If you read my last post, you know the story of our great grandmother, Mary O’Rourke Mattimore, and how she died young from tuberculosis in Arizona in 1901. This follow-up is the story of the search for her burial site in Tucson. Son Harry Mattimore was almost six when his mother died — old enough to remember, and likely be somewhat haunted by her death. So it’s no surprise that many decades later Harry journeyed west in search of his mother’s grave. He never found it. In 2015 I learned why.

I was surprised that my mom didn’t know where, exactly, her grandmother was buried. Didn’t anyone have the name of the cemetery in Tucson? Apparently not. It was my Uncle Dick who told me that Harry had gone in search of his mother’s burial grounds. He thinks it might have been sometime during the 1950s. Does anyone from Harry’s side of the family know more about their grandfather’s search? If so, I’d love to hear it. Sadly, I know that Harry never found his mother’s grave.

When my husband and I moved to New Mexico in 2013, I knew. I knew at some point I would go to neighboring Arizona to find Mary’s grave. I figured I could get a photo of it to show my mom. So in late 2014 we took a trip to Tucson, partly to photograph the area and partly to look for the trail left by the Mattimores.

We couldn’t find Mary in any of the cemeteries in Tucson. We drove to Mount Oracle to see if there was a cemetery there, where we had heard she died in one of the hotel-style sanatoriums for those sick with tuberculosis. Still no luck.

What we did locate on this trip was the very house where Henry and his family lived for about two years. According to the 1900 census (detail below), they lived at 219 S. 9th Avenue in Tucson. Henry is listed as the head of the household, and along with his family (including mother-in-law and sister-in-law), there were 13 lodgers. Henry and Mary rented out a boarding house! It’s fascinating to see where all the lodgers were from. Most worked in some capacity for the railroad, but there was one school teacher in the group.

The outside of the house may have been renovated over the years, but peeking through the front door was like looking back in time. It was definitely old and creaky. Many of the neighboring houses also looked like they were built in the late 1800s. Learning about ancestors becomes more real when you walk where they walked and see where they lived. I felt closer to them here.

But where was Mary laid to rest? Fortunately I had the benefit of something Harry Mattimore never had: The Internet. After getting a copy of Mary’s death certificate (seen in the previous post), which simply listed “Catholic cemetery” as place of interment, I ruled out all the cemeteries I could find — most were too new. By April of 2015, and in need of more help, I called the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson. It was then that I learned Mary’s likely fate….

The city’s only cemetery in 1901 would have been the historic Court Street Cemetery, which was in use between 1875 and 1909. The east half of the cemetery became the Catholic plot, while west half included the city and county cemeteries. Further to the west were individual plots for the Grand Army of the Republic (Union Civil War veterans), the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (temperance society), and the Ancient Free Masons among others.

Perhaps 7,000 to 9,000 burials were interred in the cemetery during its 34 years of operation, the exact number unknown because record keeping was so poor. It closed in 1909, after businessmen decided the land was better suited for other purposes. The same men laid out the new Evergreen Cemetery, while the Catholic Church opened the Holy Hope Cemetery, both on North Oracle Road in Tucson.

“People were given 30 to 40 days to remove their dead,” says Jonathan Mabry, city of Tucson historic preservation officer. “Notices were posted in the newspaper. They could dig them up themselves or pay for an undertaker to do it, but most of the bodies were left in place, as no one wanted to dig up a coffin, nor could they afford to pay someone.” Talk about the wild west! Can you imagine being told today that you could dig up a coffin?

It is estimated that somewhere between 40 to 50 percent of the bodies were left in place. All those people, and their stories with them, were left to be built over by a rapidly expanding and demanding city. According to a 2013 article in the Arizona Daily Star, local archaeologist Homer Thiel estimated that “at least half of the burials were left in place and are present beneath the streets, sidewalks, buildings and backyards of the neighborhood.”

What was once the Court Street Cemetery currently includes the land north to south between Speedway Boulevard and 2nd Street, and east to west between Stone Avenue and Main Street, spanning eight city blocks total. The location consists of neighborhoods like Dunbar Spring, hotels and apartment buildings. What is unknown to some in the area is that there are still approximately 80 to 100 graves buried underneath each property.

The secrets that the old cemetery left behind were thought to lie buried forever, but over the years, those who remain are gradually found, whether it be on purpose through excavations or accidental occurrences that make their discovery possible. In my research I came across several articles about some of these accidental discoveries where skeletons were unearthed in people’s yards. It’s horrific to know this is happening. Two of the articles I found are here and here.

No detailed map of the Catholic plot is known, and no historical records have been located to indicate one was ever made. All the grave markers once present were either moved to Holy Hope Cemetery, or, in the case of the wooden crosses known to have been present, destroyed. To date, none of the excavated burials (or the accidental discoveries) have included an inscribed label or marker commonly used in modern burials. Attempts to identify an individual are therefore difficult, if not impossible.

We may never have the answer to the mystery of exactly where Mary Mattimore was buried within the Court Street Cemetery, but the Superior Court of Arizona for Pima County has issued protocols outlining how future burials (from excavations or accidental discovery) are to be treated within the cemetery, and an eventual database will be published of the data collected on the people buried there.

For now, the only marker that would give an indication of the land’s history is the sign located in the middle of two intersecting streets in the neighborhood of Dunbar Spring. The sign has a skull on it and says “Court Street Cemetery.” This stands as the only attempt at a memorial for the thousands whose bodies are still there.

While the stories for so many may be lost forever, our own Mary Mattimore, young mother to Harry and Joseph, will forever remain in our hearts. Because of her, we are all here.

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