PINE CITY

Compiled by Byron D. Bovey

Pine City Cemetery is located about 2 miles south of the town of Reubens on what is referred to as the Reubens Highway.  In the early 1990's, the cemetery was fenced and a cross was erected.

Garrett Lunders sold the land for the cemetery to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise City, Idaho, and the deed was dated the 17th day of July 1909.

The legal description is:  Commencing at the South East corner of the South East quarter of Section Eleven (11), Township Thirty-four (34) of Range Two (2), West Boise Meridian; thence running West Twenty-one and one-half rods; thence North Ten (10) rods; thence East Twenty-one and one-half rods; thence North Ten (10) rods; thence East Twenty-one and one-half rods; thence South Ten (10) rods to place of beginning; containing about one and one-quarter acres more or less.

Mrs. Iver Longeteig and Shelley (Thomason) Kuther obtained the information on this cemetery in the summer of 1969 from information given to them by Mr. & Mrs. Sylvester Lunders.  The information following came from their research and interviews

Just after 1897 it was planned to build a church on this ground, the lumber was bought and piled there, then they changed and built it instead at the place now known as Catholic Siding.  It was a rough board church about 20 X 24.  The priest at the Catholic Church in Reubens was given the records of this cemetery in 1904.  There is now no Catholic church there and as far as anyone knows the records are lost.

The following brief history concerning the history of the Catholic Church was obtained from an unpublished volume of the History of the Diocese of Boise:

            Reubens forms the northern-most corner of a triangle based between Craigmont and Winchester.  It lies some eight miles north of the Highway 95.  It owes its origin to the opening of the Nez Perce Indian Reservation to white homesteaders in 1895.  In those days that section's spiritual care had been confided to the Jesuit Fathers at Slickpoo by Bishop Glorieux.  The Fathers called about four times a year.  Father Aloysius Soer reports on January 7, 1897 that steps were being taken toward building a church at Cold Springs Canyon (between Craigmont and Winchester).  The first church was built at Cold Springs in 1900.  Father Soer reports that what he calls the "Provisional Chapel" was worth $50.00 and had not yet been dedicated.  The 28 families were attended 17 times that year.

            When the proposed railroad from Culdesac to Grangeville was being surveyed, the village of Reubens sprang up along the right-of-way.  Since Reubens would doubtless be a shopping point, the Cold Springs church was moved to Reubens and placed on some ground donated by the Lunders family.  Bishop Glorieux had obtained a gift of lots 1 and 2 in Block 51 from J. P. Vollmer in August 1909; Mr. G. Lunders donated 1 1/4 acres in July 1909.  The church was put on the former property and the latter became a cemetery.  The church was given the title of the Sacred Heart.  >From 1913 onward Reubens was a mission of Grangeville, whose pastors for the most part have held services there once each month.  In 1914 the Catholic Church Extension Society gave a donation and an alter.

            In 1932 Mass was still said there once a month, but in 1935 Father McBride wrote Bishop Kelly:  "The insurance on the Rubens  [sic] church will expire August 8, 1935...As the church [is] never used, there being no Catholic families in town...May I now drop this insurance."

The next year the Chancellor wrote:  "Kindly remove the statues from the Reubens church and store them in the Winchester church.  You may let the altar remain in the church.  If Father Stokoe wants any of these statues for Payette you may give them to him.  Kindly board up the windows of the Reubens church."

            In the fall of 1939 the building was sold but the land was retained.  Father McGlinchey wrote:  "We sold the church at Reubens to Mr. Jim Wren, of Grangeville for $30.00.

For more information, please contact the Ilo-Vollmer Historical Society, Box 61, Craigmont, Idaho 83523 or Shelley Kuther, skuther@camasnet.com  208-790-7890 or Byron Bovey, bdbovey@wildblue.net  208-924-7336.

 		
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