Chattaroy Cemetery
4200 Jim Hill Rd & 14600 Cowgill Rd.
Chattaroy, Spokane County, Washington 99003
509-292-2413
Directions
The Chattaroy Cemetery is located along Cowgill Road, half a mile south and half a mile east of Chattaroy, Washington, in the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 35, Township 28 N, Range 43 E.
History
The cemetery association’s organization meeting was held on 7 July 1894 at Chattaroy, Washington. It was at this meeting that the current cemetery was established. Those present were D. Morrill, Theodore Guenther, Frank Thurber, C. B. Hoadley, William Elsworth, D. C. Durgin, S. B. Carter, and Robert P. Cowgill, temporary Secretary and Treasurer. A resolution was passed to purchase two and one-half acres from the Northern Pacific Railway Company for use as the Chattaroy Cemetery.
The meticulous record-keeping of this cemetery is a testament to its commitment to preserving history. The burial records, initially kept in a leather-bound (brown-colored) book, were diligently maintained until 1949. This book, which was formerly an official book used to record mining claims, also housed the cemetery records. The book had become well-filled, so the records were copied into a black-covered book. Due to the method of keeping the records in the latter book (by lot numbers), the black book has later burials wholly mixed with the former entries. To ensure the accuracy of the records, both books have been copied. Lee D. Patchen undertook the task of copying the records of the association and the gravestone inscriptions of this cemetery in June 1959. The books show that burials were made therein as early as 1888. Mr. Lawrence C. Owen, the present Sexton, who has lived in that neighborhood for 70 years, explains that this apparent contradiction of dates is due to using the original date of burials in the first cemetery in the books of the later cemetery when the bodies were removed to the present cemetery.
Respect for the deceased is a cornerstone of the Chattaroy community. Old residents of the area recall that a former cemetery was located about one-half mile northwest of the present cemetery. After the present cemetery was established, most of the bodies in the former cemetery were respectfully removed to the present cemetery. The former cemetery is said to be abandoned; no gravestones are there, and the records, if any were kept, are in the hands of the unknown. This act of moving the bodies to a more organized and maintained cemetery reflects the community’s reverence for the deceased.
The cemetery is divided into four sections: A, B, C, and D. Each section comprises lots numbered from 1 upwards. I do not have the location for all, but I listed those for which I found records. The lot is listed first, then the section letter. For those available, I listed the place of death. The current Sexton told me there were County Poor farm burials, with no known records of names and no information about where they are in the cemetery.
"On Wednesday, Jul 24, 2002, this cemetery was hit by vandals. The devastation these vandals caused was unreal. They totally destroyed a remarkable number of headstones, it appeared they used some machine to simply got in and destroy."
Transcriber Maggie Rail, 2 June 2004, Updated 19 March 2014, provided some of the previous information.
For information on Eastern Washington Genealogical Society publications, including the one mentioned above, contact the EWGS at PO Box 1826, Spokane, WA 99210-1826.
Additional information:
Visit the Chattaroy Cemetery Website
