City of the Dead....Bellevue Memorial in Ontario

Holds more than 51,000 souls and their stories.....And I know at least 30 of them.....that's how many family members are buried there....Am I next....No, even though my dad is there, and grandfather and grandmothers, uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews, I have chosen to go elsewhere....Hope I am not missed.

I have taken many trips to the cemetery, under my own steam, thankfully over the years to visit numerous family members, and they say that dead men tell no tales....true, not if you dont know them....But if you know them, and hold there stories in your heart, there are many different stories to tell....some sad, some tragic, some expected, and a couple that were a complete shock to the family.

A man whom I met several years ago is going to retire....His name is Bud Christian and he has decided that after 18 years of running Bellevue Memorial Park in Ontario that it is time to put away the shovel and enjoy his last few remaining years before he himself finds himself there.....The Cemetery founded in 1892 and located on Mountain ave and G street and it is the final resting place for many who live in Ontario, Upland, Chino and other areas of the IE.

Bud says that when he came to Ontario in 1957, the population of Ontario was about 28,000 and Upland was 12,000....There are over 51,000 interments at Bellevue, almost as many as the population of Upland.

I have relatives buried all over the place at Bellevue....My aunt and uncle, David and Joyce Lee are buried in the old Gothic section of the Cemetery....It looks like the Gothic cemetery of our imagination, full of upright tombstones, family crypts and atmosphere......there's is a tragic story....Joyce my dads sister, died of lung cancer....David, an x fire chief of the city of Ontario, found himself mixed up in a financial situation that the x mayor was involved in and he committed suicide at Joyce's Grave.....I heard that on the news and called my mom as soon as I could from the road...That was the shocker.

One of the most impressive monuments is a statue of a female angel, head bowed.....It's photographed often........Less classically, a waist-high stone a few paces away is topped by a sphere the size of a bowling ball.....David and Joyce are buried not far from the Angel.
My Dad is buried in the Mausoleum which is located in the center of the complex....The crypt next to him was supposed to my moms but when his mother died, my uncles and aunts decided that they would save some money and just interred her next to my dad....That sure made my mom mad.....Also buried in the Mausoleum is my dads dad, and 12 children that are sealed in with my grandfather....Bellevue stopped allowing that practice after the state doing an inspection one day noticed an unpleasant smell coming from some of the reopen crypts.....It seems that once the seal was broken, they could never get the same airtight conditions again.
My uncle Bert, my dads brother is buried in one of the newer section located out in the western part of Bellevue....There are very few trees since it so new and all of the headstones are flat or very short.

What's really interesting, is that many of Drapers Mortuary founders are here as well, along with my family members....There are no real celebrities here, but lots of local families are....You might recognize some of the names....The Millikens, Latimers, Atwoods and the Chaffeys.

There are some other notables though....Hiram Edgar Phelps has a vertical stone that resembles a chess piece.....A short resume takes up two sides.....An attorney, he lived from 1838 to 1896 and was a private in the 97th New York Cavalry, fighting in five Civil War battles, including Appomattox.......He was in one of those last battles as the Union Army chased General Lee, and caught up with him.....He was lucky that he spent only a short time in a Union Prison....He returned to the IE after his release.

Another flat marker marks the grave site of Ruth Danforth Kneeling......Danforth lived from 1825 to 1911 and was an Army nurse from 1861 to 1865, the entire length of the Civil War....She would've been 36 years old or so when she started service......The wounds she saw must have been horrible.

A section for veterans sees activity more frequently, especially on military holidays.....While I and many thousand plant to be interred at the new National Cemetery in riverside, there are over eight hundred veterans buried at Bellevue, ranging from the Civil War, Spanish-American War, the two World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.....Until recently, no one involved in the Iraq war was interred, but today there is one....they also have a Medal of Honor recipient....He was a WWII Vet

Leonard Davis Jr. died in Vietnam on Nov. 20, 1969.....Four days later, his father, Leonard Davis Sr., who had served in World War I, followed him, dying in grief over his fallen son.....Davis was a friend of my dads and my dad took his death almost as bad as his dads.

Also buried there is my aunt Gurtie....When she died, no one shed a tear for her which was kind of sad, but she was an evil sort of woman....We had a big party after the service....Of course we always have feasts after a funeral....When I die, i hope the party is bigger the funeral....Its in my will after all.

Gary Hall, the ghostpainter