Oak Knoll Cemetery - Part 10 - The Secret

William Mendenhall was Gregg’s great-great-great-grandfather. Descending downward, there is an Asa V. Mendenhall, whose son was Gregg’s grandfather. One day, Gregg (who shared this story with me), his mother and grandmother attempted to visit the family grave sites at Roselawn Cemetery. The three drove several miles to get to the cemetery, not one of them lived in Livermore. So very disappointed were they to find the cemetery gates were locked. The grandmother, I am sure was reminiscing a bit while sitting in the car. She stated that when Asa passed away, they was very poor. The family did not have the money to bury him properly in the cemetery, and had to take care of things themselves. One night, in the middle of the night when no one would be able to see them, she and her husband, Asa’s son, went to the cemetery and buried Asa’s urn outside the cemetery fence!

So, somewhere outside the cemetery, a Mendenhall is buried. When Gregg first came to the cemetery and we met, he had stated to me that he wasn’t doing so well. The reason was because there has been a lot of construction done on two sides of the cemetery, which surprised and disappointed him. One day he hoped to try to find Asa’s urn. His mind told him that the two areas where there had been construction, was where Asa would have been buried. Although I hadn’t been in the car when this story was told, I felt that Asa might have been buried in a different area. If I were his family burying him, I would want to bury him as close as possible to the rest of the family, which would be one of the other two sides of the cemetery. One of those sides would be the main road, so someone could have seen the family digging around. The other side though was off the main road and closest to the family plot, and it has basically been untouched. What were the parameters of the cemetery when Asa was buried? Could they have changed?

Gregg is looking for permission to poke around a bit to see if Asa’s urn can be found. This is one of the main reasons for bringing this story forward. Can you imagine, a Mendenhall being secretly buried outside the cemetery in Livermore? The three of us had discussion on how to proceed, and Jeff was going to look into a few things.

Gregg and I spent the majority of the day together. Jeff invited us to an opening of the old historical garage which we attended and was quite fascinating. From there, I was able to show Gregg Mendenhall Middle School. We drove to the grounds of the Oak Knoll Cemetery and walked the area together. We had lunch. We talked and talked and talked. I have learned so much, and hope this fascinating story doesn’t end here.

I did my job, kept the secrets I was suppose to keep and introduced Gregg and Jeff. From here on out whatever procedures there are will be between Gregg and Jeff. I do hope I am kept in the loop with updates however!

Oak Knoll Cemetery - Part Nine - The Meeting

The day finally came when Jeff and Gregg and I were to meet. Jeff is the Livermore Heritage Guild president. Gregg is the descendant of William Mendenhall who contacted me online. Gregg was to unveil a story he was told by his grandmother, long ago.

Even I seemed a bit nervous on this bright sunshiny day of our meeting. It had been such a build up to this point, and the story was actually coming out on this day. The decision was to meet at Roselawn Cemetery in Livermore early on a Sunday morning.

I arrived at the cemetery purposely earlier than the arranged meeting time. I wanted to explore the cemetery a bit and look at the Mendenhall grave site. Because I knew the story, I also wanted to check out the lay of the cemetery a bit too.

The cemetery was quiet and empty. I finally went to the meeting area, where I found someone leaning against his car. I pulled up and asked if he was waiting for someone, and he said "yeah, you." It had to be Gregg. I asked how he was as I got out of my truck and he replied “not so good.” When I asked why he told me the cemetery wasn't as he remembered it, it had changed. Indeed it had.

It wasn't long before Jeff Kaskey showed up and we all introduced ourselves to one another. Gregg explained to Jeff how he found me, and a bit of how he is related to the Mendenhall's. We talked about William Mendenhall's headstone being found, the background of the Mendenhall family and the origins starting from Oak Knoll Cemetery. Gregg knew so much of the Mendenhall history and explained he had tried to tell "his story" before, but there was a major lack of interest ten years earlier.

Eventually we all walked across the cemetery up to the Mendenhall burial site, talking all the way. Here, I took a couple of pictures of Jeff and Gregg. I don't know where the time went, but the conversation was non-stop for a good hour and a half. We eventually started heading back toward our cars and I am sure Jeff thought he had heard everything he was going to from Gregg and seemed anxious to move on to his next appointment.

Shortly before reaching our original meeting point, Gregg casually came out with what he wanted to tell Jeff. Jeff stopped dead in his tracks. I am not sure he knew what to say, or think. It caught him off guard.

(Remember where this leaves off and please watch for Part Ten of this series when the full story comes out! I just felt it was to much to put all in one post. I would love to share a picture with you of Gregg and Jeff, I feel I need to ask permission first though as I never told them I planned on posting any of the pictures.)

Oak Knoll Cemetery - Part 8 - Mendenhall Phone Conversation

Part seven in this series left off with phone numbers being exchanged between Gregg and I. We finally had that phone conversation a few weeks back. He called me one evening at about 9:30 and we spoke for three and a half hours. Can you believe it? I thought it was three hours but I have been corrected.

For me this was a most fascinating conversation. I learn more and more about the Mendenhall history and family all the time. It is amazing what one remembers when it involves your own family. Gregg remembered and shared so much with me. Everything was so exciting, it was difficult sometimes to believe I really wasn't part of the family. I have found history much more appealing these days compared to when I was in school and it was presented in such a dry manner. I really appreciate the stories I hear from family descendants, they aren't just dates and places, they are the meat and bones of the family.

We discussed what brought us together in the first place and why. I was given more explicit information regarding a story he wanted to share. He seemed content to have me present when the time comes that he meets the Historical Society President. What an honor, I was going to be present for this meeting!

I believe had it not been so very late when we ended the phone conversation we would have talked much longer. However, by the end our conversation Gregg was ready to meet with Jeff. Within a couple of days I was speaking with Jeff electronically. Jeff agreed to a meeting place and time. We were to meet on a Sunday morning at 9:00 and our meeting place was to be Roselawn Cemetery in Livermore.

Gregg had some doubts about the whole meeting. I totally understood. Maybe Jeff wouldn't be interested in what Gregg had to tell him. Several years ago, Gregg had tried to tell this story to someone else, but the person he spoke with wasn't interested. Why would this encounter be any different? One benefit he had this time was that he had me. I was interested. It would be a few short days and we would all finally be meeting. I sat and wondered...what if Jeff wasn't interested? It didn't matter to me. I knew the story and would be able to reveal it once this meeting took place, no matter the consequences. Gregg gave me permission.

Tombstone Tuesday - Mendenhall

Can you believe it? The story of the Mendenhall's that I have been telling about on this blog, and now I have come across a tombstone of Mendenhall's! This tombstone is located at Roselawn Cemetery in Livermore, California. I actually took the photo of this tombstone back on February 5th, 2009, long before I started the series of Oak Knoll Cemetery.

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Here is a close up of the headstone. Mendenhall is listed towards the bottom of the monument, second block up.

William A.- 1823-1911
Mary A . - 1830-1903
William Jr. - 1860-1925

Do you think these people are related to the William Mendenhall that I wrote about? Could this William A. Mendenhall be the founder of Livermore? William Mendenhall senior, the father of the founder of Livermore died on January 12, 1873, at the age of 78 years, 11 months, and 23 days. So conceivably William A. could be his son.

Oak Knoll Cemetery ~ Part 4 ~ They found WHAT in their Backyard?

Last weekend there was an article printed in our local newspaper that just about blew me away! If you have been following this blog at all, you are aware that I have been writing a series of posts about the Oak Knoll Cemetery in Livermore, California. If you remember correctly, I spoke about the Mendenhall’s in these posts, that they were the founders of Livermore and owned the property where Oak Knoll Cemetery used to be? If you haven’t read this series of posts, I suggest you stop now, and read that series first before you continue on reading here. You can find the posts here. Start at the bottom with post number one and move up with each post.

Now that you are caught up on the series, I will continue with this article that was in the newspaper.

The story centers in El Monte, California, which is in L.A. County. A home on Crossvale Avenue had been occupied with new owners. A field deputy, Jorge Morales, receives an unusual email, requesting help in exhuming a 136 year old body from this property!

It appears that the new owners found a historic tombstone in the backyard of their new home, hidden behind a shed. Now, are you ready for who this historic tombstone belonged to? None other than William Mendenhall, the father of the founder (also William) of Livermore!

Mr. Morales found out through city officials that the county coroner can only exhume the body if there is a court order OR with permission from next of kin. In his attempt to find next of kin, he soon came to realize that the body of William Mendenhall was buried 350 miles away. They state they are not so sure how the headstone got so far away, but I can take a guess! I am sure you can also, if you have read the series I have been posting.

In the meantime, once Livermore found out about the tombstone of William Mendenhall, they stated that they wanted it back! This was an important piece of Livermore’s history and they would love to have it back.

The younger William Mendenhall established Livermore in 1869 in the hopes of capitalizing on construction of the final leg of the transcontinental railroad, according to this article. The article goes on to explain that his father died four years later, where he was buried and much of the same information about the flooding, Chinese immigrants, the 1906 earthquake, etc., which I have blogged about previously.

Remember earlier it was stated that it was unknown how the headstone got so far away from where William was buried? Well, later in the article it says, it is believed that when Oak Knoll was no longer a cemetery and the loose tombstones were taken to the city yard, a great grandson of Mendenhall, Chester Langan, picked up the headstone. Public records states that a Chester Langan lived at this particular address in El Monte in the 1990’s. This is exactly where my mind had gone. A relative must have picked it up from the city yard!


Efforts were made to reach the family of Chester to no avail. The Livermore Heritage Guild offered payment to have the tombstone shipped home. The tombstone is to be placed in the city’s historic center. It won’t be added back to Mendenhall’s plot, as the property is now a park and not a cemetery, but the tombstone will be in the correct town. It is believed that Mendenhall’s body is still buried somewhere on the hill where the cemetery once stood, but no one knows for sure. Remember, because of the poor records, not everyone who was buried there could be accounted for. Plus in those days bodies were buried in wooden boxes and after all of this time, the feeling is that the wooden box wouldn’t have held up so well.

Now, what are the odds of this coming to light as I am writing my series on Oak Knoll Cemetery and the Mendenhall’s? Timing was unbelievable!



The article is in the Tri Valley Herald Newspaper. Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, California. Saturday June 20, 2009. Page A1, continued on page A11.