Origin of Pioneer Cemetery Told in Mrs. Matlick's Family History

Stories of the origin of the Pioneer cemetery, the name of Buttermilk Country, and the first schoolteacher in the 
Bishop area, are found in the family ancestry of Mrs. Harry Matlick of north Bishop.

Mrs. Matlick has presented thee stories in a report to the genealogical records committee of the local chapter of 
the Daughters of the American Revolution.  Mrs. Bessie Stevens is head of the committee.

The D.A.R. gathers these histories of California families and keeps them on file in Sacaramento.


Mrs. Matlick's grandparents, Lovina and Joel H. Smith, and Lovina's sister and brother-in-law, Alzina and Alden 
Burdick, were two of the pioneer families in Owens Valley.

The Burdicks lived on what we all know as the Will Powers ranch.  When she died there was no regular cemetery and 
her husband gave the plot for the Pioneer Cemetery and hers was the first grave in it."  Mrs. Matlick reports.  
"If I remember, it was just 80 years later (in May 1949) that we buried our mother there."

One of the Burdick daughters married Will Powers, Mrs. Matlick related.

Following is Mrs. Matlick's story of Joel and Lovina Smith:

"Grandfather Smith came to California during the gold rush and was around Sacramento in 1849.  Returning to Iowa 
he started with his family and a large company of people across the plains soon after that.  Their first stop was 
in Utah where they stayed for a time.

"Then they came to Carson Valley, where they lived for a while.  They came to Bishop about 1860 I think, as Mary 
M. (born Jan. 9, 1867) was one of the first white children born in the valley.

Mary, and aunt of Mrs. Matlick was married to Robert Wimberly in 1888 and later to Sherman Waterbury in 1897.  
She died in Los Angeles in 1945.)

"Somewhere on the road, Eva C. (one month old), died and was buried out on the plains, and grandmother always 
felt badly that she did not even know what state she was buried in.

The Indians were still very hostile when they arrived and when grandfather was compelled to go to the old fort 
at Owensville for mail and supplies he took the family along lest the Indians know he was away and attack them.

(W. A. Chalfant, in "The Story of Inyo," wrote, Owensville was on the East bank of Owens River, near the present 
Laws.")

"They lived for some time and milked cows at what is now known as Buttermilk or Buttermilk Meadows, hence the 
name.  They were there at the time of the earthquake in 1872.

"I think grandma began teaching her own children, and as there were other children and no teacher they started 
the subscription school."

Mrs. Matlick's father was Horance M. Smith, son of Joel and Lovina, who was born in Iowa in 1848.  He married 
Sarah Jane Wheaton in Bishop, Dec. 24, 1882.

The dates of birth, marriage and death of the Smith family are from a Bible now in the possession of a sister 
of Mrs. Matlick, Mrs. Eva C. Brown Van Ness, now living in Cedarville, Calif.

The Inyo Register, Bishop, Inyo County, California
Thursday, July 9, 1953
Transcribed by Pat Houser for Inyo County GenWeb, Sunday, April 8, 2005