A grave issue

Published 8:00 pm Thursday, July 27, 2006

istory, the Kingston Cemetery will soon be closed to motor vehicles. The announcement came from the Kingston Cemetery Association, saying the move was prompted by acts of vandalism that included four-wheel drive vehicles tearing up the soft cemetery ground last winter and a load of dirt and garbage that was dumped in the access road in the spring. The project is expected to be completed by the end of summer.

“It’s hard to understand how anyone could do something like this. We’re supposed to take care of each other and respect not only those who are alive but also those who are gone,” commented Bill Reynolds, head of the Kingston Cemetery Association.

New fences are in place and the next step is the construction of an eight-car parking lot. An adjacent pedestrian gate will allow on-foot access at any time. Reynolds explained that the main gate will be opened for interments and certain holidays.

This is the first significant change to the cemetery in many years. Water was planned for the site in 1996, but the project was put on hold due to an estimated $5,000 in county utility fees. Reynolds hopes to take another look at the water issue in the near future.

The two-acre burial ground, located on Norman Road just off of West Kingston Road, has occupied the site since 1907 when Kingston’s original, or Pioneer Cemetery, was closed (see sidebar on Kingston’s Pioneer Cemetery). Old headstones mix with new, and while the site holds family names from many of the area’s earliest white settlers, gravesites are still available for purchase. At present, the Kingston Cemetery has had 538 interments.

Established 97 years ago, the Kingston Cemetery Association was the town’s first community service organization. Still active, the non-profit group owns the current cemetery and is responsible for the Pioneer Cemetery on Parcell Road as well. Kingston Cemetery is maintained almost entirely by volunteers, with the exception of paid lawn mowing.

For many, the most endearing qualities of this pastoral graveyard are its quiet setting and informal nature; rules are few and each family is permitted to honor their dead as they choose, as long as plot boundaries are observed. Amongst the 100-year-old firs can be found pots of flowers, American flags, nostalgic headstones and heartfelt messages of remembrance. Once the gates are closed Reynolds hopes visitors, in leaving their cars behind, will be compensated for their extra steps with a more intimate look at this enduring piece of Kitsap history.

For further information on the Kingston Cemetery contact Bill Reynolds at (360) 297-4010 or (360) 509-1009.

A (very) brief history of Kingston’s Pioneer Cemetery

Kingston’s original cemetery is now known, unofficially, as the Kingston Pioneer Cemetery. The 2.5-acre site was donated by Robert Forsyth in September 1890, five months after the Kingston Township was officially platted. The first interment was Conrad Gordon, 67, great-grandfather of astronaut Richard Gordon (for whom Gordon Elementary is named).

A total of perhaps 12 or 14 burials took place before the cemetery was closed in 1907. The bodies were then exhumed and re-interred at the new Kingston Cemetery on Norman Road. The move may have been undertaken to bring the community’s burial ground closer to what was, at that time, the downtown core of Kingston. Records are incomplete, and it is unknown if all of the bodies were removed.

The old cemetery can still be seen today, just off of Kingston’s Parcell Road. Exceedingly overgrown, the site is identifiable by the pits of the open graves and a couple of remaining monument pedestals. Ownership of the Pioneer Cemetery was transferred in 1901 – likely either to the county or the Kingston Cemetery Association.