Buried in History

Ryan McCloskey Unearths Redding’s Colorful History…

Ryan McCloskey loves to keep history alive, even in a place where some of the colorful participants in that history have been laid to rest.

As an historian and funeral arranger at McDonald’s Chapel and Redding Memorial Park, where he’s worked for the past 15 years, McCloskey is the perfect source for the myriad beneath-the-gravestone stories of civic accomplishments, derring-do, tragedies and triumphs represented at the 147-year-old cemetery.

McCloskey, who refers to himself as “the friendly neighborhood undertaker,” will share a fair number of those stories this month when he conducts four special cemetery tours. (McCloskey also leads tours at 11 am on the second Wednesday of each month.)

While some may be a bit squeamish at the thought of touring a cemetery, McCloskey suggests a counterpoint. “I want to create an immersive historical experience and also transport people back in time to the more traditional Victorian practices. A cemetery is definitely a place for the living as well,” he says.

Redding Memorial Park “is a place of rest and repose for the deceased, and also a sanctuary and relief for the living,” McCloskey says, adding that in Victorian times it was not uncommon to have picnics in a cemetery. “There’s shade in the summer …it’s a place of bereavement that also provides physical and emotional comfort. It can be a place for thinking, a chance for solitude away from the hustle and bustle.”

And oh, the characters you will meet.

McCloskey tailors his tours to the interests expressed by each audience, but he has plenty of go-to gravesites that commemorate the rich variety of life stories contained within.

Isabella Martin is a good example. Nicknamed the “queen of grudges,” Martin first came to prominence in the North State in 1882 when she moved west from New York to Weaverville. She married John Martin, a mine owner 26 years her senior, and later presented him with a son that she had secretly adopted.

Following John Martin’s suspicious death, Isabella then forged a will and sought a third of her late husband’s wealth from his brother. When a judge ruled against her, she forced John Jr. to bomb the judge’s Oakland home (the judge and his family survived). In Weaverville, she torched a barn, claiming its occupant had denied her lodging at the New York Hotel. She also failed in an attempt to poison Weaverville’s water supply.

Her long and twisted career in criminality came to an end when she was arrested at the Lorenz Hotel and ultimately given a life sentence at San Quentin Prison.

The infamous Ruggles brothers, the siblings arrested on murder and theft charges after robbing the Weaverville stage in 1892, also contribute to the criminal lore at the downtown Redding cemetery. McCloskey’s tours often include stops at the gravesites of Charles Behrens, the constable who was the first lawman at the scene of the robbery, and George Albro, who was the lone jailer on duty when an angry mob dragged John and Charles Ruggles out of jail and lynched them next to the railroad tracks on Shasta Street.

Another popular stop on the tours is Frank Crowe’s gravesite, where he is identified simply as a builder. Quite the understatement considering he oversaw construction of both Shasta and Hoover dams.

Colorful history in the daredevil department is part of the tour as well. McCloskey often talks about Thomas Williams, an acrobat who performed under the stage name of Zenobia, who landed in the cemetery after a fatal mishap during his patented catapult stunt.
The 20-year-old performer perished in August 1883 during a circus
in Redding.

Archibald Campbell, a 19th-century circus clown who performed as Archie the Clown, was laid to rest in Redding after a long and dramatic career that saw him inducted into the International Circus Hall of Fame.

Tour participants can learn a bit of civic history, as well. At the gravesite for Carl Williams, McCloskey explains how the former Redding mayor (1951-52) is credited with being the first to propose both the Civic Auditorium and the Downtown Redding Mall.

The tours also provide a lesson in the fraternal organizations that gained popularity over the years, including Freemasons, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. The related iconography is featured on many headstones. •

Redding Memorial Park • 1201 Continental St., Redding
Special October cemetery tours will start at 7 pm
(meet at the main gate):
Sunday, Oct. 11, New Moon
Saturday, Oct. 17, Ladies Night
Monday, Oct. 26, Full Moon
Saturday, Oct. 31, Halloween
For more information, call (530) 604-7400

To learn more about Isabella Martin, check out Redding author Ron Giesecke’s book: “Relentless: The Unraveled Mind of Isabella Martin, Queen of Grudges”