Explore Newberg-Dundee’s Cemeteries

Newsberg junior reporter Audrey Grice contributed to reporting for this story.

NEWBERG, Ore. — Newberg and Dundee are home to pioneer, military, and community cemeteries that hold the history of the Chehalem Valley. Some of those buried there carry names still found around Newberg, while others were lesser-known residents who helped shape the area.

There are several kinds of cemeteries in Oregon, each with its own rules, regulations, and designations. Oregon law defines a historic cemetery as any burial ground that holds at least one person who died more than 75 years ago and is listed with the Oregon Commission on Historic Cemeteries, according to Oregon Heritage, the state historic preservation office within the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

Cemeteries are added to the state’s list by county through a survey form submitted to the state, and the department offers designation signs to listed sites on request. Historic cemeteries can also be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a separate federal designation.

According to the state historic cemetery webpage, the state’s historic cemetery program was created by the Oregon Legislature and provides resources, including grants, to people and organizations that care for historic cemeteries.

Residents who want to help care for a neglected cemetery must first determine who owns it, which the department said is often no one. The county land records office keeps property ownership records and may have a process for acquiring a property. If a cemetery meets the state’s legal definition of abandoned, the department said, volunteers can apply for an abandoned cemetery care permit, which carries renewal and annual reporting requirements.

The department also points volunteers to SOLVE, a statewide nonprofit, for cemetery cleanup resources. Oregon Heritage can be reached at 503-986-0690 or oregon.heritage@oprd.oregon.gov.

Ewing Young Burial Site

Address: Ewing Young Distillery, 18715 OR-240, Newberg, OR 97132
Hours: Distillery open Saturday and Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
Open to the public: No, on private property
Date founded: 1841
Oldest resident: Ewing Young, d. 1841

Background

The site is not a public cemetery, but one of Newberg’s founding pioneers is buried just west of town on his former homestead, where the Ewing Young Distillery now sits. His burial is near a historic Oregon white oak planted in 1846, which was designated as an Oregon Heritage Tree in 1999. Former Oregon Gov. and U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield, who served as governor from 1959 to 1967, was present at the dedication, along with State Parks forester Al Tocchini. The Ewing Young Oak suffered severe damage in 2024 and is held together by large cargo straps. Acorns and saplings from the oak were collected in 2024 and are being cultivated at an area nursery. To learn more about the life of Ewing Young, visit the distillery’s information page.

Noble Pioneer Cemetery

Address: 16905 N.E. Kings Grade, Newberg, OR 97132
Hours: Dawn to dusk
Open to the public: Yes
Date founded: 1855
Oldest resident: Edwin Ransom, d. 1855

Background

The YouTube channel Forgotten Cemeteries of the PNW visited the cemetery in 2023, uncovering several pioneer stories and, at the time, naming the cemetery one of the top five to visit in Oregon. See the full video walkthrough on the channel. A gate at the entrance to the cemetery may occasionally be closed, but visitors can park and walk a short distance to the cemetery.

Valley View Memorial Park

Also known as Hillcrest Cemetery
Address: 24235 N.E. Dayton Ave., Newberg, OR 97132
Hours: April 1-Oct. 31, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Nov. 1-March 31, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Open to the public: Yes
Date founded: 1910 or 1911
Oldest resident: Louisa Cowan Perry, d. May 8, 1904, according to Find a Grave

Background

The roughly 4.6-acre Valley View Memorial Park is owned by Attrell’s Funeral Home, which purchased it in 1968. There are two mausoleums and one columbarium. The property also includes the Chehalem Pet Cemetery. George Herbert Layman (d. July 29, 1982), a former mayor of Newberg, municipal judge, city attorney, and five-term Oregon representative, is buried on site.

Fernwood Pioneer Cemetery

Address: 500 S. Everest Road, Newberg, OR 97132, inside Friends Cemetery
Hours: Daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Open to the public: Yes, during business hours
Date founded: Aug. 24, 1882
Oldest resident: Jane Everest, d. 1880, and Richard Everest, d. 1882

Background

The Fernwood Pioneer Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for the burial of significant Newberg pioneers. The first two pioneers to be buried there were Jane and Richard Everest, who owned the plot the cemetery was built on. The last pioneer of significance to be buried in the cemetery was Sebastian Brutscher, the Everests’ son-in-law, in 1922 at age 95. Brutscher ran a post office in the emerging town and was the one to give Newberg its name, coining it Neuberg after his hometown in Germany.

Burial sites are still in use, with several historic families owning empty lots. Burial at the Fernwood Pioneer Cemetery requires a record of relation to a pioneer family that settled in Fernwood or the Newberg area between 1840 and 1899. Questions about the cemetery or requests to purchase a burial plot can be directed to Teri Council, president of the Fernwood Pioneer Cemetery Board of Directors, at 503-550-9281.

Interesting fact

The marble for the Everests’ headstones was quarried and shipped from England, their country of origin. After Richard Everest’s gravestone was vandalized, a new marble tablet was again shipped from England to replace it.

Kilpatrick Post GAR Cemetery

Address: 500 S. Everest Road, Newberg, OR 97132, inside Friends Cemetery
Hours: Daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Open to the public: Yes
Date founded: 1892
Oldest resident: Lyman Henry Decker, d. 1891, according to Find a Grave

Background

The Kilpatrick Post GAR Cemetery was established by the Kilpatrick Post, Newberg’s branch of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization that emerged from the Civil War. It is a burial ground for soldiers who fought in the Union army and their families.

Interesting fact

Lyman Henry Decker, the oldest resident of the cemetery, served in Company C of the 5th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment from March 16, 1862, one day after the regiment was mustered, until Sept. 15, 1863. He was stationed at Fort Ripley in Minnesota when the Dakota War broke out on Aug. 18, 1862, a conflict the 5th Regiment responded to. In 1863, he was discharged for disability and went on to marry Charlotte “Lottie” Decker (née Emmerson) the next year, on Oct. 20, 1864, in Rice County, Minnesota, according to FamilySearch.

Friends Cemetery

Address: 500 S. Everest Road, Newberg, OR 97132
Hours: Daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Open to the public: Yes
Date founded: 1880
Oldest resident: Mary A. Smith, d. 1880, according to Find a Grave

Background

The Friends Cemetery is located on Everest Road in southeast Newberg and is home to both the Kilpatrick Post GAR Cemetery and the Fernwood Pioneer Cemetery. It was founded in 1880 when a Chehalem Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends dedicated it to serve as the cemetery for early Quaker settlers in Newberg. Many of the Quakers buried in the Friends Cemetery have notable ties to George Fox University, such as William and Mary Hobson, for whom Hobson Hall is named, and Levi T. Pennington, who served as the university’s president from 1911 to 1941 and is the namesake of Pennington Hall and the mascot Pennington Bear. Several other family names can be recognized from their namesakes around Newberg, such as Hess, Gettman, Crisman, and Minthorn.

Interesting fact

Many members of the Edwards family, who had strong ties to both the university and the Quaker settlement of Newberg, can be found in the cemetery. While Jesse Edwards (d. 1924), the patriarch of the family and the namesake of Edwards Hall on the George Fox campus, does not appear to be buried there, many members of his family are, including his grandson, Miles Lowell Edwards (d. 1982). The younger Edwards made many contributions to the scientific community, including the invention of the Starr-Edwards heart valve, which, according to The Oregonian, had been used on 175,000 patients by 1998. By the end of his life, Edwards held more than 60 patents and was also credited with the invention of a centrifugal spinning pump for gas that was reportedly installed in 85% of U.S. military aircraft in the 1940s and ’50s.

Dundee Pioneer Cemetery

Address: 700 N.W. Viewmont Drive, Dundee, OR 97115
Hours: Dawn to dusk
Open to the public: Yes
Date founded: 1900
Oldest resident: Jacob Shuck, d. 1855, according to the cemetery’s website / William Gulley, d. 1854, according to findagrave.com

Background

The cemetery is located at the top of the Harvey Creek Trail, overlooking Dundee and the surrounding landscape to the east. According to the cemetery’s website, the earliest known burial was that of land co-owner Jacob Shuck, who walked to the top of the hill and, while resting under a tree, told a passerby he would like to be buried there. Shuck owned the land with his friend David Ramsey (d. 1891), who is also buried in the cemetery. Shuck and Ramsey traveled to Oregon in the same wagon train, according to the website. The cemetery also features a headstone shrine for “Indian Unknown,” which was decorated with tributes on Oct. 22.