On Saturday, April 19, members of the Sequim Prairie Garden Club and the Michael Trebert Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution met for a ceremony with pioneer family descendants, deputy mayor Rachel Anderson, National Historical Preservationist Mick Hersey and others to commemorate the completion of the Pioneer Memorial Park’s Memorial Garden and the installation of a sundial made by Joe LaCour in the new sundial garden on a sunnier part of the grounds.
The sundial was created in remembrance of a previous one that had been stolen 10 years after it was installed in 1966 in honor of Janet Govan and her son John Govan, who both passed at the beginning of the 20th century, by Janet’s grandchildren, according to Hudson.
The Memorial Garden features restored headstones and pieces of headstones left behind after Sequim’s first cemetery, now the park at 387 E. Washington St., was closed in 1919 due to a decade of frequent flooding from Bell Creek. Most of the short-lived cemetery’s stones and bodies were removed, but not all.
The Sequim Prairie Garden Club, which according to their website has leased the land from the city since 1951, has transformed the land during the last 25 years into the arboretum that it is today, while consolidating the headstones and other markers to the Memorial Garden.
In 2021, under the guidance of Hersey, volunteers (primarily from the Garden club and DAR) began work on the final phase of the preservation and restoration of the headstones, as detailed in a previous Gazette story.
The club also installed a new fence and informational sign.
Speakers at the dedication were club president Ellen Castleman, club historian Priscilla Hudson, park co-chair Susan Mannisto and Mulvaney, who traveled from Kitsap County numerous times to guide the restoration into a reality.
The speakers reminded listeners that to understand the present it is necessary to remember the past.
Those people present moved to another part of the four acre park for the dedication of the sundial.
Della LaCour, 2nd vice president of the Garden Club and wife of LaCour, spoke about the history and significance of the sundial.
It is a tradition to include a motto with a sundial, she said. The Pioneer Park one has the motto, “Let others tell of storms and showers, I’ll only tell your sunny hours,” which was the inscription on the flat rock with the original sundial.
It was a cloudy afternoon so LaCour used the flashlight on his phone to illustrate how the light of the sun would show digits on the stainless steel body of the sundial, which he designed after studying the one picture that remained of the original sundial. He said they made sure the sundial was low enough for children to enjoy it.
After the dedications, participants conversed and enjoyed baked goods, coffee and tea.
For more about Pioneer Park and the Sequim Prairie Garden Club, visit sequimprairiegardenclub.org.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Della LaCour points at the new sundial at Pioneer Memorial Park.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Joe LaCour explains to an audience of pioneer descendants, Sequim Prairie Garden Club members and others how he made the new sundial for Pioneer Memorial Park, which was dedicated during a ceremony on Saturday, April 19. The garden club also dedicated the refurbished Remembrance Garden.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Joe LaCour explains to an audience of pioneer descendants, Sequim Prairie Garden Club members and others how he made the new sundial for Pioneer Memorial Park, which was dedicated during a ceremony on Saturday, April 19. The garden club also dedicated the refurbished Remembrance Garden.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Susan Mannisto with the Sequim Prairie Garden Club speaks on April 19 at the dedication of Pioneer Memorial Park’s Memorial Garden.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Joe LaCour explains to an audience of pioneer descendants, Sequim Prairie Garden Club members and others how he made the sundial for new Sundial Garden at the Pioneer Memorial Park, which was dedicated during a ceremony on Saturday, April 19. The garden club also dedicated the refurbished Remembrance Garden.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Joe LaCour explains to an audience of pioneer descendants, Sequim Prairie Garden Club members and others how he made the new sundial for Pioneer Memorial Park, which was dedicated during a ceremony on Saturday, April 19. The garden club also dedicated the refurbished Remembrance Garden.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Pioneer Memorial Park’s Memorial Garden is viewed by participants in Saturday’s dedication ceremony.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ National Historical Preservationist Mick Hersey speaks on April 19 at the dedication of Pioneer Memorial Park’s Memorial Garden. Beside him a newly made informational sign details the history of the Garden.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ National Historical Preservationist Mick Hersey speaks on April 19 at the dedication of Pioneer Memorial Park’s Memorial Garden.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Susan Mannisto with the Sequim Prairie Garden Club speaks on April 19 at the dedication of Pioneer Memorial Park’s Memorial Garden. Beside her a newly made informational sign details the history of the Garden.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Susan Mannisto with the Sequim Prairie Garden Club speaks on April 19 at the dedication of Pioneer Memorial Park’s Memorial Garden.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Sequim Prairie Garden Club’s president Ellen Castleman speaks on April 19 at the dedication of Pioneer Memorial Park’s Memorial Garden.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ The cherry trees at Pioneer Memorial Park are blooming.
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