Drought exposes grave of civil war solider at Lake San Antonio
The old town of Pleyto. Photo courtesy of Monterey County Agricultural & Rural Life Museum.
The San Jose Mercury News reported a story about receding water levels at Lake San Antonio exposing a grave stone of a civil war solider. The exposed granite slab was first discovered by a camper, and bears the inscription, “Corp’l John McBride.”
Retired park ranger Joseph Botts Jr. had known about the gravesite, and now that it has been uncovered, he is working to ensure the veteran’s grave is preserved.
According to the story, McBride, an Irish immigrant, survived the Civil War, “only to be killed two decades later in an argument on a California ranch.” His grave and a few building foundations are all that remain of Pleyto, sometimes known as “Pleito” or “Playto,” a rural “stagecoach stop” town that was flooded in 1965 to create the reservoir.
The old town of Pleyto. Photo courtesy of Monterey County Agricultural & Rural Life Museum.
“In its heyday in the 1890s, it boasted no more than a few dozen inhabitants, with a single store, hotel, post office and blacksmith shop,” the story reads. The town was largely abandoned in the 1920’s, and the post office closed in 1925. The new town of Pleyto was formed a few miles away from the original site and is now classified as an unincorporated area.
McBride was born in Ireland in 1825, and lived in St. Louis before joining the Union Army in Illinois at the age of 36, according to the story. He served from 1861 until 1864 and fought in a number of major campaigns, including the 1864 Battle of Nashville. “Then, he disappeared from history until 1887,” reads the story. For one reason of another, he decided to not serve as a corporal anymore, and came to California.
McBride died in a tragic incident involving a dispute with a neighboring rancher. McBride was one horseback one evening when he got into an argument with Henry Godfrey. When McBride reached behind his horse’s saddle during the argument, Godfrey shot him with a shotgun, fearing that he was reaching for a weapon. McBride reportedly fell off his horse, and said, “I’m killed.”
McBride’s grave was separate from the other small gravesite in the town, and when the area was flooded to create the lake in the 1960’s, the other graves were relocated to higher ground, but because they were not able to contact any remaining family members, McBride’s grave remained.
