Lurking in cemeteries is not something everyone likes to do. I like poking around the City of Sacramento Cemetery, wherein rest many prominent early Sacramentans including former governors, railroad czars, and others of the elite. On the flip side, it is also the eternal home to regular folk, like some of the Chinese who worked on the railroad, Civil War veterans, and people of obviously lesser means. It had fallen into some state of disrepair some time ago, but a group of volunteers cobbled together an action plan to tend the cemetery. People throughout the city have volunteered to “adopt a plot,” caring for and planting plants and flowers on their plot throughout the year. Old City Cemetery
While in San Luis Obispo, we ran across a giant pyramid mausoleum in the middle of the SLO Free Mason’s Oddfellows Cemetery. It was rather startling in its design and size, being easily 25 feet high and unlike anything else in the cemetery. The monument indicated that Fred Adolphus Dorn, his infant son Fred Adolphus Dorn and his wife, Cora Russell Dorn rested within. We surmised that the wife had died to complications of childbirth, but it was not clear if the child had survived. I thought it incredibly sad if true—that a man would erect such a monument to his dead wife and child and how heartbroken he must have been.
We were both incredibly curious about this structure, so I went online (what else?) and learned that the FA Dorn in question was a prominent attorney from a prominent family and was once the district attorney for SLO County. He married his Cora in 1890. Beyond that, I was stumped, so I found an expert who shared the following, taken directly from Carleton Winslow's book "Discovering San Luis Obispo County:"
“In 1905, Cora gave birth to their son, who died the same day. She herself died three days later. FA Dorn had it constructed in late 1905 or early 1906 and is believed to have cost approximately $75,000. The entire monument is constructed of granite quarried near Porterville, brought to San Luis Obispo, and hand-cut to size. Its location was dictated by the weight of the memorial. Its many hundred tons could only be supported by the serpentine rock that exists in this part of the cemetery.
"The memorial holds the cremations of Mr. and Mrs. Dorn and their infant son. Because the land is owned and cared for by the Dorn family, it's not known exactly how many others are entombed in the memorial. Near the site lie three additional granite blocks to be used to seal the memorial door whenever the last member of the Dorn family dies.
"Interesting but unfortunate is the fact that no written records exist of the memorial's history. The land the memorial is built on is owned by the descendants of the Dorn family and only they have access to it. Why the memorial takes the form of a pyramid is not known for sure, but it is known that Mr. Dorn was a member of the Free Masons society. The following was written by editor and publisher Myron Angel about the Free Masons Society in 1883 and may explain the memorial's unusual shape: 'Its spirit is immortal; its wonderful craft is voiced in the towering pyramids and monumental obelisks of Egypt. It will live and thrive as long as Mankind exists.'"
Sources:
Louisiana Clayton Dart, Curator, San Luis Obispo County Historical Museum
William Lovelady, Manager, Odd Fellows Cemetery
History of San Luis Obispo County, by Myron Angel
My thanks to SLO historian Lynne Landwehr for tracking this down for me.
My next mission is to discover more about Kate Litten (Turner) b. Dec 27 1869 MO d. Jan 24 1957 San Luis Obispo Co CA mother: Hansley. Should be fun! It’s also very cool that I know people who like to do this stuff!
History is a cyclic poem written
by Time upon the memories of man.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
Published on: Jul 19, 2006
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