CEMETERY CLEAN-UP:
Mowing tall grasses and clearing brush around gravesites is an important part of the job at Parkville Cemetery.

Parkville Cemetery in rural Shasta County nearly disappeared off the map or was lost to vandalism until a group of concerned citizens cleaned up the area several years ago, said Sandra DuBose, who is helping to organize another such clean-up day.

“In the mid-1990s, vandalism was a big problem. Many gravestones were broken or stolen and the cemetery became a place for teenagers to have parties,” she explained.

Parkville Cemetery was established in 1863 with the burial of Climena Harrington Klotz. She died at age15 and had been married for just two years. In 1914, a Board of Trustees was formed with five members. Over the years there have been approximately 175 people buried here, DuBose said.

“There are people from Millville, Anderson, Cottonwood, Shingletown and other local places buried in Parkville,” DuBose wrote in a letter to the Valley Post seeking volunteers to help clear the overgrown grasses and brush away from the graves.

On Sunday, May 18, work crews will start at 9 a.m. and hope to have everything done by noon, at which time they will hold a dedication ceremony of two new marker signs and hold a potluck.

The public is invited to attend all events, DuBose said.

The original cemetery sits about 200 yards off Parkville Road, one half mile south of Dersch Road. The board has recently acquired a four-acre parcel as an annex which links the old cemetery to Parkville Road. This annex will not be needed for many years, but is an investment in the future, she said.

There are several interesting names on gravestones located in Parkville Cemetery. For example, Rosena Giles, who wrote a Shasta Co. history book, Bosenko, a relative of current Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, Annie Marie Dersch, killed by Indians on Bear Creek, Joe Kohn, a former Shasta County coroner, and many others with well known family names including Darrah, Tuggle, Lack, Thatcher, Schuler, Morgan, Reid and more, DuBose noted.