Cemetery Listings Now Online! Courtesy of the Olympia Genealogical Society
If you don't know which cemetery to search, use this link for the
Washington USGenWeb Archive search page. Enter the search name, choose Thurston County and Cemetery Records, then click on the SEARCH button.
These cemetery surveys were done about 1980. Tombstone photos are available for all but the largest cemeteries on the Find-A-Grave web site.
This cemetery is located south of Olympia. Go south on Capitol Boulevard through Tumwater and turn on Trosper Road. Cross over the freeway on Trosper Road (54th Ave SW) and continue a short distance to Littlerock Road SW where you turn left. Travel along Littlerock Road about .25 miles and the cemetery will be on your right. The first meeting to organize the Union Cemetery was held in the home of Jesse Ferguson on 1 December 1865. On 4 Jan 1866 the Union Cemetery was incorporated by an act of the Thirteenth Legislature. William Jenks, Morris Littlejohn and James Dunlap were the men chosen to procure a suitable parcel of ground for this cemetery. Jesse Ferguson was one of the original settlers of this region, who arrived with Michael T. Simmons and his party in 1845. Mr. Ferguson sold the land (about two acres) to the Union Cemetery in the winter of 1867 for ten dollars. Evidently the land was used as a cemetery before that time, since a number of the dates of death on the tombstones predate 1867. According to old records kept by the cemetery, undertakers would sometimes bury the dead there and not notify the Cemetery Association. Consequently there are many unmarked and unrecorded graves in this cemetery. It is believed that Charles H. Mason, first Secretary of the Territory of Washington, and the man whose name was given to Mason County, is buried there.
This small cemetery is located on O'Connor Road, southwest of the town of Bucoda. Take State Highway 507 out of Bucoda to O'Connor Road SE and make a sharp left over a bridge and a railroad track. Continue 1.5 miles until you come to a gate across the road. The cemetery is up a bank on the left, shortly before reaching the gate. It is enclosed in a weathered board picket fence. There are two stones, reported to be a mother and her baby. Mary Ann Cogdil, the mother, is listed in the Thurston County 1870 census with her husband Jacob and four children. The family moved to Lewis County, WA.
To locate this cemetery, drive south on Delphi Road SW, which is on the west side of Olympia. From US Highway 101, go south approximately 6 miles to the Wadell Creek Road. Proceed on Wadell Creek Road for 0.2 mile. On your left you will see a rustic road going into the woods. The cemetery is fenced and there is a place to park and turn around. This little cemetery is a part of the John Harlow homestead. The first person buried here was Margaret M. Turner 1797-1890. Some of the graves have no markers. Information as to those graves came from two lists, one provided by Mrs. Grace Brown in 1967, and the other provided by Jasper Martin, former superintendent of Masonic Memorial Park Cemetery. The lists were vertually identical. This cemetery is owned by the Methodist Church and maintained by descendants of the persons buried there.
This cemetery is located at 2501 Pacific Avenue in Olympia. This old well kept cemetery began in April 1857. It is on land that was once part of the Head Donation Land Claim. This cemetery has changed hands many times, once belonging to the Whitworth family. It was first called Forest Cemetery. In 1912 it was sold and called Mt. Tabor Cemetery. In 1922 it was sold to St Paul's Lutheran church and called Forest Tabor Cemetery until the Tabor was dropped, and is now called Forest Memorial Gardens. There are many Pioneers and Indians buried here, as well as a Chinese section.
To find this cemetery, go south from Olympia on Interstate 5 to the Rochester exit, west to Sargent Road SW, and then north to 183rd Avenue SW. The cemetery is on 183rd between Sargent Road and I-5.
To get to this cemetery, go north from US Highway 101 on Steamboat Island Road NW and turn west on 64th Avenue NW. Turn left on Elizan Street NW to the driveway just past 6331 Elizan. The cemetery is to the left, behind a fence, as you go down the driveway. The cemetery is located in the woods on land owned by the Del Johns family. Some of the markers are no longer legible.
This cemetery is located at a gravel circle drive on Reichel Road SE, which connects with Vail Loop Road SE, east of the town of Vail. It is located on the private property of several elderly descendants of the Laramie family.
LESCHI INDIAN
This cemetery is located on the Nisqually Indian Reservation. No listing is available.
This single monument is located east of the town of Tenino. Take State Highway 507 east about 3 miles, turn left on Military Road SE, and continue about 2 miles to the Deschutes River. The monument is on the left.
This is one of the largest cemeteries in Thurston County, and is located at the intersection of North Street and Cleveland Avenue on the south side of Olympia. For more current burials (after 1980), check the cemetery's own online database at Masonic Memorial Park Lookup.
This cemetery lies on the crest of a small hill overlooking the McLane Valley and McLane Creek. The plot is bounded on the north by US Highway 101 and on the west by Delphi Road SW. William McLane settled at Mud Bay near Olympia, WA, in the early 1850's on a land grant of 360 acres. Land for a school and cemetery was deeded by him to the McLane School District on 23 July 1883. The cemetery remained in school district ownership until the district itself was annexed by the Olympia School District in 1965. In 1968 the Olympia District deeded the cemetery back to the heirs of the original grantor. The cemetery has been vandalized and has fallen into complete disrepair, with only a few grave markers and stones remaining. The names and dates for interments in this cemetery is mainly gleaned from the memories of Margaret Grace McLane Ramsauer and Elsie McLane Shannon, surviving family members, and Adah Dye, local historian.
This cemetery is located southwest of Littlerock, WA, on Mima Road SW, approximately 0.5 mile before Mima Road becomes 152 Avenue SW, and then Gate Road SW. From their original donation land claim, John and Polly Laws donated what was a part of their orchard, in 1869, for this cemetery.
This is one of the largest cemetery in Thurston County, located south
of Olympia. Go south on Capitol Boulevard through Tumwater and turn on
Trosper Road. Cross over the freeway on Trosper Road (54th Ave SW) and
continue a short distance to Littlerock Road SW where you turn left.
Travel along Littlerock Road about .25 miles and the cemetery will be
on your right
This cemetery is located south of Olympia, behind the Bush Prairie (Union) Cemetery. Go south on Capitol Boulevard through Tumwater and turn on Trosper Road. Cross over the freeway on Trosper Road (54th Ave SW) and continue a short distance to Littlerock Road where you turn left. Travel along Littlerock Road and the cemetery will be on your right. Although the land was not acquired by the Catholic Church until 1873, it was evidently used earlier since some of the stones predate that time. The property (slightly over two acres) was part of the Donation Land Claim of Jessie Ferguson. Around 1900 the conditions deteriorated, and a number of the individuals were moved. Many of the pioneers of the area were buried there.
This cemetery is located in the city of Lacey, at the intersection of Ruddell Road SE and Mullen Road SE. The Ruddell or Pioneer Cemetery was established about 1850 on donated land that was once part of the Stephen D. Ruddell Donation Land Claim. there were a few graves here before 1850. The iron fence and gate was donated by Mr. Gwin Hicks, an early State Printer. There ae many unmarked graves here, and several graves of unknown persons.
This cemetery is located at the end of Schmidt Place in Tumwater, in the back yard of the family home. There are just two stones facing each other. The first stone is for Johanna Schmidt nee Steiner, born 30 Apr 1851 Worms, Hessen, Germany, d 9 Feb 1911 and Leopold F. Schmidt, born 23 Jan 1846 Dornassenhelm, Nassau, Germany, d 24 Sep 1914. The second stone is for Peter G. Schmidt, born 13 Feb 1880 Butte, Montana, d 17 Jan 1957 and Clara Schmidt nee Muench, born 24 Jun 1889 Chicago, Illinois, d 15 May 1960.
This cemetery is located on State Highway 507 between the towns of Tenino and Bucoda. The cemetery originally served only the coal-mining town of Bucoda when it was much larger than Tenino. Bucoda was also the site of the first territorial prison, and folklore has it that there may be an unmarked mass grave of prisoners dating before 1874.
WOODLAWN GARDENS
This cemetery is located in the city of Lacey, near the intersection of Ruddell Road SE and Mullen Road SE, next to the Ruddell (Pioneer) Cemetery. No listing is available.
To reach this cemetery, take State Highway 507 from the town of Yelm toward McKenna 1.6 miles to Vail Road SE. Turn right and go 0.5 mile to Cook Road SE, turn left 0.2 mile to Cemetery Road SE.
Tombstone photos are available for all but the largest cemeteries on the Find-A-Grave web site.