History of Home of
The earliest death date in the cemetery is
that of Flora Kaufman, who died in
As in many communities, the cemetery was
the first official organization of
The object of this organization is to make
arrangements for erecting a synagogue in
Friday, October 5, 1888,
Probably the first burial there was Jennie
Mamlok, who died on September 6, 1889 at the age of twenty-three. Born in
An article in the "Daily Ledger"
on October 15, 1889, announced the first annual meeting of the "Hebrew
Benevolent association of
President, M. Kaufman Vice-President, W. Wolff
Corresponding Secretary, L. Wallerstein
Treasurer, M. Broh
Trustees--Isaac Pincus, M. Kaufman, Charles
Langert,
I. Harris and David Levine.
The "First Hebrew Benevolent
Society" of
The rules and regulations for the
government of the cemetery, "Givos Olom," were adopted on September
5, 1891. They were signed by "Wm.
Wolff, D. Germanus,
Applicants who were accepted for admission
were required to pay the sum of twenty-five dollars, plus 50 cents per month as
dues. Dues were collected in January and
July of each year. Any member who
accepted an appointment on a committee and neglected the same was fined one
dollar. Any member who refused to come
to order when requested by the President was fined "$1 for the first
offence, and $2 for the second or any following offence."
Article VIII established the allotment of
burial plots in the following manner:
"Sec. 2. The ground shall be staked off into lots and
numbered as many numbers as are down upon the roll in good standing, at the
time of apportionment, shall be allowed to draw one lot each, the lots to be
drawn from to commence with number one and end with the number of members in
good standing. The manner of drawing to
be determined by the committee on burial ground; provided always that the
charter or original members of the society have the first choice of lots, and
before the drawing for lots by the rest of the members is entered upon."
Charter Members
William
Wolff Isaac Pincus
David
Levin Meyer
Kaufman
Henry
Berliner Col. M.
Kaufman
Louis
Wallerstein (died
Feb. 15, 1891)
E.H.
Gross Morris
Gross
D.P.
Lewis Chas.
Langert
Samuel
Langert Samuel
Wolff
Chas.
Reichenbach Albert
Weinberg
Additional Members
M.
Cohn M. Ball
M.
Levin Henry
Harris
Ed.
Hain J.B.
Mamlok
Herman
Bryer Isaac
Harris
D.
Magnus J.
Bloom
Samuel
Loeb Amil
Zelinsky
A.
Friedman A.S.
Ash
A.
Simon Herman
Zelinsky
S.J.
Samuel
Posner S. Jacobi
D.
Germanus Sol.
Zelinsky
S.
Rodgers S.
Robinson
S.
Gutfeld
By 1892 many of these same men were
involved with the organization of the Hebrew congregation itself. In another "Daily Ledger" article,
dated March 10, 1892, the headline read "Hebrews Organizing - A Very
Prosperous Congregation Is Formed by Many of the Faith. It's Officers Are Already Elected and a
Constitution and By-Laws Are Adopted."
A preliminary meeting had been held on February 15, 1892, at the Odd
Fellows hall. The first meeting was
organized by a committee including Sol. Jacoby, Elias Gross, William Wolf, and
Archie S. Ash. Over forty people were at
this meeting. They elected a second
committee consisting of William Wolf, Abe Gross, A. Ash, M. Moses, S. Jacoby,
S. Posner, Mr. Loeb and S. Martin.
By March 8th this committee had prepared a
constitution and by-laws. Their work was
adopted and the following officers elected:
1908 records show that E. Heinemann was
treasurer of the cemetery association, and his bookkeeping was verified by Sam
Andrews. Sam used a rubber stamp to add
his initials, S. A. A. Yearly dues were
eighteen dollars. Many paid $1.50 per
month. The caretaker of the property was
W. H. Dohlman, who received wages of $40 per month, and five dollars per grave
opening. He bought supplies at
The association continued its' philosophy
of providing aid. In 1909 they
contributed to a defense fund for a Jewish boy who was being tried in
Montesano. A portion of the money was
returned when the boy was sent to reform school. That same year a five dollar contribution was
made to the United Hebrew League of Cuba.
Regular payments were made to the treasurer "for charity." At the end of the year 1909, the financial
records were verified by Meyer Jacob.
On February 3, 1910, a payment of $62.40
was paid to Charles Pfeifer, surveyor.
In February of 1912 the charter was opened for a month, during which the
initiation fee was reduced to $15. This
brought in over a dozen new members, including: Frank Sussman, Dave Klegman, P.
B. Friedman, Sam Friedman, Sol. Beuttendorff, Morris Hochstetter, George Simon,
Ike Moses, Frank Rosenberg, Charles Langert, A. Weinstein, S. B. Asia, B. B.
Futtervick, and A. Lycus. By the end of
the year 6 had been dropped for non-payment.
In 1913 dues were reduced to twelve dollars.
The membership roster from the 1908-1914
cash account book follows.
1. S. Andrews
2. Morris Bloom 618
So. E St.
3. Julius Baskinski
4. Jos. Bachrach 934
Pacific
5. H. Berliner 1518 5th Ave.
6. Morris Cheim 702
6th Ave.
7. Jos. Cheim 515
N. J St.
8. Julius Friedman 1544 So. E St.
9. Theo Feist 934
Pacific
10.
Dave Gross Tac. Hotel
11.
D. M. Hoffman
12.
B. Hochstetter
13.
S. Loeb Independant Brew.
14.
Meyer Jacob 308 No. I
15.
Sol. Ottenheimer 319 1/2 E. 26th
16.
17.
Sam Sondheim 509 S. G
18.
Dave Shafer 920 S. 8th
19.
S.
20.
H. Winkleman 1931 S. E
21.
Amil Zelinsky 2311 N. 28th
22.
H. Zelinsky 1818 So. K
23.
Sol. Zelinsky 2421 No. 28th
24.
B. Heyman 105 So. 11th
25.
James Pincus 702 No. 2nd
26.
M. Cohen 1802 So. G
27.
A. J. Wolff 407 No. J
28.
H. A. Kauffman 902 No. I (crossed
out) Chehalis
29.
S. B. Asia 3214 No. 29th
30.
Mrs. David Levin 306 No. J
31.
F. Sussman 2124 So. E
32.
D. Klegman 1136 Commerce
33.
P. B. Friedman 813 Pacific
34.
Sam Friedman 1318 Pacific
35.
George Simon 1123 Pacific
36.
Ike Moses c/o 813 Pacific
37.
Frank Rosenberg 1022 So. Tac. Ave.
38.
Chas. Langert 424 No. M
39.
A. Weinstein
40.
A. Rose 1610 So. G
41.
N. Anches 1345 Commerce
42.
E. Waldocks 1139 Commerce.
Spelling of names throughout the years has
been inconsistent, at best. On one page
of the plot books, a surname was spelled five different ways, as if the writer
were experimenting - Yudelson, Judelsohn, Hudesohn, Yuddelson, and Huddesohn.
1914 ledgers list Phil. B. Friedman as
secretary, R. Friedman as assistant secretary.
1915 stationery shows that the officers were Meyer Jacob president,
Jakob Starin vice-president, S.A. Andrews treasurer and Herman Zelinsky
secretary.
In 1920 the charter was again opened for
new members, including M. Meier, E. H. Ruden, Harry Richlen, I. Rosenbaum,
Nathan Bloom, Morris J. Friedman, Art C. Symon, T. Spiegel, H. M. Alexander,
Herman Jacob, E. Lewis, Morris Lyon, and B. Thompson. Later the depression years forced many of
these to drop their memberships. The
spring of 1920 brought a new caretaker - H.M. Alexander, who received $55 per
month.
During 1921 the cemetery was expanded from
its original 32 blocks to forty, by adding a row of eight blocks across the
back. In June of 1921 donations were
received for improvement of the water system.
Twenty-three members contributed approximately ten dollars each, for a
total of $290. A payment of $92.15 was
made on June 4, 1921, for "laying out addition." $378.54 worth of pipe and other materials
were purchased from the Tacoma Junk Company.
The cemetery's payments were far from prompt.
In 1922 donations were again called
for. This time 25 members combined to
contribute $275. On April 11th of 1922,
the society's name was officially changed to the "Home of Peace Cemetery
Association." However, the name
"Home of Peace Cemetery" appears on the title page of the first cash
ledgers prepared by David Magnus in 1892 and on the original iron gates.
By September, the name change was causing
difficulty. President at the time was
Meyer Jacob, owner of the Meyer Jacob Company.
Mr. Jacob had understood that because the cemetery association was a
non-profit organization, no taxes needed to be paid or filed. The fledgling IRS had other ideas. Due to the cemetery's name change
correspondence went astray and by the time Mr. Jacob became aware of the
problem serious penalties were threatened.
Eventually the matter was resolved.
By 1925, Home of Peace membership dues were
eighteen dollars per year. During the
thirties Meyer Jacob moved on to
By 1935 the cost of "perpetual
care" was negotiated at $300.
January 12, 1938, saw the amendment of the constitution to allow the
president and treasurer to be authorized to borrow or receive funds up to
$1000. The Puget Sound Power and Light
Company charged the association an average of two dollars per month that year
for utilities.
In May of 1940, the president was Hy
Mandles, treasurer Samuel Friedman, and the trustees were Harris Warnick, Mrs.
Lucie Bachrach, and Bene Benjamin. The
initiation fee was $50. Negotiations
were completed with several families to bring their past-due accounts
up-to-date by making a lump sum payment.
In June of 1940, an entry was made in the
cash account books which effected the cemetery association greatly over the
next twenty years. It read "This
closes Mr. Mandles account. Hereafter
reports by Mr. M. Kleiner." Morris
Kleiner began organizing the records. He
typed index cards for each grave and typed expense accounts for each year. He mounted a large map of the cemetery on a
wooden "book" which would be used for the next 65 years.
During 1963 improvements were made to the
entrance of the cemetery, including improving the entrance circle and
installing a new fence along
In 1977 the unimproved section behind the
existing cemetery was plotted and filed with the Pierce County Auditor. The 1978 officers were William Sherman, Simon
Rose, Kenneth Farber, Herman Kleiner, and Fav Witenberg. By 1988 Fanchon Rosen and Stan Sigel were
included. Also that year, the sprinkler
system was extended to include the entire cemetery. Nearly $18,000 worth of improvements were
completed, funded mostly by pledges from the community. Membership dues were increased from $50 to
$60 per year in 1994, which included a husband and wife and their dependant
children. In 1998 the driveway through
the cemetery was paved.
During the summer of 2000 the members of
"Our God did not need these beautiful
new stones to be placed here in order to know who occupied the 73 unmarked
grave sites. No. Because we are a loving community, this community
needed to make a reality, the dream of these monuments for each unmarked
grave. You answered the call for funds
and this day of dedication has arrived.
I think of this beautiful place as a wonderful picture album. Each engraved name conjures up the image of
the person I knew, and for a moment I am lost in the warm memory of a voice or
an event. Always, there were 73 pictures
missing from our album. From today on,
thanks to all of you, our album is up to date.
What we do here this morning is truly
momentous. From this day forward, be it
a thousand years, all those who visit this magnificent, peaceful place will now
know that these 73 men, women, and children were among us. Whether for an hour, a day, or 3 score years
and ten, you, beloved, were a member of this Jewish community; we will visit
you and you will share the love that we have for all who reside here... our
beloved, our neighbor, or the stranger.
Now, no one is alone. We have completed
the circle for ourselves."
Unlike other cemeteries which
sell plots, Home of Peace still functions today as it began in 1888 – as an
association of members. It is separate
from