Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph

Mary Tripp, general manager of Los Gatos Memorial Park, kneels at the monument of Ives Rickard, a Civil War veteran and the cemetery's first local military interment.

Picture from the Past

Los Gatos Memorial Park includes Civil War veterans

By John S. Baggerly

Los Gatos military men and women will be honored on May 31--Memorial Day--at Los Gatos Memorial Park, 2255 Los Gatos-Almaden Road. A band concert at 10 a.m. precedes military services at 11 a.m. Free refreshments will also be served. Playing with the band are two local musicians, Vic Picetti and Dr. William Frey. Both play in several musical groups in the Santa Clara Valley.

Sponsors of the event are Los Gatos Memorial Park, West Valley American Legion Post 158 and Darling-Fischer funeral homes of Los Gatos, Campbell and San Jose. Groups involved in the services are Sons of Union Veterans, Naval Sea Cadets, Enterprise Division D/M Franco Post 714, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans Chapter 11, Pearl Harbor Survivors and Bay Area WAVES (WN-3).

Visitors to the cemetery may note that dates on the graves go back as far as February 1890, when Civil War veteran Ives Rickard was buried. Originally, Rickard was interred at Los Gatos Cemetery, then located at the southeast corner of Santa Cruz and Saratoga avenues, the present site of Double D's Sports Grille.

When the local cemetery was moved to its location on Los Gatos-Almaden Road, most of the graves, including those of veterans, were transferred to the present facility. At that time, a veterans' section was reserved and gradually filled until a second veterans' section was designated. Today, veterans' grave monuments, in stone or bronze, are installed flat on the ground for easier upkeep.

One of Los Gatos' veteran burials was that of Harrison Walker, a former commander of the Sons of Union Veterans, a unique military group started by private endowment. Los Gatos builder Al Mason was a more recent commander. One of the cemetery's longtime employees, Charles Torrey, is also a longtime Los Gatan.

Most of the veterans who rest at Los Gatos Memorial Park died after their military duty. Veterans of "The Great War" or "The War to End All Wars," later called World War I after World War II came into being, appear to make up the largest head count. Civil War and Spanish-American monuments are the most weathered. More recently, graves of Korean and Vietnam War veterans joined the others.

The Rickard monument is the traditional style of marker, donated to veterans by the federal government, and can be seen, row after row, over the green hills of Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, not far from San Francisco.

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