The military past

Fascinating discoveries can be found on military headstones. While detailed research is warranted for an individual’s personal story, googling the regiment or a subject like tank history, often turns up some unique items. Below are three World War I stories and videos.

George E. Stober: Sgt 319th Company Tank Corps

The WWI trench warfare stalemates probably did more to develop the idea of tanks from drawing board to reality than anything else. In a nutshell, the tank was intended to bring the firepower of artillery and machine guns across the morass of No Man’s Land while providing more protection than a purely infantry unit could carry

However, the drawbacks could be significant. Traveling only at about walking pace and vulnerable to direct artillery hits, the interior of the tank was also heavily contaminated with carbon monoxide and other fumes from the weapons. Additionally, internal temperatures could reach 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

It wasn’t until 1917 whan General Pershing finally requested that 600 heavy and 1,200 light tanks be produced in the United States. A total of eight heavy battalions (the 301st to 308th) and 21 light battalions (the 326th to 346th) were raised, but only four (the 301st, 331st, 344th and 345th) saw combat.

Below is some World War I tank footage:

 

The American Expeditionary Forces

Thomas A. Wotruba: Private 1st Class, 62nd Infantry, 8th Division

The specifics of Private Wotruba’s military career and whether he fought on the Eastern Front are not known. However, the following information was found on his regiment and division.

The 62nd infantry served in Europe (reaching France as the armistice was signed). During the latter part of August, 1918, some five thousand men and nearly one hundred officers were transferred from the 8th Division to the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia (AEF).

The AEF had two purposes: rescue 40,000 Czech Legion soldiers attempting to make it through Bolshevik lines to Vladivostok and to protect the military supplies originally sent to assist the now-toppled Czarist monarchy.

Another part of the AEF was sent to protect the ports of Murmansk and Archangel in what’s known as the Polar Bear Expedition.

History books and movies do their best to portray the miserable existence of trench warfare. How much more worse must it have been in Siberia, where soldiers were forced to function in sub-zero temperatures. Below is some video footage on the Czech Legion fighters.

 

The Army Air Service

James L. Claghorn: 1st Lieutenant, Air Service

The United States Army Air Service was a forerunner of the Air Force and established in May, 1918 after the United States entered World War I.

The first U.S. aviation squadron to reach France was the 1st Aero Squadron, an observation unit, which arrived in France in September, 1917. After other squadrons were organized at home, they were also sent to France to continue training. It was February 18, 1918, before any U.S. squadron entered combat (the 103rd Aero Squadron, a pursuit unit flying with French forces and composed largely of former members of the Lafayette Escadrille).

Flyboys, a 2006 film, follows the enlistment, training and combat experiences of Americans who volunteered to become fighter pilots in the Lafayette Escadrille, the 124th air squadron formed by the French in 1916. The squadron consisted entirely of American volunteers who wanted to fly and fight in World War I during the main years of the conflict, 1914-1917, before the United States later joined the war.

 

 

Mysterious family crests

Below is an unfamiliar carving that looks very much like a Finnish family crest. It was found on a Woodmen of the World headstone dedicated to David Lunden, born 1875 in Finland. Lunden later emigrated to the US to find work in the Black Diamond coal mines.

On November 6, 1910, an explosion rocked the Lawson Mine, causing a slope cave in. Sixteen miners were killed that day, including Lunden who was working as a fire boss. Records show that most of the miners earned less than $4/day for their work.

 

 

Decoding the kanji stones

Japanese kanji inscriptions

In the September 24th posting on Weathering, vandalism & maintenance, I wrote about some cleaning options that could be useful for most cemeteries, with the exception of Auburn Pioneer. In this particular site, the lichen and moss add a unique Buddhist zen aesthetic to the delicate cement markers. Rather than destroy both the marker and the writings, the caretakers would prefer finding someone to copy the old kanji inscriptions for translation before it disappears forever.

Kristy Lommen, one of the webmasters for the Auburn Pioneer cemetery website, is working with a Japanese translator on doing just that. She discusses the challenges and progress further in her guest post below.

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The first recorded Japanese burial in the Auburn Pioneer Cemetery (that of Suketa Kumano) took place in 1903. In 1917, the rows in the eastern portion of the cemetery were set aside for the use of the Japanese community. Although there had been earlier Caucasian burials in this part of the cemetery, most of the surviving families later moved those remains to Auburn Mountain View Cemetery or other Kent-area cemeteries, in large part due to concerns about flooding at the Pioneer Cemetery (which was later remedied by the construction of dams and diversions on the Green and White Rivers).

The early Japanese burials were often marked with wooden stakes. In fall of 1928, the Rev. Giryo Takemura of the Buddhist Church, with the assistance of his father-in-law Chiyokichi Natsuhara, created concrete markers to replace the early, perishable wooden markers. Most of these concrete markers—many in a deteriorated state—are still in place as the sole markers of their respective graves. Unfortunately, even those that remain legible (after many decades of weathering) are incomprehensible to non-Japanese speakers since they were inscribed with traditional Chinese characters (kanji).

Luckily, at some point Terada Family descendant Allan Terada created a “key” to the Japanese burials in the Auburn Cemetery. A transcript of some of the kanji on each of the stones was recorded along with the corresponding family name in romaji (English). However, it appeared that several of the individual kanji transcripts could reveal more than just the family name if fully translated. Unfortunately, any additional information—beyond the family name—was not translated on the “Key” created by Mr. Terada.

In September of 2009, Ms. Yoshiko Kato of Osaka, Japan was invited to visit the cemetery. Ms. Kato (who is not related to the Kato family interred in the cemetery) was able to confirm that most of these early markers include three columns of kanji characters.

The left column lists the family and given name of the grave’s occupant. The central column indentifies the posthumous Buddhist name (or “Kaimyo”) given to the deceased that the time of death by his or her priest. The column on the right records the date of death.

Three columns of information

Ms. Kato has generously agreed to translate as much of the kanji as is still legible on the stones. With her assistance, we should be able to add even greater detail to the final lists soon.

Descendants or other visitors who wish to locate a specific family’s stone among these older markers should be aware that many of the families owned more than one plot in the cemetery, and that these plots are often scattered throughout the Japanese section. (This alphabetized chart, which is based on the Terada transcript and additional research by Hilda Meryhew, lists most of the plots associated with given family names).

Also note that it was common practice to place the cremated remains of more than one family member in a single grave, so a plot listed with just one family member’s name could contain remains of other family members as well.

The easiest way to locate a specific marker is to locate the nearest romaji marker (those written in English) and count the number of markers from that stone to the one you seek. We plan on uploading detailed lists that help determine a given plot’s position relative to nearby romaji markers soon (possibly in November).

Our profound thanks to Mr. Allan Terada for his work in creating the original key connecting the family names to specific markers, to Hilda Meryhew for her additional research in recording the cemetery’s burial locations, and to Yoshiko Kato for her efforts to translate additional information from the kanji that appears on the markers. It is only through their efforts that we have been able to maintain this critically important element of the cemetery’s history.

Note: When visiting the cemetery, rows 1 – 4 run north to south. Row 1 is the closest to the iron fence between the eastern border of the cemetery and the gravel parking lot.

(c) 2009 by Kristy Lommen

Stones & Bones presentation schedule

The following dates and locations have been scheduled for Stones & Bones: Discovering secrets in King Counties oldest cemeteries.  All events are free and open to the public.

 

Date:                     October 16, 2009
Time:                    11.00am – 1.00pm
Location              Bellevue Regional Library

 

Date:                   October 18, 2009
Time:                   3.00pm to 4.30pm
Location:           4326 – 337th Pl SE, Fall City
With:                   Fall City Historical Society &  general public

 

Date:                     October 31, 2009
Time:                    10.30am – 12.00pm
Location:            Seattle Public Library, Main Location, Microsoft Auditorium
 This event will be hosted by the Seattle Public Library’s Special Collection

 

Date:                     November 5, 2009
Time:                    4.00pm – 5.30pm
Location:            13020 Newcastle Way, Newcastle, WA‎
With:                    Newcastle Historical Society & general public

Events are sponsored in part by 4Culture, Allied Arts Foundation & Seattle Public Library Special Collections

 

Weathering, vandalism & maintenance: Part IV

Newcastle Coal Miners' Cemetery

Weather, vandalism and maintenance are the three biggest challenges facing old Pacific Northwest cemeteries. Unlike the granite headstones that are seemingly impervious to practically anything except an earthquake, sandstone carvings do not endure rainy winter seasons very well. In many cases, intricate carvings are melting away while marble is only slightly better at handling industrious molds and lichens.

Fall City Cemetery

Black Diamond Coal Miners' Cemetery

Naturally, the original wooden markers stood little chance of enduring the local climate. Most rotted away after only a few years’ time, leaving little trace of the burial site while ground heave from occasional frosts, have left their mark on the later plots.

Tolt Cemetery

Often, vandalism speeds up the cycle of disintegration while theft simply clears out the more unique headstones. For example, the founder of Saar Pioneer cemetery buried his wife Margaret in the present day cemetery location because a flood prevented him from reaching the already established site.

Poor Margaret’s headstone has been missing since 1979.

Saar Pioneer Cemetery

But while some missing stones might be gone forever, a few do manage to find their way back.

The melancholy headstone for the Kato family in Auburn Pioneer Cemetery, once had four jizo statues to represent the four tragically murdered children. At one point, three statues went missing although eventually, one was rescued from its new career as a local garden gnome. Today, the two jizo patiently wait to be reunited with the others.

Auburn Pioneer Cemetery

There’s also been some good news on the restoration front. In Tolt Cemetery, family memorials were reset in cement…

Tolt Cemetery

…while replicas of missing stones from Saar Pioneer Cemetery were carved out of sturdy kitchen granite and donated by a generous resident. Additionally, the Veteran’s Administration has helped replace many of the illegible Civil War military markers. 

Saar Pioneer Cemetery

Other restoration news involves a painstaking, but highly rewarding, cleaning process. Karen Bouton of Saar Pioneer Cemetery, has spent countless hours washing down stones with a mild, anti-algae cleanser. Approximately eight hours was needed to clean each stone and the results span the proverbial difference between night and day.

Before…

Saar Pioneer Cemetery

 And after…

Saar Pioneer Cemetery

While this method hopefully puts an end to the all-too common, but very destructive, wire-brushing, power-washing and bleaching options, there is one location where cleaning is not necessarily recommended at all – Auburn Pioneer.

Auburn Pioneer Cemetery

Washing the growth from the cement markers could not only further damage the stone, but also remove much of the zen character given by the moss and lichen. In this case, the caretakers would prefer finding someone to copy the old kanji writing for translation before it disappears forever.