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This was my first stop is a patch of dirt on the north side of Van Buren and 38th Street. I often drive by this cemetery - if you can call it that - it is more a vacant dirt lot than a cemetery. There are about a dozen markers left. It is completely abandoned.
I picked a few names from the existing headstones and ran them through Google. Presto, I immediately get some information and even the name of the Cemetary. It is the Crosscut or Williams Family cemetery and it is one of the oldest, if not the oldest surving cemetery in Phoenix. It is a mess. I quick check seems to indicate it was used from 1877 to about 1947.
http://www.azhistcemeteries.org/Crosscut.htm lists about 80 names... only about 10 grave markers are left, the earliest 1877 (Jas. Young) and the last (
James Ansley was "killed in the K. [Kennecott?] Copper Mine." James
Ansley Young, onetime J.P., died on December 4, 1877 of "lung fever" and is
buried in the neglected "Cross Cut" or "Williams" Cemetery, off McDowell Road in
Phoenix. The Weekly Arizona Miner of December 31 1877 reported his death and
cryptically noted that he "leaves an interesting family to morne his loss."
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hedgpeth/cem_crosscut_williams1.htm
there are several damaged and or missing headstones and or remnants of what could have been a grave marker, and broken glass from beer bottles every where and two piles of trash and weeds :/
Young, Jas. A., b. 1822, d. 1877
Obituary, Arizona Republic, Monday, June 16, 1941, Page 4:
Pioneer Stage Owner Dies
Thomas Hill, 84 years old, Arizona pioneer who came to this state in
1881, died yesterday morning in a local hospital after a brief illness.
Mr. Hill, who was born in Texas in 1857, went to California by wagon
train prior to coming to Arizona. He operated a stage line from Castle
Creek* to Congress Junction for many years, then entered the express
business in which he engaged until he retired 10 years ago.
He was the brother of the late Amanda Williams [Mandeville "Mandy"
Hill]
and Press Hill [Allen Preston Hill], pioneers in the Phoenix area.
He is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Mattie Keady [Mattie May Hill Moore]
of Lemon Cove, Calif.; a sister, Mrs. Keno Wilson [Laura Ann Stroud] of
San Diego, Calif.; two nieces and four nephews.
While doing research on Van Buren, I ran into this...
And I thought the Cross-cut Cemetery was in bad shape. This is much, much worse. This is down on the South side of 12 Street and Broadway in the heart of South Phoenix. Not a very good neighborhood. Only two square overturned stones are visible, and it appears that the writing has been defaced. If it were not for some stakes with yellow ribbons around the perimeter marked as "cemetery" one would not know this is the final resting place of an unknown number of people. According to the article in the Arizona republic, this graveyard was established around 1896. The grass could use some water and TLC.
