Traveling down Crown Valley Rd in Acton Ca on our Funday Monday adventures, we turned onto a small side street, traveled a bit further and passed a sign reading “Pavement ends in 500 feet,” and so it did.
Traveling further down the dirt road we came to the Historic Acton Cemetery as the light rain slowed and the clouds parted, showing us patches of blue sky and even a few rays of sun.
With rolling knolls and shallow ravines, what a perfect, peaceful, hidden away location for a final resting place. Located on knolls between the Juniper trees, sage brush and chaparral, overlooking the valley of Acton are the graves and final resting spots of Acton and Agua Dulce residents and family members from as recently as 2021 and dating all the way back to 1890.
The 10 acre site located west of Crown Valley road was donated to the Acton community in 1890 by Acton pioneers John and Wilhelmina Duehren, who also built the first house and first school in Acton.
Following John’s death two years later in 1892, Wilhelmina remarried Gustav Kruger and it was their daughter-in-law Charlotte Kruger, a widow, who in 1927 executed a Grant Deed legally giving the cemetery to the Acton Community Presbyterian Church and the people of Acton. In 1951, the Acton Cemetery was fenced in via the last will and testament of Acton resident, the late Mrs. Bessie Gish.
With a light breeze rustling through the Juniper trees filled with singing birds, it was an amazing experience to walk through such a beautiful, rustic rural cemetery with entire family gravesites decorated and designed by family, some in white picket fences, some lined in stone, some with block walls. A large rock with a bronze plaque, a wagon wheel, a planted cactus, a stone or wooden bench, each grave site so unique.
All records for the Acton Cemetery are housed at the Acton Presbyterian Church. Funerals and Burials are limited to Acton-Agua Dulce residents and family members only. For information regarding the Acton Cemetery and arrangements, contact the Acton Community Presbyterian Church.
I will end with one touching verse carved into a stone near the graves of two small children: “Step lightly when you pass, you walk where we have buried our hopes and dreams.” What an amazing experience.
Happy Monday to all, stay safe.
