The battle over Spokane cemeteries continues….

For several months now, we have been exploring the facts and history surrounding the founding of Spokane’s Manito Park.  All the information has been gleaned from the book, “Manito Park:  A Reflection of Spokane’s Past”, by Tony Bamonte and Suzanne Schaeffer Bamonte of www.tornadocreekpublications.com.  This week, we continue the story of the cemeteries in Spokane, their importance to the real estate business here, and those involved in trying to move them to a more convenient place.

Mountain View, another of the first cemeteries, appeared on early maps between Cedar and Ash from about 10^th to 12thg Avenue (part of the Cannon Hill neighborhood).  It began receiving bodies as early as 1881, but was not officially declared a cemetery until the fall of 1883.  Anthony Cannon was one of the early residents who had planned on Mountain View as his final resting place.  The November 17, 1883 issue if The Spokane Falls Review contains a lengthy description of Mountain View Cemetery.  An excerpt follows:

About one mile southwest of the center of Spokane Falls is situated “Mountain View Cemetery”, the city of our dead.  The location has been well chosen, and the name, recently adopted, in every respect appropriate.  The necropolis occupies a clear space of some 40 acres, on a ridge overlooking Hangman Creek, and is surrounded with a forest of noble pines.  The piece of ground was dedicated to the purpose for which it is used last spring, and already is dotted, here and there with those slim, rounded mounds that indicate the last resting place of those near and dear to the members of our community…  We see that a number of persons have made the right move in this direction, several neat head-stones having been put in place during the past week.  In this Mr. A.M. Cannon has taken the lead.  On his lot near the center o0f the grounds, he has a handsome monument erected.  It is a square shaft of Italian marble resting on a solid granite base.  The four sides of the shaft are smooth, leaving spaces for future inscriptions; near the top on the four sides are two branches of laurel leaves, resting on which is a crown, the shaft surmounted with a finely carved urn.  On the east side, at base of shaft, is the single name “Clarke,” while on the west side, in the same position, is the name “Cannon”.  Above the east side, is the inscription, “George Pl Clarke [Cannon’s stepson], born June 23, 1867, died April 5, 1883.”  [The monument was subsequently moved to Greenwood Cemetery.]…  It is a quiet place to sleep that sleep of eternity.  Here the rich and poor, high and low, find a common level in one sepulcher, watched by the spirits of an invisible empire, while the winds of winter and the zephyrs of summer sing through the branches of solemn requiem.

Mountain View Cemetery was officially discontinued in June of 1888, when the city council and the county commissioners selected Fairmont Cemetery, incorporated that year, as Spokane’s official burial grounds.  On May 12, 1888, Anthony Cannon, along with four partners, developed and incorporated Greenwood Cemetery.  The bodies from Mountain View were exhumed and removed to Greenwood and Fairmont.  Early politics clearly played a role in this event.  Cannon had just completed a two-year term as the mayor of Spokane Falls, and previously served as a city councilman, and was well ingrained with the “city powers.”  Within five months of leaving office on May 23, 1888, the city council passed an ordinance stating:  “No body or remains of any deceased person shall be interred or buried in any cemetery, burial ground or other place within the city limits.”  Mountain View was within the city limits; Greenwood and Fairmont were not.  Cannon held 360 of the 500 Greenwood shares.

Be sure to join us next week when we will learn about how the neighborhood starts to develop around Manito Park.