Ilwaco Cemetery

Near Ilwaco, Washington ~ December 2, 2011

One of our goals for the visit to the other side of the river was to help some people on Find-A-Grave.com locate their relatives. I got some nice photos in the beautiful late-afternoon light (Cold day, though! Very cold.) but due to bad planning on my part, we may have missed the one they wanted most. Lee tromped all over the cemetery looking for a particular name that I hadn't had the foresight to locate before we left. Actually, the marker may not be there, as others had failed to find it. So, that's a mystery to follow up on - an excuse to go back to Ilwaco on another beautiful day (with better planning). 

I did take some really nice pix of markers for the graves that we did find and soon I'll be uploading them to Find-A-Grave. This is a cool web site where you can locate your ancestors, relatives, genealogical search subjects, or conversely, supply photos and information for others looking for someone departed in your part of the country. You can enter requests for photos and info from far-away locations, or you can put yourself on an e-mail list to find graves of people in your area.

January 1, 2012: I've just discovered "Taphophile Tragics" thanks to Clytie, so am linking this post to it today. Thanks, Julie, this should be interesting!

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A Strange Mausoleum

Astoria, Oregon ~ June 10, 2010

I encountered this unusual-looking mausoleum at the edge of Pioneer Cemetery, scene of yesterday's post. It is the burial place, or at least the memorial for the Shively family (inscriptions given here). I don't mean any disrespect, but cemeteries can be odd and interesting places, and as I wandered I through, approaching from the back (last photo), I thought I had found the gardener's shed, except that the windows to the inside were in the form of crosses.

Embedded in the front are memorial plaques to members of the family. This one is on the left of the rusted iron door (which did not open).

This plaque was on the right.

Here are two of the three crosses above the door.

And a tombstone to the left buried in the roots of the tree and barely visible among the vines that cover the uneven ground. Perhaps it wasn't visible at all until volunteers from the high school cleaned the stones recently. Stephanie, who lives across the street, mentioned the cleanup.

This was my first glimpse. I had wandered across the hilly and uneven ground of the cemetery from one corner to the other. Most of the stones are flat or square, with the exception of a couple of taller monuments like the one for the Warren family. This is the only building. Except for the crosses, it could almost be a tool shed. It looks like it belongs in a Gothic novel.

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George Wright Warren Memorial in Pioneer Cemetery

June 10, 2010

This moody photo could have been taken almost any day in June, except that there may be a few more leaves on the trees today than there were on June 10th. This is Pioneer Cemetery at the top of the Astoria hill, and the marker is for the Warren Family. George Wright Warren was one of those early business tycoons who founded banks and other industries. He lived in Knappa, Astoria, and Warrenton, where he built dikes to create valuable farmland out of his property. I believe it's this marker that stands tall in the sunset in this post.

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Row on row

The stones stand like soldiers in this small and peaceful military cemetery across Young's Bay near the ocean. You cannot see the ocean from here; the cemetery is surrounded by forest. According to the sign below, although the original cemetery was elsewhere, the current location of the Fort Stevens Post Cemetery "is one of two Army cemeteries still active and accepting Veterans today on the West Coast. The other is Fort Vancouver Barracks Post Cemetery in Vancouver, Washington," just across the river from Portland, Oregon.

I've left this image large so you can click on it to read the text. There is mystery and history that goes along with the first burial. It's not quite what you'd expect from the tranquil decorum of this hallowed ground, but it might be what you'd expect knowing something of Astoria's raucous past.

Here's another scenic view taken at the entrance to the cemetery. On the right, you can see the location of the sign from the middle photo. I'd enjoyed this picture a number of times before I noted the spelling of the soldier's name.

Ruby red at Greenwood

Once again, it's Ruby Tuesday, and I chose this photo taken at Greenwood Cemetery on August 2nd. After all of the interested comments on the Astoria Pioneer Cemetery, Lee and I visited two cemeteries just south of Astoria to see what they were like. Greenwood is in an outlying area known as Lewis and Clark. The other was in Olney. The light area beyond the edge of the hill is the Lewis and Clark River, which pours into Young's Bay and then into the Columbia. I found both cemeteries interesting, but especially Greenwood. The setting was lovely, and although grass begins to turn brown here by July or August if it's not watered (and who waters with 70-plus inches of rain per year?) there were many eye-catching markers surrounded by forest. We surprised a doe and her fawn as we drove into the grounds, and they wandered back again to where we could get a good look at them before they bounded off on spring-like legs. I found the multi-ethnic character of this place intriguing. The tallest sculpture was that of an Indian leader. We found a grave stone of a young Jewish father who had been remembered recently with touching photos and clay toys made by his children. There was a marker showing a Japanese man with his American wife (or was that vice-versa?). The children were wearing kimonos. There were stones that I believe were for Chinese families. (In the other cemetery we stopped at, one of the stones was in Chinese characters.) By far the greatest number of names were Scandinavian, and one marker had a Viking ship carved on it. There are many treasures to find here along with the memories, and I'll be sure to make a trip back again when the light is better for taking photos. If you'd like a preview, check out this wonderful set of photos I found on Flickr.

As it turns out, there are quite a number of cemeteries within about 20 minutes of downtown Astoria, and many of them have older graves in them. Greenwood was established in 1891, and birth dates go back to the 1840s, and some probably earlier.

Cemetery Sunset

Astoria, Oregon

I hung around Astoria Pioneer Cemetery long enough to catch this photo of the sun going down. I described the cemetery in some detail in yesterday's post and I loved the comments you all made! There were also some great comments including an eerie personal experience (quite a coincidence) on the Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo's Facebook Page.

I hope you're all enjoying a peaceful, fun, relaxing, inspiring, Scenic Sunday.

Cemetery on the Hill

On the crest of the hill above Astoria is a beautiful, if somewhat strange, cemetery called Astoria Pioneer Cemetery. The part I find strange is that there are so few stones, and among them are a couple of rather bizarre slabs that defy logical explanation.

The marker above gives a brief history of the cemetery. I was glad it was there, answering some of my questions. It says:

"Astoria Pioneer Cemetery. Deeded by James Welch to Astoria on April 22, 1865. By 1891, 498 burials were recorded. There were also numerous unlisted interments. Bodies from abandoned cemeteries were brought here. Many graves and markers were later removed by the families. Use was discontinued around 1900."

The fact that this information is delivered on a grave marker gives an eerie sense that the location is more like a theme park than a real cemetery. The park, like so many older cemeteries, is a peaceful and beautiful place to visit. But unlike so many older cemeteries, there is very little to see or read here. Most of the ground simply looks like a park with grass and trees, robins and squirrels. There are few markers, and no flat headstones at paced intervals. There's an attractive split-rail fence surrounding the green. The short history makes me think of the Catacombs of Paris, and the city's small cemeteries being emptied out for reasons of overcrowding. Our own little cemetery is one more thing on my research list. I expect that bodies were moved here for many reasons, including, perhaps, a lack of regulation in this frontier town in the early days. Unfortunately, many of the few remaining markers are almost impossible to read, or at least they were almost impossible in the low light when I visited one evening.

I was happy to find this wonderful page online, part of a much larger web site called "findagrave.com." The Astoria Pioneer Cemetery page shows several photos of the cemetery and gives a complete list of the people interred there with photos and descriptions of the markers. A woman named Renee did a remarkable job of supplying information and photos to add to the history of Astoria's pioneers.

Maritime Memorial on the river's edge

On the River Walk in the shadow of the soaring Astoria-Megler bridge, you'll come to this small Maritime Memorial park. There's about a quarter circle of curved wall and a few benches. The vista from this spot is breathtaking, and the overall aspect is peaceful and respectful. But it's an interesting and somewhat lively memorial, too, as each rectangular space includes a name; the years of birth and death; a charming engraved image of a boat, a fish, a building, or some other reminder; and a brief comment about how the person's life related to the river or sea. The memorial is for those who lived and/or died in relation to the water. Tomorrow I'll show a photo of some of the images carved into the stone. Although there is nothing built into the wall to allow for flowers and tokens, people are creative, and you'll always find flowers (usually plastic, but not always) taped to the wall or set at the foot of it in a container. I love the bright flowers here and thought it would make a good post for Ruby Tuesday, one of my favorite days of the week. (Check out the link for additional photos featuring the color red.)

The words chiseled into the monument certainly evoke a spirit of this place. A few of them are:

. Gillnetter
. Troller
. Fisherman
. Cannery worker
. He loved the water
. She loved the sea
. Pile buck USCG
. Bumblebee employee
. Oysterman
. Cannery family
. Seafarer
. Captain of Nutsanet
. Keeper of the lights
. FV Valkyrie
. Assistant to Flatfish
. Tugboat operator
. Ocean Foods Market
. Voice on the Columbia
. Salmon buyer & smoker
. Merchant Marine
. Union Pension Advocate
. Columbia River Bar Pilot
. Clatsop Indian

Tomorrow's post will continue this theme.