Francisco Marquez Establishes
a Cemetery on the Rancho
Rancho Boca de Santa Monica was more than a day’s trip from the nearest Catholic cemeteries at the San Gabriel Mission and at the Plaza Church in Los Angeles. The distance made funerals and burials a difficult proposition. To ease that burden, Francisco Marquez set aside a portion of land for a cemetery within view of his adobe house.
Although no official records were kept, it is believed that the cemetery was established in the late 1840s. The first burials at the cemetery might have included six children of Francisco Marquez and Roque Valenzuela who died as infants.
Rancho Boca de Santa Monica survives
the transition from Mexico to the United States
Mexico ceded California to the United States in 1848. Although the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo guaranteed the property rights of the rancho owners, pressure from American settlers to have the land declared public property by right of conquest grew. The U.S. government yielded to the pressure and, in 1851 formed the Board of Land Commissioners. They opened their office in San Francisco and the Mexican land grant holders had to travel there to file their claims. Its stated purpose was to determine the validity of the Spanish and Mexican land claims. In reality, however, the Board imposed far more stringent requirements for proof of ownership than had the Mexican government, with the inevitable result that many rancho owners lost their land.
In 1854, Ysidro Reyes as spokesman for himself and the heirs of Francisco Marquez, who had died in 1850, appeared before the Board of Land Commissioners, when they came for a brief stay in Los Angeles. With the help of one of the few honest attorneys, Ilishia Oscar Crosby, they presented their claim to the rancho. However, in an odd result, the Board approved the claim of Ysidro Reyes, but denied the claim of Francisco Marquez’s heirs because they had failed to show visual proof of his death. They appealed to the Superior Court and the judgment was reversed two years later. The final step to obtain title was to apply for a patent from the United States Government. However, since a survey by a government surveyor had to be completed to determine the exact outside boundaries of the rancho, and since they felt no pressing need to do so, the families did not pursue the matter.
Rancho Boca de Santa Monica is partitioned
Ysidro Reyes died in 1861, leaving his undivided one-half interest in the rancho to his widow Maria Antonia. In 1872, Maria Antonia sold that interest to entrepreneur Col. Robert S. Baker for $6,000. Baker had come to California during the gold rush, and had made a fortune selling supplies to miners. He came to southern California intent on founding a town and a railroad.
In 1874, Baker filed suit to partition the land among himself and the heirs of Francisco Marquez, who jointly held the other one-half interest. A survey of the boundaries was completed. With the survey complete, the patent, which had languished for over twenty-five years, was finally issued.
A Decree of Partition was entered in 1881. Under the Decree, each of the six owners (Col. Baker and the five Marquez children) received their share of the land in three allotments, one for residential use, one for grazing land, and a smaller portion at the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon for business use.
Pascual Marquez Inherits the Cemetery
Pascual received the allotment of land in Santa Monica Canyon that included his home, the remains of the family adobe, where he had been born in 1844 and the cemetery. Over the years, members of the Marquez and Reyes families, along with their close friends, were buried there. The early graves were marked with wooden crosses, all of which have long since disappeared.
Marquez Family Tragedy
On December 31, 1909, Maria Donicia Valdez, the daughter of Franicso Marquez’s widow Roque Valenzuela and her second husband, hosted a family gathering the celebrate the New Year. The menu included home-canned peaches. The peaches turned out to be infected with botulism. Over the next five days, thirteen family members died, including an infant who had not eaten the peaches, but who had instead died of exposure when left by a window unattended in the anguish and confusion. One long grave was dug at the family cemetery in Santa Monica Canyon, and the family members were laid to rest side by side.
The cemetery also holds the remains of many other members of the Marquez family, along with those of Indian servants and friends who lived on the rancho. One notable friend was Sam Carson, who said the famous scout; Kit Carson was his uncle. He lived alone in a small cabin located in Rustic Canyon and was befriended by Pascual Marquez. Both he and his dog were found dead one day. Pascual brought the bodies of Sam and his dog to the family cemetery and buried them both in a common grave. Ramona Marquez Enriquez, sister of Pascual rests in the family cemetery. Later a small coffin with her grandchild was placed in the same grave. When the North Broadway Cemetery in Los Angeles was being disbanded the bodies there were taken to Calvary Cemetery. Bonifacio’s wife Maria Antonia Oliveras, who was buried at the North Broadway Cemetery was brought to the Canyon and buried in the family cemetery. Though no formal records of the burials have been found, it is estimated there are at least 30 persons in the tiny cemetery.
The Final Burial
In 1916, Pascual Marquez was the last person to be buried at the cemetery. By this time, the cemetery had grown to encompass the ruins of his father’s adobe. In tribute to Pascual’s love for his home, his casket was placed inside the outline of the remains of the family adobe at the same angle and in the same place as the bed in which he was born. His marble headstone is one of only two remaining.
Pascual Marquez had stipulated in his will that his property in the upper canyon be divided into eight equal parts and given to his widow and children. In 1922 the land was finally surveyed and partitioned. Carrying out the provisions in the will each allotment containing approximately 5 acres was distributed to Pascual’s heirs. Allotment Number II, the portion of land containing the cemetery, went to Roman Marquez.
Santa Monica Canyon is Subdivided
for Residential Development
In 1926, the Santa Monica Land & Water Company began to subdivide the area for residential development. Pascual’s heirs had sold their allotments to that company.
Subsequently Roman’s allotment containing the cemetery was sold to the Santa Monica Land and Water Company. During the course of laying out the lots and grading the street a worker destroyed the remaining ruins of the original
adobe built by Francisco Marquez. It was decided then that the cemetery must be protected and preserved.
Dorothy Gillis Loomis, daughter of Robert Gillis, owner of the Santa Monica Land and Water Company who was in charge of an off-shoot corporation that subdivided the area commissioned John Byers, a renowned architect to design a Spanish Revival style adobe wall to be built around the perimeters of the cemetery. She brought a wooden statue of San Lorenzo, carved from an old tree trunk, from Mexico and placed it in a niche in the wall and it is still there to this day.
The development of the upper canyon became Tract 9247 and the cemetery is located on Lot 30. In 1944 the Santa Monica Land and Water Company deeded back the cemetery to Pedro Marquez, Roman’s brother. Now the cemetery stood in the back portion of a lot abutting San Lorenzo Street. The company felt the cemetery rightfully belonged to the family and should remain in their hands. The deed stipulated there was an four-foot wide easement running down the center of the lot fronting the cemetery from the street to the entrance cut in the adobe wall.
Today the cemetery lies in the middle of an affluent residential neighborhood within the Los Angeles City limits.
Preservation of the Pascual Marquez Family Cemetery
For at least 160 years the Marquez family has cared for and maintained the family cemetery in Santa Monica Canyon. Its simplicity and charm is hidden in what has become a heavily populated area ranging from huge estates to medium and small homes built in a variety of styles.
Still within the adobe walls of the Pascual Marquez Family Cemetery one can’t help but be carried back to the days of the rancheros. This charming place with its simple and peaceful ambience deserves to be protected and preserved in perpetuity. It should also be made accessible to not only those persons interested in the history of the place where they live, but most of all, for those generations yet to be born to the descendants of Francisco Marquez and Ysidro Reyes.
It is time to formally acknowledge the importance of the Pascual Marquez Family Cemetery to the local history of Los Angeles. To that end, the Marquez family has begun the process to have the cemetery dedicated as a state, city and local historical landmark. On October 17, 2000, the cemetery was designated Los Angeles Cultural-Historic Monument No. 685 by a unanimous vote of the Los Angeles City Council. On May 22, 2001 on recommendation of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors went on record to support the Marquez Family’s application to receive California State Historical Landmark status.
The family also seeks to erect a monument or other marker containing the names of those known buried there, as most of the grave markers have disappeared. In addition we want to restore the wooden sculpture of San Lorenzo that marks the entrance to the cemetery, and build a wrought iron gate to replace the wooden one that rotted away over the years.
Finally, clear the cemetery of the accumulated overgrowth and arrange for landscaping and continued maintenance and make repairs, reseal and paint the old adobe wall surrounding the cemetery.
The Marquez family welcomes assistance and support in their quest to preserve what is at once a historically important and intensely personal piece of California history.