Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainSalem's 1853 Odd Fellows Rural Cemetery — a 16-acre NRHP-listed pioneer burying ground holding Samuel Thurston, Tabitha Moffatt Brown, and David Leslie, recurring on Salem ghost-history walking tours.
Commercial Street SE & Hoyt Street SE, Salem, OR 97302
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public access during posted daylight hours.
Access
Limited Access
16-acre historic cemetery with uneven turf, rolling terrain, and unpaved paths between section roads.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1853 · National Register of Historic Places (2013) · 1853 Odd Fellows Rural Cemetery · Oregon Territorial & Statehood-Era Burials · Samuel R. Thurston, Tabitha Moffatt Brown, David Leslie
Salem Pioneer Cemetery — historically the Odd Fellows Rural Cemetery — was established in 1853 by Chemeketa Lodge No. 1 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The 16-acre tract sits at the intersection of South Commercial Street and Hoyt Street and contains approximately 8,000 interments spanning Oregon's territorial and early statehood years.
The cemetery's earliest grave clusters center on Methodist missionary David Leslie (1797-1869), trustee of the Oregon Institute that became Willamette University. Other notable interments include Samuel R. Thurston (1815-1851), Oregon's first delegate to the U.S. Congress; pioneer educator and philanthropist Tabitha Moffatt Brown (1780-1858), a co-founder of Pacific University; Governor John P. Gaines (1795-1857); former Missouri Governor Hancock Lee Jackson (1796-1876); and U.S. Army officer and Arctic explorer Frederick Schwatka (1849-1892).
The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 11, 2013 (reference #13000707) under its historic name 'Odd Fellows Rural Cemetery.' Stewardship passed to the City of Salem Parks Division in 1985, with the Friends of the Pioneer Cemetery volunteer organization supporting interpretation, restoration of damaged monuments, and the ongoing transcription of burial records.
The site is significant both for its concentration of Oregon territorial-era and early-statehood figures and as one of the earlier examples of an Odd Fellows-affiliated rural cemetery in the Pacific Northwest, a movement that paralleled the broader 19th-century shift from churchyard burial to landscaped municipal cemeteries.
Sources
Paranormal claims at Salem Pioneer Cemetery are documented by multiple independent sources. The most-cited account describes a spring 2002 nighttime visit by paranormal investigators who reported encountering what they described as an 'angry spirit' perched in a tree, which warned them to leave the cemetery; once calmed, the group proceeded through the cemetery where unexplained noises came from the graves and videos reportedly captured ethereal forms unseen by the human eye. This investigation is compiled and published by the Willamette Heritage Center in their 'Haunted Salem' online collection (compiled by Sue Bell, December 10, 2002) — making it an account attributed to Salem's local historical institution rather than a generic aggregator listing.
Separately, the cemetery is a recurring stop on multiple Salem ghost-history walking tours. Guides highlight specific grave sites — typically the most prominent pioneer markers — that visitors have repeatedly described as unsettling, though no specific named entity is consistently identified.
Visitors should treat the site as the working historic cemetery it is: respect for the graves and the descendant community is expected.
Walk the 16-acre Odd Fellows Rural Cemetery, established 1853, to view the graves of Oregon's first congressional delegate Samuel R. Thurston, pioneer Tabitha Moffatt Brown, Methodist missionary David Leslie, and Governor John P. Gaines among approximately 8,000 burials. The Friends of the Pioneer Cemetery volunteer group maintains interpretive resources.
Visit the cemetery as part of a Salem ghost-history walking tour; guides highlight specific grave sites that visitors have repeatedly described as unsettling alongside the cemetery's documented pioneer history.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPEugene, OR
Eugene Masonic Cemetery was established in 1859 as Eugene's first chartered cemetery, on land purchased by city founder Eugene Skinner. It holds pioneers including Skinner and artist Maude Kerns. The Hope Abbey Mausoleum, designed in the Egyptian Revival style by architect Ellis F. Lawrence and dedicated in 1914, anchors the southwest corner. The cemetery and mausoleum are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Eugene, OR
Eugene Pioneer Cemetery was established in 1872 by the Spencer Butte Lodge No. 9 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows on a 16-acre site beside what is now the University of Oregon. With roughly 5,000 burials, it is the largest cemetery in Eugene by acreage and interments. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 1, 1997, and honors 145 Civil War veterans among others.
Mobile, AL
Cathedral Square occupies part of Mobile's 18th-century Catholic Campo Santo cemetery, a roughly 400-by-300-foot burial ground spanning portions of city blocks between Joachim, Dauphin, Franklin, and Conti Streets. Most burials were moved to the new Church Street Graveyard in 1819 when Mobile's city limits expanded, but additional remains continued to surface along Conti Street as late as the 1890s. The blocks were filled with buildings through most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries before being demolished in 1979 to create the public park facing the Cathedral Basilica.