Ghost Towns and Graveyards
Scavenger Hunt Clue:
“Ghost in the Graveyard. Run, Run, Run!”
Make your way to a public cemetery where you could play this game for real. North of Corduroy Road, find the grave of the person that the Junior High School is named for. Once you arrive, walk 100 feet up the center of the cemetery, between the entrance and exit driveways. Take a picture of your group standing next to her memorial stone. As a bonus, leave an apple for the former educator.
Want to Know More?
Est. 1849 North Cemetery, Otter Creek Road off Corduroy Road
Thousands of students have walked the halls of Fassett Middle School but how many know of the lady that the school is named for? Ms. Josephine Fassett was born in 1884 and lived all her life in the same house she was born. It still stands on Seaman Road near Clay High School. The Fassett family was one of the earliest pioneers to the area. Josephine, who never married, became the first Superintendent of Schools for Oregon and Jerusalem Townships. Amongst her many duties, she travelled from one school to the other by horse drawn carriage to deliver school supplies and maintenance tools to fix the buildings because she was also the maintenance person at each of the schools.
No one more than Ms. Fassett would love knowing that she is a part of this historical tour. We owe a lot of our preserved local history to her. In 1963, she brought a group of civic-minded people together to form the Oregon Jerusalem Historical Society. She also published two books about the area and one of them is accessible from the ojhs.org website.
History Fun Fact
North Cemetery is one of two public cemeteries owned by the city of Oregon. Willow is the other. In the center circle stands a monument in memory of the area soldiers and many veterans who are buried there.