Comet Lodge Cemetery

Katherin Albrecht (Albright) grave site, Comet Lodge Cemetery, circa 1970, Denis Law Collection, RVHS.

Comet Lodge Cemetery is one of those stories that seems to constantly come back into the collective conscious, and then just as quickly as it came, it disappears again. Newspapers write about it, there’s presumably some outrage and then it disappears, once again.

The cemetery’s first recorded burial is of 53 year old pioneer of the area, Samuel Maple (the gravestone spells it Mapel) who died in 1880. The next recorded burials would not be until 1884. The cemetery itself would not be named, or have any relation to Comet Lodge No. 139 of the I.O. O. F. (International Organization of Odd Fellows) until 1895. This is where the name Comet Lodge comes into the story, however most obituaries of people who were interred here state that it is the I.O.O.F. Cemetery-Georgetown. The cemetery hosts some well-known people of their time including Dr. Emma A. Rigby, Samuel Bevan who had been the Mayor of South Park, Henry Van Asselt, and Samuel and Jacob Maple some of the first settlers in Seattle.

The cemetery hosts, 490 known graves, though there may be more since potter’s graveyard was moved somewhere in Georgetown in the 1920s and Comet Lodge has been considered a likely place. Most of these graves no longer have their markers, though most of the changes were made to the cemetery after the cemetery itself had been lost by Comet Lodge No. 139, there are some that were made before. In 1927, the first shrinking of the cemetery to its now 2.5 acre size began, with Dr. Corson and his wife selling a section called Babyland. This spot, that was for the burials of infants and small children, was without disinterment, turned into housing for people. The trend of lack of disinterment is a trend that continued. Once the cemetery closed in 1937, as the lodge had become bankrupt, there was only a handful of people who would disinter their family members as the organization had told them that they would now be in charge of caring for the plots. The graves of the Maples, and Henry Van Asselt were moved to different resting spots (the Maples to King County International Airport, Van Asselt to Lakeview Cemetery). Out of the mentioned 490 graves, only 25 of them would end up being moved, the other 465, have no records of being moved.

Once the cemetery was foreclosed upon however, it fell completely into disrepair and became a popular spot for sneaking into and, supposedly stealing gravestones, as people assumed everyone who had been buried had been disinterred. There were several attempts at cleaning up the cemetery or rehabilitating it, however most of them fell through.

The two of the biggest attempts came in 1987 and 1999. Neither were successful for various reasons. In 2002, Cleveland High School students with the Washington State Cemetery Association and a grant from 4Culture worked on a project. This project, in the words of the project itself “would teach research techniques and assign specific informational components of the history of the cemetery and the neighborhood to students or small groups of students. The project also encouraged students to develop a community plan to maintain the cemetery grounds. By educating students, it was the hope of WSCA to develop an appreciation for historical sites in the community and to deter the destruction of cemeteries by young adults.” This was the last attempt at any type of clean up or preservation at Comet Lodge Cemetery.

Some time between these clean up attempts most of the gravestones were moved to new positions. Based on a 1976 map, 24 out of 25 remaining gravestones have become cenotaphs, stones that no longer mark the spot of the actual burial.

Erwin Rigby, member of the Woodmen of the World, tree trunk grave dated 1907. Photo by Karen O’Brien

From death dates and birthdates, to how people viewed those who had passed on or something about the deceased themselves, gravestones can give an astounding amount of historical information, and graves at Comet Lodge Cemetery are no different. The cenotaphs of Augustus Twombly (d. 1901) and Erwin Rigby (d.1907) are both tree trunk graves. These graves tend to be about a life cut short, and these stones were common in some areas, easily bought from a Sears & Roebuck catalogue. For both of them however, it also means they were a member of the Woodmen of the World, a fraternity organization that disbursed insurance and would purchase stones for their members.These stones are usually easy to spot for membership. The top knot above the name will have the symbol of the Woodmen of the World (Now Modern Woodmen of America) two crossed hatchets.

Other cenotaphs in the cemetery also tell stories of those who had lived there in the past. Ernst Pique, a German immigrant has a particularly ornate stone, designed with floral motifs talking highly of him throuugh ivy, ferns, the backside of his stone also has an engraving written in German. This year we had our first (two!) tours at Comet Lodge where we shared the history of the cemetery, stories of some who were buried there, and discussed the gravestone art. It was a success with two sold out tours with 30 people all together, and I can’t wait to do the tour again next year.

RVHS Program and Archives Manager, Katharine Anthony leading a tour at Comet Lodge Cemetery, Nov. 2nd 2019. Photo by Karen O’Brien.