102 Church Street
Post Office Box 1219
Weaverville CA 96093
The first St. Patrick Church and current cemetery were blessed on
June 10, 1855 by Father Florian. The earliest interment is John
Florian Todd, who died April 8, 1856; he was the 12 day old son
of W. (William) & E. (Eliza) Todd.
Approximately 362 of the
faithful are buried in our
cemetery. There are many
elaborately carved stones of
marble or granite, and some
graves are also surrounded by
iron fences, but many of the
graves in our cemetery are
unmarked. Some of the larger family plots contain beautiful headstones and
footstones and are surrounded by granite copings. A number of the older
gravestones have sustained fire damage from one or more of the fires that have
destroyed the church dating back to the first fire in 1859. Most of the wooden
markers were burned in the fire of July 15, 1923, but one or two still remain and
some graves are marked with single stones.
James Cochran, a pioneer of Trinity County, had been naturalized
here in 1855 and had been a miner at Democrat Gulch and then at
Weaverville prior to being elected Sheriff of Trinity County in 1866. He was a native of Ballindrait,
County Donegal, Ireland. While transporting an insane prisoner from Trinity County to Stockton,
he was stabbed and killed by that prisoner in Red Bluff while waiting for a steamboat to complete
their journey. Sheriff Cochrane died on March 17, 1868. He was 33 years old. He left a widow
and 3 children.
Margaret Caton, aged 14 years, was suddenly taken ill
and died February 9, 1890. According to her obituary in
the Trinity Journal of February 15, 1890, her funeral was
to have taken place on Tuesday, “but owing to a doubt
arising in the minds of some of the child’s relatives and
friends that life was not really extinct the burial services
were postponed to Thursday.”
Ellen Clifford, a survivor of the Bridge Gulch Massacre
in 1852, was taken in by the Clifford family and became
a nanny for the Clifford, Hocker, and Meckel families of
Junction City and Weaverville. She was very much
loved by the children she cared for, and helped care for
other children in Weaverville and Junction City after the
Meckel children were grown. She died in 1927.
Father Thomas V. Burke was pastor of St. Patrick’s from October 18,
1966 until his death on July 3, 1984. He was a native of Ballyglass,
County Mayo, Ireland. He is buried close beside the church.
A walk through our cemetery will take you back to the early days of
Trinity County. From the inscriptions on the headstones, you will see
that many of our pioneer families travelled across oceans to settle here
in our beautiful Trinity mountains, to seek their fortunes and raise
their families.
Thank you Deanna DeAntoni for the many hours of research
you put into the history of St. Patrick Cemetery.
For a complete list of the approximate 362 faithful buried in our cemetery click here.
Office 530-623-4383