8 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Lost at sea, buried in Seaside
Who knows how
many lives were lost?
last resting place for many unnamed souls.
A Seaside resident told the story
of two fishermen who drowned after
their boat capsized off Tillamook Head.
They were buried on the rocky rise behind
the original gravesite. Legend also recalls a
drowned man who was found strapped to the
deck of a sloop and recovered by residents.
They buried him in the high ground area of
the gravesite. Another report tells of a child
who died and received burial by the
gravesite.
“The Cove was used as a burial ground
as there were no houses in sight, the ocean
was in front and lush spruce and pine trees
behind,” Montero said.
By REBECCA HERREN
COAST WEEKEND
T
he wall marking Sailors’ Grave stands
about knee-high, encompassing a
12-foot-by-12-foot patch of land at the
southeast edge of the Cove.
Inside the wall is a hand-carved rock that
reads “Known Only To God.” The street side
bears the inscription “Found On The Beach,
April 25, 1865.” No names or countries are
inscribed on the stones.
Accounts have been retold throughout the
decades surrounding the mystery of the grave.
No one really knows how many unknowns
are buried there.
This mystery so intrigued Bill and Robin
Montero, who purchased their home on Sun-
set Boulevard in 2010, they wanted to find
out more. When the opportunity presented
itself, they shared their research on who may
reside within the walled grave at the February
History & Hops speaker series event.
Sailors’ Grave sits near the beach in Seaside.
Gravesite
POINTS OF HISTORICAL INTEREST
The Monteros discovered the current
location of the grave is not the original 1865
gravesite. When local builder Al Hansen built
his home at the Cove in 1937, he also built
the walled memorial seen today.
One story, as told by Sarah Gearhart Byrd,
Robin Montero said, was about a man named
John Hobson, who in 1865, happened to be
at the south end of Clatsop Beach when three
sailors rowed ashore from an anchored ship
near Tillamook Head, looking to fill their
casks with fresh water. The sailors wanted
to return to their ship before dark and soon
headed back.
When Hobson noticed the weather change
and fearing for the sailor’s safety, he built a
bonfire on the beach to help guide the sailors
back to shore. The next morning, to his
dismay, Hobson saw the sailor’s bodies and
buried them above the high tide line, placing
a marker in acknowledgment.
Another story is derived from a 19th-cen-
tury interview with Judge Thomas McBride,
who attended the funeral of the captain of
the ship Industry. Industry set sail with 23
passengers and crew from San Francisco in
February 1865. After reaching the mouth of
the Columbia River in March, it anchored
offshore for two weeks due to inclement
weather, waiting for a pilot boat to guide the
A ‘sacred place’
COLIN MURPHEY PHOTO
• Mrs. Phillip Gearhart planted
the original daisies at the grave that
bloom every summer.
• Ben Holladay had the flagpole
installed at the Cove so passing ships
would know where Seaside House
was located.
• Seaside House, built by Ben Holl-
aday, was a palatial Italian-style villa
with a racetrack and stable, and is the
current location of the Seaside Golf
Course.
• John Hobson, his father William and
ship through the channel.
On March 15, the Industry’s Capt. Lewis
saw a pilot boat headed toward them. Believ-
ing it was coming to guide the ship, Lewis
raised the Industry flag and started over the
bar. However, the ship drifted upon the sand.
A small boat was launched with a first mate
named Coppin, but the rough sea capsized
the boat and Coppin drowned. During the
night storm, the remaining small boats were
destroyed.
Two makeshift rafts with the remaining
four siblings moved to Clatsop Coun-
ty from Derbyshire, England in 1843. It
was William Hobson, who introduced
his native plant, the Scotch Broom.
• John Hobson was a successful
businessman and shipwreck salvager,
which included the U.S.S. Shark that
ran aground in 1846. One of the ship’s
cannons was discovered years later,
giving Cannon Beach its name.
• Two-thousand vessels and 700
lives have been lost on the Columbia
Bar since 1792.
passengers and crew launched into the cold
waters the next morning. The storm pounded
the 300-ton Industry into pieces, and Capt.
Lewis and 16 others perished. Soldiers from a
nearby fort rescued only seven.
“It’s noteworthy to say that burial of the
dead was mainly in the Clatsop Pioneer Cem-
etery,” Montero explained. “However, there
are incidents when the area of the original
sailors’ grave was used instead.”
According to the Monteros, the grounds
above the high tide line at the Cove are the
Even today, she added, remains of the
deceased are scattered at the Sailors’ Grave in
memoriam and homage to all those who per-
ished before. “It is a sacred place of respect.”
Today, the gravesite is maintained by a
group of neighboring residents: the Monteros,
Walt and Denise Walthour, Walter Daggett,
John Parks, Jay and Jan Barber, Lynette
Scribner, Marcus Lundell and Bill Basiliko.
The group is currently working on iden-
tifying more homes built by Al Hansen, and
they plan to design a plaque recognizing the
local builder. Ten homes have been identified,
including the Hansen-built homes each mem-
ber lives in, Montero noted.
At a 2011 Seaside City Council meeting,
Robin Montero and Gloria Linkey presented
a proposal to the council for an information
board to be erected at the gravesite with a
narrative of the three sailors, Capt. Lewis
and ocean safety information. The board was
installed last summer.
Before last summer, only nautical flags
were raised on the flagpole. Without contin-
uous lighting, the American flag could not be
raised without being lowered and removed at
dusk every day, Montero said.
With the assistance of the city and Public
Works Director Dale McDowell, the flagpole
was upgraded with an LED light and the
nautical flags were replaced with an Ameri-
can flag.
Steve Wright, president of the Seaside
Museum & Historical Society, concluded
the evening by putting the year 1865 into
perspective. April of 1865 held momentous
impact: the American Civil War ended April
9; Abraham Lincoln was shot April 14 and
died April 15; and John Wilkes Booth died
April 26. CW