Bellfountain Cemetery - Monroe, OR - Worldwide Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

Heman Chapin Buckingham, who came to the area in 1848, took up a Donation Land Claim just south of Bellfountain. He also purchased a part of the Jonas Belknap Donation Land Claim, and in the early 1850's donated ground for the cemetery. This land was first deeded to a Board of Trustees to be held for the use of the community; later a corporation was formed. The cemetery plat was filed with Benton County in March 1900. Additional land was donated by J. P. and Vernon GRAGG. The cemetery now contains a total of 11 acres. The oldest marked grave (22 July 1859) is that of the infant daughter of J. and P. KELSEY. It is likely that there were burials earlier in that decade. It is not known which the oldest part of the cemetery is. There is no overall map and early records were burned. The sexton has the names of plot owners in some sections of the cemetery. The oldest extant record is a map drawn on a piece of wood. The Annex rows are in a new area to the west of the old cemetery. Annex rows are numbered from north to south.

The Bellfountain Cemetery is located on a hillside off Dawson Road, one-half mile east of the town of Bellfountain. The entrance is from a gravel drive on the north side of Dawson Road. Arbitrary rows were assigned running north to south starting at the west entrance gate. Row 1N is to the north of the entrance road. Row 1S is the apparent continuation of Row 1N on the south side of the entrance road. Many rows are incomplete and irregular as the cemetery has a complex history with many undocumented burials.

Enumerated on 3 June 2003 by George & Dorothy Burt. Earlier partial surveys were done in 1987 and 2002.

This cemetery contains the largest zinc headstone I've ever encountered and a pleasant surprise when I visited this past Spring.