Ashland’s largest graveyard holds many who helped to build the city
By Julia Sommer
Established in 1904, Mountain View Cemetery is the largest of three town cemeteries owned and operated by the city of Ashland. Just over 18 acres, this tranquil oasis is bordered by the Central Bike Path, Normal Avenue, and Ashland Street.
Ashland’s first cemetery, Hargadine, was established in 1868. Ashland Cemetery, along East Main Street near Safeway, was founded in 1880. All three cemeteries are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They total about 25 acres with over 11,500 burial plots.
Ashland’s cemeteries are typical of western burial grounds established in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Developed near community boundaries in grid patterns with intersecting unpaved drives, they used local stone for grave markers — mainly granite, in Ashland’s case.
Sites of Ashland heritage
Public Works staff operate and maintain the city’s three cemeteries — an important part of Ashland’s heritage and community history.
The sexton (caretaker) of Ashland’s three cemeteries for the last 10 years is Jason Caro. His assistant, Drew Burnside, has been with the city’s Public Works Department for 30 years. The previous sexton, Rocky King, served from 1985 to 2012.
Caro’s favorite part of the job is helping families through the grieving and burial process. “Each family has its own personal story,” he said. “The family dynamics can be challenging, they’re under emotional strain. I help them walk through the grief, make sure their loved ones rest in peace.”
Caro also loves the history of the place, burial ground for Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans, as well as Ashland founding families Walker, Applegate, Neil, and Ashcraft. One Ashcraft headstone is particularly tragic: three sons killed in 1943-44.
Hargadine Cemetery, at 1½ acres, is full except for cremation burials. “People come up with some very inventive containers,” Caro said. “Boots, a whiskey bottle, peach crate, grandma’s gravy boat. It’s very personal.”
Peaceful resting place
Ashland Cemetery is 5 acres, with 50 burial sites left in the pathways originally planned for trees.
Mountain View has space for at least the next 50 years. “It’s peaceful, calm, serene,” Caro said.
He tries to bury cremated remains at the base of trees; six urns fit in one burial plot, so families can add urns over time.
Unfortunately, deer eat real flowers that are left at gravesites, so Caro recommends bouquets of plastic flowers outside of mowing season, when they can get chewed up by the large mower.
There are two mausoleums at Mountain View, built in 1924 and 1949, containing niches for cremated remains and crypts for coffins.
With the help of city arborists and public works staff, Jason and Drew maintain the grounds, sell plots and headstones and conduct interments. Mountain View Cemetery trees include white birch, aspen, maples, cedar, madrone, black oak, chestnut, and autumn ash. Cemetery staff are also responsible for storage and retrieval of all cemetery records.
Grave spaces cost $631, niches $534, crypts $1,334. Opening and closing of graves and crypts costs $534. If gravesites are not used after 100 years, the city takes them back.
For additional information, contact sexton Jason Caro at 541-482-3826 or [email protected]
There is a gravesite locator on the city’s website under Cemeteries, and findagrave.com is a website that does just that.
Email freelance writer Julia Sommer of Ashland at [email protected].
