Late one moonless night, while strolling in the dark on an excursion to the Enumclaw Evergreen Cemetery (with permission) with the Washington State Paranormal Investigations and Research group (WSPIR), I turned to Patricia Woolard and asked if there were any good books she could recommend about Seattle cemeteries. “As a matter of fact, no,” she said. My response to her was, “Well I am going to write one, then.” That weekend, I did some research online and e-mailed Arcadia Publishing about my idea. Two days later, Julie Albright called from Arcadia, very interested in and excited about my proposal of a Seattle cemetery book. That is how this book came to be. So I’d like to give a big thank-you to Patricia Woolard, vice president of WSPIR, and Charlotte Liggett, director of psychic sciences also of WSPIR, who are boneyard buddies for inadvertently planting the seed of an idea that grew into this book, and to Julie Albright for being so encouraging and for giving me the guidance to continue when things were not going so well.
Without Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery opening their doors so graciously and making me feel so welcome, this story could not have been told in full. Warm thanks go to Paul Elvig and Sandy Matthie at Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery for their support, even when they were extremely busy with more important tasks.
Special thanks to photographer Cherian Thomas, whom I am sure I have known in a previous lifetime, for taking such awesome photographs of historical markers. Thanks to Jake (Jake@privateeyetours.com) of Private Eye on Seattle Mystery and Murder Tour for her Butterworth contact. Thanks also go to Bert Butterworth Jr. for sharing his family history and photographs. A heartfelt thanks to Jeff Ware for being so prompt in scanning historical photographs from the Seattle Municipal Archives. Thanks to Margaret Riddle from the Everett Public Library for her prompt response to my request for the “Wobbly” photographs. Thank you to John Lamont of the Seattle Public Library for pointing me to the Clarence Bagley books. Last but not least, thanks to my boss, Randy Shoults, for being so understanding and to Janet Peck for listening to my rambles.
Burial plot numbers for the individuals identified in these images have been included whenever available. These numbers follow the image courtesy lines, in the following format: “(Courtesy Cherian Photography, Lot 432.)”