Yorba Cemetery

Has anyone been to the Yorba Cemetery in Yorba Linda—inside tiny and obscure Woodgate Park?

In the late 80s, I actually lived about 1,500 feet from it—in an apartment complex at Orangethorpe/Imperial—but I was barely aware of the cemetery then. Kept meaning to check it out. Never did.

It was established by Bernardo Yorba in 1858, about a quarter mile from his family adobe to the east. He had deeded the land to the church.

He then died at age 57.

The cemetery served the communities of the Santa Ana Canyon (along the Santa Ana River) until 1939, when vandals defaced and stole many markers and headstones. It was closed. And that was that, I guess. They put a fence around it, let it deteriorate.

SAVED! (NOT QUITE)

In 1967, the OC Board of Supervisors accepted the cemetery from the church as part of a larger effort to preserve OC’s history. But they dithered, I guess, and so it wasn’t until fairly recently (!) that the county made efforts to restore the cemetery, which, of course, has deteriorated further.

In 2002, just as the cemetery was finally undergoing a restoration, vandals struck again, breaking and knocking over 25 headstones “for no apparent reason.”

The “Yorba” connection to Orange County began with José Antonio Yorba, who was born in San Sadurni de Noya, Spain, in 1746. Twenty-three years later, Yorba was a member of Portola’s famous expedition, which came through Orange County in 1769.

Thirty-two years after that—when he was 55—Yorba was living in San Diego, when he had a son, Bernardo.

"BERNARDO LIKED YOUNG WOMEN"

Thirty-four years later, Bernardo Yorba received over 13,000 acres of land as a grant from the Mexican government . (It was in present-day Yorba Linda.) Soon thereafter (in 1835) he began building his adobe home, named “Rancho San Antonio.”

According to Find-a-grave(!), the adobe

had over 100 rooms with the rancho having hundreds of employees to tend the vineyards, crops and cattle fed by water from the Santa Ana River marking the first large irrigation system in California.

Rancho San Antonio

Sounds good. But then we’re told that “Bernardo liked young women.” His first wife (Maria) was 16, and, during the five years of their marriage (it ended with her death), they had four children.

Then came 15-year-old Felipa, who died when giving birth to child number twelve.

Wife #3, Andrea, was also young, and she bore Bernardo four sons.

The dude had twenty kids when he died.

For some reason, the Yorbas were all planted in LA (Calvary Cemetery), but they were reinterred in Yorba Cemetery in 1923. (Evidently, “His last wife, Andrea Avila, remarried and she is buried along with her second husband in an unmarked grave at the Yorba cemetery.”)

For what it’s worth, I found the following article, by Maria Leano, in the June 2008 edition of the OC Catholic:

Annual Mass at Yorba Cemetery Celebrates County’s Beginnings

A cemetery might not be the first place that comes to mind for a celebration. Yet for the past 12 years, one group of people has gathered the Saturday before Mother’s Day at a small burial site tucked in the hills of Yorba Linda to joyfully commemorate a shared heritage of discovery, perseverance, and achievement. Their surnames include Peralta, Dominguez, Yorba, and Grijalva, and they are the descendants of some of the earliest settlers of what is today Orange County.

On May 10, 2008, generations of descendants from the 20 Spanish families who first settled this northeast corner of the county gathered at the historic Yorba Cemetery (the oldest private cemetery in the state) for the annual memorial organized by the Santa Ana Canyon Historical Council….

Spanish pobladores began arriving in Orange County in 1769, after news of English and Russian settlements in Northern California spurred the Spanish government to solidify its claim to the land by populating it.

The first Yorbas, Grijalvas, and Peraltas arrived in the Southland with the military and missionary expeditions that followed….

Living in what were essentially remote outposts, the early settlers weathered disease, drought, and frequent territorial and political conflicts. (In a span of less than 100 years, the land on which the cemetery sits successively changed hands from the Gabrielino Indians to the Spanish Crown, the Republic of Mexico, and then to the United States.)

While the challenging conditions decimated many ranchos, Bernardo Yorba—the city of Yorba Linda’s namesake—rose to prominence. He was the first to introduce irrigation farming to the area, and his 50-room hacienda, complete with barbershop, general store, and private chapel, became a focal point of life in the canyon. The visits of missionary priests traveling through the area allowed canyon residents to celebrate Mass and receive the sacraments.

Before his death, Don Bernardo saw to the spiritual welfare of future canyon residents, donating the land for San Antonio de Padua Church and the cemetery plot…..

 Yorba Cemetery, 2007

There's absolutely nothing left of the Yorba adobe--except this monument, by the side of a busy road.

Supposedly, the monument was made from pieces of the original structure.

A brief history of the Yorba family
The Yorba Family Cemetery

SOME O' "THE GIRL'S" (ERIN'S) PHOTOS