Brookside Cemetery

Welcome to Dayton, Oregon's historic Brookside Cemetery. According to Historic Preservation Northwest, “Brookside Cemetery is significant as one of the oldest cemeteries in Yamhill County, Oregon, containing the graves of many of Dayton's noteworthy citizens.

First used in 1846, the cemetery was donated to the Dayton School District in 1874 by Joel Palmer. Many of the original tombstones remain intact, and for several of the settlers buried here, this is all that remains as a testimonial to their contributions in Dayton and Yamhill County. Brookside Cemetery is also significant as a cultural landscape.

Brookside Cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. Normally cemeteries are excluded from being listed, but Brookside Cemetery meets some important required criteria.

Criterion B- association with the lives of persons significant to our past- chiefly because it is the final resting place of town founders and pioneers and members of the Provisional Government of Oregon for whom associated properties are no longer extant above ground.

The cemetery is eligible under Criterion C- embodiment of the distinctive characteristic of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction- as a compact cultural landscape reflecting 19th Century burial practices and containing an array of Victorian plant materials.

The Lippincott Family

The Hash Family

The Gould Family

The Litell Family

The Dorsey Family

In 2015, Kim Courtin and Mike Imlah crossed paths and discovered a mutual interest in cemetery preservation and historical research. Kim and Mike approached the Dayton school board about rebooting the Brookside Cemetery Association.

Before governments were established in many small towns, the local school district was sometimes recognized as a government of sorts. Occasionally schools would end up owning cemeteries and other properties in town – sometimes without their knowledge. In modern times, school district ownership of cemeteries is rare in Oregon with only a few cemeteries still being owned by school districts.

The city became interested in gaining ownership of the cemetery, and the Dayton School District wished to donate the property. Together they developed a donation agreement to facilitate the transfer of ownership to the city. The agreement was solidified in November, 2018.

The City, as a Certified Local Government (CLG), has been awarded grants through the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) during every cycle since 2017. The work funded by the grants has allowed us to: restore grave markers, create a new information sign, inventory the markers in the cemetery, create a 10-year preservation plan for the cemetery, remove diseased and dangerous trees and limbs (i.e. "widowmakers") and to remove the ivy and bushes to allow clear vision into the cemetery, restore water to the site, install signs, including "dusk to dawn" and "danger- falling monuments", and held a "best practices" caretaking workshop for all Public Works staff.

In July 2018, the Oregon Commission on Historic Cemeteries (OCHC) held their quarterly meeting in Dayton and held a day-long gravestone restoration workshop at the cemetery. Since the initial repair and restoration project, Dayton's Historic Preservation Committee has made Brookside a priority for additional grant-funded projects.

Most significantly, we have been able to save every "high" and "medium" priority marker in Brookside repaired/re-leveled or both. At the end of 2019-2020 grant cycle, a total of 121 markers had been treated. When you gaze across the horizon of Brookside now, the site seems fuller and taller than before.

The restoration program in Brookside Cemetery was selected to receive the 2020 Sally Donovan Award for Historic Cemeteries, an Oregon Heritage Excellence Award. The City of Dayton and the Historic Preservation Committee are incredibly pleased to have been able to help preserve this landmark to honor the pioneers or our past and to inspire the Daytonians of tomorrow. ⁶ 

Explore the Brookside Cemetery with our new online map!