History of the Riverbottom Bar

Whether a hangout for Marines, Bikers, or thirsty locals in general, the Riverbottom Bar in the San Luis Rey Valley may have dated back to the 1870s. The bar was located in what was once the San Luis Rey Township, a rural but well established community by the 1860s.

Named because of its proximity to the Mission San Luis Rey, the township existed nearly two decades before the city of Oceanside was established in 1883. Residents in the valley came to the small village area because it offered a stage stop, Freeman’s blacksmith shop, Simon Goldbaum’s store, a post office and a school. San Luis Rey was featured in its own column in the San Diego Union newspaper, providing information on weather, crops and local happenings. Frank Whaley of San Diego’s Old Town eventually published a small newspaper called the San Luis Rey Star.

Early Map of the San Luis Rey Township in 1873. (Filed as Map 0076).
In 1920 the County would build a road through the north half of Block 2, eliminating lots 1 through 7.

In 1873 E. G. Locke, who had been appointed postmaster in 1870, filed an official map of the township, of which he was listed as the proprietor. The township of San Luis Rey consisted of ten blocks and 7 streets. The street names no longer exist but were as follows: Main Street, San Luis Avenue, Broadway, Spring Avenue, University, Mission Avenue (not to be confused with the present-day road) and Locke Avenue, named after Elbridge G. Locke himself.

Locke partnered with local rancher William Wallace, operating a store as well as a hotel together. Wallace married Locke’s daughter, Alice on July 9, 1874.

In 1876 Locke erected a new hotel at San Luis Rey, which he named the Locke Hotel. After the new town of Oceanside was established, several businesses in San Luis Rey relocated there, including the San Luis Rey Star newspaper which then became the Oceanside Star. The Locke Hotel was to Oceanside and became one of its earliest hotels.

The Tremont Hotel on the 300 block of North Cleveland Street was once the Locke Hotel and located in San Luis Rey.

William Wallace, Locke’s one time partner, died in 1892. His widow Alice Locke Wallace owned a strip of land which is present day North El Camino Real (east of Douglas Drive). She served as postmistress in San Luis Rey from 1893 to 1908 and her son Lee Wallace followed her in the position until 1912.

On January 13, 1912 it was announced that “Lee Wallace has resigned as postmaster at San Luis Rey, and a petition is being circulated for the appointment of John W. Bradley.”

John Bradley then became postmaster, and the new owner of the Mission Store where the post office was located. In 1915 Crutcher Morris purchased the Mission Store and was subsequently appointed postmaster in 1916. William P. Jensen acquired the Mission Store and served as the postmaster of San Luis Rey from 1917 to 1932.

In 1932 Roy and Marian Sager purchased several lots in the township including Lots 8 through 13 in Block 2 from William Jensen. In 1933 Marian Sager was confirmed as postmistress of San Luis Rey. She then applied for a new location for the post office, just across the street.

In 1942 Roy and Marion Sager, father and son, announced their intention to sell their interest in their “grocery and meat market business consisting of merchandise and stock in trade known as the Mission store” which was “situated” on Lots 11, 12 and 13 of Block 2. While the Sagers maintained ownership of the real property, they sold the Mission Store business to Phyllis Goggin and C. Shaw.

Phyllis Mary Goggin was the widow of Daryl Henry Goggin, who was killed during the bombing of Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. His is listed as one of the approximately 390 “unknowns” from the USS Oklahoma at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Phyllis Goggin died just two years later at the age of 38 in 1943.

The newly opened San Luis Rey Inn in 1946

By 1946/47 the building owned by the Sagers was leased to Andrew and Marguerite Weir and would become a restaurant called the San Luis Rey Inn.

The San Luis Rey Inn had a flat roof, but the front façade and a portion of the west elevation featured a shed roof covered in clay tile. The front of building included five arched bays that resembled garage doors (an additional “bay” was also on the west end.)

A closer look at the building in several photos reveals a house on the west end, its sunken roof exposed to the elements, which was sometimes obscured from view by the leaves of the large Pepper Tree planted next door. (This structure is also clearly visible in Google Maps View from 2008 to 2019).

The San Luis Rey Inn building is similar in size and length to that of the Goldbaum Store and Hotel, once located in the San Luis Rey Township. A photo of Goldbaum’s store clearly depicts a house behind what is a “western store front”. This storefront could have easily been removed, along with the wooden parapet and then the porch enclosed. Even the name “San Luis Rey Inn” appears to be homage to Goldbaum’s San Luis Rey Hotel. As late as 1919 the building was used as polling place and believed to be used as the post office and store in the township in the 1920s.

Simon Goldbaum’s Hotel and Store in San Luis Rey. Simon is standing on the porch roof.

Simon Goldbaum was born in 1848 in Grabow, Prussia (now Germany). As a young man of about 18 he came to America. By 1868 he was living in San Francisco, but soon after moved to Los Angeles where he clerked at a general store.

Goldbaum became a Naturalized Citizen in 1871 and that year purchased a general store at Monserate (near Fallbrook). By 1873 Goldbaum moved to the San Luis Rey Township where he purchased a store and hotel building.

Simon had four brothers, William, Louis, Max and Albert who would all settle in San Diego County, namely San Luis Rey and the new town of Oceanside.

The Goldbaum his hotel and store was a social gathering spot with dances and other events held there. 1878 Simon Goldbaum was appointed postmaster of San Luis Rey and his hotel/general store would have housed the post office as was customary. He was appointed postmaster again in 1883 and 1885. He was so well known and liked, Goldbaum was called the Mayor of San Luis Rey.

He married Margaret Marks in 1886 and they had two daughters, Pearl and Helen. Pearl died in 1904 at the age of 16 due to pneumonia.

In 1901 Goldbaum was granted a license to sell alcohol at this San Luis Rey Store. He sold his business in 1907 and moved to San Diego. However, he still maintained ownership of nearly 1,000 acres of farmland in the San Luis Rey Valley. Simon Goldbaum died in 1915 at the age of 69.

If the Riverbottom Bar building was in fact the Goldbaum building, it certainly followed the historical trend as store, post office, hotel (of sorts) and saloon remodeled and transformed as the San Luis Rey Inn.

In 1947 the San Luis Rey Inn was owned by Andrew Weir and his wife Marguerite, who provided patrons food and drinks along with the opportunity to join in a community dance at what was referred to as a “Hoedown”. An ad from the 1947 Oceanside Blade Tribune read:

“Big Okie Hoedown at the San Luis Rey Inn. Dance to the music of the Okie Hoedown. Hours from six to midnight.”

The San Luis Rey Inn was frequented by both locals and Marines from the nearby military base, Camp Pendleton, established in 1942. Although it was considered “out of the way” for Oceanside residents, it was a popular nightspot beckoning customers with the romance of “Mission Days”….

“Tonight and every night in old Spanish settings, dining and dance at San Luis Rey” … “All lit up in neon and next to the large Texaco station.”

Betty Lanpher Miranda, born and raised in the San Luis Rey Valley, remembers as a child that the owner of the restaurant kept a monkey in the large, old Pepper Tree. It startled her one day as she was standing outside, but she also recalled it was tethered in some manner so as not to run away.

Owner Andrew Weir died suddenly of a heart attack in 1948, however, and wife Marguerite put the establishment up for sale by placing a classified ad in the local newspaper:

“Must be sold San Luis Rey Inn. Beer, Cafe, party or club room. Living quarters, lease and equipment. Best offer takes.” (It is noteworthy that “living quarters” is mentioned in this ad, in what may have been the Goldbaum hotel.)

The following year the San Luis Rey Inn was under new management. New owners “Johnny and Nell” (Doris M. Danforth and Nellie Burdick) offered their clientele “home-cooked foods and Coors beer on tap.”

Richard Miranda, who came to Oceanside at a young age in the 1930s, remembered that he and his friends were sold beers by the bartender when they were still in high school. However, they were not allowed to stay and had to take their beers outside and drink elsewhere as they were underage!

Interior shot of the bar in early 1950s. Helen Burgess to the far left. Owner is on far right (perhaps Nellie Burdick).
Photo courtesy Tom Burgess

Helen Burgess worked at the bar/restaurant in the early 1950s. A “Spanish plate” was just 95 cents and chili beans were 35 cents. Her four children attended school at the one-room schoolhouse located nearby on the grounds of the San Luis Ret Mission. Tom Burgess and his siblings remember the establishment as “Mom’s Place.”

The San Luis Rey Inn remained a popular eatery in the 1950s offering customers “specialty steak and one dollar Spanish plates” of “tacos, tamales enchiladas at reasonable prices.”

The small township benefited from increased traffic from the “Camp Pendleton Road” as Marines and farm workers traveled through. Its small business “district” expanded including Webster & Light Radiator Repair, Brandt’s Cut Rate Rocket Station and Rudy’s Auto Wrecking.

The town of San Luis Rey in 1958. (looking east)

In 1958 Nellie Burdick sold the San Luis Rey Inn to Gene and Ethel Weaver. A legal notice read:

“All stock in trade, fixtures, equipment and good will of a certain cafe business known as SAN LUIS REY INN and located at across from the Post Office, Mission Road street, in the City of San Luis Rey, County of San Diego.”

The Weavers also owned the Base Café on North Hill Street (Coast Highway). They renamed their newly acquired establishment “Ethel’s Bar & Grill.” On February 13 1959, Tommy Duncan, a well known Western singer/songwriter performed at Ethel’s.

But the following month, in March 1959, a shooting occurred at Ethel’s and may have been the beginning of the establishment’s “reputation.”

Robert Abilez, a resident of Vista, entered the bar and asked fellow patrons to help him engage in a fight. When they refused Abilez pulled a .38 caliber revolver from his pocket but then dropped it on the floor. After picking up his weapon he sat next to two men, Almarez Vidales and Contreras Sanchez. As they drank their beers, Abilez insisted that the men go with him to fight. When they refused he drew the revolver again and fired. Sanchez stepped back and the bullet grazed his heavy leather jacket, and hit Vidales in the forearm. Lawrence Harris, the bartender, disarmed Abilez and held him while Ethel Weaver called the sheriff’s office.

The San Luis Rey Inn in 1958 before name change to Ethel’s.

Later Ethel’s would move to a location closer to the “back gate” of Camp Pendleton, and what was once known as the San Luis Rey Inn was renamed the Riverbottom Bar.

Even as Oceanside city limits expanded eastward, San Luis Rey remained a separate township, although the city of Oceanside limits surrounded it by the 1960s. It was even given its own zip code – 92068. By the 1970s it was annexed to the City. The Riverbottom Bar was given a new address of 473 North El Camino Real.

1969 Thomas Guide showing that the town of San Luis Rey and the Mission were part of the County and not city limits.

Roy Sager maintained ownership of the land that the Riverbottom and other businesses were located upon, (a total of 3 and half acres). In 1970 he sold Lots 8 through 13 in Block 2 and lots 1 through 7 in Block 3 to Roland House.

Bob Olsen, a resident of San Luis Rey, operated the bar in the early 1970’s, but records are not easy to find or determine.

One of the only pieces of memorabilia – a matchbook from Bob Olsen’s Riverbottom Bar circa 1973

In 1976 William and Donna Justus, owners of Auto Parts and Salvage Inc. purchased the 3.5 acre property but continued to lease the building to various bar owners. In the 1980s Suzanne Ochoa owned the Riverbottom Bar. Her mother Eunice Walker ran the Long Branch Saloon in downtown Oceanside before it was demolished in 1982.

In July 1997 Charles and Patricia Baker became owners of the Riverbottom and ran it for several years.

It was both a favorite “hole in the wall” to some and a dump to others. One loyal customer wrote a review in 2013 and shared its long association with Marines:

“Yes, it’s a dive bar. [It] has been here since roughly 1927. You grunts in Horno, cannon cockers in Las Pulgas, and grunts in San Mateo, ever heard of Iron Mike Hill? Well, he is real and he drinks here STILL! If you want off mainstream to have a blast come here!”

Riverbottom Bar, 473 North El Camino Real (Google view 2011)

Another reviewer in 2014 did their best in describing the Riverbottom Bar, while trying to keep expectations low:

“This place is good. This place is a true dive. Dives aren’t glitzy, cutesy or thematic, despite what hipsters like to think. You don’t hang out there to pick up women; it’s not where the “crowd” hangs out. Your standard clientele are older Marines; you’ll get some Bikers and off duty Law Enforcement on some nights. It’s one of the older buildings in the area; it was built in the 1920s as a post office. It serves beer and bar snacks, nothing too special. I used to drink here with my grandpa (retired Marine). I always had a nice time there. If you behave yourself and keep your standards and expectations low you’ll have a nice time.”

The Riverbottom Bar with its uneven floors, crumbling walls, aging booths and bar remained “unremarkable” and “unpretentious.” It was described as a hideaway, a low-budget watering hole and a “local artifact.” (Perhaps over 140 years old!)

Eventually the Riverbottom closed its doors. There were plans to reopen but it never happened. One day in 2020, the old building and its Pepper Tree were bulldozed. No one noticed as it happened during the pandemic, but a piece of history, perhaps dating back to the 1870s in the small Township of San Luis Rey, quietly disappeared.

History of the San Luis Rey Pioneer Cemetery

A small cemetery sits on a knoll in the San Luis Rey Valley. From its vantage point it provides panoramic views and a direct view of the Mission San Luis Rey and grounds. It may go largely unnoticed by busy commuters driving past it while traveling on State Route 76 or Mission Avenue. Some of the earliest pioneer residents of the San Luis Rey Valley and Oceanside are buried there.

Decades before Oceanside was established, a small township was settled near the historic Mission San Luis Rey. The San Luis Rey Township was a vital, busy place with a post office, hotel, general store, and a newspaper called the “San Luis Rey Star. The township was also a stopping place for most travelers going to and from San Diego and Los Angeles before the railroad was built in 1881.

Simon Goldbaum’s store in San Luis Rey Township

Many families from various parts of the country (and even from abroad) came to settle in the area; families that included the Goldbaums, Lanphers, Libbys, Bordens, Hubberts, and Freemans. They raised cattle, sheep and engaged in farming.

At that time there was only one cemetery in the area, that belonging to the Mission San Luis Rey, but it was in ruins. At some point in the late 1860’s land was designated for a cemetery, just south of the Mission. The first known interment in this burial ground was that of one-year-old Catherine Foss, who died in 1869. A few years later David and Rebecca Foss would lost another child, a boy who lived just three days.

Residents gather around the creamery building located in the San Luis Rey Valley.

Perhaps because of this initial burial of baby Catherine, and the imminent need of a proper cemetery, Isaac Kolb donated the land in 1875 to “reserve for public burying ground or cemetery where the same is now used for that purpose”. The following year the cemetery was deeded to the San Luis Rey School District “to hold in trust for a public burying ground”.

Marker of Catherine Foss, along with her brother, father and mother. This headstone originally had an ornamental top which was likely stolen.

Among the arrivals to the valley were Andrew Jackson Myers and his wife Sophia, who settled there around 1875. In 1881, Maggie Myers, their infant daughter died and was buried at the cemetery.

In 1883 Myers received a land grant that would become the new town of Oceanside and Myers has his place in local history as the founder. But in 1886, tragedy struck the family again when another child died, his namesake, Andrew Jackson Myers, Jr.

The mortality rate for children in 1870 and 1880 was over 316 per thousand births, meaning over a third of children did not make it to their fifth birthday. Years later the Myers would lose two more older children to sickness, who also were laid to rest in the cemetery known simply as San Luis Rey.

When Sophia Myers died in 1906, she was buried near her children. A year later, in 1907, Andrew Jackson Myers, died and was buried there as well. However, only two markers remained, that of little Maggie and Andrew, Jr.

The list of those buried in the modest country graveyard continued to grow, but was not chronicled. Life without modern medical care and antibiotics was a difficult one and even the most common ailments could turn deadly.

Susan Elizabeth Latimer Libby died at the age of 32 in 1900. She was the wife of Charles S. Libby and the mother of four children. The newspaper reported that “A few weeks before her death she contracted a cold which resulted in pneumonia and a sudden turn for the worse caused her death.”

Death often comes suddenly and unexpectedly in tragic ways. In 1891 Dave Kitching was killed at the age of 22 in a farm accident. The Diamond newspaper reported that the details, “The hay press guillotine had crushed his leg three days previous, and the shock was more than his constitution could stand. The young man had developed into a most promising worker and citizen, although his pathway was not strewn with flowers by any means. A dependent mother and several disconsolate sisters have lost their mainstay and support; San Luis Rey is deprived of its most exemplary young man. Words cannot express the sorrow and grief of the community. The Diamond sheds tears with the mourners who are legion and stand askance at the sad havoc cruel death has wrought of a sudden like a flash of lightening from a clear sky.” The paper further noted that the “untimely death of Dave Kitching has cast a gloom over the whole community” and that Ida Rooker, his fiancée was “prostated with grief.”

Marker of David Kitching, photo taken in 1989

In 1898 Antonio Subish, a resident of Bonsall, accidentally shot and killed himself. It was reported that he had placed his gun, “a short-barreled breech loader, against a log and as he picked it up by the muzzle and drew it toward him the weapon was discharged, the load entering the unfortunate man’s right breast causing death almost instantly.” Subish was 47 years of age, leaving behind a wife and several children. He was buried in the San Luis Rey Cemetery.

Henry Lusardi, Jr. was buried in the hilltop cemetery, carried by his classmates after drowning in 1930. Henry drowned after swimming in what was described as a deep pool three miles below Lake Hodges dam. His lifeless body was submerged more than 24 hours while his family and friends waited frantically for crews to locate him. The Oceanside Blade reported that “efforts of officers to raise the body had been futile because Lusardi had taken off all of his clothes before stepping into the water, and grappling hooks failed to attach.” Finally, Lt. A. H. Brown, equipped in a diving suit, descended into the water and brought up the lifeless body. Thirty-three years later, his father Henry Lusardi, Sr. would be buried near his son.

Lucia Nares, who died in 1932 and Ramona Heredia, who died in 1934, were both buried in the San Luis Rey Cemetery after bouts will illnesses. The two young girls were buried next to each other as the families were very close.

Alford (Alfred) A. Freeman, the patriarch of the Freeman family who came to San Luis Rey from Texas in 1870, was buried there with his wife Permelia. Their graves are marked by two unusual handmade markers, fashioned by their son Almarine. Members of the Freeman family were buried in the southwest corner of the cemetery. At one time a row of wooden crosses (now since removed or eroded by weather and time) signified the burials of several individuals. Others have more traditional headstones and in recent years concrete crosses have been erected.

While no official list was kept, it seems that most families were given a specific row or area in the cemetery. Walking the cemetery, one can see a distinct row for the Lanpher, Woodruff, Libby, Hubbert, and other families like the Abilez (aka Avilez) were buried in groupings.

One notorious burial was that of John W. Murray, who gunned down Oceanside’s Marshal Charles C. Wilson in July of 1889. Wilson was in the process of arresting John W. Murray for disturbing the peace. Murray who, with another man by the name of Chavez, had consumed more than his share of alcohol at a nearby saloon, was still wanting “to paint the town” after the saloons closed. Marshal Wilson instructed Murray and Chavez to go home and behave themselves, according to newspaper accounts, but this only incited Murray. Wilson managed to arrest Murray’s cohort Chavez, and in the process, without warning, Murray rode up to Wilson and shot him in cold blood. J. Keno Wilson, a constable, watched in horror as his brother collapsed. He then fired after Murray, hitting his horse, but Murray escaped in the night. Charles Wilson died in his brother’s arms as Oceanside’s Dr. Stroud was called, but it was too late.

Murray fled to his uncle’s house, that of Benjamin F. Hubbert, a rancher in the San Luis Rey Valley. Unaware of the murder, Hubbert obliged his nephew breakfast and Murray went on his way. A reward for Murray “dead or alive” of $1300 was posted and he later surrendered to John Griffin, who with others, took him by wagon to the court in San Diego.

The twenty-three old Murray went to trial for murder and was found guilty. His conviction was appealed but his sentence of hanging upheld. Murray fell ill while awaiting both his appeal and pending death sentence and died April 13, 1892 in the county jail. He is buried at the cemetery along with his Uncle Ben Hubbert and other family members.

In 1947 Maria Susan Salgado died and was laid to rest in the cemetery. Her obituary stated that she was born on the Rancho Guajome and that “she could recount that her father worked in the San Luis Rey mission in the early days, and she could also recount many of the interesting early days of California, which was built around the old California ranchos.”

Marker of Maria Salgado, great granddaughter of Tomasa Huisch

Salgado was a direct descendant of Tomasa Huisch, a Native American woman born as early as 1796. Tomasa was the mother of Josephine Silvas, the grandmother of Gertrude Salgado and the great grandmother of Maria Salgado.

As one of four Luiseno Indian women who lived near the Mission San Luis Rey, Tomasa told visitors stories of how as children they helped to build the Mission. The Oceanside Blade featured three of the women in a story in 1895 and said of Tomasa, [She] “is known to be more than a hundred years old and is put by some above 130. She claims that she packed “dobes” when the mission was built, and, as its construction was begun the first decade of the present century, there is little ground for doubting that she is, at least, in her second century teens. She was the mother of a large progeny, some of whom lived to be very old, she surviving them all.”

Photo of three of the Luiseno Women, Rosaria, Tomasa and Vaselia circa 1892

Tomasa Huisch died on June 8, 1899, and was buried on June 10^th in the Mission San Luis Rey Cemetery, her burial recorded on page 9, paragraph 38 in the cemetery records. The Oceanside Blade reported her death: “Tomasa the ancient Indian woman, one of the landmarks of San Luis Rey died Thursday night. She was said to be over one hundred years of age and as a little girl helped at the completion of the old Mission.”

There are several other Native Americans buried at this historic cemetery including Nick L. Beyota, Andrea O’Campo and Lee Duro.

It is not known if an actual burial map or even a burial list of the cemetery ever existed, but it seems unlikely, and none has ever been found. The San Luis Rey School District, although the legal owners of the cemetery, seem to have kept no official record of any kind. The San Luis Rey Township and surrounding ranches formed a tight-knit community, and the valley residents knew where their loved ones were placed (with or without a permanent marker) rested and must have assumed that someone would always know and remember. They likely never planned for what lay in store for the cemetery in later years, which came to be called the San Luis Rey Pioneer Cemetery.

View of the Mission San Luis Rey in about 1908. This rare image provides the only historic view of the Pioneer Cemetery.

Cropped view of previous image highlighting the cemetery. The two “white” headstones right of the center are that of Stephen Lanpher and the Foss family.

San Luis Rey School Trustee and valley resident Shirley Anson Woodruff was responsible for pointing out available burial sites to families looking to bury their dead. For years he was the cemetery’s only “caretaker” but apparently kept no record of burials or placements of graves. He filed the yearly tax exemptions for the cemetery with the county.

Over the years attempts were made to document persons buried there and one list contained an estimated 84 burials. There were at least two partial lists done between 1960 and 1980, decades after most of the earliest burials. The persons collecting the information likely counted and chronicled existing headstones. A realistic number based on death certificates and obituaries place that number above 120.

When the Oceanside school district took over the San Luis Rey School District, it unknowingly acquired the cemetery as its trustee. Shirley Woodruff continued to file the annual tax forms for the cemetery until his death in 1989. He was buried in a plot reserved for him several decades ago, alongside family members.

As the population grew and construction increased in the valley, the San Luis Rey Cemetery seemed all but forgotten except for the descendants of those early citizens. By 1989 the entrance, which was originally located off the south side of Mission Avenue, was changed to Rancho Del Oro a newer road between Mission Avenue and the Expressway. The cemetery had long been enclosed by a simple barbed wire fence, which was replaced by a chain link one. Grass and vegetation grew around the cemetery making it nearly invisible. Vandals frequented the cemetery, leaving beer cans and litter strewn about. Weathered wooden crosses were taken out of the ground and tossed and headstones were pushed off their bases. By the late 1980s the cemetery was overgrown, grass was nearly waist high.

The Oceanside Historical Society, which was organized in 1985, began researching and documenting the cemetery in 1989. In 1991 the Society formed a cleanup, calling on their members, descendants of the pioneers, and interested residents to help. A group of Marines from Camp Pendleton volunteered and after much effort many bags of trash were removed, including a mattress, along with an entire dumpster of brush and weeds. Several headstones which could be lifted by simple “manpower” were placed back on their bases.

Photo of Leovi Cerda’s original headstone. Photo was provided by Cerda family and taken in about 1968.

Shortly after, it was discovered that headstones had been stolen. The markers of Leovi Cerda, Benjamin Neff, as well a “double” headstone for William E. and Catherine Libby. A handmade marker for Frank Meza was destroyed. In addition, an attempt had been made to dig into three gravesites but did not get far due to the fact that the ground is hard clay.

Handmade marker of Frank Meza, who died in 1937. Photo taken in 1989 before it was destroyed by vandals.

Also stolen was one of the oldest and most unique headstones, that of Steven D. Lanpher, who died in 1891. His granddaughter Betty Lanpher Kopcso filed a police report in January of 1996 after she had visited the cemetery and discovered his headstone was no longer there.

Unusual “tree stump” headstone of S. D. Lanpher, photo taken in 1989 before it was stolen and damaged.

This unusual theft was reported in the newspaper and one month later the Oceanside Historical Society was contacted by the Oceanside Police Department on December 2, 1996 informing us that the headstone had been dropped off at their station. An unidentified woman in Fallbrook had read about the missing Lanpher headstone and realized that it was the very one she had sitting in her front yard. She had the heavy granite stone loaded into a van, drove to the Police Station and told an officer that she wanted to turn it in. She did not want to give any details, only that she had purchased the headstone for $100. It took five police officers to remove the 400-pound marker from her van and place the headstone into “evidence”.

The headstone was then returned to its rightful place and although somewhat damaged, stands once again at the grave site of Steven Lanpher. The other headstones still remain missing, prompting the family of Leovi Cerda who died in 1934, to replace her headstone with a similar one.

In 1997 the unsightly chain link fence was removed and replaced with a barbed wire fence supported by wooden posts, which was more in keeping with the cemetery’s authenticity. Rancher Dave Jones donated a strand of barbed wire that had been saved from the original fence.

Near southwest corner of the cemetery in 1989, chain link fence in view. These wooden crosses were removed by vandals.

With a grant from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, a sizeable donation from the Oceanside-Pacific Kiwanis Club, and generous donations from members and descendants, an archway and gate were erected providing a sense of dignity and history to the cemetery.

The Oceanside Historical Society placed a memorial headstone for both Sophia and Andrew Jackson Myers, founders of Oceanside, near where their two small children were buried, Maggie and Andrew, Jr.

On December 20, 2006 Oceanside Police Officer Daniel Bessant was killed while responding to a routine traffic stop. His family requested that a memorial marker be erected in his memory near the southeast corner of the cemetery so that his fellow officers would see it while driving on the 76 Expressway.

Permission was given to erect this memoriam marker for fallen OPD officer Daniel Bessant

On April 27, 2013 a group of more than 100 people from the Carlsbad California Church Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ pf Latter Day Saints spent hours to clean headstones, trim, mow and upright fallen markers. The group also provided historical genealogies of many of the people buried there.

There are many who visit the cemetery and at times are alarmed at its appearance. In the summer there is little or no vegetation. During the rainy season the grass grows tall. It is important to note and remember that this cycle is the same as it has always been for over 150 years. It is not suitable to change this cemetery into a memorial park with a green lawn and landscaped shrubbery.

Looking northeast toward Ivey Ranch circa 1991

Currently the cemetery is being maintained by two dedicated volunteers who keep it mowed (after the rainy season), pick up trash and place flags on graves of veterans, most of which are from the Civil War and World War I.

In 2021 the Oceanside Unified School District transferred “ownership” to the Oceanside Historical Society as official trustees of the cemetery.

We encourage descendants and concerned citizens to donate to the Oceanside Society Historical, helping us maintain this precious historical cemetery and preserve the history of the people buried there.

Donate at https://oceansidehistoricalsociety.org/product/donations/