Colma Historical Museum - Mystery Tombstone (1295)

This tombstone, one of the oldest found in Colma, marked the gravesite of H.J. Hartnagle, who died in 1875. The tombstone was originally located at Odd Fellows Cemetery in San Francisco. It was discovered in 2001 near Holy Cross Cemetery along the old Southern Pacific right-of-way during tunnel excavation associeated with the San Francisco Airport BART extension. In the 1930s, when courts decreed that all bodies in existing San Francisco cemeteries be removed, Hartnagle's remains were transferred to a mass gravesite at Odd Fellows (Greenlawn) cemetery in Colma. During the transfer, the tombstone was somehow separated from the body. It may have accidentally fallen from a railroad car or may have been discarded as many tombstones were when San Francisco cemeteries were evicted. Individual tombstones are prohibited at the mass gravesite.

It may never be known how the tombstone was separated from Hartnagle.