Parkville Cemetery Historic, view the history of this Northern California Cemetery

Welcome to the Historic Parkville Pioneer Cemetery The village of Parkville was founded by Stephen Park in the 1850�s beside Bear Creek, approximately four miles north of Balls Ferry. It was once a thriving community boasting a hotel, a branch of an early emigrant trail, and the Daingerfield Ferry that crossed the Sacramento River at Bear Creek. All that remains of the village today are the historic Parkville Ranch, the Harrington House on the Ponderosa Ridge Ranch (private property), Ezekiel Thatcher�s Rock house and the historic Parkville School (on private property), and the Parkville Pioneer Cemetery ( also private property.) Much of the surrounding land remains almost as it was in the 1850�s. The cemetery is one of the 100+ small private cemeteries in Shasta County. It is the final resting place of some of our early pioneers who settled in northern California. Many of these brave souls traveled across the country in the - 1800�s to settle here. Some met their deaths at the hands of Indians, some died of cholera or malaria, or from ranching, railroad, mining or milling accidents. As you will see, some died as children and yet some lived to a ripe old age. The first burial here was Climena Klotz, buried here in 1864, who died in childbirth a t the age of 16. Her baby survived and had ten children herself. As you walk through our shaded lanes you will see familiar family names such as Darrah (fish hatc hery, Darrah Springs) Dersch (Dersch homestead and road), Lack (Lack Creek) Thatcher (Thatch er Mill) William Jefferson Davis, a Pony Express Rider, and also Eliza M. Hartsough, the daughter of of Pvt. Alexander Hamilton Willard, a blacksmith, and a member of the Lewis & Clark expedition in 1804-1806. The cemetery is owned and cared for by a board of trustees whose mission is the protection, pres ervation and safe-keeping of the final resting place of some of our most notable and brave pioneers.