Sisto Lizárraga

Sisto Lizárraga, about 1848-1912
Town Gravedigger
 
Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 29

(Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association)

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Sisto Lizárraga was born in Pitiquito, Sonora, Mexico, about 1848, to Francisco Lizárraga and Maria Dolores Velasquez. His actual name may have been Sixto, although Arizona records list him as Sisto. His surname is not a common one and is thought to be of Basque origin.
 
During the short reign of Mexican Emperor Maximilian I, a teen-aged Sisto served in Maximillian’s army as a soldier for about three months. During the fighting, he was captured by the opposing forces who then made him serve in their ranks for three months. Many years later, Sisto would describe his youthful military experience in the Arizona Republican newspaper and give it as an explanation for why he cared little about the Mexican Revolution then raging.
 
Sisto and other members of his extended family made their way north to Arizona in the 1880s. In addition to his other jobs, he served as a handyman who dug graves in Phoenix’s first city cemetery. He married Felipa Valencia, the daughter of Jesus Valencia and Francisca Luna, and they had at least ten children. Four who died in infancy were buried in PMMP and Cementerio Lindo. 
 
Sisto eventually became known as the cemetery’s “official” grave digger, even though he never received a formal appointment. A well-known and popular person in the community, Sisto made interesting copy for the local newspapers. In 1908, the Arizona Republican ran a feature story about him where he talked about exhuming and moving the remains of a woman buried in the Salt River bed and complained that his gravedigging business was suffering because many bodies of the local deceased were being sent out of state for burial.
 
In 1910, the newspaper reported on Sisto’s efforts to clean up the cemetery, which had become a jungle of weeds, mesquite brush, and other desert growth. Sisto expressed the hope that he and his crew would receive some payment for their efforts by grateful members of the community, but it is unknown if they ever did.
 
Sisto Lizárraga died on March 21, 1912, of a strangulated hernia at his humble home in the alley between Washington and Adams and 3rd and 4th Streets. In recognition of the man who had served them and the community faithfully and honorably, the local undertakers donated a coffin, a hearse and carriages for the funeral, and Sisto was eulogized by the newspaper that had previously brought him a small measure of local fame.  
 
Although Sisto’s grave in Porter Cemetery may have been marked initially, the marker later disappeared with the ravages of time. It was later replaced with a wrought iron cross and a simple stone.  
 
© 2018 by Derek Horn. Last revised 7 September 2024.

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