155-year-old tombstone found under San Francisco

By KwakMin-jung Posted : August 11, 2017, 19:18 Updated : August 11, 2017, 19:18

A piece of the 155-year-old tombstone was found on Tuesday by a team of electricians in San Francisco. [Courtesy of Pixabay]


It is not a strange thing to unearth historical sites and artifacts in Rome, Italy whenever the city does some underground works. About a month ago, a team of the construction crew working on an underground subway project for new Metro Line C accidentally found 1,800 years old ruins. All the work was halted so the site could be examined by a team of archeologists. 

A similar thing happened in San Francisco this time. It is not the ancient ruin like Rome's but it is still special for San Francisco, a younger city compared to Rome.

A team of electricians found a 155-year-old tombstone on Tuesday while they were working underground on Iris Avenue, SF Gate, a San Francisco based news media company, reported. The names on the tombstone are a family of three lived in San Francisco:  Charles Cooper, Catherine Ryan, and their baby boy William Henry.

When SF Gate dug deeper into the story behind the names on the tombstone, they were able to trace them back and unearth a tragic story of how a young immigrant family went from dreaming of a blissful future together to grieving a short-lived dream and love.

Charles Cooper was a 29-year-old man from Germany who wedded Catherine Ryan, a 27-year-old woman from Ireland. They were expecting their first child together in 1862. However, Catherine passed away shortly after giving birth to their son and the baby died 13 days later. Outliving both of them, Cooper was never the same. He went on and got married Elizabeth. They had a daughter together. When his time came 40 years later, he was buried next to his first wife and his first child as he wished. 

Fortunately, the bodies of the family were relocated safely in Colma when the city banned burials in 1900. However, their tombstone was left behind underground with the landfills. 

A homeowner who lives on top of where the tombstone was found said she will keep the tombstone safely so the family can "rest in peace forever more". 









Kwak, Min Jung = abiel@ajunews.com
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