Metal plaques bearing names of the dead stolen from historic Santa Rosa cemetery
SANTA ROSA — Sometime in August, a small cemetery in Santa Rosa was ransacked by thieves targeting metal plaques.
Several bronze plaques bearing the names of individuals buried there were stolen. And now an effort is underway to restore the memorial, headed by the man who saved hundreds of people from being lost in time.
As Jeremy Nichols walks through the shady grove of oak trees, it's hard to recognize it for what it is.
"When I found this cemetery in 2001 or 2002, this was solid brush," he said.
The Chanate Historic Cemetery, served as a paupers' graveyard from 1877 to 1944, but it was so forgotten that even the county didn't know it existed.
So, when Nichols discovered the simple, numbered cement canisters that served as grave markers, he began a journey to find the names of as many of the people buried there as he could.
"I couldn't allow these people to be lost and forgotten. It just tripped a switch in my mind," said Nichols.
For two years he worked, looking for clues to the identities of people long forgotten.
"From death certificates and newspapers and other public records, I gradually assembled a list of names," explained Nichols.
The result was his book, "Potter's Field," revealing names for 1,300 of the 1,500 gravesites. Almost all died penniless and unheralded.
Perhaps the most affluent was the man who served as mayor of Santa Rosa's Chinatown. But the Chinese Exclusionary Act of 1882 made it illegal for any of the 100 or so Chinese people buried at Chanate to be anywhere but there.
"It was a very successful act because it erased Chinese people from the history of this part of America," said Henry Huang, a board member for the Redwood Empire Chinese Association.
But Nichols brought them back, and his complete list of names was memorialized on four bronze plaques, with another one placed by the Chinese Association.
"These people were responsible for building Sonoma County," said Huang. "They came here to build railroads, but as soon as the railroad projects were done and then the wineries were built, there was no use for them."
"They died here alone," said Nancy Wang, President of the association. "So, you think that my heart just goes with all these people buried here."
But then, a few weeks ago — no one knows exactly when — thieves entered the deserted cemetery and stole the plaques, prying them off their granite bases.
"It was a very depressing thing to come up here and see many people's hard work ruined by thieves looking for a couple of hundred dollars in metal," said Nichols.
But to him it's not just a loss of a monument. It's more personal than that.
"With the plaques gone, they're gone," said Nichols. "And we need to restore the plaques somehow, because otherwise they will again be forgotten. The plaques mean that they will always be remembered."
Now, Nichols and his allies are on a new quest to display the names in a way that won't be valuable to thieves.
And one day they hope their long-lost cemetery can be a place that will attract people who value history more than pieces of metal.