Union Cemetery in Tumwater, Washington

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Get directions Tumwater, Washington, USA

Coordinates: 46.99544, -122.92157
Cemetery ID:

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About these numbers These percentages indicate the number of Find a Grave memorials that have a grave photo or GPS coordinates. We don't know the total number of burials in a cemetery, so we cannot calculate a percentage of those with memorials, photos or GPS coordinates.

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Union Cemetery, also known as Bush Prairie Cemetery, is one of the oldest American settler cemeteries in Washington. It was established by Tumwater Pioneer Jesse Ferguson on part of his original donation land claim. It was formally dedicated in 1867 although burials took place here by the early 1850s and perhaps earlier.

For many years the cemetery was overgrown and periodically vandalized. In 1977 the city of Tumwater took ownership and has maintained it since then. In 1991 the cemetery was closed to new burials.

NOTE: Immediately behind the Union Cemetery is the Pioneer Calvary Catholic Cemetery , originally a separate burying ground established in 1873. However, the Archdiocese of Seattle decommissioned this cemetery and created a new Calvary Cemetery nearby in 1909 and many burials here were moved to the new cemetery.

There is no clear demarcation between Union and Pioneer Calvary Cemeteries and both are owned by the City of Tumwater. FaG contributors sometimes confuse the two- check in both cemeteries before creating memorials to avoid duplicates.