SAAR Cemetery Album

SAAR Cemetery Album - 19

Living History Performance • July 16 & 17, 2011

Saar Cemetery Living History Performance

This program portrayed the family histories documented in the biographies of people who were buried in the Saar Pioneer Cemetery. Each character told his or her personal tale of life in the Kent area and the White River Valley.

A collaboration between The Saar Cemetery Living History Committee, Book-It Theatre, and Rachel Atkins.

Sponsored by: South King County Genealogical Society

Made possible with support from the City of Kent Arts Commission, 4Culture Heritage, and 4Culture Arts Site Specific Program.

The Living History Program was also performed at the Kent Historical Museum on July 14^th as one of the museum's monthly dinner speaker series.

Click Images to enlarge.

John S.H. and Frances Johnson family

	John, born about 1830, married 'Fannie' Lindgren, born about 1844, at LaFayette, Indiana in 1872. Both were born in Sweden. Their children included: Julietta, born 1874, and Charles F., born 1877, both born in Indiana. Another son died as an infant. A farmer, John and his family migrated to the Ballard area about 1880, where their last son, Fletcher R., was born in 1886. About 1889, John purchased eighty acres of land in the White River Valley (now Green River Valley), near what would become the town of Kent, where he farmed. Julietta died in 1895 at the age of 20 after a brief illness. Her father died in 1906; her mother in 1912; and all three are buried in Saar Pioneer Cemetery. Charles and Fletcher continued to operate the family farm in partnership for many years after the deaths of their parents. They both married and raised their families in the Kent area.

Johnnie Hall

	Johnnie was the son of John and Sarah Hall. He was born in 1873, in Washington Territory. At the young age of 21, Johnnie was among the 37 men who died in a fire in the Oregon Improvement Company coal mine at Franklin. The fire occurred on August 24, 1894. An investigation of the fire determined that it was deliberately set by an aggrieved miner, who also, reportedly, died in the fire.

Emil and Kittie Nelson family

	Emil J. was the son of John and Sophia Nelson, early pioneers in the White River Valley. They had two other sons: Nels C.A., and Charles J. Nelson. John was native to Sweden and Sophia from Germany. They immigrated to America about 1870; married in California; and settled in Washington Territory about 1884. Emil married Kittie Moore, in 1901. She was born in Dakota Territory to Henry Hale Moore and Julia Sisson Berlin. Their first born son died one day after birth. Kittie passed away a month later from complications of the infant's birth. Emil later married Maud Johnston. He and his brothers, Nels and Charles, were prominent members of the community.

Lysander and Charlotte Smith family

	Another prominent name in the early records of this area was Lysander Morehouse Smith. He was born in 1837 in Ohio to parents Nathan Merwin Smith, and Emelin Morehouse. Lysander married Charlotte G. Burhart, born 1838 in Canada, to John Jun Burhart and Ester Pangborn. Lysander and Charlotte were married in 1857 in Minnesota. They moved to Kansas about 1880; then arrived in Washington Territory about 1884. Some of the adult children of Lysander and Charlotte Smith included: Ziba Lysander, George Andrew; Mrytle Etta, Albert Eugene, Charles Walter and Lottie, who was named for her mother. The Smith family owned and operated the Kent Lumber Mill.

Lewis Warren

	Born in Connecticut in 1828, Lewis Warren was somewhat of a rolling stone. At age 20 he moved to New York, then to Illinois. He was living in Iowa at the beginning of the Civil War and joined the 15th Iowa Infantry. Wounded in the conflict, he spent the remainder of his life striving to get a veteran's pension. After the war he moved to Nebraska, and then sometime between 1888 and 1892, Lewis Warren moved with his family to the Pacific Northwest. In his wake he left a long list of wives and children. Lewis Warren died 19 March 1902 in Western Washington Hospital for the Insane at Steilacoom, Pierce Co., Washington.

Chris Hansen and family

Ambrosius and Anna Hansen had four children: Marie, Celia, Hans Peter, and Chris. All members of the family were born in Denmark. Marie is the only one not interred in the Saar Pioneer Cemetery. Chris, born in 1865, was living in Seattle in 1900, working as a farm laborer. He moved to Alaska for a time, then in the summer of 1910 returned to take up farming in the Springbrook area, where he remained until his death in 1949. He is believed to be the last burial in the cemetery. His sister Celia married George Lowell, from another pioneering family in the area. His brother, Hans Peter, married and farmed in the Springbrook area, living near the Lowells. Marie Hansen married a man named Fredricksen.

	Actors portraying the pioneers who are buried the Saar Pioneer Cemetery are: Jon Lutyens Stephanie McAlexander K. Brian Neel Rebecca Olson John Ulman Heather Hawkins Wienland
Book-it Theatre A special thanks to Rachel Atkins who wrote the script for A Living History Performance and Kelly Kitchens who directed the performance. Text by Sylva Coppock

Kent TV21

Live History at Saar Cemetery

Kent TV21 • Live History at Saar Cemetery, Wednesday, December 7, 2011
(scroll down to People and Projects and locate 12/07/2011 Live History at the Saar Pioneer Cemetery)

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