 |
| Photo by: Heather H. |
"Little Charlie," Baby Turner, and Alice are just three of over seven hundred children buried in Savannah Memorial Park - A Pioneer Cemetery, since the 1850s. Baby Turner died at birth after his mother was shot during an 1874 robbery at the family's general store on La Puente Creek. Unlike the beautiful headstone for one-year-old Alice Guess, the Turner baby is one of many laid to rest in unmarked graves in, what was then known as, El Monte Cemetery. Brace Gibson lost both his nineteen-year-old wife, Luty Velmar, and his four-month-old child, Luty Etta, in 1888. Children ranging in age from stillborn to their teens died from accident, or diseases and epidemics of the time - pneumonia, typhoid fever, smallpox, influenza, or measles. Luty Velmar Gibson died of consumption (known today as tuberculosis).
A descendent of San Gabriel Valley pioneers, Jerry Lynne Treinen, is currently researching documentation for a story about the Children of the Savannah. If you have any knowledge surrounding either the life or death of one of these children, she would be interested in hearing from you. Whether from events told by word of mouth, or information written in a family bible or journal, what you know of family history is important. Please contact her via the addresses below.
_____________
You may contact J. L. Treinen via email: jltreinen@gmail.com
or PO Box 5399, Eugene, OR 97405.
