Cottonwood Cemetery

The Cottonwood Cemetery is located near the intersection of Roads 25 and 89 between Winters and Madison in western Yolo County.

The Cottonwood Cemetery was established in 1875, although the earliest burial was reportedly in 1863. The present owner is the Cottonwood Cemetery District. The Cottonwood Cemetery is a public cemetery which comprises three and one-half acres. There are many pioneer families buried there from the Cache Creek, Cottonwood, and Buckeye districts. The cemetery is still in use by descendants and local residents only. There are some old cemetery records, although the records are incomplete.

The Yolo County Archives cemetery folder for Cottonwood Cemetery contains: Color poto of present day cemetery, Xerox of original plot map, and list of persons buried there.

(1) Cottonwood Cemetery Transcriptiona: Fred Kemmerle has transcribed the names in the Cottonwood Cemetery. You will find his transcription on the Interment.net Cemetery Transcription Library web site. (2) Photographs and transcriptions of some of the Cottonwood Cemetery stones are available at the California Tombstone Project - Yolo County. (Scroll down to the bottom section of the page.)

(The following photographs were taken by Peggy B. Perazzo, used with permission.)

• Description of the Cottonwood Cemetery:

  The Cottonwood Cemetery is in the country and stands alone today. It is on flat land covered with grass; and there are many tall, mature trees throughout the cemetery with mostly cypress trees and large oleander bushes of white, pink, and dark pink. There were many signed marble cemetery stones from the last half of the 1800s and early 1900s. These signed stones came from Sacramento, San Jose, Woodland, and one possibly from Missouri or Maine, but it was difficult to read. If you would like more information on the stone workers listed below, feel free to contact Peggy B. Perazzo.

• Stone Carvers & Company Names Found on Signed Marble Cemetery Stones in the Cottonwood Cemetery:
  

  Aitken & Fish, Sacramento Alameda Marble Works, San Jose E.F. Hebener, Woodland Hebener, M. & A. Co., Woodland John C. Devine, Sacramento J. R. Mitchell, Woodland

  N. O. Rogers H. P. Martin, Woodland Russell & Rusk, Eldon, Mo. (state ?) Shafer & Barnes, Woodland Wm. Boyne & Co., Sacramento

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Davis Cemetery

The Davis Cemetery is located on Pole Line Road in Davis in the southern part of Yolo County in the City of Davis, previously known as Davisville. The mailing address is Davis Cemetery District, 820 Pole Line Road, Davis, CA 95616; phone number (530) 756-7807.

Davis Cemetery Transcription: The Davis Cemetery web site includes a searchable database of burial records and a complete set of cemetery maps in Adobe personal document format. [PDF]

Davis Cemetery Transcription: Fred Kemmerle has transcribed the names in the Davis Cemetery. You will find his transcription on the Interment.net Cemetery Transcription Library web site.

The Davis Cemetery was established by the Chiles and Davis families, early pioneers of Davisville. According to Joanne Larkey in "Davisville '68," there were many wood markers throughout the Davis Cemetery originating from the 1800s and early 1900s. Grass fires and vandals eliminated most of them, and there was only one wooden marker surviving in 1968 when "Davisville '68" was written. She further stated that due to this destruction many early pioneers, especially many Chinese, now lie in unmarked graves. The earliest grave marker is dated 1855. A Cemetery Association was formed in 1900, and the Yolo County Board of Supervisors acknowledged incorporation of the Davis Cemetery in 1922.

According to material in the Yolo County Archives entitled, "Finding Aid for Cemetery Records in Yolo County," there are plot maps dated 1901, 1971, 1973, and 1975. The Davis Cemetery has the ledger of burials after 1958 and a card file of names from a tombstone survey.

(The following photographs were taken by Peggy B. Perazzo, used with permission.)

• Description of the Davis Cemetery:

  On my visit to the Davis Cemetery last July, 1999, I found it to be a large cemetery of softly rolling hills of grass with a wide street meandering through the cemetery. The old part of the cemetery is located across the street from the cemetery office and in the section further along the fence and is relatively flat. There are many large trees, especially throughout the older part of the cemetery including locust, pine, oak, palm, and many cypress trees. The cemetery along Pole Line Road is lined with very tall, bushy oleander bushes of dark and light pinks and white.

  In the older part of the cemetery there are many large, white marble monuments. The marble in the cemetery is in excellent condition and of a such a bright white that for some of the monuments they appear to be white in the sun like sugar. Interestingly, there are several stones in this section made of a blue limestone that does not have the high shine of marble. The Davis Cemetery is a beautiful, serene, grassy cemetery entirely surrounded in greenery.

  The Davis Cemetery has many beautifully carved marble monuments, but only a few were signed by the stone carvers or companies. The signed stones were predominately from Sacramento with one stone originating in Woodland.

• Stone Carvers & Company Names Found on Signed Marble Cemetery Stones in the Davis Cemetery:

  A. Aitken, Sacramento Aitken & Fish, Sacramento Israel Luce & Co., Sacramento

  Rogers Bros., Woodland William Boyne & Company, Sacramento

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