Missing pioneer headstones confound Lewiston

LEWISTON – The search is on for the missing headstones of a couple who helped settle Oregon and North Idaho in the mid-1800s.

But no one is sure where the bodies might be.

The headstones of Robert Newell, who died in 1869, and his wife, Rebecca Newell, who died in 1867, were removed from Normal Hill Cemetery about three years ago for restoration.

Nobody remembers who removed the headstones.

“And obviously that’s a problem for us,” Lynn C. Moss, who oversees cemetery operations, told the Lewiston Tribune. “The intention was good; the process was flawed.”

Steve Branting noticed the headstones were missing while working with gifted and innovative programs at Lewiston High School and Jenifer Junior High School. Since 2001, they have been mapping cemeteries.

The Newells were originally buried at what was once the Fifth Street Cemetery. Branting said that cemetery was converted into Pioneer Park in the 1890s, and the headstones were moved to Normal Hill Cemetery.

Branting said the Newells’ bodies might not have accompanied their headstones. He said embalming wasn’t common at the time, and coffins weren’t always used. When towns grew and cemeteries were relocated, he said, sometimes only the gravestones made the trip.

Branting said research by the students using ground-penetrating radar indicates the Newells’ Normal Hill Cemetery graves don’t show much ground disturbance. In fact, the radar shows that as many as 140 graves might still exist in the former cemetery that is now Pioneer Park.

Robert Newell was born in 1807 and worked as a trapper for the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. Branting said Newell settled in Oregon about 1840 and helped in the formation of the provisional government. He also helped organize the earliest debating and literacy society, Branting said, and became director of the Oregon Printing Association, which published a newspaper.

He ran a river boat company between Oregon City and Willamette Falls, and served as a captain during the Yakima Indian War, a conflict that began in 1855 when gold miners started crossing tribal lands.

He settled in Lewiston in 1866, a few years before he died. In the 1930s, the Oregon Daughters of the American Revolution placed a bronze plaque on his grave. The last known photograph of the headstones was taken in September 2003 by Oregon DAR members, Branting said.

Robert Newell’s marker had been broken by vandals. Rebecca Newell’s headstone was still standing, but showed signs of also having been broken loose.

The damage, Branting said, might have led to an attempt to repair the headstones. Moss said the headstones could be in someone’s garage or barn awaiting repair. He said a system of tracking grave markers removed for repairs is being developed.