Veterans Graves in Pierce County, WA

WPA Project - 1939

Introduction:

By 1939 at least 2,700 veterans were buried throughout Pierce County. They had served in various wars: Indian, Mexican, Civil, Spanish-American, WWI, and even the Boer War and Boxer Rebellion. In 1939 a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project was launched to identify graves and record more than 20 pieces of information on 5x8 inch index cards. The data was from cemetery records, death certificates, and service records.

What follows is a Name Index plus 8 items from the WPA cards. A card might also have rank, organization, birth date, and cause of death. A remarks section might indicate that the veteran was a clergyman, a nurse, a musician, or in one case: “served as a drummer boy for three months and was sent home as being too young for service.” Not all sections were filled in on all cards. These cards are in the holdings of the Northwest Room of the Tacoma Public Library. Contact the Library for additional information. Note that this list does NOT include all veterans buried in Pierce County prior to 1939.

A resource for a cemetery’s physical location and its records’ location (not always the same) is the Pierce County, WA Cemeteries list on our society’s website at: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~watpcgs/cemeteries.html

Note: Dates are in standard American numerical form of month/day/year.