Saratoga's Madronia Cemetery is the final home for about 700 U.S. veterans dating back to the Civil War, all of whom will be honored at a Memorial Day ceremony May 27.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Paying Tribute
From Civil War vets to more contemporary heroes, some 700 veterans are buried in Madronia Cemetery
By Kate Carter
Photographs by George Sakkestad
Every veteran has a story, and about 700 of them are buried at Saratoga's Madronia Cemetery. Take, for instance, Isaac George Merriman, or, as is inscribed on his headstone, I.G. Merriman. According to Madronia Cemetery's records, he was born Oct. 13, 1843, and died Feb. 22, 1895. He was buried in the cemetery a day after his death.
Cemetery records also indicate that Merriman was a veteran, but they don't offer any more information than that. His simple white headstone, standing about a foot out of the ground, includes the inscription "Co. E. 31st Wis. Inf."
Information from the Wisconsin Historical Society, taken from the Internet, shows that a Pvt. George Merriman served in Company E of Wisconsin's 31st Infantry regiment. The Wisconsin Veteran's Museum's website provides information about the 31st Infantry, which first organized on Oct. 9, 1862, in Prairie du Chien, Wis., in service to the Union Army in the Civil War.
The regiment was assigned guard and patrol duty in Kentucky through June 1964. It was then put under the command of U.S. Gen. William T. Sherman and joined his forces as they fought their way from Atlanta to Savannah, Ga. After participating in the siege of Savannah, the regiment then fought in battles throughout North Carolina in March 1965, and was present when Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Sherman on April 26, 1865.
Did the man buried in Madronia Cemetery join Sherman in his march to the sea? Did he participate in decisive battles to end the Civil War? How did he end up in Saratoga and make his final resting place here? Unfortunately, there are no records that can tell for certain, so answers to those questions remain mysteries.
The details of Merriman's life and experience, like so many of those buried at the serene, 10 1/2 acre spot in the hills off Oak Street, are still valuable--they provide a deeper context to past and current events and give people a sense of what Memorial Day is all about.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
The Husted family members buried in Madronia include veteran Leonard B. Husted.
The most visitors
Madronia Cemetery manager Gary Reed says the cemetery receives more visitors on Memorial Day than any other day of the year. He also says that the Saratoga Cemetery District, which includes just the one cemetery, is the only one of its kind in Santa Clara County and is the oldest in the state.
The cemetery grew up out of necessity with the growing town of what would become Saratoga. Its first burial, in 1854, was that of a young male drowning victim, C.B. Buckman, whose grave remains but is unmarked. In 1863, formal boundaries of a 2-acre burial ground were established and the site was given the name "Madronia" because of the number of madrone trees there.
The cemetery now holds about 3,000 graves, Reed says, and there are plans for more. In January the cemetery will gain two more acres, purchased for $1.6 million from John Sobrato, who is developing property along the cemetery's western edge. That extra space should keep the cemetery in operation for another 30 to 50 years, Reed says.
Reed, who has been running the cemetery for 14 years and is familiar with all its graves, says Merriman is among about two or three possible Civil War veterans buried there. Madronia is also the final home for about 700 other veterans in wars and military service since then.
On May 27, each one of their graves will be highlighted with a U.S. flag and will be honored by the up to 500 expected participants in the Saratoga Foothill Club's Memorial Day Service. Memorial Day also inspires people to visit the graves of their non-veteran loved ones, Reed says.
The cemetery keeps records of all the individuals buried there, some of those records culled from information written in pencil in old cemetery registers. Every year the cemetery updates its list of veterans buried there as well, and in the past year about 40 new names have been added to that list. But for the stories behind the records, especially the old ones--as in the case of Merriman--one has to hunt around.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Madronia Cemetery has approximately 3,000 headstones from as far back as 1854. Saratoga's is the oldest cemetery district in the state and the only one in Santa Clara County.
Personal touches
Memorial Day Service coordinator White is trying to move the event's remembrance beyond the generic tribute to fallen soldiers everywhere and use their stories to bring their experiences home.
So in preparation for the May 27 event, she has been hunting for war letters to be submitted by local individuals and to be read to the gathering at the cemetery. Some of the letters are not by or to persons buried in the cemetery; some were sent by people not yet buried at all. But they all provide a sense of what every soldier has experienced.
Harry Locke Currier, the great uncle of Saratogan Amy June Currier Jorgensen, was among the first volunteers to sign up for service in the Spanish-American War. As a student at the University of Minnesota, he wrote to his parents of his decision to enlist April 24, 1898:
"I have been trying to analyze the spirit which is prompting me. It is, no doubt, in part the love of adventure and excitement which is so large a part of my real nature, but I believe there is a good deal of real patriotism mixed in with it ... I doubt if any of the volunteers ever see Cuba, I think the regulars will settle matters there. But if there were to be an invasion of Spain, we would be right in line."
Currier was assigned to the transport ship The City of Para en route to Hawaii, and wrote home July 3, 1898, of the first few days aboard:
"By Tuesday, it was the sickest, deadest, most forlorn-looking crowd I have ever seen in my life! ... I went to sleep and slept through it all--wasn't sick to amount to anything myself ... Think I would make a good sailor."
Currier arrived in the Philippines Aug. 1, and wrote home Aug. 18:
"You are no doubt anxious to know how I'm getting on. This is the first opportunity to write you, but of course it will be a long time before this reaches you. First of all, I am well ... On Aug. 13 ... we took Manila. We were up early, had breakfast ... and started for the front with 100 rounds of ammunition and a day's rations. It rained all the way up. Put into trenches, where we sat in the mud. About 8:30 a.m., Utah batteries on our left and some guns from Dewey's ship opened fire on the Spanish fort, at the same time the Astor battery opened on a blockhouse. There was some of the best Fourth of July fireworks I can ever expect to hear for the next few hours, then there was some sharp musketry, then all was quiet. We were ordered out to march on a road leading to the Spanish blockhouse. The Spanish opened fire on us from the woods on either side of the road ... We couldn't fire as there were some of our own troops in the woods whose position we didn't know. We lay there in the hot sun and let the Spanish shoot at us. The 'zip' made by a Mauser bullet is a very musical one and a sound you would never forget. Some came pretty close but nobody was hit but the Captain, and he was scared stiff! We were ordered to march again and had some quite sharp skirmishing. You will know about the killed and wounded from the papers. At the present time there are about 100 of our soldiers buried on the island."
The group remained in the Philippines and ran patrols, Currier wrote on Sept. 4, and faced another wartime enemy--disease:
"There has been much sickness among the troops the last two weeks--malarial fever, typhoid fever and diarrhea. I have been sick in the last week myself, but haven't been off duty at all, but had bad diarrhea, no appetite and some fever."
Currier's spirits remained high, however, and he looked forward to his return home:
"General Merritt has left for Paris and peace talks. General Otis is in charge during his absence. We are anxious to hear the result of the terms. I may be home by Christmas."
The next mail the Curriers received from the Philippines carried bad news:
"It is with deep regret that I inform you that your son, Harry Locke Currier, died of typhoid fever yesterday, Sept. 19, at 2:30 p.m.," wrote Currier's captain, William S. McWade. "He was one of the best soldiers in my company--always ready to do duty without one word of complaint. In fact, he did work when he should have been in the hospital. I do not know of a man in the regiment who had as many warm friends and admirers as he."
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Each service person's grave will be marked with a U.S. flag for Memorial Day.
Jorgensen says she hadn't read her great uncle's letters until White had put out a request for them.
"I was really moved by them," she says. "He was planning to be a mining engineer. He had all these ambitions. I didn't realize the feelings that he had. It makes us think more about all those soldiers, all this loss of life."
Some did come home, fortunately for Monte Sereno resident Judy Fields, whose father, Vernal A. Diggs, served under Gen. Douglas MacArthur during World War I. Fields has a copy of a journal her father kept while in Europe, as well as excerpts from a letter he wrote home to his parents.
"Air battles are many and interesting. When the Americans are shooting their machine guns into the boche planes everyone is cheering and yelling as at a baseball game. Then when the boche take turns, the crowd is spellbound for the time until our men again swing about into position. It is like attending some big show specially staged for our own amusement, unless the shrapnel shells from our anti-aircraft guns or the machine gun bullets come too close ... Bombs from the air throw dirt on us occasionally, and shells have landed uncomfortably close several times. But such is war."
Fields' father returned to Europe in 1954 as a NATO electronics advisor and was recognized by someone who lived in the village where he was during the war.
"It really kind of leaves you speechless, wondering if there's ever going to be a time when Memorial Day is obsolete," she says.
As current events unfold, however, an end to the number of people affected by war can at times seem less likely. Saratogans Bill and Marianne McDonnal submitted an email from an East Coast woman serving on board the submarine the U.S.S. Winston S. Churchill. She wrote the email to her father three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"Well, we are still at sea, with little direction as to what our next priority is. The remainder of our port visits, which were to be centered around max liberty and goodwill to the United Kingdom, have all but been cancelled. We have spent every day since the attacks going back and forth within imaginary boxes drawn in the ocean, standing high-security watches and trying to make the best of our time. It hasn't been that fun, I must confess, and to be even more honest, a lot of people are frustrated at the fact that they either can't be home or we don't have more direction right now. We have seen the articles and photographs, and they are sickening. Being isolated as we are, I don't think we appreciate the full scope of what is happening back home, but we are definitely feeling the effects."
She also describes the feelings of pride and gratitude engendered among the crew when the ship came upon a German warship flying a U.S. flag at half mast, with its entire crew on the deck in their dress blues displaying a sign reading "We Stand By You."
"I'll write you when I know more about when I'll be home," she continues, "but for now, this is probably the best news I could send you. Love you guys. Megan."
Her uncertainty about the future and longing to be home is not unique for people in her place, no matter what their situation--it is probably the strongest feeling shared by those in war. White's husband, Charlie, sent her notes throughout his service in World War II expressing those emotions. His hopes were finally realized, and his emotion is clear in another letter to her that captures the elation of homecoming.
"The war is over--hip, hip, hurray! It won't be long 'til that glorious day, the day when I'll throw away this pen and hold you in my arms again ... No more passes, no more furloughs, no more 'ifs,' 'ands,' 'buts' or 'althoughs.' So cheer up, my darling, it won't be long, 'til we're singing together that wondrous song--I love you."
Saratoga's Memorial Day Service is May 27. It begins at the Memorial Arch, at the corner of Saratoga-Los Gatos Road and Big Basin Way, at 9:30 a.m. The group will then walk to Madronia Cemetery for a ceremony there. The service is expected to end by 10:30 a.m.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
