Cemetery of Children

Cemetery of Children. . Old Liberty was a stagecoach stop in the north east section of San Joaquin County. It linked lower Sacramento to the gold country. As the weary pioneers would pass through Liberty they buried their loved ones here and several of them were children that could not survive the harsh traveling conditions. Many of them could not afford the $2 dollar burial fee inside the 5 acre grounds and it was once said by Mr. Sexton that sometimes there would be fresh mounds surrounding the cemetery in the morning. In 1961 the California Highway and Public Works started excavating around Liberty Cemetery for the state's new section of highway 99. In doing so to the west of the cemetery gates they claimed to have moved 19 graves and one being a mass grave of small children. To this day no one knows where the children came from. It was also speculated that there is more grave sites underneath the highway and in the surrounding vicinity of Liberty Cemetery. Some of the last graves to be put into the cemetery are here at this location where once stood a Public Works marker for those relocated graves that were destroyed by one of the many grass fires along with 40 to 50 other wooden markers in the cemetery.