Home

Welcome to Pioneers' Cemetery Association

Saturday, April 28 Open House

Join Pioneers' Cemetery Association (PCA) volunteers Saturday, April 28, 10am-2pm. Tours of the historic Smurthwaite house and Pioneer & Military Memorial Cemeteries will be available.

Saturdays offer a special opportunity for families and working folks to tour the facilities, meet PCA volunteers to learn how YOU can become an important part of preserving Phoenix history, and even consult our researchers for how you can discover your own family history! You may discover you're related to one of those interred on our grounds!

City of Phoenix Impact Volunteer Award

Pioneers' Cemetery Association has been selected to receive the Volunteer Phoenix Impact Volunteer Award! Each year, City officials and staff members nominate volunteers who have demonstrated an exemplary commitment to high-impact service.
CONGRATULATIONS to ALL members for being nominated and selected! THANK YOU, City of Phoenix, for the honor!

Grave Marker Preservation Team - Hard at Work!

Thanks to YOUR SUPPORT and the HARD work of our Grave Marker Preservation team, Conservator Joe Ferrannini was able to make another visit to our Pioneer & Military Memorial Parks the weekend of February 17 to teach and assist our team in the restoration of more challenging headstones. A total of 6 stones were completed over the weekend with 4 more finishing drying. Our sincere thanks to Joe and this dedicated team for your time and hard work! These work and training sessions enable the team to continue efforts to preserve remaining deteriorating headstones and become a community resource to train others in proper techniques. This is ONLY possible with your ongoing financial support of our mission and activities!

Next work weekend: April 21-22 for volunteers TRAINED with the Grave Marker Preservation team! If interested in a FUTURE TRAINING session, please contact Cindy Lee at geckofamilee@cox.net with your interest so we can keep you posted on the next opportunity!

THANKS to David Stanton!

Our sincere thanks to wood window repair specialist David Stanton of Stanton Advantage, LLC for sharing his time and craftsmanship to restore the beauty of historic Smurthwaite House on a number of windows and doors! She's BEAUTIFUL! Enjoy some of our "before" and "after" photos of his amazing work!

PCA Logo - What's "Old" is New Again!

Many thanks to Founder Daniel Craig and the Pioneers' Cemetery Association for their collaboration to introduce our new logo restoring the original font!

Story time! The grave markers featured here? Picture an Arizona setting sun - camera at the ready - dusk and the perfect lens - a cluster of grave markers photographed together shooting INTO the setting light - these grave markers ARE a part of our cemeteries and our heritage!

Isn't Phoenix history great! Thank YOU for being a part of it!

Recent Events at Smurthwaite House & Our Cemeteries

Enjoy a selection of activities at our cemeteries from March and April!

Major Winfield Scott Chapter, NSDAR - Many thanks for your generous donation of TREES to line and shade our historic cemeteries! Thanks to the City of Phoenix for the planting assistance!
Qingming Festival or Tomb-sweeping Day - Members of our Chinese community welcomed PCA volunteers to witness this annual ceremony. Cleaning the tomb and paying respect to the dead with offerings are the two important parts of remembering the past relatives. Food and wine are taken to sacrifice to them, along with paper resembling money. This is all burned in the hope that the deceased are not lacking food and money.
Piestewa Peak & Maricopa Chapters, NSDAR Work Day - HUGE thanks to these two DAR chapters for making the time Saturday, April 7, to help spruce up our cemeteries as we look forward to our annual Memorial Day ceremony! We LOVE the fresh posies that were added!

Memorial Day Ceremony - Monday, May 28

We hope you'll make plans to join our 35th Annual Memorial Day ceremony Monday, May 28 beginning at 9 am! KEZ 99-FM's Marty Manning will be our announcer! Programming will feature cemetery pioneers, tributes to our military past and present, wreaths laid and information about many local historic organizations, as well as shopping opportunities. This is a free family-friendly event to attend!

The cemeteries will be open for self-guided tours. Smurthwaite House will have exhibits and information about Victorian glassware. Light refreshments will be available. Donations are greatly appreciated to support hosting this event!

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Ways to Support Preserving Phoenix History

There are MANY ways you can support Phoenix history and Pioneers' Cemetery Association!

Did you know.....PCA is a 501(c)(3)? Your tax donations are greatly appreciated! Receipts are certainly provided for your records. Donations can be mailed to:

Pioneers' Cemetery Association
P.O. Box 33192
Phoenix, AZ 85067

You can contribute while shopping on Amazon! We're a partner of the Amazon Smile program. Click on the link below to select Pioneers' Cemetery Association as your donor organization. When you #StartWithaSmile, Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to Pioneers' Cemetery Association, Inc. Bookmark the link https://smile.amazon.com/ch/86-0462117 and support us every time you shop.
We're always on the look-out for grant funds we may qualify for. If you know of any, please contact us at pioneercem@yahoo.com!
We have a TON of GREAT IDEAS of ways to grow and expand awareness of our cemeteries and Phoenix history! We need YOU to volunteer YOUR time and talent! Contact us to review how YOU would like to become part of our team of volunteers!
One of our primary sources of income is simply membership dues - become a member today and stay informed!

Membership Application
File Size:	194 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Listing of Burials

Back by popular demand! If you're looking for the names of all contained (that we're aware of!) within our cemeteries, you can find the entire alphabetic listing under the Services tab for your reference. We have many researchers who find it easier to begin with our lists before heading to Find A Grave or contacting us for details. You'll see notations embedded in lists of who we have additional information about. Feel free to contact us at pioneercem@yahoo.com to access story information. (remember - membership has its benefits!)

Open House Thursdays

Tour the cemeteries and visit historic Smurthwaite House EVERY Thursday, 10 AM-2 PM. Donations gratefully accepted. Smurthwaite House is located at 1317 W. Jefferson St., Phoenix, AZ.

Smurthwaite House Video

Many thanks to City of Phoenix's Nathalie Gage as well as Pioneers' Cemetery Association's own Judy Smith and Vivia Strang for their time and talents!