JESSE BENTON FREMONT - CALIFORNIA'S FIRST LADY

Photo by Phyllis Hansen - Archive of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley

In the late 1800s, the City of Los Angeles sought to discourage new cemeteries or mortuaries within its limits. Rosedale Cemetery was thus located just over the line at 1831 West Washington Boulevard. Today it is part of the city with the zip code of 90007-1151.
Rosedale Cemetery was founded in 1884. It was designed to be an urban park and was open to the burials of people of all races and religions.
Many important figures in the development of the San Fernando Valley and our State are buried at Rosedale, among whom is Jesse Benton Fremont, wife of the great western explorer John C. Fremont, and daughter of U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton. Important artifacts from the lives of Jesse and John C. Fremont are housed in California's most important historical site, Campo de Cahuenga in North Hollywood.
In March of 2008, Phyllis Hansen, advisor to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley located Mrs. Fremont's grave in Rosedale Cemetery. She provided this photograph for The Museum's electronic archives and made this comment: " I believe her (Jesse's) ashes were put here. Grave is surrounded by weeds, butted up against
a mausoleum. Do you think this is a turn of century marker, or was added later? Jessie and Mrs. Forbes are within spitting distance of each other.
This does not seem much of a tribute to a First Lady of California or daughter of a famous Senator, much less an important personage in her own right."