Editing Rosemead, California (section)

=== Savannah Pioneer Cemetery ===
{{Main|Savannah Memorial Park}}
Before the Civil War, many Southern families settled in [[El Monte, California|El Monte]], then called Lexington. The community of Rosemead, then called Savannah, {{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} is located adjacent to El Monte and is situated above the water table. The slightly elevated land made it the logical alternative as the burial site for residents of swampy Lexington. The first known burial was in 1846, five years before most of the settlers arrived. Today the 41/2 acre cemetery, with 200 plots remaining of its original 3,000, is  privately owned by the El Monte Cemetery Association.  When the City of Rosemead started to widen [[Valley Boulevard]] in the 1920s, construction crews unearthed dozens of corpses outside the fence of the cemetery. The majority of the skeletons were reburied in a mass grave inside the cemetery proper, but some were so deteriorated that the workers left them undisturbed and simply paved over them so that there are more graves scattered under Valley Boulevard and beneath adjacent area businesses. The area also was a Native American burial ground before the bodies of settlers filled the cemetery.<ref name="usgennet.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ca/state/El_Monte_Cemetery_Rpt.htm|title=California Saving Graves<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=August 5, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100804005733/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ca/state/El_Monte_Cemetery_Rpt.htm|archive-date=August 4, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Savannah Pioneer Cemetery is located at the intersection of [[Mission Drive (Los Angeles County)|Mission Drive]] and Valley Boulevard.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://savannahpioneercem.blogspot.com/ |title=Savannah Pioneer Cemetery |publisher=Savannahpioneercem.blogspot.com |access-date=October 4, 2018}}</ref> It is reputed to be the oldest Protestant cemetery in [[Los Angeles County]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/savannah-cem.htm |title=Southern California Genealogical Society: Savannah Memorial Park |access-date=December 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016052647/http://scgsgenealogy.com/savannah-cem.htm |archive-date=October 16, 2012 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> The El Monte Cemetery Association, incorporated in 1920, is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the cemetery. The association's funding comes from private donations and fundraising activities.<ref name="usgennet.org" />