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Pioneer Memorial Gardens
Wheeler, Grant County, Washington
14403 Road 2 NE,
Wheeler WA 98837-9324
509-765-6500
Lat: 47° 06' 58"N, Lon: 119° 10' 46"W
T19N R28E Section 28
Submitted by Maggie Rail, © Oct 16, 2006, last edited Jul
07, 2008 [mrail@asisna.com].
Total records = 1,688.
From I-90 driving west as you are entering the Moses Lake area, take
the Wheeler turnoff, turning right onto Wheeler Rd NE and continue to
Wheeler. Turn right or south onto Road O for one mile, then turn right
or west onto Road 2NE. The cemetery is on the south side of the road.
Be sure to get permission at the office first before entering the cemetery.
Pioneer Memorial Gardens was established in 1905, it was a one acre
City Cemetery, then it was deeded to the Oddfellows in the 1950s who
expanded it to about 9 acres, and in 2001 it was purchased by the Benson
Family who are expanding it again. - Per Susan Benson
I tried to physically read this cemetery when I visited it on Jul 17,
2005, and was told to remove myself from the property and was unable
to gain permission from the owner to return to the cemetery.
In my frustration I did some research, trying to find at least some
of those buried here. My main source being the Grant County Genealogy
Society, who allowed me to re-publish records they have in their library.
These records included work done by Shane Palmer to earn his Eagle Scout
degree in 1990.
After transcribing from those I compared with other records, such
as from Social Security records, obits and other public records. Thus
I did not copy totally from any one source, and all are previously
published records, and not taken by me from the cemetery. I ask
anyone who has the name and dates of someone buried in this cemetery
to please consider sharing them with me. If you have a photo in digital
format of the stone I would like to see that also. Obituaries or other
public records will be gladly accepted.
Listings with an asterisk are those I do have a photo of the stone.
Some photos are not good, since the area I was in had very poor stone
care. Some stones were buried under grass, others covered with lichen
etc. They mow the lawn, but there is not much care around or of the
stones.
One must obtain permission to enter this cemetery from the main office
and I was told I needed to have a family member buried there to visit.
I was warned of this when I was reading other Grant County cemeteries,
but I really did not believe it could be true, after all the hundreds
of cemeteries I have read. Later I find out there have been demonstrations
at this cemetery, carried out by the neighboring townspeople, according
to the local newspapers and law enforcement office. Also it is said
that some have removed their loved ones from this cemetery to another
cemetery, because of the new business practices and no freedom to visit
the burial sites. It would be wonderful if the townfolks platted out
land and created a new cemetery that is open to all.
The owners, the Benson Family, do not understand that searching of names
requires first knowing the name of the person who is actually buried
there. Mrs Benson informed me that she is there to help anyone if you
give her the name to look up. What she does not understand is that many
do not have the needed information to ask her. This is one reason why
I do this hard work. I am not reimbursed in any way for doing any of
this transcribing.
I am sure this record is missing many names, because older records are
difficult to find, and some were never kept. If anyone knows of a name
I do not have, I would be very happy to add it to this list.
If you find an error, do not hesitate to tell me, along with proof
if you can. I took the locations from some of the earlier work and found
a couple duplicate names in different sections, so the sections possibly
could be incorrect in some cases, or the person has more than one headstone.
This record is fairly complete up to the year 2000, with others added
as I found them, but not a complete listing after that date.
- Maggie Rail
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Legend:
b. = born
c/o = child of
d. = died
d/o = dau of
FH = Funeral home
m. = married
s/by = stone by
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s/o = son of
s/w = stone with
w/o = wife of
Garden of Deseret = GDes
Garden of Devotion = GDev
Garden of Holy Cross = GHC
Garden of Meditation = GMd
Garden of Memories = GM
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