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 7 Mendenhall Descendant

It has been awhile since I have posted on this series. There has been a reason. I was contacted a few weeks ago by a descendant of William Mendenhall! Can you image my surprise? This descendant contacted me via email wondering if William Mendenhall's headstone had been returned to Livermore. At the time I was not certain, but let him know I would try to find out.

I contacted the president of the Heritage Guild, Jeff Kaskey, and found out that he was personally the one who had driven to Southern California to bring the headstone home. I posted a picture of the headstone and the story of it's return here. Gregg, the descendant of William's, was very happy to know that the headstone for his distant grandfather had been returned to Livermore.

Jeff was very interested when he found out I had contact with a Mendenhall descendant. He informed me that he would love to speak with any descendants of the Mendenhall's who may be contacting me. I emailed Gregg to let him know this. Gregg had stories on his mind and said he was willing to speak with Jeff, eventually.

Gregg, in his second e-mail to me, told me some of the family stories. Apparently, no one else outside the family had been told these stories. I was a bit shocked that they were told to me, and so soon after meeting me online. It was later explained to me that I showed interest in his family, doing the series of posts, and he felt who better to tell? Who else could possibly be as interested? After all he had gone a good percentage of his life with these stories, and up until this point, no one seemed interested.

Needless to say, I felt honored that he spoke so open and freely with me regarding his family and the stories. I was asked not to repeat any of it, which I didn't. Jeff in the meantime was not wanting to waste time meeting Gregg, but I told Jeff we needed to be patient until Gregg was ready for the meeting. Jeff also shared some information with me, again I was asked not to mention it to anyone, which I haven't. Now I really felt in the middle!

Gregg and I exchanged phone numbers. All of a sudden it seemed I knew more about the Mendenhall family than I did my own! Gregg suggested that we have a phone conversation before meeting with Jeff. That was fine, I let him know he was welcome to call at any time. I immediately let my husband know that at some point and time a man would be calling me and his name was Gregg.