Help Save This Abused and Neglected Cemetery
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| Screen capture from Google Maps |
History
In an exchange of emails this past week in both the main SKCGS group, and in the Washington-State-Genealogy group, many facts were revealed about the history of the I.O.O.F. Comet Lodge Cemetery, also known as the Old Burying Ground, the Georgetown Cemetery, the Graham Street Burying Ground and maybe more.
FindAGrave sums it up this way: "Since it was established in 1881, the Comet Lodge cemetery site has been whittled away to less than half its original 5 acres. Records are sketchy but it's safe to say that some 500 pioneers were buried here, atop unknown numbers of native Duwamish people. New burials ended in the 1930s. Since then, homes and streets were built on top of many of the plots as the neighborhood around the cemetery grew.
"Upkeep and ownership of the cemetery bounced between the city, civic groups, relatives of Comet Lodge residents, and nearby neighbors. For years, much of the property was allowed to deteriorate into brambles until the city agreed to simple grounds maintenance.
"Today, about 20 headstones remain although it is very doubtful they are in their original locations. The rest of the markers are long gone, stolen, broken, or simply returned to the earth. What's left of the Comet Lodge is a quiet block of green grass and large trees sheltering those who still rest there."
There are links to more history at the end of this post.
How Can We Help?
What can you and I do? We can document the families of those who are buried there, in hopes of finding living descendants. In my opinion, descendancy research is much easier than the way most of us learned, which is start with yourself and move back from the known to the unknown. This is still the best way to begin to build your family history. To find your cousins, though, you will need to follow the descendants of your parent's siblings. Second cousins, one more generation up, etc. This is what makes it possible to find DNA matches in your tree, invite people to family reunions, and so on.
This is different, since we begin with those buried in Comet Lodge Cemetery, and find their families and descendants.
Descendancy Research
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| Florence Bailey headstone; with permission of the photographer, Karen Sipe. |
Why is it easier? In research like this, we start with some facts about the ones who have passed. The first person researched began with her name and year of birth and death, along with burial in Comet Lodge: Florence Bailey, 1861-1908. I chose her because the stone is legible in the photos which accompanied the first article I read about this lovely place.
Find the Family
Many records online led to Florence's family. Census and city directories were both informative, and led to the year of death of the father of the family, and a probable date of a move from Racine, Wisconsin to Seattle in 1897-8. Mother Julia Birch Bailey was listed in the 1897 Racine city directory; in 1898 she was living at 764 1/2 Blanchard, Seattle and the children were listed as "bds at 764 1/2 Blanchard." The young men were both listed as barbers, which is what they had done with their father before his death in Racine in 1892.
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| Julia Bailey, widow of John S., and their three children, Seattle 1898 City Directory in"U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995"; Ancestry.com : accessed 7 Feb 2024. |
Next Steps
Usually I would go on to the children of each person in the family, but the Bailey children all died single, and presumably without issue. So, time to move on to another randomly chosen person in FindAGrave, George Moffat Brown, born 1862 in Ontario, Canada and possibly here before statehood. His older sister Mary "Minnie" Brown was widowed and living with his family with her children by 1900. So far, lots of children, lots of descendants, although the tree does not yet have any living people.
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| Overview & Summary of Comet Lodge Cemetery tree on Ancestry.com 10 Feb 2024 |
Since most of the people buried in Comet Lodge were local, the Washington State Digital Archives are of tremendous help, and are free for all at https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/. For maps, we have the King County Map archive, Historical Building, Property, and Land Use Records. For newspapers, we have Chronicling America.
As I added to Wikitree the first family researched, that of Florence Bailey, I learned that there is already a category for Comet Lodge Cemetery. Categories are a way of linking profiles of people who have something in common; in this case, profiles of people buried in the same cemetery. So far there are only four profiles, but perhaps we can bump that up!
My goal is to make the trees available in as many places as possible, so that descendants can find them. Wikitree has a slick way of easily linking FamilySearch Family Tree and Wikitree profiles, which has been done for the Bailey family, although sadly, there will be no descendants of that family; all the children died single. Perhaps eventually siblings of the parents will emerge and expand the pool of those interested enough to care for this beautiful and neglected place, and the graves, whether marked or not.
Maybe we can find some Civil War soldiers or other veterans interred there, and apply to provide them with stones. Perhaps the Muckleshoot tribe will intervene, since it began as a Duwamish burying ground, and according to the stories, other graves were put on top of those remains. The future of the graveyard property remains unclear, but creating trees for all of those buried may help descendants find their ancestors.
If you want to help, ask for an invitation to the Comet Lodge Cemetery Ancestry tree. Discussion: https://skcgs.groups.io/g/Research-Group
Resources
These links and more will be found on our wiki page.
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| Valorie Zimmerman |
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