Coast Research and Fun Trip!

I took Saturday off to go to the coast, as I was really in need of a real day off, one with actual escape from responsibility and the super kind of relaxation that comes from leaving town. It was cold and foggy but divine, with the thoughts of how hot and smoky it was in the valley we had left behind. Seems like we enjoyed it! A huge thanks to Beth and Cathy for giving me such a fun day off.

One of the best parts was how easily dreams were fulfilled. I happened to mention my book project and the fact that there was a graveyard somewhere up by Newport with some of "my people" in it. Lemuel Eli Davis (5 Sept. 1832-22 March 1917) was the eldest son of Benjamin and Catherine Davis. He married Mary Jane Ogle Webster (25 July 1831-24 Jan 1913) in 1853, shortly after arrival in Oregon, and presumably lived on Lemuel's DLC next to his parents. I'll have to dig up and review all of the details of their lives but in 1866  they moved to the Yaquina Bay where they were among the earliest white settlers. They established a fishery there and ran a ferry across the bay. I have a couple of letters with more details. Cathy and Beth seemed to think it was a simple thing to drive on up to find it. I hadn't even brought a camera or any of my research but had enough in my memory to look it up on their phones.


We had a fairly good description of the place from an online posting 15 years ago, but that said the graveyard was derelict then, and it wasn't all that easy to find. The first wrong turn fortunately led us to a man who knew the place and pointed us to the correct hill in the distance. Following his directions, it was easy to get to the right hill and up some stone steps we found it! I was thrilled and tried to take pictures and write down all of the details. There were quite a few people buried there who weren't from the Davis family, but they were probably known to them or had some other connection to the old settlement. Unfortunately I wasn't as diligent as I could have been but it appeared that the oldest family stone was Mary's original one, and some had been replaced with newer ones, or the graves were finally permanently marked later. Mary's had been repaired. There were several fragments and I can make a few guesses about them. Lemuel's stone is a replacement, as is Zenas's, I think. I looked up the graveyard and there are about 30 people buried there, mostly early residents of Yaquina Bay. Another of the very old ones turned out to be their grandchild, Mary E. Copeland, (daughter of Catherine Winant,) who died just before turning three in 1881.


According to my records Lemuel and Mary had four children: Rebecca Catherine (1854-1936) Tracy W. (1857-1936) Zenas C. (1861-1907) and Fanny, who lived only three years from 1867-1871. The fragments might have been from her grave, as they were small, but totally unreadable. She is there and was probably the first burial. The other three children were there.

Tracy Davis and Catherine Winant had graves marked with identical stones set at the feet of their parents in the fenced family enclosure, and Zenas was to the side of his parents. I think Mary and Lemuel's stones had been replaced in a reversed position facing away from the graves, as they were right up against the metal fence and didn't face in the same direction as Tracy and Catherine. In fact an older photo of Lemuel's shows the fence behind it as it should have been I think. The children both died in 1936 and the stones were fairly modern-looking. I can't believe it but apparently we didn't get photos of them, although I have some from the internet. You can see one of them standing at the left of this photo, Catherine's. It is facing away from her parents. Tracy's was closer to us, even with Catherine's and in line with his father's.

 The shot with the view is from above them looking downhill. The graveyard was near the top of the hill, and the graves scattered around at the feet of tall trees or tucked into the woods. The metal fence seems the same age as the ones at the Masonic cemetery in Eugene, from the 1930's maybe. Further research is always needed for the details.

But here we have the Lemuel Eli Davis family buried so long ago. It was a satisfying search and set the mood for our later stop down the coast at the scene of the drowning of our young friend Jack Harsongkram only a few years ago. I hadn't been to the scene yet and it was heart-wrenching as I had expected it to be. Still, life and death are a part of our emotional landscape and they are not as easily escaped as valley weather. They stay with us as we walk through our lives and when we stop to mark them, it is gratifying to have a time and place set aside to do this. I am grateful to those members of the Davis family who made this little place and to those who documented it for me to find. It renewed my excitement about my research and I want to dive back into it and fill in the details of their stories.

Mary's obituary and her photo were essential details for me as she changed little in appearance over the decades. I have had a photo of the "Davis women" that I have been working for years to identify and she is clearly the person standing behind the other two. With my subsequent discovery of photos of Iantha Davis (thanks to Peter Steelquist!) I am now completely certain that the person on the left is indeed a young Samantha Davis Huddleston, and by carefully dating the details of their clothing I have convinced myself that the photo was taken on the occasion of their father's death in 1858, making it a historically significant photo and the only one I have of Samantha. As soon as I can I will take up the quest again to find more photos of Samantha and fill in more details of her life.She was one of the most long-lived of the early Eugene pioneers and arrived here when she was still a child in 1847.Putting together some kind of story of her life seems really important to me, although her direct connection with my house is a slim one. She did own the land, and sold it off eventually, but whether or not she even set foot on my little spot is a big speculation. Still, I know enough about her to think of her every single time I walk on the west side of our town. My search for her, fueled by the sweet look of her in this photo, is one of the things that warms my heart. Finding the resting place of her oldest brother and essential sibling was a very good day.