Some of Tucson’s earliest residents can be found resting amid the towering Aleppo pines at Evergreen Mortuary, Cemetery and Crematory on North Oracle Road.
Walk the 110 acres that make up the property and you’ll find headstones that share names with Tucson streets, neighborhoods, community centers and schools.
The Rudasill family. The Drachmans. Sam Hughes.
“There are so many notable and fascinating people buried here,” said Cathy Fiorelli, manager of Evergreen for the last four years. “These were the people who helped shape and form the city we live in today.”
Looking to keep the memory of those pioneering residents alive, Fiorelli has been using the power of social media to tell their stories.
Every few days, she posts a headstone photo of a known Tucson figure to the Evergreen Facebook page, accompanied by a short history of that person, a portrait, if available, and information on where to find the grave if someone ever chose to visit.
The post instantly goes out to the 900-plus people who follow the page.
Fiorelli then shares it with the 56,000 members that make up the Remembering Tucson Facebook group, a forum where residents talk about their memories of the city.
Many of Fiorelli’s posts in the group spark discussions about the contributions that person made to the Old Pueblo and about the cemetery itself.
Evergreen, and its neighbor Holy Hope Catholic Cemetery, were built in 1907, beyond the city limits of a rapidly expanding Tucson. Many bodies from the old Court Street Cemetery, located where a section of the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood is today, were relocated to Evergreen.
Fiorelli enjoys seeing the responses to her posts.
“As a native Tucsonan, it is cool to see people chime in,” she said.
The majority of the information that Fiorelli puts onto Facebook is courtesy of Eileen Grade, Evergreen’s receptionist for the last 25 years.
Grade started collecting the histories of Evergreen shortly after she started working there.
“A teacher had called and asked if any of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders were buried here,” Grade said. “I did find a couple of them. I wrote down their stories and held on to them.”
Over the last 25 years, Grade estimates she has done research on more than 200 Evergreen residents; people such as Jacob Mansfeld, who started the first public library in the territory; and Thomas Jeffords, a U.S. Army scout and friend of Apache leader Cochise, known best for his role in negotiating a treaty between the Chiricahua Apache and the U.S. Government.
“You would not believe how many people come in every year asking where Tom Jeffords is buried,” Grade said.
Grade picks up her information from a variety of sources; ancestry.com; the Arizona History Museum; books written about the region.
“When people come in looking for someone, I ask if I can have copies of what they have researched, so I can incorporate it with mine,” Grade said. “It is a passion. I just can’t let it go.”
Grade saw Fiorelli’s decision to start posting the biographies to social media as the perfect way to share her passion.
“I want people to know what history is here,” Grade said. “Just because they are buried doesn’t mean that history stops. You can still learn what has happened in the city and what made it grow through their stories.”
Fiorelli said people have come to the cemetery based on what they have seen online to pay their respects in person. While still a working cemetery, it is open to the public and used to offer occasional tours.
“I have gotten requests,” Fiorelli said. “People can come in and get a map. I am also always happy to show them around.”