As this is Memorial Day, I thought I share with you about the history of Lassen Cemetery. Before my fall from grace in April and subsequent upheaval that followed, I had been sorting through documents of the proceeding papers of the Lassen County Board of Supervisors of the 1910s. There were stack of documents  that I intended use for future posts, but alas I have not located that box, so far.

Several of those documents pertain to what we now know as the Lassen Cemetery. However, the original proposal was for a new cemetery and hospital adjoining Richmond Road. Instead that property would become the future home Roosevelt Elementary School. Then there was a lengthy letter from Lassen County Supervisor L.R. Cady about the urgent need of a new cemetery, as the existing Susanville Cemetery no longer have plots available. In a mad scramble work started on cemetery on Chestnut Street. In February 1919, Isaac Coulthurst became the first person buried there. Not only was he among first settlers of the Honey Lake Valley, in 1857 he married Mary Jane Duval, the first couple to do so. He was a very colorful character in the annals of local history. The truth be known, I had begun work on a Lassen Cemetery tour, his grave would be the first stop.

Tim