Wednesday, November 3, 2010


Native Nation beliefs dictate that a person should not only consider how his/her actions
will affect the present generation, but to remember at all times seven generations,
including the three which will follow this one and the three which came before.

This map shows South Park as it was incorporated in 1902. The City of Seattle annexed South Park in 1910. Its last Mayor, Samuel Bevan, was my great, great grandfather. Born August 9, 1828, in England, he passed on June 30, 1911. I know these facts because of genealogy research, the family Bible, newspaper reports recording his passing and from a tombstone rescued from what was the Comet Lodge Cemetery.

He was laid to rest until the City of Seattle bulldozed his grave marker on November 2, 1987. I know this fact because of the Daily Engineering Report during the City's trenching activities to run a sewer main through what was the cemetery. His gravestone is safe, but today the marker doesn't mark the bones of this early settler.


The cenotaph now sits in Seattle. This photo shows myself, 5th generation, Miles, 6th generation,  Zane a 7th generation, born 8.8.8., all born in Seattle and including Zoe and little Zolaine, all direct descendants of Samuel Bevan. 





This cenotaph, a gravestone with no purpose or proper place, is joined by the large cenotaph monument to William Dickinson, protected from City of Seattle bulldozers and denials. These stones , representing thousands of descendants are safer than the many that have been left defenseless in the new neighborhood dog park which serves to continue the denial of this historic graveyard. No longer a cemetery, there is a growing neighborhood disgust towards what has happened to our earliest settlers and the Duwamish First Nation resting spot. 


The promises made by Ron Sims (they saw through his lies in the other Washington very quickly) to survey and restore the cemetery with "...dignity, sincerity and integrity..." "...we survey all the time, baseball fields and parks grounds..." he told descendants and neighbors to their faces. 


Sewer Outreach Project III shows mapping through property marked historical cemetery:


http://worldperc.com/comet/CitySewer-1987.pdf


None of the stones in the old Comet Lodge Cemetery are safe or protected in any manner. None of the gravestones mark the bodies of those whose names and dates where chiseled in the stones. The old Comet has been transformed into a dogs run free park by the City of Seattle and King County. It is appropriately named, the Mayors McGinn, Nickols, Schell, Rice, County Executives Constantine, Sims Memorial Dogs Run Free Park.


Mayor Samuel Bevan's burial plot is located in the North East Quarter of Block 130. His son Olis Bevan is buried next to him. Olis had been kicked by a horse near the Skokomish River. He was transported on the steamer Washington from Hoodsport to Harborview Hospital in Seattle where he passed on August 12, 1917.


Nearby, in the North East Quarter of Block 142, lies the remains of William Dickinson. He passed on June 18, 1903. His bones are also unmarked. His large tombstone was also rescued from the City of Seattle's desecration activities.


With heavy machinery and the mighty ink pen the City changed the zoning of the sacred burial grounds of the  Duwamish Nation  and the burial spots of Seattle's earliest settlers, members of the Maple family. The zoning was changed to RETAIL SPACE and SINGLE FAMILY HOUSING.


After the zoning was changed it was easy for the City of Seattle to deny the cemetery's existence:
http://worldperc.com/comet/krochalis.html



Early cemeteries were often plotted with an area called Baby Land. Here families could bury those infants who passed before a family plot was purchased. The Comet Lodge Cemetery had a Baby Land where over one hundred children were buried. Because of the City of Seattle actions there are eleven houses on top of the baby burial plots according to a study funded by the City of Seattle and King County in 2009.
 
http://worldperc.com/comet/burials.html


This photo shows baby grave markers located beneath the Maple home during the Johnny Jones funeral in 1910 at the North West Quarter of Block 166. The baby crosses are easily seen above the mourners' heads.:




good book, go buy it!

http://worldperc.com/comet/lodge.pdf

Many thanks to Hebrank Steadman and Associates, Inc., surveyors.

///and finally, last words for now, stop bashing BP, at least they are cleaning up after themselves unlike Halliburton. Rent http://www.crudethemovie.com/ with a big box of tissues and see what an American company, Chevron, does when they destroy the Amazon basin.


Of interest to some:


"No customs of any people are more deeply rooted
than those which have to do with the interment
or disposal of the dead..." In the words of Sir James Macintosh,
'The desire to honor the dead is one of the
safeguards of morality,' "...and only the superficially
informed sociologist or economist can possibly make light of the
universal desire on the part of the rich and the poor,
the educated and the ignorant, to provide for the dead..."
June 4, 1919, Frederick L. Hoffman, LL.D.



Judy's handdrawn 1976 map. Her map is highly accurate and corresponds to other burial records.


http://worldperc.com/comet/JudyMap-1976.pdf


2009 KING 5 News
http://worldperc.com/comet/KING5Comet27Oct09.mov

2010 KOMO 4 News
http://beaconhill.komonews.com/content/grave-keeper-fights-souls-seattles-first-settlers?tab=video









1 comment:

Venice.South.Park said...

A Call for Information



This is an open invitation to any resident in the Baby Land section of the Comet Lodge Cemetery to provide information that adds to or disputes the information being posted about the City of Seattle and King County's desecration and defilement activities towards this Federally protected Historic Cemetery.



I remain sincerely yours,


John Dickinson