Community Corner

Memorial Day Woodinville Cemetery Open to the Public

In addition to Woodinville's founding family, the Woodin's, Civil War vet Seneca Phillis is buried at the cemetery.

Each year on Memorial Day, the opens its gates to visitors. The Woodinville Cemetery is not only where the city's pioneers lay at rest, it is also the resting place of a Civil War veteran.

Seneca Phillis was born on October 30, 1841 in Ohio; he was the oldest of five children. After serving in the Civil War, Seneca married Philena Ann Amos on February 14, 1870 in Nevada City, Missouri. About 1879, Seneca and Philena moved to Starbuck, Columbia County, Washington Territory. One child died during this journey, according to Linda McCune, president of the Woodinville Cemetery Association.

In 1902, Seneca moved his family to Woodinville to work the farm land. The Phillis family settled in the Sammamish Valley on land across from the present-day cemetery in Woodinville. Seneca Phillis died in 1916 at age 75 of pneumonia. Seneca and Philena Phillis are buried next to each other in the Woodinville Cemetery near some of their children: Eliza ‘Elsie’ Knight Myers who died in 1910, John Elbert Phillis who died in 1944, Seneca Fillmore Phillis who died in 1949, and Fred Frank Phillis who died in 1955.  Spouses and descendents of the family are also interred in that section.

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A few years ago, when McCune realized a Civil War veteran was buried at the cemetery, she contacted the federal government which still supplies headstones for veterans of that war. McCune organized a Phillis Family reunion for the unveiling of the new headstone.

“It was really a cool event and the Civil War veteran’s three granddaughters attended, ages 88, 92 and 93. The 92-year-old came all the way from Florida!  We had five generations of his family,” McCune said.

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The cemetery will be open Memorial Day, May 30, from noon to 4 p.m., members of the cemetery board will be present to answer questions and provide a printed self-guided walking tour.  Photos of many of the pioneers will be displayed on their graves, McCune said.

“Our self-guided walking tour is a wonderful local history lesson for both adults and children,” says Linda McCune, president of the Woodinville Cemetery Association that manages the cemetery land. “Reading about a pioneer or seeing a photo brings history to life.”   

Further information can be found at www.woodinvillecemetery.org.


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