Preserving history at Davao City’s American cemetery

DABAWENYOS describe it as the Masonic Cemetery, a familiar landmark in Barangay 6-A where Davao City’s 2 primary cemeteries (Wireless public cemetery and the Roman Catholic cemetery) lie.

The Filipino American Veterans Masonic Memorial Park lies in Madapo Hills, a high ground near the town hall, the location in the hills is likewise called “cordless” as it was the website of an old cordless telegraph station.

Inside the four-hectare lot are the burial places of Americans, especially military veterans who settled in Davao before World War II.

With a lucrative abaca market, lots of Americans, mainly military veterans, developed big plantations in Davao throughout the early 1900s.

Developed in 1915, it was among the 2 locations designated by American authorities as burial premises, among which is the surrounding local burial ground, likewise called the Roman Catholic Cemetery.

The Masonic cemetery was initially for American Masons, however ultimately it consisted of American military veterans.

The cemetery was preserved by the American Cemetery Association (ACA) up until the late 1950s, when Mason and American veteran Alfred W. Roberts worked out with the ACA for the transfer of rights to the land to the Davao Masonic Association Inc., a group arranged by regional Masons who desired a resting location for their left kin.

More than simply a cemetery, it is a pointer of a bygone period, when American inhabitants changed Davao into among the most “American towns” in the nation throughout the early 1900s.

At that time, retired American soldiers from the Philippine-American War and some daring financiers gathered to Davao to establish abaca and coconut plantations.

Conserve for civic structures developed throughout the American duration, like the century-old City Hall, there is barely any existence of American leaders’ tradition in Davao, and the Filipino American Veterans Masonic Memorial Park is among those old staying websites. A tomb of an American veteran and inhabitant in Davao

Inside the cemetery, one can see the tombs of American inhabitants such as Henry Roscom, David Jacobson, Harry Hughes, Henry Pahl, Edward Christensen, and Colonel George Thompson, who was the unique agent of United States President Calvin Coolidge to the Philippines and who assisted bring capital expense to Davao.

In the cemetery are the remains of a number of American, Filipino, and Japanese World War II dead, which is now kept in mind as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The City Government of Davao, through the Office of the Culture and Arts (OCA), is preparing to set up a marker or a monolith near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“We are collaborating with the Masonic company since this is a Mason cemetery, they keep this location and they at first set up a location and set up a marker, ideally we can pass another resolution as part of a regulation that formally we will put a marker,” states Oscar Casaysay head of the Office of the Culture and the Arts.

Burial place of the Unknown Soldier

As soon as marked by a basic white cross, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier situated at the edge of the cemetery went through enhancements, that included a larger white cross, a steel marker, and concrete posts with steel chains to demarcate the location.

The local government holds the yearly Liberation of Davao ceremony at the cemetery. Hung on May 3, the date marks the return of American forces in Davao City, ending Japanese profession.

American veterans presently residing in Davao under American Legion Post 66 make check outs to the burial place of American veterans throughout Memorial Day. In 2018, they began the procedure of recognizing the remains of 32 American and Filipino soldiers buried at the burial place of the unidentified soldier. PIA DAVAO