Manning apparently agreed to remain with Arlington and then opened her own brothel for a little extra income. This later enraged the constable, who ordered Manning to cease and desist, or he would return her to her family. Manning shot Arlington in the head, killing him, and then shot herself. Both are now interned in Old City “where true love really does live on in eternity,” Whitehead tells the group. People laugh but watch ever so closely over their shoulders as they continue their midnight stroll through Old City Cemetery. The Sacramento Historic City Cemetery is what most docents would consider a “living” cemetery, complete with a grand history, a social status hierarchy and even reports of the walking dead. There are approximately 44 acres of land dedicated to this territory, according to Judy Eitzen of the Old City Cemetery Committee, though other sources say that the real estate is between 28 and 36 acres. Three cemeteries occupy the space—the Old City Cemetery, the Masons and Odd Fellows cemeteries. According to Sacramento Historic City Cemetery’s master plan documents, the graveyards’ history begins in 1849 when Captain John Sutter Jr. persuaded his father to donate 10 acres of land to create a city cemetery. This donation to the city of Sacramento was called the City Ordinance of December 1849. The private cemetery established near Sutter’s Fort at that time had a tendency to flood, being located too close to the American River. Old City was a remedy to this dilemma since the land Sutter chose to donate was one of the higher elevations in Sacramento.
Years later this property became a final resting place for over 25,000 people. Some say that more than 36,000 people reside there. This dispute exists because of an estimated 800 to 1,000 bodies needing to be “put to rest” quickly when the Asiatic cholera epidemic hit Sacramento in 1850. Besides being designed as a garden cemetery, Old City cemetery, for better or worse, carries a defined social status within its Victorian gates. A city’s story is told in its cemeteries; they are where the past meets the present. Cemeteries planned by cities promote respect for the city’s history and convey important statements about who was who in Sacramento. The great monuments, above-ground crypts and more ornate markers create a mark of social distinction between emerging middle class sections of the cemetery and the ultra-wealthy, according to Jane Eva Baxter, department of anthropology at DePaul University. This is recognizable throughout the great city cemeteries nationally and internationally.
The Sacramento Historic City Cemetery is what most docents would consider a “living” cemetery, complete with a grand history, a social status hierarchy and even reports of the walking dead.
Determined to distance themselves from the working class and to present to the public its social status, the more wealthy patrons of Old City Cemetery erected giant monuments with statuary or above ground mausoleums to intern their dearly departed. Graves were seen as a public extension of the family’s property, and cemeteries such as Old City provided a secure, well-maintained, costly place for families to establish permanent monuments to themselves — an immortality of sorts. The Old City Cemetery historic landmark committee considers Old City the finest of the Sacramento cemeteries for its landscaping and unusual funerary architecture. It includes an area of family vaults based around a cedar of Lebanon tree, as well as a Civil War section of monuments dedicated to Californians who fought in that war. Historical information plaques are located throughout the cemetery to enlighten visitors about the history of this unique cemetery. Those who visit today are also informed by massive monuments and markers carved in ornate script and elevated above modest name markers that a prominent person is entombed there.
Sacramento’s Historic City Cemetary at dusk.