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From "Biography of a Desert Church: THE STORY OF MISSION SAN XAVIER DEL BAC," by Bernard Fonanta and appearing in "The Smoke Signal," Spring 1996:
"The mortuary chapel and cemetery adjacent to the church...were completed in 1796. The disastrous earthquake of May 3, 1887, destroyed most of the cemetery wall...How many individuals are buried in this old church cemetery, a cactus garden in 1995, is not known. Only one headstone remains...that of Nicolas Martinez, a son of Mexican land grantee Jose Maria Martinez...It is probable that by the 1890s Tohono O'odham had been using a cemetery just west of the reservation boundry and that by the 1890s the present cemetery west of the mission about a half mile was begun."
"The mortuary chapel and cemetery adjacent to the church...were completed in 1796. The disastrous earthquake of May 3, 1887, destroyed most of the cemetery wall...How many individuals are buried in this old church cemetery, a cactus garden in 1995, is not known. Only one headstone remains...that of Nicolas Martinez, a son of Mexican land grantee Jose Maria Martinez...It is probable that by the 1890s Tohono O'odham had been using a cemetery just west of the reservation boundry and that by the 1890s the present cemetery west of the mission about a half mile was begun."
Mar 30 2023