Lebanon #2: Lebanon Pioneer Cemetery

200 Dodge Street

Lebanon Pioneer Cemetery on October 21, 2006

Lebanon Pioneer Cemetery was established on 2.5 acres of land donated by Jeremiah Ralston to the First Methodist Church in 1850, when thirteen-year-old Sarah Settle became the first to be buried here, after dying on August 7, 1850. Ralston and his wife Jemima were later buried here as well. The earliest birth recorded here is that of Jacob Kees, born in 1783 and died October 8, 1850. The oldest person buried here was Marcy Simons, wife of Daniel Simons; she was born October 20, 1794 and died February 1, 1899 at the age of 105 years and 11 days. The cemetery contains the remain of 310 people, though only 79 markers remain. Around 1912 the cemetery stopped being used as an active burial ground, though Adda C. Howard were buried here in 1934.

The cemetery’s history includes a lot of ups and downs. As early as 1889, letters were written to the local newspaper, the Lebanon Express, about the condition of the cemetery. Improvements were made in 1898, but in 1931 the cemetery was again in poor condition and there was talk of making it a public park. In the early 1950s, an attempt was made to condemn the cemetery property in order to extend Park Street north through the cemetery. It was determined that existing Oregon State Law would prohibit the plan, and the attempt was given up in 1954.

Eventually, with the plan to condemn the cemetery having failed, the First Methodist Church sold the cemetery property to the City of Lebanon for one dollar. In 1966, the Lebanon Junior Women’s Club took over a project to refurbish the cemetery, and students from Lebanon Middle School made the wooden signs at the northeast and northwest corners of the cemetery. Today, the cemetery is maintained by volunteers and the City Parks Department. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 5, 1998.

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