Tolomato Cemetery
Tolomato Cemetery (
The location of Tolomato was just outside the city across from the Rosario Line, a defensive line constructed in the First Spanish Period, which consisted of an earthen embankment planted with cactus and Yucca gloriosa, also known as Spanish daggers.
History
Tolomato mission
When
bell tower intact.When, in 1777 the residents of
The spiritual leader of these refugees collectively known as the
Tolomato Cemetery
The cemetery continued to be used as a Catholic cemetery by the Menorcans' descendants as well as other Catholics throughout the various changes of regime in St. Augustine from British back to Spanish in 1783, to American control in 1821. The cemetery was officially closed in 1884 along with the nearby Huguenot Cemetery, but received two more, unauthorized, burials: those of Catalina Usina Llambias, who died in 1886, and Robert Sabate, who died in 1892. In both cases, the family of the deceased were fined $25.00 for violating the law.
The first
An historically significant early burial is that of America's first black general,
Also buried within the cemetery are a number of Confederate soldiers, including some members of the Saint Augustine Blues, the local militia unit which took possession of the St. Francis Barracks and the Castillo de San Marcos for the Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War.[2]
Gumercindo Antonio Pacetti (1825–1877), a Menorcan, was Mayor of St. Augustine and surrendered the city to the Federals in March 1862. He went to the family home in Cuba where he hosted escaped Confederate Secretary of War and former U.S. Vice President John C. Breckinridge. Pacetti returned to the city and is buried in Tolomato Cemetery.
References
- ^ Black society in Spanish Florida by Jane Landers, p. 130 [ISBN missing]
- ^ a b A Guide to Historic St. Augustine, Florida by Steve Rajtar, Kelly Goodman, p. 87 [ISBN missing]
External links
