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Welcome to
Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery Park
Miners panning for gold in the Yukon Territory, 1898.
Photo property of the Museum of History and Industry.
Seattle's Central Business District, 1895.
Photo property of the Museum of History and Industry.
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A gathering of Seattle GAR members and their families at a July 4th celebration, 1912.
Photo property of The Museum of History and Industry.
Corporal Albert A. Manning,
6th Massachusetts Infantry.
Susan Ann Baird, Oregon Trail Survivor
Photo source: Venlora Taylor Clawson
Why are there so many different kinds of tombstones here?
"Civil War Type" Tombstones
The majority of tombstones you'll find in the GAR Cemetery look like this one. The soldier's name, company, and military unit are raised upon a shield. These are known as "Civil War Type" tombstones, and were issued by the United States War Department beginning in 1873. At one point, the ones you see here in the GAR Cemetery all stood vertically, but were remounted into their current positions to help preserve them when the city took ownership of the cemetery.
In this image, you can see what the tombstones looked like when they were upright.
Memorial Day at GAR Cemetery Park, 1923.
"General Type" Tombstones
These tombstones were also issued by the United States War Department, beginning after World War I. Depending on when the tombstone was made, there is some variation in the type of stone used, design, and information included on the tombstone. In GAR Cemetery, many of these are replacements for previously illegible Civil War Type tombstones.
Family & Non-Military Tombstones
This is where the widest variety of tombstones is found in GAR Cemetery. It is not typical to see this many non-military tombstones in a military cemetery, so GAR Cemetery is a unique glimpse into the many styles of tombstones created over the years. The reasoning behind why certain people have different headstones varies, but typically these are tombstones customized and paid for privately by family members of the deceased. Some of the women in this cemetery have unique tombstones that appear to be original, with designs typical of the late 1800s to early 1900s. Variation also occurred when some couples were buried together, with some couples sharing one tombstone and others having two separate ones.
Tombstone of Miles and Sarah Colson, an example of a shared couple tombstone.
Tombstone of Elizabeth Aufderheide, an excellent example of typical tombstone designs of the early 1900s.
Tombstones of Addison and Harriet Hastie, unique examples of a joint couple burial plot with separate tombstones.
Unknown Tombstones
Before the GAR had access to the current site of the GAR Cemetery, they were burying their members in a designated plot in Lakeview Cemetery. Soldiers in this cemetery had wooden tombstones, which were common during and immediately after the Civil War for veterans, but did not hold up well in Seattle's moist climate. When the time came to relocate the GAR burial plots to the new GAR Cemetery in its current location, unfortunately some of these tombstones were unreadable. There were six individuals who had unreadable tombstones, and though their names were known, it was no longer clear who was buried in which plot, and identification of the soldiers' remains would not have been possible to perform respectfully. When the soldiers were moved into their new spots at GAR Cemetery, they were given government issued "Civil War Type" tombstones that simply read "Unknown."
An example of what these wooden tombstones at Lakeview may have looked like. This photo is from one of the first Civil War cemeteries, Alexandria National Cemetery in Virginia.
Photo source: Library of Congress
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