Cemetery's state surprises
society members
MIKE YOUDS / Kamloops Daily News October 7, 2010
Only a sole grave in Pioneer Cemetery still bears its headstone, that of Sheriff Johnny Ussher.
"Killed by the McLean Bros.," the stone reads cryptically. Ussher was shot in pursuit of the outlaws in 1879, before Kamloops was incorporated.
The remaining headstones in Pioneer Cemetery - about 20 of them - are clustered in a corner of the park next to Lorne St., weeds sprouting from some, others crumbling and one so weathered that it is no longer legible.
"It's amazing to me because of the history," said Robin Poeschek, a director of the Kamloops Family History Society.
As part of the society's ongoing project to document local headstones and re-establish family connections online, Poeschek and Katherine Lunn visited the cemetery Sunday. Unlike their recording efforts at Pleasant Street, they had to clear away the chickweed.
"Boy, what a mess we found," she said. "We were surprised how poor the maintenance was."
The surrounding park (adjacent to Colombo Lodge) that was once the cemetery is manicured by the City parks department, but the headstones are piled side-by-side within a rusting iron grate. They present a picture of neglect, as though the community has no reverence for its pioneers or its past.
"That's been like that for 50-plus years," said Tom Sherbo, who's in charge of cemetery maintenance for the City.
Elisabeth Duckworth, museum supervisor, cleared up some of the mystery of the cemetery's sad state. The land originally belonged to rancher John Peterson.
"They needed a cemetery, so he donated a quarter-section of land," Duckworth said. "There were no records kept and it was outside city limits."
When the City opened Pleasant Street Cemetery in 1900, relatives of people buried at Pioneer had them disinterred and reburied up the hill. The old cemetery became overgrown and forgotten with no surviving relatives to maintain it.
Then, in the 1940s, a well-meaning local group thought they'd clean up the cemetery. There is some recollection - not confirmed - that this was a result of 1948 flood damage. There were no relatives to object when they placed the headstones in one corner.
"And there are people still there, we just don't know who or where."
It is reasonable to assume that the headstones represent those people, since the stone markers of the disinterred would have been moved with them. There are familiar surnames among them, such as Latremouille, Peterson, Edwards. There is the Rev. Freeman Harding and his wife Lavinia Williams. There are young sons and daughters who died well before their time, and a couple of CPR workers killed on the job.
Duckworth concurred with society members that it's a shame the cemetery has languished.
"It's a possible project to fund," she speculated.
From Kamloops Daily News
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