In the previous post, I described my research findings for one of the two headstones that Jim Proehl recently discovered near a Bandon cemetery. This post examines the other headstone with the engraving: William Hirst, Died Oct. 27, 1862, Aged 34 years.
Why did the two headstones suddenly appear together? Are they from the same cemetery? Do they reveal a family connection? To begin my research, however, I needed to answer the following questions: Who was William Hirst, and where was he buried?
Fortunately Jim had included links to two newspaper notices related to the settlement of William Hirst’s estate (copied below). While it’s difficult to discern much about William’s life before 1860, his short time in Coos County generated enough records to reliably match an individual to the headstone.
William’s Life and Death
William was born in England, about 1828. By 1860 he lived with his wife, Mary Ann, and four children along the Coquille River in Coos County, Oregon. The census enumeration shows him living in the Randolph Precinct, with other family members apparently living nearby1.
In 1862, William and Mary Ann had a fifth child, a daughter named Alice. That same year he died because of suicide. A story that appeared in The Oregon Statesman tells of his fate2:
The following notices about his estate settlement appeared in 1864 and 1866 newspapers (The Oregon Statesman):
The 1866 estate notice identifies William’s brother, Thomas (1835-1903)3, as guardian of William’s infant children. It also reveals that William’s widow had remarried. Early Coos County marriage records show that Mary Ann had moved to Empire City (near Marshfield), where she wed James Martin Davis on 24 Feb 1864.
William’s Burial
Empire Cemetery Records4 lists William’s burial with the same information as that engraved on his headstone.
Alice Wooldridge and Steven Dow Beckham conducted a survey of some Coos County cemeteries in the early 1970s. The Empire Cemetery had been “abandoned to nature” but William’s burial was identified at that time, a strong indication that his headstone still marked his grave.
Today the cemetery remains overgrown with vegetation and enclosed by a chain-link fence on the periphery of a residential area. The Find a Grave website lists William’s burial at the cemetery but does not include a photo of a headstone.
Based upon the above information, it appears that within the past 50 years William’s headstone was removed from the cemetery (for an unknown reason), and now his grave may be unmarked.
An Unresolved Mystery
It’s been interesting to learn about William Hirst and Mary A Russell whose headstones mysteriously appeared together in Bandon earlier this month. Each headstone was originally placed in a different cemetery, and there is no obvious connection between the individuals or their families.
The only thing that the headstones appear to have in common is late-October death dates. This is wild speculation, but could it be that the headstones were used for a Halloween-themed event?
Other questions remain unanswered: When were the markers removed from their original grave sites? And, why were they recently placed together near a Bandon cemetery?
If you have other information about William Hirst or his headstone or if you know anything about the reappearance of the two headstones in Bandon, please contact me or leave a comment below.
Notes
1 William and his family were enumerated in 1860 at Randolph Precinct (in Coos County, Township 28). His 1865 land patent (registered posthumously) was located in Township 29, north of Myrtle Point (in Coos County). William’s brother, Thomas, had an adjacent land patent in Township 29.
2 Probable error in newspaper report: William lived in Coos County, not Curry County.
3 Thomas Hirst moved to Marshfield (present-day Coos Bay) in 1873 where he became a prominent citizen.
4 The Empire Cemetery Record is included in a compilation of cemetery abstracts compiled in 1964-1965 by LDS Church volunteers. Although the record is not dated, nor is a compiler identified, it predates the Wooldridge and Beckham survey.
Sources
The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M653; Residence Date: 1860; Home in 1860: Randolph Precinct, Coos, Oregon; Roll: M653_1055; Page: 42; Family History Library Film: 805055
Newspapers.com. “The Oregon Statesman. (Oregon City, O.T. [Or.]) 1851-1866, Nov 17, 1862, Page 2, Image 2 « Historic Oregon Newspapers,” 1862. https://www.newspapers.com/image/81517346/?clipping_id=121854528&terms=William%20Hirst&match=1.
“The Oregon Statesman. (Oregon City, O.T. [Or.]) 1851-1866, May 02, 1864, Page 2, Image 2 « Historic Oregon Newspapers,” 1864. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025131/1864-05-02/ed-1/seq-2/#words=Hirst+William.
“The Oregon Statesman. (Oregon City, O.T. [Or.]) 1851-1866, October 22, 1866, Page 1, Image 1 « Historic Oregon Newspapers,” 1866. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025131/1866-10-22/ed-1/seq-1/#words=Hirst+William.
“United States, Cemetery Abstracts, 1949-1969,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4F-F3LF-K?cc=2579610 : 7 September 2019), > image 1 of 1; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. William Hirst, Image 628.