While Hildalgo Cemetery is devoid of bodies, Hacienda Cemetery is not. This little Victorian Era cemetery is located on Bertram Road and rests amidst ancient trees, damp forest land, houses, picket fences, and vegetation. The scene is more like something you would find in Sleepy Hollow and not California.
Bertram Road is named after the cemetery’s most famous resident: Richard Bertram ‘Bert’ Barrett, who actually isn’t buried in Hacienda, his arm is. It was lost in a hunting accident while Bert was still a teen. Residents like to tell creepy stories of his arm trying to get back to his body, which is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose.
A sign in the middle of the cemetery tells of the unfortunate splitting of the cemetery: “…this cemetery was in use until [the] 1920s when musician Ben Black, who wrote the then popular song, “Moonlight and Roses,” brought some of the mining company land at the Hacienda and subdivided it. Bertram Road was cut through the length of the tract and through the cemetery over the tops of an unknown number of graves.”
Most (if not all) of the people interred here are Spanish and Cornish miners and their families. Not much is known about the people buried under the road; their stories and names are now lost to history.
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