Apparently fake? No burials found in 1959 off-site after the headstones had been moved from the hospital grounds (Salem Library Historic Photos) |
City and Salem Housing Authority staff have been working with DAS on acquiring Yaquina Hall and the park property. The Oregon Department of Administrative Services’ environmental review process for the North Campus required archeological and historic review. The consultation has resulted in information that the area to the north of the Yaquina property was once a cemetery. It has been requested that DAS perform ground penetrating radar testing to determine if there are any human remains in this area. DAS has retained a consultant and this work is expected to be completed by June 30. Given the historic and archaeological issues, the earliest the City can close on the Yaquina and park properties would be January 2020. We will have a much better understanding of the options, requirements, and timelines at the beginning of July after the ground penetrating radar work is completed.The best available information has been that the Asylum Cemetery was fully decommmissioned. In 1991 the Willamette Valley Genealogical Society published a booklet, "The Asylum Cemetery, 1883-1913, Salem, Marion County, Oregon," and historians work off this end date of 1913. There were additional stories in 1959 about a trove of headstones off-site, seemingly disconnected from any burials (image at top), but at that time no new information suggested there were still burials in the ground.
Cremains in the new Columbarium (OSH Memorial Pamphlet) |
The 1917 USGS map might be confused on Jason Lee Cemetery, or it might point to the Asylum Cemetery (D Street at top, Center Street in middle; the old Kirkbride in bottom right) |
Plans to exhume and cremate; and then to move headstones (September 30th, 1912) |
This will be very interesting to follow, and if there are lost and forgotten burials, hopefully they can be reinterred or otherwise identified with dignity this time.
5 comments:
According to "The Asylum Cemetery, 1883-1913," there were 1539 burials there, and it took Charles Claggett, working for W. T. Rigdon (who later built the IKE Box building!), a full year to exhume the bodies. But it should not surprise us if not all 1539 were in fact exhumed and cremated or reburied elsewhere. Equally, it should not surprise us if 1539 is not actually the exact count and there were burials whose records were missing or incomplete and not in that 1539 tally. Significantly, the booklet does not have a map of the cemetery. It's all like "here is the approximate location."
There are a lot of "known unknowns" here.
The SJ has a piece on the front page today, and in it is another important detail. It references a different piece from 2014 in the Oregonian, "Missing dead: 1,500 from old Oregon State Hospital cemetery in Salem can't be found."
From the Oregonian:
"For years, Oregon officials assumed that some of the thousands of unclaimed urns at the Oregon State Hospital belonged to patients who were buried in a hospital cemetery, exhumed in 1913 and 1914, then cremated.
Now, officials said this week, researchers don't think any of the urns are linked to the old Asylum Cemetery — and that the fate of the cemetery bodies, about 1,500 in all, is a mystery."
So yeah, more investigation is not merely prudent, but is necessary!
Salem Reporter wrote about delays on the Yaquina Hall project -
https://www.salemreporter.com/posts/1661/salem-mayor-knocks-state-officials-over-years-of-delays-at-affordable-housing-project
Sounds like DAS is going to sell it to the city for "free" and will throw in some additional money for the delay and cost escalation.
Over at Salem History Matters, they posted about the research and subsequent report to DAS on the cemetery. There wasn't much very conclusive. One interesting thing is that the cemetery appears to have been west of 23rd, more in the area of the old Maternity Ward for General Hospital, rather than between 23rd and 25th, near Yaquina Hall or north of it. So when Hospital sells that parcel the question may be active again. But it seems unlikely that on the lots east of 23rd, the former State Hospital property, there is any lingering problem with remains.
The research also did not turn up any conclusive evidence on the missing 1539. So that's still a big mystery.
It did turn up evidence that Claggett was not employed by Rigdon before 1929, so that detail is in question now.
Not a lot of answers, but it did further develop the evidence.
I do believe there are bodies at Walker Park
Between the State hospital and prison
I also think bodies will be found under property known as Murphy Manor on 24TH St NE which borders Walker Park to the West
Please how can this be checked? Ty
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