Tomales Presbyterian Church & Cemetery

View toward the North West.

Tomales Presbyterian Church and its peaceful cemetery sit atop a small hill at the end of Church Street. Great care has been taken to preserve the building's early historic architecture and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

On the right side, toward the back of the building, there are the Cypress trees that border the front part of the cemetery.  

Just to the right of those Cypress trees (out of view) is the entrance. The entrance path runs vertical down the middle of the cemetery and is called Dutton Lane.

On the left side of the church, just over the fence, is grazing pasture. Very often, there are herds of sheep roving the bucolic West Marin hills.

Photograph taken Thanksgiving Day, 2014 by Colletta

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Land Donated for Graveyard and Church Property

The 125' x 200' plot on which the Tomales Presbyterian Church sits was deeded to the church trustees for one dollar by Warren and Martha B. Dutton in 1868.
In 1872 the trustees signed a $500 indenture with the Presbyterian General Assembly Church Erection Fund. Additional property was deeded to the church by John Warren Dutton in 1915.

History of Graveyard

The Cemetery was believed opened in the year 1864 by Warren Dutton, on his property, a year before the Presbyterian Church was organized. The earliest burials include three Dutton infants and a Vanderbilt infant who died in 1864. Two of the infant Bailey deaths predate the cemetery. George W. Bailey was buried on the family ranch in 1852, moved to the then-new Bloomfield Cemetery in 1860, and moved once again with infant sister Emma to the Tomales Cemetery, probably shortly after the facility was opened.

The Dutton family retained ownership and control of the Cemetery until the early 1940's. Records were kept at Dutton's Tomales Bank, and later at Cornett's store. There are no known records from the cemetery remaining from the Dutton years. The basis for the cemetery record is information taken from stones and markers, augmented by available Church records, information from individual families, and careful parsing of early day County records, obituaries, and newspaper records available through extensive publications of the Marin County Genealogy Society.

The property is now operated by the Church as a private cemetery. Maintenance and upkeep is through volunteer and paid services, funded by donations to the Church Cemetery Fund. There are policy restrictions on use of vacant spaces. Burials are available only to the church family which can include people of the local communities. Some have said that this cemetery has been more flexible than others over the years, when it came to accepting burials of those who were socially unacceptable in one way or another, so there are a number of non-church members here with more or less flamboyant histories as well.

Monument and tombstone style has evolved over the years in conjunction with general trends in a developing rural agrarian society. The early-day community patriarchs tended to erect a central family monument in keeping with their position in society and their financial resources. Many of the early stones are one-of-a-kind stonemason artworks. Three-dimensional or bas-relief crosses, flowers, scrolls, and even lambs representing children are not uncommon in the older sections. White marble was the stone of choice for more intricate carvings. Unfortunately, it is less weather resistant than the commonly used granite stones, and tends to deteriorate with age.

Some of the early plots had ornate hand-wrought iron fences as well, which have mostly been removed for age and safety reasons. Single-sentence memorials to departed family members were common. References to meeting again, expressions of faith, and sorrow over loss of infants and children were widely used.

The chronology of plots is generally downhill away from the church, with markers and documentation facing east to the rear of the church.

Early-day indigents and those with limited financial means were furnished with painted wooden markers that have long since deteriorated. The first row contains several such unmarked plots. In the absence of documentation, the assumption has been made that these and other unmarked plots in the older sections are occupied.

At present, over five hundred individuals are buried in the cemetery. Although early data is incomplete, there was a predominance of child and infant burials in the period 1864-1876. Of the four infant deaths in 1864, the Dutton family lost three, a possible motive for starting the cemetery. Young mothers were also a high-risk group. In the ten-year period 1891-1901, two Cornett brothers each lost two wives of child-bearing age, in 1894-1910 three women in the Bailey - Bassett families also died. The reoccurring losses of young women of childbearing age declined substantially after the WWII era. The impact of modern medicine and health care has significantly lengthened expected life span as evidenced by the average age of death for the more recent burials.

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Above was replicated from a brochure issued by;
the Tomales Presbyterian Church & Cemetery
copyright September 5, 2009

Tomales Presbyterian Church & Cemetery

This is the main church sign on a platform of red brick that is at the entrance of Tomales Presbyterian Church.

In view to the right, are the entrance doors to the church. The sanctuary inside has been preserved in it's simplicity since 1866; Unique double isles, solid board divider down the center section of pews, and the pulpit furniture.

In view to the left, is a private driveway with the serene pastureland of West Marin just beyond the fence.

Not in view, on the right side toward the back of the church, is the entrance to the cemetery.

View of entrance sign is toward the North.

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The site was donated by Warren Dutton to a pioneering congregation in 1865, and a church building was soon erected at a cost of $4500.00.

A few days before the dedication, the new church was destroyed by fire on April 16, 1866. Only the pulpit Bible and a few furnishings were saved from the flames.

A new church building was erected on the same foundation and was completed and dedicated in 1868, at a cost of $3500.00.

The church consisted of 19 members at the organization.

In 1975, Tomales Presbyterian Church, the oldest surviving Protestant church in Marin County, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, Number 75000437.

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Photograph taken Thanksgiving Day, 2014 by Colletta

View toward the south east from the north west corner of the cemetery.

A nice view of Tomales Presbyterian Church, founded 1865.