About the Cemetery

Luminaries lined the way for the 20 some people who enjoyed this year’s Cemetery Stroll. Organized by Gail and Frederick Nelson-Bonebrake, guests included four generations of the Golda family and Boy Scouts, who helped clean the cemetery. Established in 1875, the Odd Fellows graveyard served as the final resting place for non-Catholics as well as suicide victims, indigents, and sailors who had washed ashore. Every year Ocea View Lodge 143 organizes a stroll and shares stories about those who are buried there.

Here is the clean up crew for the Fall Clean Up at the Odd Fellows Cemetery, left to right:
Carolyn Belknap, Frank Belknap, Frederick Nelson-Bonebreak, Joe Brennan, Larkin Evans, Beverly Spink, Susan Brennan, Matthew Spink and Liz McCaughey. Jim Holley had to leave early. Matthew is the Eagle Scout who built the Kiosk, Beverly is his mom.

Background

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is one of the oldest voluntary civic organizations in the United States, with its first US lodge established in Baltimore in 1819. The American Odd Fellows organization separated from its British origins in 1843 to become the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The IOOF is credited as the first national insurance provider in the United States, as members could transfer their burial and sickness benefits from one lodge to another, an especially important practice during the decades of western expansion during the nineteenth century. The IOOF’s missions are to “visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead and educate the orphan.”

Sarah Griego Guz / Half Moon Bay Review
Reprinted with permission

Beyond a white picket fence lies a peaceful space that time has forgotten. It is a place where both the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, rest peacefully together while the rest of the world spins on into the future.

Nestled on just three acres and tucked away alongside Highway 92, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery sits quietly near the entrance to Half Moon Bay. Established in 1875, the graveyard served as the final resting place for non-Catholics as well as suicide victims, indigents, and sailors who had washed ashore.

Partial list of attendees: Mario Andreini, Gail Harvey, Judy Matienzo, Rob Cauglan, Ed Haussler, Anthony Agundes, Larry Giacomino, Diane Haussler, Judi Engel.

Photo by Joe Brennan.

Members of Half Moon Bay Odd Fellows installed the new arched entry to the Odd Fellows Cemetery on San Mateo Rd.

Members of Half Moon Bay Odd Fellows cleaned and painted the cemetery fence on Highway 92 in preparation for installing the new arched entry and gate.

Click any image to enlarge.