes his college education at Sendai, Japan and comes to Berkeley, California to continue his education in 1908. He moves to Los Angeles in the hopes that an illness would be alleviated by the climate. He finishes a degree at the University of Southern California in Philosophy and Sociology. He opens an English language school for Japanese farmers in the San Gabriel Valley in 1913. After being interned at Manzanar in 1942, he is elected the block managers'assembly chairman. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies in office, Anzai sends First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt the following message: THE UNEXPECTED AND TRAGIC NEWS OF THE DEATH OF LATE PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT SHOCKED THE RESIDENTS OF MANZANAR AS IT DID THE REST OF THE WORLD. WE SINCERELY REGRET THE LOSS OF SUCH A GREAT LEADER WHO DEVOTED HIS UNTIRING EFFORTS IN PROMOTING ORDER PLACE AND TOLERANCE IN THESE TIMES OF TURMOIL. ON BEHALF OF THE BLOCK MANAGERS AND THE RESIDENTS OF MANZANAR, I WISH TO EXPRESS OUR GREAT SORROW AND CONDOLENCE TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

Eddie Rochester Anderson
Birth: September 18, 1905
Death: February 28, 1977
Anderson was a famous actor, known most as ‘Rochester Van Jones', on the "Jack Benny Show". He was the son of a minstrel, Big Ed Anderson, and a circus tightrope walker, Ella May Anderson and played bit roles in movies, including the role of ‘Noah' in The Green Pastures (1936), which led to his role with Jack Benny on his radio program in 1937. Playing the role of a Pullman Porter, his scratchy voice, superb timing, and comic banter to Jack Benny's dead pan delivery earned him a permanent part on the show, appearing on the "Jack Benny Show" (both radio and television versions) as a regular, playing the role of Jack's personal valet, ‘Rochester Van Jones.' Between his radio shows, he appears in various films including You Can't Take it With You (1938). He works with Benny for 23 years, until ill health forced him into retirement in 1964. He dies of long standing heart problems in 1977. He is inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2001. map

James Herman Banning
Birth: November 5, 1899
Death: 1933 (exact date under investigation)
He is the nation's first licensed African American pilot. Banning and another black pilot, Thomas C. Allen, became the first to fly coast-to-coast from Los Angeles to Long Island, New York, in 1932. Using a plane pieced together from junkyard parts, they make the 3,300 mile trip in less than 42 hours aloft. However, the trip actually requires 21 days to complete because the pilots have to raise money each time they stop. Banning dies as a passenger in a biplane, sitting in the front open cockpit without controls during a San Diego air show. The Navy pilot at the controls, trying to impress his more accomplished passenger, makes a fatal error in front of hundreds of horrified spectators. map

Charlotta Amanda Bass
Birth: February 13, 1874
Death: April 12, 1969
Los Angeles Newspaper publisher and activist extraordinaire, Bass attacks racism in different ways using the newspaperThe California Eagle, which she takes over in 1912. Bass promots boycotts of places known for discriminatory hiring practices through her 1930-31 “Don't Shop Where You Can’t Work” campaign. She called attention to police brutality against African Americans and condemning the derogatory portrayals of African Americans by Hollywood. In 1952 Bass runs unsuccessfully as the Vice Presidential candidate for the Progressive Party, the first African American woman to earn this distinction. Her campaign calls for peace with the USSR, an end to the Korean War, civil rights and women's rights. Despite losing the election by a wide margin, she receives only 0.2 percent of the votes, her campaign is not about winning; running under the slogan "Win or lose, we win by raising the issues." map

Matthew ‘Stymie’ Beard Jr.
Birth: January 1, 1925
Death: January 8, 1981
Beard is an actor and a member of "The Little Rascals" who played Stymie in 36 "Our Gang" shorts from 1930 to 1935. Beard is 1 of 14 children born to a Los Angeles minister. In the summer of 1930 his parents bring him to an open call at Hal Roach Studios for a talent search for a kid to replace Allen "Farina" Hoskins. The director Robert McGowan hires him on the spot. The five year-old is a natural performer who steals every scene. His screen character is "Stymie" by McGowan because of Beard's habit of getting in the director's way. Stymie's onscreen trademark, an outsized derby hat, is a gift from comedian Stan Laurel, who is amazed by the youngster's skill. Overall he described his youth in the movies as "a wonderful experience" though he went on to suffer and conquer drug addiction. In the 1970s he made appearances at "Our Gang" reunions and volunteered his time to talk to kids about the horrors of drug abuse. Shortly after his 56th birthday, Beard suffered a stroke in the motel room where he was living. He was found two days later, alive but paralyzed, and taken to the County USC Medical Center. Beard's last words are, "Fun, fun, fun...had a lot of fun." map

Louise Beavers
Birth: March 8, 1902
Death: October 26, 1962
Beavers was an actress most remembered for her performance in "Imitation of Life" (1934), as an Aunt Jemima-like pancake maker whose light-skinned daughter abandons her to pass for white in society. She is in over 160 films including What Price Hollywood? (1932), She Done Him Wrong (1933), Made for Each Other (1939), Reap the Wild Wind (1942), Holiday Inn (1942), The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), Tammy and the Bachelo" (1957), and All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960). Beavers was born in Cincinnati, and moved with her mother to Los Angeles as a child. She graduates from Pasadena High School and becomes a maid toy actress Leatrice Joy. Joy introduces her to the movies. Beavers first sings in a ladies' minstrel show in the mid-1920s and begins her film career in 1927 with the silent Uncle Tom's Cabin. From 1952 -1953 she starred in "The Beulah Show", taking over the title role following the death of original star Hattie McDaniel. Unlike McDaniel, Beavers was not naturally hefty and had to overeat to stay in "type" for the good-natured servant roles she was invariably given. This created health problems in her later years and she died of a heart attack at 60. She was inducted into the Black Filmakers Hall of Fame in 1976. map

Jesse Belvin
Birth: December 15, 1932
Death: February 6, 1960
Belvin is a singer, songwriter known for co-writing “Earth Angel,” a hit for The Penguins in 1955. Belvin is raised in Los Angeles. Belvin wrote the major hit “Goodnight My Love,” a romantic ballad adopted by disc jockey Alan Freed as the closing theme to his highly influential radio show, and also used by Dick Clark as the closing theme for “American Bandstand” for several years. Belvin also recorded with fellow songwriter, Marvin Phillips, as Jesse & Marvin, achieving a Top 10 R&B hit in 1953 with “Dream Girl”. In 1958 Belvin formed a quintet, The Shields, to record for Dot Records the national top 20 hit “You Cheated.” In the same year he is signed by RCA Records, who planned to showcase him much like Nat King Cole. Additional hits included “Funny” and “Guess Who?” the latter of which was written by his wife and manager, Jo Ann. In 1960 Belvin and his wife were killed in a car crash just hours after he had performed in front of the first integrated concert audience in the history of Little Rock, Arkansas. The concert was stopped twice by whites in the audience shouting racial epithets and urging the white teenagers in attendance to leave at once. There had been at least six death threats on Belvin prior to the concert and there was speculation that Belvin’s car had been tampered with prior to the accident, though nothing was ever proved. map

Donaldina Cameron
Birth: July 26, 1869
Death: January 4, 1968
Cameron is most known as a Presbyterian missionary, who advocates for social justice through the rescue and education of more than 3,000 Chinese slave girls and women during her ministry in San Francisco from 1895 to 1934. The laws limiting Chinese immigration to the United States (see the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Page Act of 1875) prevent most Chinese men from sending for their families back in China. Girls and young women are shipped to the US illegally, presenting forged papers saying they were related to upper-class Chinese men already in California. Younger girls are sold as "Mui Tsais", domestic servants, while older girls and women are sold into prostitution, sometimes by their own families. In 1895, Donaldina works as a sewing teacher at the Occidental Mission Home for Girls, founded in 1874 by the Presbyterian Church. While at the mission, she to participates with the city's police in the rescue of women and girls held captive. She is known for wielding an axe during nighttime raids on cribs and brothels. Donaldina is known as "Lo Mo" or Beloved Mother to those she rescues, and "Fahn Quai," or White Devil, to their pimps. She is also called the "Angry Angel of Chinatown." Source: Vicki Thomas of the Encyclopedia of San Francisco at http://www.sfhistoryencyclopedia.com/articles/c/cameronDonaldina.html
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Vito Casino
Birth: unknown, Italy,
Death: October 1892
USA Accident Victim. He was one of almost a dozen people killed on Columbus Day, 1892, (the 400th anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" of America) in a downtown Los Angeles fireworks explosion. map

Magdalena May Schlador Chandler
Birth: 1863
Death: August 4, 1892
Los Angeles “The funeral of the late Mrs. Magdalena Chandler, wife of Harry Chandler, of the circulation department of the The Times, took place from the residence No. 719 Rosas street, at 2 o'clock yesterday, and it was very largely attended. She is originally from Galveston, Texas The service were conducted by Rev. Mr. Hughes of East Los Angeles, and were simple but impressive, the minister paying a high tribute to the life and character of the deceased. The interment was in Evergreen. The following were the pall-bearers: C.H. Hall, C.E. Richardson, F. X. Pfaffinger and W.K. Bowker.” From the Los Angeles Times August 7, 1892. map

Mary Emily Foy
Birth: July 13, 1862
Death: February 18, 1962
Foy is the first woman head librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library, appointed to the job in 1880 at the age of 18. She graduates in 1879 from Los Angeles High School When the library is founded in 1872, women are not allowed to use it. Later she teaches at Alameda School in Downey, d the Eighth Street Schoo, and by 1903 at Los Angeles High School, where she later is principal. Newspaper columnist John Adams, writing in the Downey Eagle, describes Foy was a "strong-willed woman" who campaigned for Woodrow Wilson during his national political career and fought for decades for the California Progressive Movement and Women’s Rights." She is listed in the 1913 yearbook of Los Angeles High School as a "prominent club woman and suffragist." She is honored with the establishment of the Mary Foy California Room in the new public library building at Fifth and Olive Streets, though that room is not part of the redesign of the library building when it is reconstructed after two serious fires in 1986. map

Frank George
Birth: April 3, 1833
Death: February 25, 1892
George arranges for his burial and tombstone prior to taking his life by purchasing his plot and ordering a tombstone from the Los Angeles Marble Works on Los Angeles Street. George has the clerks at each establishment swear themselves to secrecy on his name. On February 25, 1892 George's body is discovered at Mrs. Bauck's lodging house at No. 134 South Main Street. He dies of a morphine overdose. George is described as an elderly citizen from King's County, Washington. Prior to taking his life, George sends a letter to the undertakers Orr and Sutch: "Dear Sirs: Inclosed (sic) please find $100. Please do the best you can for the money, and I will meet you in a better world if we make the proper connections.
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Earl Bell Gilmore
Birth: 1887
Death: February 26, 1964
Entrepreneur and the son of Arthur F. Gilmore, founder of Gilmore Oil Company in Los Angeles. He expands the oil company and builds the first race track designed specifically for midget racers. Gilmore sponsors Indy cars, and in 1987 is inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame. In 1934 Gilmore builds the famous Los Angeles Farmer's Market next to his home at 3rd and Fairfax, and today it is one of the premier tourist attractions in Los Angeles. map

Sam Haskins
Birth: February 1846
Death: November 19, 1895
Haskins is the first known African American Los Angeles Fire Department member to die in the line of duty, killed when a fire carriage ran over him en-route to a blaze. His grave was unmarked until Joe Walker finds it and recovers his history in 2002. Until then his story was unknown to the African American Firefighters Museum in Los Angeles. The monument for Sam Haskins was unveiled February 29, 2004. map

Jogging Path/Entrance to Evergreen Cemetery
This is the entrance to Evergreen Cemetery and where the main office to the cemetery is located, in addition to a public restroom. There is a jogging path that follows the exterior border of the cemetery, making it a public space for other functions in addition to a place for expressing grieve, learning the history of Los Angeles and showing respect for the dead. map

Isaac Lankershim
Birth: April 8, 1818
Death: April 10, 1882
Los Angeles Pioneer and land baron. He and his son-in-law, Isaac Newton Van Nuys, develop the San Fernando Valley outside of Los Angeles. Both a street and a town are named for him. The town of Lankershim is now known as North Hollywood. Lankershim and Van Nuys also found the famous Hollywood Memorial Park, now known as Hollywood Forever. map

Jolly John Larkin
aka John Larkin Smith
Born: 1882
Death: 1936
Larkin is a aaudeville performer and actor born in Norfolk, Virginia He is described as “the Rajah of Mirth” and “the Funniest Colored Comedian in the World” Larkin heads the Dandy Dixie Minstrels in the 1920s and is able to star in over 50 films includling in Smart Money, Sporting Blood and Alexander Hamilton. He is known as the “highest paid negro actor in Hollywood”. His last role is in MGM’s The Great Ziegfield. map

James Mackey
Birth: July 27, 1897
Death: September 22, 1965
Mackey is known as a Negro League Baseball Star. He is a great defensive catcher who also played the outfield and all infield positions. He is a switch-hitter who had a .318 career batting average in 20 seasons with the Indianapolis ABCs. He also plays for the Philadelphia Hillsdales, Baltimore Elite Giants, Philadelphia Stars. He managed the Newark Eagles. map

Bridget "Biddy" Mason
Birth: August 15, 1818
Death: January 16, 1891
Mason is known as a former slave, nurse/midwife, humanitarian & co-founder of Los Angeles's first African-American congregation. She is born on a Mississippi plantation owned by Robert Marion Smith and his wife Rebecca (Crosby) Smith. Mason has three daughters, Ellen, Ann and Harriet, whose father was reputedly Smith himself. In 1847, Smith decides to become a Mormon and move to the Utah Territory with his household and slaves. In the strenuous 2,000 miles cross-country, Mason is responsible for herding the cattle, preparing the meals and acting as mid-wife along with taking care of her own children. It is said that Mason walks behind her master's 300-wagon caravan from Mississippi to San Bernardino, California. Smith senses that Mason and her three daughters might seek their freedom in California, therefore he plans to take them back South. She petitions a court in 1856 for her and her daughters’ freedom. A Sheriff asks Smith to appear in court to prove ownership of the family. He fails to appear in court and Mason wins freedom for herself and her daughters. She and her daughters moved to Los Angeles where she found employment as a nurse and midwife. Hard work and her nursing skills allow Mason to become economically independent. She later buys a site in what is now downtown Los Angeles on Spring Sreet for $250, becoming the first African-American woman to own land in Los Angeles. Mason gives generously to various charities and provides food and shelter for the poor of all races. She also remembers those in prison whom she visited often. In 1872, she and her son in-law, Charles Owens, found the Los Angeles branch of the First A.M.E. Church, Los Angeles's first African-American congregation which began with services in Mason's living room. On March 27, 1988, nearly a century after Mason's death, a tombstone is unveiled at a ceremony which marks her grave for the first time. The ceremony is attended by Mayor Tom Bradley and about three thousand members of the First A.M.E. Church. On November 16, 1989, the citizens of Los Angeles declare a "Biddy Mason Day" and a memorial of her achievement was unveiled at the Broadway Spring Center located between Spring St. and Broadway at Third St. in Los Angeles. map

Kiyoshi K. Muranaga
Birth: February 16, 1922
Death: June 26, 1944
Army, Private First Class in Company F, 442nd Regimental Combat Team. He iss awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at Suvereto, Italy, June 26, 1944. His citation reads:
"Private First Class Muranaga’s company encountered a strong enemy force in commanding positions and with superior firepower. An enemy 88mm self-propelled gun opened direct fire on the company, causing the men to disperse and seek cover. Private First Class Muranaga’s mortar squad was ordered to action, but the terrain made it impossible to set up their weapons. The squad leader, realizing the vulnerability of the mortar position, moved his men away from the gun to positions of relative safety. Because of the heavy casualties being inflicted on his company, Private First Class Muranaga, who served as a gunner, attempted to neutralize the 88mm weapon alone. Voluntarily remaining at his gun position, Private First Class Muranaga manned the mortar himself and opened fire on the enemy gun at a range of approximately 400 yards. With his third round, he was able to correct his fire so that the shell landed directly in front of the enemy gun. Meanwhile, the enemy crew, immediately aware of the source of mortar fire, turned their 88mm weapon directly on Private First Class Muranaga’s position. Before Private First Class Muranaga could fire a fourth round, an 88mm shell scored a direct hit on his position, killing him instantly. Because of the accuracy of Private First Class Muranaga’s previous fire, the enemy soldiers decided not to risk further exposure and immediately abandoned their position. Private First Class Muranaga’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army." He is posthumously awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for his bravery, but in 2000 his awarded is reviewed and upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

Kiyoshi Okamoto
Birth: August 8, 1889
Death: December 28, 1974
Kiyoshi Okamoto is born in Hawaii and is known for starting the only organized World War II draft resistance movement from within one of the 10 War Relocation Authority camps to protest the unconstitutional incarceration of people of Japanese descent into US concentration camps. He will serve time in Fort Leavenworth for his protests. His grave is finally found by the efforts of Marie Masumoto, wife to Okamoto's nephew grand nephew Earnie Masumoto. Masumoto credited the Chinese Historical Society, Nikkei for Civil Rights and Reparations, Japanese American National Museum, and Albert Gaskin and Craig Garnett at the Los Angeles County Crematory for helping in her quest. PBS featured Okamoto on a program dedicated to war resisters. On its website, Okamoto is described as: "He claimed to have never graduated from any school, but spent two years at the University of Hawaii where he studied chemistry and engineering. He volunteered for service in World War I but was deferred for reasons never explained to him. He worked as a sugar mill superintendent, a construction engineer and a soil test engineer before moving to San Pedro in Southern California to introduce the papaya. He went broke in the Crash of 1929 and dabbled in newspaper writing, business promotion, and work as a movie extra in Hollywood. Just before the mass expulsion he taught school in Los Angeles and is believed to be the first Nisei to teach in a mainland public high school. He was unmarried and had no children, "not that I know of," he once said. Okamoto was about 55 at Heart Mountain when he began writing manifestoes against the injustice of the camps, calling himself the "Fair Play Committee of One." He taught Frank Emi about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and chaired the Fair Play Committee when it took on the draft issue. He tried to have the camp director removed for incompetence, and a week later was handcuffed and shipped to the Tule Lake Segregation Center. He was brought back to stand trial in Wyoming with the other leaders for conspiracy to counsel draft evasion. He is also credited with being the first Nisei to call for redress for the camps. After the war Okamoto organized a "Fair Rights Committee" and incorporated in the state of California to again seek redress for the camps. He was known to be prospecting for gold in California."
Sources: PBS. "Conscience and the Constitution." PBS accessed on November 13, 2009 at http://www.pbs.org/itvs/conscience/the_story/characters/okamoto_kiyoshi.html.
“From Pauper to Patriot: Rediscovering Kiyoshi Okamoto,” Rafu Shimpo by Martha Nakagawa

Pacific Showmen's Association and the Women's Auxillary
1922
This portion of the cemetery is purchased for the members and spouses of the Pacific Showmen's Association and the Women's Auxillary--a troop of carnival performers. There is a beautiful marker attesting to the space, which has a sun bleached tiger perched on its top. map

George A. Ralphs
Birth: 1850
Death: June 21, 1914
Businessman. Founder of Ralphs Supermarket chain, the largest market chain in Southern California. Died hiking with wife. map

Alice Rollins
aka Alice Rollins Crane, Alice Morajeska, "Countess" Morajeska, and buried as Alice Morajesky
Birth: 1861
Death: 1929
Alice Rollins is born in Ohio or neighboring state about 1861. She is a "new woman" as "feminists" are called in the 1880s and 90s, and is featured in a 1896 article in Leslie's Weekly Illustrated Magazine. She eventually marries Frank D. Higbee (in 1877 in Iowa and again in 1880 in Chicago), L. P. Crane in Los Angeles (1894) and Victor Morajeski in the Yukon (1903). As Alice Rollins Crane, she writes a book about her Klondike adventures. She is a dog sledder and amateur anthropologist. Alice and Victor Morajeski own a silver mine NE of Tucson and handle the estate of Tom Jeffords, 'blood brother' of Cochise, the Apache Chief. Alice documents the site where the Cochise-Howard Treaty occurs in 1895. [Dr. Robert J. Stahl, Arizona State University, Tempe provided this information on July 14, 2009]

Frederick R. Rollins
Birth: October 31, 1879
Death: December 7, 1893
Frederick R. "Freddy" Rollins, who, from his birth through at least Spring 1890 was called Frederick Rollins "Freddy" Higbee, was born in Avoca, Pottawattamie County, Iowa on October 31, 1879; moved with family to Chicago area in December 1880; attended Morgan Park Military Academy in Morgan Park, Cook County, IL until 1890-1891; moved with his mother, Alice Rollins (later, Alice Rollins Crane, Alice Morajeska, "Countess" Morajeska, and buried as Alice Morajesky), to Los Angeles in 1890-1891 following her divorce from Freddy's father, Frank D. Higbee; and just past 14th birthday passed away of intestinal problems due to typhoid fever in Los Angeles on December 7, 1893. He is buried in an unmarked grave next to his mother's unmarked grave. No known photo of Freddy has been found. [Dr. Robert J. Stahl, Arizona State University, Tempe provided this information on July 14, 2009]

Reverend William J. Seymour
Birth: May 2, 1870
Death: September 28, 1922
William Seymour is most known as a religious figure, called "the most influential black leader in American religious history." Seymour with Charles Parham co-found world Pentecostalism. In the early 1900s, Seymour founds the Azusa Street Church in Los Angeles, now Little Tokyo. Seymour is born the son of freed slaves in Centerville, Louisiana and is a student at a newly formed Bible school founded by Charles Parham in Houston, TX where he learns of the Holiness Movement. He develops a belief in glossolalia ("speaking in tongues") as a confirmation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He later moves to Los Angeles to minister in churches. Looking for a place to continue his work, he finds a run-down building in downtown Los Angeles on Azusa Street, and preaches there, creating the Azusa Street Revival. Seymour not only rejects the existing racial barriers in favor of "unity in Christ", he also rejects the then almost universal barriers to women in any form of church leadership. This revival meeting lasts from 1906 until 1909, and becomes the subject of intense investigation by more mainstream Protestants. Some leave, feeling that Seymour's views are heresy, while others accept his teachings and return to their own congregations to expound them. The resulting movement is widely known as "Pentecostalism" and most current charismatic groups can claim some lineage linking them to the Azusa Street Revival and William Seymour. map

Cameron Erskine Thom
Birth: June 20, 1825
Death: February 2, 1915
A Forty-Niner who comes to Los Angeles from Virginia He is elected Los Angeles District Attorney in 1854, the same year he arrives in town. He is the District Attorney from 1854 - 1857, 1870 -1873, 1877-1879. Later he serves in the state Senate from 1859-60. He is Mayor of Los Angeles from 1882-1884 when he is responsible for establishing Elysian Park. 1856 he is both City Attorney of Los Angeles and District Attorney of Los Angeles. Thom takes advantage of the Land Act of 1851, a federal law that establishes a costly method of verifying Spanish land grants which, combined with high legal fees and a decline in the cattle market, begins the break-up of the ranchos. Local lawyers, including district attorneys, sit on the Land Grant Commission, act as agents for the Commission, and appear before the Commission as advocates. As a result of his work as a land lawyer during the breakup of these great ranchos, Thom becomes a large landholder. In fact, he is a founder of Glendale, then 3,000 acres of Rancho San Rafael, which Thom and others obtain from the Verdugo family. Later, his son becomes prominent in Glendale real estate development and his nephew, Erskine Ross—also his law partner— becomes a justice of the California Supreme Court and give his name to the Rossmoyne section of Glendale. Thom leaves Los Angeles during the Civil War to serve as a major in the Confederate army. He serves in 15 battles, and is wounded twice. After the close of the war, he returns to California & receives a pardon from President Andrew Johnson to return to the practice of law. Thom is the District Attorney during the Chinese Massacre on October 24, 1871,when a riot erupts in Los Angeles resulting in the murder of 19 Chinese residents by a mob of 500 Angelenos on Calle de los Negros, near the Plaza. 15 of the victims are hanged and 3 are shot, 1 dies of a head wound -Among those hanged are two teenagers who just arrived in Los Angeles. Thom joins Sheriff Burns in quelling the rioters. He indicts 37 participants, six are convicted, all are released within a year of their imprisonment on the basis of a legal technicality.
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Boyle Workman
Birth: September 20, 1868
Death: December 25, 1942
Boyle Workman is born in his family s home in an area then known at Hollenbeck Heights, settled by Workman s maternal grandfather Andrew Boyle in 1857. Workman contributed much to Los Angeles in particular in its financial infrastructure. He served as City Council member and President, part time acting Mayor, and assisted in building City Hall. He is the author of The City that Grew, a standard textbook in its fifth printing and used in college classes on Los Angeles.

This site was created to provide information on Evergreen Cemetery in East Los Angeles in order to memorialize and acknowledge the histories inside and surrounding this sacred site.

Copyright 2009