Most of the 3,000 people buried long ago in St. Mary’s were never relocated; just the headstones and markers were removed so the city could turn the area into Cemetery Memorial Park. Among the remaining graves is that of Private James Sumner of the U.S. Cavalry, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts in 1869 in helping rescue a child kidnapped by Cochise and a band of Apache Indians in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.

 

Today, people picnic, jog and walk their dogs in the public park, resulting in dog feces being left near Sumner’s grave. This has upset some veterans. They’re urging the city to support the relocation of the soldier’s remains to a national military cemetery. But local leaders are balking, for fear that moving Sumner will lead to calls for the relocation of thousands of other graves, many of them unmarked, from the park.

 

Parks and recreation commissioner Sharon Troll defended the treatment of Sumner’s grave. “We are treating him pretty darn well,” she told the Ventura County Star. “…except for the poop.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Memorializing American Veterans (by Jeff Wilson, Associated Press)

Bid to Rebury 1860s Army Hero from Ventura's Cemetery Park on Hold (by Kevin Clerici, Ventura County Star)