Exploring Wrangell's Oldest Cemetery
In the woods behind Wrangell Memorial Cemetery and the Heritage Harbor parking lot sits Wrangell’s oldest cemetery.
Philip “Clah” McKay, a Tsimshian man from Port Simpson (modern-day Lax Kw'alaams).
Drive a mile out the Zimovia Highway, and you’ll pass the Memorial Cemetery. It’s a wide, open piece of land right off the highway, situated next to a former baseball field. It began as the Redmen Cemetery, named for the social club that started it, but it is now operated by local government. Behind this cemetery, nestled in the woods, is something much older that serves as a lens into Wrangell’s distant past: the Indian Cemetery.
Prior to the arrival of settlers, cremation was the chief form of caring for human remains among the Tlingit. I covered this topic in my episode, The Mystery of Deadman’s Island. In 1876, the first person to convert the Tlingit of Khaachxhan.áak’w to Christianity was a Tsimshian missionary named Philip “Clah” McKay, who organized a congregation, school, and—according to one account—the community’s first Indian cemetery. According to Rev. Thomas Crosby, in Up and Down the Pacific Coast by Canoe and Mission Ship:
“Soon Philip and his fellow Christians began to see that a piece of ground was needed in which to bury their dead in a Christian way. They applied to the first Officer, but the new Captain told them that the Indian style of burying and burning their dead was good enough for them. He bade them go away and burn the body—get rid of it anyhow; the custom of cremation was fast becoming fashionable in the country from which he came. Philip asked the Captain if the people in his country painted themselves hideously, put the body on a large fire and danced around it half naked, poking it with sticks every now and then and shouting and yelling in the most hideous manner until the body was consumed. “This,” he said, “is the way the Indians do.”
“Ho,” said the Captain, “you shall have a piece of ground.”
Philip thanked him, and thus the first native Christian burying-ground in Alaska was got from the American Government.”
While the Indian Cemetery represents the adoption of a Christian tradition, the quiet, wooded area evokes an element of Tlingit tradition, as well. As Dr. Rosita Worl wrote in an essay on death in the Tlingit world, “When an individual dies, we say they ‘Walked Into the Forest,’ a liminal space for us.”
In 2023, I visited the Indian Cemetery and took this photo of C.F. Jones’ headstone. Compared to many of the other headstones in the Indian Cemetery, this one is very easy to find and read.
The grave of C.F. Jones
The Indian Cemetery is not just home to the remains of Tlingit people. Recently, I was contacted by Wrangell local Mary Jo Pullman about the headstone of C.F. Jones, born in 1832 in New York, died in 1900. While some of the headstones in the cemetery are moss covered, fallen, or hard to find, Jones’ headstone is very noticeable, easy to read, and surrounded by a protective fence. Mary Jo Pullman has graciously volunteered her time taking photos of Wrangell’s headstones for findagrave.com. This is an incredible website I’ve used for a million projects. She wanted to know if I knew anything about C.F. Jones.
Most of the time, I can’t find information about people this far back. But incredibly, C.F. Jones appeared on the 1900 Census just months before his death, allowing us to piece together his life.
Charles F. Jones came to Fort Wrangel in February 1874 at the fever-peak of the Cassiar Gold Rush. He was among the miners that came while the Stikine River was still frozen over, when some ventured up the river on foot to jump claims or dig for gold into the frozen ground. Jones came to Fort Wrangel with his business partner, Irish-immigrant Edward “Fred” Lynch. Lynch opened a hotel in Fort Wrangel, which he passed along to his son-in-law John Goodwill Grant who himself became a prominent businessman and mayor. According to the 1900 Census, Jones lived with the Lynch family and worked at their hotel.
C.F. Jones should not be confused with Charlie Jones (Chief Shakes VII) who died in 1944 and is buried close by in the Memorial Cemetery. Based on my casual exploration of the Indian Cemetery, it appears that C.F. Jones is among the last to be buried here, as the Redmen Cemetery began shortly after the start of the 1900s, becoming the popular place for Wrangell’s dead to be buried.
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Wrangell Cemeteries
Researching history is amazing, but disturbing headstones is a bad idea. Before attempting to move or clean a headstone, consult with local government, tribal organizations, and next-of-kin to make sure you’re doing it the right way! You never want to be responsible for damaging a grave, even with the best of intentions. There are people in Alaska who are experts in this field, and you should seek out their advice!