Memorial Day

[Andy Brunelle]

I had some time traveling from Missoula to Spokane last Thursday 5/23 to stop in Wallace for the night.  

I wanted to check out some of the Brunelle landmarks so when I got to town I drove up Burke Canyon a ways, as far as Black Bear where this photo of Marguerite was taken in 1906, and back through Woodlawn Park to Wallace.

Then I went up 9 Mile Creek Road to the Nine Mile Cemetery.  I had the coordinates for all the Brunelles interred, thanks to internet resources saved to the iPad, but not map.  Three people on ATVs were on the roads and one stopped to ask what I was looking for and when I said my grandparents and great-grandparents he asked, "Catholic or Protestant?"  The former, I replied.  He sent me to the south side of the oldest section, within which are the four fire fighters from the 1910 fire.  They have a new, additional headstone by the way, thanks to Coeur d'Alene Ranger District employees donated in 2010.

After wandering around in the dim light I was ready to give up but thought the slab and headstones at the upper end of the hillside needed a look, and that's where I found the older generation:

That's Jessie Brunelle's headstone in the foreground, Thomas Alcime in the middle, and Every and Barney share the monument at the top.  Every drowned in May 1904 and middle brother Barney died in November 1904 of a broken heart.  I snapped that photo with the cell phone.

Having success with the older generation there was no way I could give up finding the grandparents.  Fortunately Nine Mile Cemetery has excellent cell phone reception so I called Mom and Dad who were at Meadow Drive, and they gave me general directions where to drive in this hillside cemetery that stretches out along the slopes above the 9 Mile Creek Road.

I found the site with the updated (vintage 1990s) monuments.

In this part of the cemetery the light was not as dim with less of an over story.  This and the rest of the photos I took with my iPad.

Note how the light and the shadow of the trees reflect in the monument.  

I will add some more photos in comments to this blog post.

[Andy Brunelle]

Elizabeth Haney was Marguerite's older sister and was 15 when she was shot by accident at the boarding house.

Alvan Thomas was the oldest of Alvan and Marguerite.

Patsy was second youngest.

Marguerite and Alvan.  I think this was the first time I had visited my grand parent's gravesite.  If we were there in 1967 during the big family trip to north Idaho I don't remember it.