Tag: cemetery

By: Adam J. Ulrey

Looking for Baseball Graves and there was a surprise I wasn’t expecting…

It was a beautiful 75 degree day in Oregon and a perfect day to go grave hunting. I set out in the morning from Creswell, Oregon to hit four graves starting in Independence and then moving onto the final three that were all in Salem, Oregon.

It was a beautiful drive up to outside the little town of Independence, Oregon looking for the grave of Ed Mensor. The Buena Vista Cemetery was up on a hill overlooking the valley below. Driving up the one-lane gravel road, I knew there would be no map or for that matter a number to call. So it would be looking at every grave until I found Mr. Mensor.

The surprise I found was as I was looking. I completely forgot that my cousin was buried here as I ran across his stone. He was only 36 and died after a battle with cancer. He was a wonderful person and I still miss him.

So I walked from the top to the bottom of the cemetery. There were about 200 plots and of course I found him after walking almost all of the cemetery. Ed Mensor played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1912-1914 as an outfielder. He batted .221 with one home run and eight RBIs for his brief career. He would play until he was 35 years old mostly in the minor leagues with seven other teams. Read a bit more about him here https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Ed_Mensor.

It was onto Restlawn Memorial Gardens in Salem about 22 miles away. So when I arrived, what a stark difference – I just came from a little cemetery on top of a hill to a place that had thousands of graves over a huge 10-acre parcel of land.

So I went in to the office and got a map and directions to the grave of Wally Flager. He played in the majors for one year but ended up playing for two different teams starting out with Cincinnati for 21 games and then onto the Pittsburgh Pirates for 49 games. He would hit a respectable .241 with two homers and 21 RBIs. He would play just two more seasons in the minors before leaving the game at 26 years old. He was buried on the front row of the section named Prayer. He served in World War II. You can read a bit more on him here https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Wally_Flager.

Onto my last stop which is where the final two players I set out to view would be. At Belcrest Memorial Park in Salem I found an even bigger place with thousands upon thousands of stones and burial sites. Thank God again for the office and the wonderful person who could show me on the map right where to go. I found Howard Maple, who played at Oregon State University before he would move onto the pros. He played only one year for the Washington Senators in 1932 getting into 44 games. He only had 41 at bats with 10 hits and seven RBIs. You can read about him at his BR-Bullpen site https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Howard_Maple.

After finding Howard Maple it was onto Max Marshall. He is interred in a space inside the funeral home with his wife. I found him after searching because the number and place they gave me was wrong – he was on the opposite side of where they told me. So even if they give you the coordinates, if you don’t find them search yourself as they are probably there. I imagine when you have thousands of people buried and entered it could be easy to write down the wrong number where someone is.

Max played for Wake Forest before moving onto the pros and playing for the Cincinnati Reds from 1942-44. He played mostly right field but ended up playing all three outfield positions. He started for the reds in both 1942 and 1943. He had 311 hits for his career with a .245 batting average. He hit 15 homers for his career. He played 12 years total and after playing his last game for Tulsa at the age 33 he would come back and play for Salem at 39 years old in the Western International League. Here’s a little bit of info on Max from the BR-Bullpen page https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Max_Marshall.

After nearly three hours listening to an old baseball game and driving over 100 miles I found all four, took the pictures, and marked the coordinates for all to find.

What a great fun day as I love to drive, and to help with the Landmarks Committee Project is icing on the cake.