On this date, in 1869, Susanville’s founder, Isaac N. Roop passed away at the age of 47 from pneumonia. He was buried at the Susanville Cemetery. His daughter, Susan Arnold had made arrangements for the placement of a headstone, but it was destroyed in a fire at Marysville and that was the extent.
There are, of course, numerous unmarked graves in the Susanville Cemetery due to a variety reasons. However, nearly five decades later it bothered Lassen County historian, Asa M. Fairfield, that Roop’s grave remained unmarked. Fairfield recruited the Masonic lodges of Janesville and Susanville and the Lassen Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West to rectify the situation. A large granite monument was placed at Roop’s grave. On California’s Admission Day, 1914 witnessed the unveiling of the Roop Monument. Fairfield was disappointed that only about 70 people attended the ceremony.