Ione Public Cemetery

01/21/2026

Three little siblings have been buried in a plot at the northern edge of our cemetery for more than a century and a half. They ranged in age from 31 days to three years, and they were lovingly memorialized by their family with a beautiful obelisk grave marker. But the children aren’t who we thought they were.

Each child’s information is listed on a different side of the marker, with the fourth side remaining blank. Our cemetery catalogue lists them as:

- Tuda, Violet V. (1865-1865)
- Tuda, Joseph H. (1866-1868)
- Tuda, C. S. (1869-1872)

I couldn’t find any information about the Tuda family. While Violet and Joseph lived and died between census years, the child listed as C. S. was alive during the 1870 census and should have been listed, along with the parents. But I couldn’t find anyone named Tuda at all. In fact, the ONLY records I could find of this family were our own cemetery records and the children’s memorials on the Find A Grave website.

But I noticed a couple of strange things. On Violet’s side of the marker, her name is shown as Violet V. On Joseph’s side, the name says Joseph H. But on the third side, it says, “Tuda C. S.” It didn’t seem likely that the parents would use a “first name, middle initial” format for the first two children, and then, for the last child, switch to a “last name, first initial, middle initial” format. Furthermore, the child identified as C. S. was the last to die, which means that if Tuda were the last name, the family’s last name didn’t appear on the grave marker at all until the third child died. I concluded that Tuda was the third child’s first name, and that Tuda had two middle names and thus two middle initials.

So who were they really? Solving this mystery required some actual digging, as opposed to the figurative “digging” I normally do through various archives. Using a thin scraper from our headstone cleaning kit, I started gently digging the dirt away from the base of the grave marker. On Violet’s side, I found a fancy design engraved below her age, which let me know that the grave marker had indeed sunk. On Joseph’s side, I found the answer I sought: Below what had previously appeared to be the bottom line of engraving, there were two more lines, indicating that these were the children of F. H. and L. J. Stahl.

Frederick Henry Stahl and his wife, Lor J. Stahl, lived in Lancha Plana, an area that is now under Camanche Reservoir. The census lists Frederick’s place of birth as Pennsylvania, but voter records indicate that he was from Maryland. Maryland is probably correct, since he most likely provided that information himself when registering to vote, whereas somebody else in his household may have provided his information to the census-taker. Lor was originally from Missouri.

The Stahls were living in the Neil Christopher household at the time of the 1870 census. Frederick was listed as a laborer (presumably on Neil’s farm), and Lor’s occupation was keeping house. The Stahls had a one-year-old daughter, Susan (the initial “S” in Tuda C. S.’s name, and the name by which she was called). By this time, the Stahls had already had, and lost, their first two children, Violet and Joseph.

Although these three Stahl children were born within just three years and three months of each other, none of them knew each other in life, Violet having died before Joseph was born, and then Joseph before Susan was born. Susan lived longer than the other two children, but died at the age of just three.

Yesterday, on Susan’s 157th birthday, her family’s actual identities were revealed and their names were updated in our catalogue. The Stahl children’s grave marker is being cleaned and reset, so that the bottom lines of engraving remain visible. I will share photos again once we have completed the work.

Megan Buchanan
Ione Public Cemetery

01/16/2026

The Reis family invites you to join in saying goodbye to Alice Fay Reis. Alice’s funeral will be held at Daneri Mortuary Chapel in Jackson at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, January 19, 2026, after which she will be laid to rest in the Ione Public Cemetery, where she once served as caretaker.

Following her burial, a reception will held at the Ione Memorial Hall, located at 207 S. Amador Street, Ione.

November 1, 1941 – January 6, 2026

01/09/2026

The family of Richard Wayne Gold welcomes you to join in the final farewell to this beloved, long-time member of our community.

A viewing will be held at Daneri Mortuary on Wednesday, January 14, 2026 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Services will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 407 West Marlette Street, Ione, CA on Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 10 a.m., followed by burial in the Ione Public Cemetery.

September 9, 1944 – January 4, 2026

12/16/2025

I had the honor of being the keynote speaker at the Wreaths Across America ceremony in the Ione Public Cemetery on Saturday. Watch below to hear the story of Sgt. Mervin Howdy, who was laid to rest in our cemetery December 16, 1948 – 77 years ago today.

Thank you to All-American & All-State VFW Post 8254 and DAV California Chapter 118 for once again hosting Wreaths Across America here! The Ione Public Cemetery is one of the more than 5,200 locations throughout all fifty states, at sea, and abroad where Wreaths Across America is held, for the purpose of remembering the fallen, honoring those who have served, and teaching the next generation the value of freedom.

For more information or to find an event near you next year if you aren’t in the Ione area, please visit the national Wreaths Across America page.

Megan Buchanan
Ione Public Cemetery

12/10/2025

This Saturday, December 13th, National Wreaths Across America Day – remembering and honoring those who have served in our nation’s Armed Forces – will be celebrated in Ione for the second year in a row. Please join us at the Ione Public Cemetery for a ceremony at 1:00, followed by the laying of the wreaths on the graves of our veterans. This event is open to the public, and all are encouraged to attend.

It's never too late to make a plan to join the mission! Find a participating location near you and make a difference this Saturday.

https://wreathsacrossamerica.org/GetInvolved/PlaceWreaths

11/28/2025

Today marks 148 years since the passing of little William Kaine. He was only three years old when he died, and his grave marker stands alone in a plot without family. His marker does indicate, though, that he was the son of A.H. and M. Kaine.

I couldn’t find anything in the newspaper archives about William, and his entire life was lived between census years, so his name does not appear in a U.S. Census. Nor could I find anything about A.H. and M. Kaine.

I did, however, find Andrew H. Kane and Martha Kane, and it seems likely that they were William’s parents and that his last name was misspelled on his headstone, which was not an uncommon occurrence in those days.

Civil War veteran A.H. Kane married Martha Braddy in Iowa in 1868, and the young couple welcomed a daughter, Rhoda, two years later. The family moved to California in 1874, the same year that William was born, and had a son Frederick, in 1876.

At or near the time that the Kanes moved to California, Martha’s brother Alexander Braddy and his family also moved here from Iowa, settling in Ione. The 1880 U.S. Census shows the Braddy family still living in Ione, and the Kane family living in Jackson.

Sometime during the few years following that census, the Kanes moved to Santa Cruz, where A.H. joined the police force. The October 27, 1888 Santa Cruz Surf reports that a party was held in honor of A.H. and Martha’s 20th wedding anniversary. The article notes, “Mr. and Mrs. Kane have had three children, two of whom are living.” The celebratory article does not, of course, give further details of the one who no longer was, but it seems very likely that it was the little boy who rests here in our cemetery.

Megan Buchanan
Ione Public Cemetery

09/05/2025

Perhaps your family couldn’t afford to have a headstone engraved for you, but I’ll bet that your name was etched forever on their hearts.

09/05/2025

08/31/2025

The grief of losing our loved ones never goes away, but we take comfort in knowing that we had the time we had with them, however long or short it may have been. We love them even in death, we share their stories, and we keep their memories alive when memories are all we have left.

Who is someone you've lost, but who will always live in your memories?

08/29/2025

There was a time when our cemetery, which was established in 1850, was comprised primarily of children. The first few known burials here were babies, and by the time the cemetery had completed its twentieth year of operation, there were 124 marked graves and 70 of them belonged to children.

By 1939, 236 graves in our cemetery belonged to people under the age of eighteen; however, the number of children being buried here made a rapid decline in the 1940s, with only two added during that entire decade. In fact, about 90% of the children in our cemetery died prior to 1940.

Some of the more common causes of death among these children were scarlet fever, measles, pneumonia, influenza, typhoid, appendicitis, and meningitis – illnesses that are generally preventable or treatable now. Premature birth was a common cause of death among infants, as science and technology had not yet advanced enough to care for the very youngest and smallest of people during the majority of our cemetery’s history.

So if you are looking for a reason to be grateful today, maybe be grateful for modern medicine. Despite its many flaws, people are far more likely to live to adulthood now than they used to be.

Megan Buchanan
Ione Public Cemetery

08/21/2025

Two little girls with the same last name share a plot near the fence in the oldest section of our cemetery. My assumption was that they were sisters, but as I was researching Nellie in the hopes of posting about her on her birthday earlier this week, it became apparent that they were not. Unraveling the mystery of who 3-year-old Nellie was required tracing baby Georgia’s family tree all the way back to Connecticut in the 1700s, then following a different branch of that tree back to California in the 1850s and 1860s.

Georgia Newton was born April 6, 1855, the first child of Dr. Jabez Newton and Mary Eliza Rutledge Newton. Georgia only lived one year and 24 days, dying April 30, 1856 in Ione, California.

Dr. Newton was born May 14, 1821, and was at least the third generation of his family to be born in Connecticut. He was the son of John Newton, Jr. (b. 1783) and Sarah Clark Newton (b. 1790), and the grandson of John Newton, Sr. (b. 1754) and Ruth Bradley Newton (b. 1755).

Dr. Newton graduated from Ellington College before studying at Yale, and in 1844 moved to Illinois to practice medicine. In 1846, he founded Arcadia College in Iron County, Missouri, and then moved to California in 1849, settling in what is now Amador County and developing the Newton Copper Mine between Ione and Jackson. He married Mary Eliza Rutledge – originally of Virginia – in 1854, and the couple lived in Ione when they had, and lost, their first baby. Five more children followed over the 15 years after little Georgia’s death, and all five lived to adulthood.

Dr. Newton had two older siblings. His sister, Elizabeth, was born in 1817 and his brother, John Clark Newton, was born in 1819.

John Clark Newton married Mary Jane Chapman, and like his brother, moved to Illinois for a time and later to California, arriving sometime during the 1850s, as the 1850 U.S. Census shows the family living in Illinois, but the 1860 census lists Mary Jane, along with the couple’s children – Edwin, Frances, Charles, and Mary Ellen “Nellie” Newton – living in Long Barn, California. Sadly, John was not included on this census, having passed away February 8, 1860, several months prior to the census being taken.

Nellie was born August 19, 1859 and was only six months old when her father died. When Nellie passed away just three years later, on January 17, 1863, she was buried next to her cousin Georgia in Ione. I could not find any records indicating that Mary Jane or her children lived in Ione, and while they may have lived here for a while, it is also possible that they were just visiting Nellie’s uncle, Dr. Newton, when Nellie died.

Mary Jane and her older children moved back to Illinois, and lived there for many years after Nellie’s death. Dr. Newton and Mary Eliza, along with four of their children, moved to Woodbridge in 1870. Their youngest child was born in San Joaquin County in 1871.

Though their families had to carry on without them and ultimately moved away, 1-year-old Georgia and 3-year-old Nellie have kept each other company in this little plot in the Ione Public Cemetery for more than a century and a half.

Megan Buchanan
Ione Public Cemetery

06/20/2025

Every person is important, both in life and in death. It is because of this that discovering the names of the unknowns in our cemetery matters so much to me.

Those who have followed our page for a while may remember this grave marker and the story that accompanied it in December 2023 – a beautiful headstone with no information engraved on it, and a footstone with dates of birth and death but no indication of a name. We only knew that this was a baby, born November 4, 1871 and died December 15, 1871. Local newspaper archives don’t have newspapers available from either of those months, and neither birth nor death records were maintained in those days as they are now.

I shared this story and my hope that this baby’s identity would one day be uncovered, but I didn’t stop searching. A year and a half later, I finally found the piece of information that led to who this baby was – tucked away in an archive of Lassen County records was a list of 1871 birth notices that had appeared in the Sacramento Daily Union. On that list was an entry for a baby girl, born in Ione City on November 4, 1871, the daughter of William Luther.

Being able to add a last name to the search made it possible to uncover her first name, as well as confirmation that she passed away December 15, 1871.

Lillian May Luther was the fourth daughter of William Henry Luther and Sarah Jane Alvord Luther. At the time of Lillian's birth, her sister Mary was eight, her sister Anna was five, and her sister Flora was almost three.

William and Sarah were originally from New York. William came to California first, along with his brother, in search of gold in 1849. William later returned to New York to marry Sarah, and they travelled back to California together. The couple made their home in Ione, and the 1860 U.S. Census Non-Population Schedules indicate that William owned over 200 acres of land here.

The couple’s first three daughters were born between 1863 and 1868. Lillian was the last to arrive and the first to leave. The family moved to Sacramento in 1879, and all but Lillian are buried there.

I can imagine how excited Mary, Anna, and Flora would have been for the arrival of their new baby sister, and though Lillian never got to celebrate a birthday of her own, she was there for Flora’s third birthday. Lillian surely left an imprint on her sisters’ hearts that lasted all of their lives.

Lillian May Luther has been in our cemetery for more than 153 years, but as of today, her name has officially been added to our cemetery records.

Megan Buchanan
Ione Public Cemetery