PIONEER CEMETERY NEAR COULEE CITY

     A mostly forgotten cemetery not used since about 1924 is located about a mile north east of Coulee City.  Some time in about 1967 my mother, Margaret Taschereau, was president of the Coulee City Women's Club one year, and one of her projects was the clean-up of that cemetery, repair of the fence, and getting a sign pointing to it from Highway 2.  But the clean-up didn't last long.  By the 1980s it was again overgrown with weeds and sagebrush, and littered with beer cans and bottles.

     Lloyd and Carol Sayward of Soap Lake took an interest in the restoration of the cemetery some time in the 1980s.  An editorial by Joe Dennis appeared in the Grant County Journal, Vol. 72 No. 80, telling the story of their frustration in that project.  I only have part of the editorial; the date is missing.  Carol sent a letter to my mother around that time.  The corner of the envelope that would have the postmark is missing.  The envelope contains now a portion of the editorial, but from my mother's subscription, and a typewritten list of the people buried there, which I am also posting below; I hope later to obtain a copy of the complete editorial.

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Editor's Corner

Discovery brings frustration

BY JOE DENNIS
Managing Editor

      To date, several months of searching through records and countless phone calls that have brought long distance telephone bills into the neighborhood of $200 have added up to nothing but frustration for Soap Lake residents Lloyd and Carol Sayward.
      For the Saywards, what began as a simple afternoon drive has turned into a one family campaign that has so far brought them nothing but dead ends and disappointments.
      The target of the Soap Lake couple's campaign is the restoration of a forgotten and deteriorating pioneer cemetery near Coulee City, and the cause of their disappointment and frustration is their inability to pin down who has responsibility for the cemetery and to find an organization or agency willing to take on the job of restoring it.
      Sayward, a Main native who has lived in Soap Lake since completing a four-year Air Force hitch at Larsen Air Force Base in 1951, and his wife, Carol, a Michigan native, are both interested in the history of this area, and that interest is were their campaign to restore the pioneer cemetery began.
      It all began when the couple decided to take a leisurely drive from Soap Lake up to Grand Coulee for a look at the dam this spring, Sayward explained.
      As they headed north out of Coulee City on the Grand Coulee highway they spotted a sign pointing the way to a "Pioneer Cemetery" and decided to stop and look it over.
      So, they turned off the highway at the sign and began looking for the cemetery without success, Sayward said.
      He said they finally gave up looking and asked a farmer, who pointed it out to them.
      And that is where they first became concerned.
      Sayward said when they finally located the cemetery they discovered it was located just off the highway, but that it had become so rundown and overgrown that they had driven right past it.
      "The fence was down, it was overgrown with sagebrush, many of the tombstones were knocked over, a number were missing altogether and the place was littered with beer cans and bottles," Sayward said.
      The place was a disgrace to the county, he said, adding in its present condition it couldn't do anything but hurt the image of Grant County in the eyes of any tourist who might see the sign and stop to see a part of the county's early history.
      "If they aren't going to fix it up they ought to at least take down the sign along the highway," Sayward said.
      His wife was adamant that the sign not be taken down, though, explaining the old cemetery has historical significance and should be restored and maintained.
      And attempting to find someone willing to accept the responsibility for the cemetery so arrangements can be made for restoration and maintenance is a project that has occupied a good share of the Saywards free time since that first visit to the cemetery this spring.
      Mrs. Sayward said she started by calling Coulee City town officials and was unable to find out from them who was responsible for it.
      At that point she began to search county records to find out who owned the property and discovered that it wasn't even on the tax rolls.
      "It had been completely forgotten," she said.
      And after having inspected the cemetery it is not hard to understand how that might have happened, Mrs. Sayward noted, explaining an incomplete list of those buried in the cemetery shows that it apparently has not been used since 1924.
      She said her search of county records finally turned up the owners of the cemetery property, but so far that is as far as she managed to go, she has not yet been able to contact them.
      The owner is a Francis Twining, a former Coulee City resident now living in a Vacaville, Calif. nursing home, Mrs. Sayward said.
      Mrs. Twining, whose husband Tom is buried in the Soap Lake Cemetery, is apparently no longer able to handle her affairs and the property is under the control of her son, Tom, Jr., who has not yet been contacted, she said.
      Mrs. Sayward said her research traced Twining to the east Coast where he is employed by a New York engineering firm and further checkingindicated he is living in England.
      She noted that her research also turned up the fact that in addition to the cemetery property, the Twinings own a parcil of land adjacent to the cemetery which originally was to have been used as a parking area for visitors.
      However, that land has never been developed, she added.
      Mrs. Sayward said locating the name of the property owner was a small victory int he struggle to restore the cemetery, and to date has been one of the only ones.
      The campaign has been taken to local, state and even federal agencies, and while there are some reasons for optimism, the response had been generally disappointing.
      Mrs. Sayward said she contacted the Grant County Historical Society and that group showed no interest.
      The next stop was at the state level, and the response from the Governor's office and the State

[The article continues on the next page, but I do not have that part of it at this time.]
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Transcript of a list of people buried in the Pioneer Cemetery

Mrs. A. W. Debolt                 10-  9-1906     44 yrs 7 mos 13 days
Joseph Hembrook                  3-  2-1907
H. P. Nelson (child)              10-14-1907     5 years
George Martin                      10-16-1907     8 months
William England (child)           4-18-1908     1 day
Nespelem Bill (Indian)            5-  5-1909
Joseph Mcguiness                   5-13-1908
William Ford                           5-27-1908
Carl C. Frasure                      7-25-1908     13 mos 12 days
Oscar Hopkins                       9-25-1908
John Graham (child)             10-28-1908     3 mos
Edward Eliason                    10-30-1908     adult
Stapelton                                1-  9-1909     65 years
Baby Cross                            5-  7-1909     2 days
William Cross (baby)              7-13-1909     1 day
Lizzie Swank (boy baby)        7-15-1909     1 day
Herman Lee Wilson                7-10-1910     28 yrs 3 mos 10 days
John Elwood Peterson            8-19-1910     4 mos 11 days
Traveling Man (no name)       3-15-1911
Ada Bogart                          10-22-1911
Lawrence Williams               11-  5-1911     14 years
Fred Rider                           12-14-1911     39 years
Rev. Davis (baby)                  4-  4-1912     stillborn
Elmer Elwell (girl baby)          1-  8-1912     1 day
Ray Stoner (infant)                 9-17-1912     stillborn
Mr. Hicks                                9-13-1912     74 years
John Henry Poole                   1-30-1913     58 yrs 14 days
Mamie Lawrence (child)         3-20-1913     15 mos
Harold Cook (child)               9-  7-1913     1 year
A. W. Debolt                        11-16-1913
Child Town                          12-27-1913     7 years 24 days
Dorothy Davis                        1-  7-1914     4 years
Ruth Stoner                            1-24-1914     4 years 4 mos 20 days
Lena Tuttle                             5-22-1914
Arthur Stapleton                     8-13-1914     8 mos 5 days
Child Wenzenbury                  5-16-1915     stillborn
Joseph Edward Lambeth         9-  4-1915     2 years
Mrs. George Johnson            11-13-1915     adult
Henry Brown                         12-10-1915     73 years
Mrs. Lydia Chappel                 1-22-1916     38 years
Infant N. W. Washington      2-27-1916     3 days
     see Generation 9, descendants of John Washington:
     http://cousinsam.blogspot.com/2011/08/descendents-of-john-washington.html
John Wesler                             7-13-1916
Carrie Ida Tuttle                      11-20-1916     29 years 11 mos 11 days
A. F. Triplett                              2-  4-1917     57 years
Gerald DeWard                        4-14-1917     3 years 3 mos 11 days
H. A. Waldron (child)               11-  2-1917     stillborn
Joseph William Brown               5-12-1918     58 years 3 mos
Joseph Harrison                        6-18-1918     adult
Mathias (baby)                          7-15-1918     2 days
Harry Dairdson (baby)               7-15-1918     stillborn
Melinda A. C. Cook                 10-  7-1918     22 years 9 mos
Lydia Harrison                            4-21-1921     adult
Infant Vern Dean                        7-15-1924
David Rowland
Elizabeth Rowland                                             79 years
Kenneth Swank
Phillip McEntee                                1901     61 years
Ida Ferguson                                       1902
William Evans                                      1895
Lyneul Stapleton                                  1909
Bayne Stapleton                                  1915
Jessie Wright

     The following are handwritten additions to the above list:

Joseph L. Henbrook
    Nov 6 - 1879

Kenneth J. D. Swank
Nov 21, 1918
July 15, 1909
"Gone but Not Forgotten"

Jessie
Daughter of
Mr. & Mrs. L. B. Wright
Apr 2 - 1907
Aug 11 - 1907

William Frank
     son of
D. R. & Mary Evans
Feb 1 - 1895
aged 5 wks 1 day