Smith Family Cemetery, San Bernardino County, CA

From: Lanny [mailto:searchin45@hotmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 7:55 PM
To: 'Peggy Hooper'
Subject: Smith Family Cemetery - San Bernardino County

An update...  This was never a 'family cemetery'.  Based on current information, it was more like 
a small burial ground.  The only two confirmed burials at this located were a TG Smith d. 15 Jan 1883, 
age 39 with a Masonic emblem on his marker.   He moved to this area in 1881 with his wife and 
daughter and when he died in 1883, his wife and daughter returned 'to the east'.
 
In 1949 a family bought a piece of property that unknowingly included the old cemetery.  TG Smith's 
tombstone had fallen over and become covered with dirt.  When the property owners decided to plow 
up an area to plant an orchard, their plow struck the buried tombstone.  Further exploration found a 
wooden gravemarker bearing only the name Kincaid.
 
Continuing research at the time, revealed that several other graves were present.  Several were 
'identified' and were apparently relocated to other cemeteries.  Some were never identified.  I have 
not been able to locate information on who any of these others were.  The folks who found the markers 
are deceased and only one grandson is alive.  I have not had luck locating him. 
 
I do know that TG Smith's tombstone was relocated to Bellevue Memorial Park. This was before they 
had a computer system and they have 'no record' of even his tombstone being there.  I am working to 
convince them to check/let me check their paper records for clues.
 
The property has been subdivided and sold several times.  If there were any remains that remained 
behind, they have been moved/excavated/destroyed.  
 
I have gone through the existing archives of burial records to no avail.  But, in those days, even in to 
the early 1900's, this area was so uninhabited, it is likely that anyone bothered to involve county 
records in any way.    
 
I'm not finished with this mystery...  especially since there may be another mystery in the same 
general area... but that is another story entirely!!!  
 
I just wanted to update you.
 
Lanny Lowe