Odd Fellows Cemetery in Elma, Washington

Elma has two fraternal cemeteries.  The Odd Fellows Cemetery is located next to Grays Harbor Fairground and Event Center.  

This fraternal group, established in America in 1819,  was dedicated to assisting those in need, including Odd Fellow Members and their families.  Members and their families were provided with food, nursing care, and the opportunity to purchase burial sites.  Newly established Lodges purchased land in new towns for cemeteries where their Members and families could be inferred.  Odd Fellow Cemeteries were often open to the public and plots were sold to help defray the cost of the land purchase and fund other projects.

Eric & I split up to 

walk the grounds of

Elma's Odd Fellows

Cemetery.

The Veterans Memorial

I gravitate toward the older section of the cemetery.

Mary Spurgeon died

in 1937 at age 71.

Harriet Stancliff died in

1907 at age 71.

The monument is beautiful.

Joseph Young died in 1911

at 80 years of age.

The Sheaf of  Wheat on the

side of the monument 

symbolizes resurrection.

Annie Corbett died in 1905 at

the age of 27.

The Draped Cloth symbolizes

 mourning.

This monument has the

Three Link Chain, the

Odd Fellows Symbol.

Though difficult to see, the

Abell monument has the Odd

 Fellows Three Link Chain.

Elliott Grips died in 

1896 at 19.  

This Harding monument

has a Masonic Square &

 Compass carved into it.

I wonder why Mr. Harding

bought a plot here & not

at the Masonic Cemetery

at the other end of town.

Nearby is another Harding

monument with a Triangle

& the inscription Faith,

Hope & Charity.

The Kane plots are enclosed

by stone & sit beneath

 shade trees.

The fish on the flag flying

above the Boiling plot 

is an Ichthys, an early

Christian symbol.

The markers here are shorter or flush, which is more in keeping with current cemetery marker styling. This cemetery, along with the Masonic Cemetery is now administered and maintained by Elma.