On October 18, 1886 the railroad arrived at the lands of Mission San Miguel. The railroad provided transportation to take San Miguel cattle and produce to market, it also provided lumber and store goods to fuel the expanding population. The township required a new cemetery which was accommodated by this site. Ella Montgomery was the first internment which occurred July 8, 1875. After 64 years of use the San Miguel Cemetery District was officially formed June 19, 1939. The graveyard was laid out with the Catholics buried in the northeast section and everyone else in the southeast section. Along the front fence line of the Catholic side is buried Corina Stanghel. On 5-1-1907 she was buried halfway in and out of the graveyard to meet the church practice of the day. The grave for the 16 year old Corina, a non-Catholic wife was marked by a small obelisk remains so today. Rumor has it that the white picket fence on the southwest hill surrounds the plots of a non-Christian Chinese man and a native of Holland Mr. Jan Stroink. Verbal history claims that William Antrim 12-1-1842 to 12-10-1922 was the outlaw Billy The Kid's stepdad and is buried in the Protestant side marked by a large dark marble gravestone.

San Miguel Cemetery District Trustees

Janice Mumford, Betty Robinson, Lewis R. Rowe, Rev. Raymond Tintle.

Marker can be reached from Cemetery Road 0.6 miles south of 10th Street.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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