Have you picked your final resting place?
My beloved Barbara died last year on May 11, 2023, at age 87 after we had been together for a wonderful 63 years. We own our plots at the Normal Hill Cemetery a few blocks from where we live, and a few blocks from where we were both born at St. Joseph’s Hospital. I have her ashes with me at home, until I go to be with her. Our stone is close to my parents at Normal Hill Cemetery.
There are more than 20,000 people buried in 37 cemeteries in Nez Perce County. Alphabetically here are the names of the cemeteries in Nez Perce County: Ahsahka, Agatha, Angel Ridge, Bredell Family, Broncheau, Cameron, Coyote Grade, Culdesac, Good Hope Lutheran, Gifford, Grant Family, Jacques Spur, Kendrick, Lapwai, Leland, Lewis-Clark Memorial Gardens, Lookout, Magpie, Maggie Williams, Melrose, Missouri Synod, Newby Grate, Normal Hill, Old Peck, Red Elk, Sams Family, Slickpoo, Silcott, Spalding, Starr Sisters Waha, Southwick, Sunnyside Lenore, Sweetwater, Un-named Indian, Upper Tammany, Vaughn and Webb.
Normal Hill Cemetery replaced an older cemetery that used to be at the current location of Pioneer Park. Those graves were moved from the original site to Normal Hill. The earliest birth date to be found on the gravestones is 1795, belonging to Moses Grostein. As we stroll through the nearly 40 acres we notice familiar names of local streets, schools, parks and facilities that bear their names. Familiar local landmarks bear the names of some who were from here like Church Field (Dwight Church), Breier Building (Claus Breier), McSorley Elementary School (Lillian McSorley), Vollmer Bowl (John Vollmer), Booth Hall (Clarence Booth), Walker Field (Harvey Walker), Bert Lipps Swimming Pool (Wilberta Lipps), Delsol Lane (Louis Delsol) and Harris Field (Lloyd Harris or “Mr. Baseball”).
The parents of Mrs. Walt Disney, Willard and Jeanette Bounds, are buried here at Normal Hill. Their daughter Lillian married Walt Disney in 1925, just a few blocks away. Eleanor Vogelsong is buried here. She played basketball for Canada in the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
Brothers, Albert and Eugene Alford, who founded the Lewiston Tribune in 1892 are here along with other family members. The stone of pioneer pilot Bert Zimmerly has a carving of an airplane on it and part of the poem “High Flight.”
The final resting place for the ashes of a few are above ground at the Episcopal Church on Eighth Avenue, including former mayor Vernor Clements and his wife Gail. Their son Dave was a Lewiston High School Bengal teammate of mine. Two gravesites in North Lewiston are of pioneers John and Jane Silcott on a hill just above the Railroad Bridge. The lone grave on the west side of U.S. Highway 95 is that of Bertha Newby, whose parents buried her on the farm where they lived.
The Upper Tammany Cemetery is located along the road to Waha. There are more than 50 graves dating from 1881 to 2003. The county has quite a few Nez Perce Indian cemeteries, including the easiest one to reach, the Bredell Family Cemetery located in the parking lot of the Nez Perce National Museum at Spalding. The Spalding Cemetery has around 200 graves next to Spalding Park. The Rev. Henry Spalding and his wife Eliza are buried there, where they served as missionaries to the Nez Perce from 1836-47.
The Sweetwater Cemetery is alongside U.S. Highway 95 between Lawai and Culdesac. Just south of Sweetwater is the Jacques Spur Cemetery. Four miles up Mission Creek Road is the Mission Creek Cemetery with more than 300 graves, including more than 20 Broncheaus, 15 Halfmoons and 14 Slickpoos. Webb Cemetery has around 20 graves including Cpl. Dan Tababoo who was killed in Vietnam at age 21 in 1968.
Coyote Grade Cemetery is above U.S. Highway 12. The Culdesac Cemetery is on the east hillside of town, and has around 300 graves. I visited three cemeteries in the Kendrick area: Leland, Cameron and Southwick. The Cameron Cemetery has around 300 graves, about a block from the Emmanuel Lutheran Church. Five or six miles past Cameron is Southwick, which had a high school until 1943 and a grade school until 1965. There are at least nine Southwicks buried at the Southwick Cemetery including Stephen for whom the town is named.
In two half-day morning trips, I visited the cemeteries at Angel Ridge, Good Hope Lutheran Church, Gifford, Lookout, Magpie and Melrose. The Gifford Cemetery is in Gifford as you enter town. There are more than 200 graves, including Seth Gifford for whom the town is named. One of the prettiest cemeteries I visited was the Good Hope Lutheran Church Cemetery, located four miles from Gifford. Perhaps what makes it so nice is the 90 or so graves are behind the little, white historic church which was founded in 1897. I recognize many of the names buried there, including Heitmann. Lookout Cemetery has around 100 graves, located three miles south of Gifford.
Not everyone is buried in a cemetery, including Charity and Otelia Starr, who are buried close to where they were killed in 1906 in the Deer Creek area by a falling tree at the ages of 17 and 14. Archie Ladd was also killed in the incident.
One of my favorite lines from a poem is this, “Perhaps life’s greatest pain and longing is the loneliness of missing friends I cannot call to my side.”
Riggs, 90, is a lifelong Lewistonian. He’s an avid Warriors fan, a retired educator, coach and school superintendent and volunteers his time at the Nez Perce County Historical Society. He can be reached at bdriggo@gmail.com.
