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Haberman Place Grave
Joseph Creek, Asotin County, Washington

Contributed by Jill Nock [jjnock@fiberpipe.net]. Total records = 1.

Haberman Place Grave T7N R46E Section 27 Transcribed by Jill Boles from Robert Weatherly's work with permission. On a remoted beach is a lone grave about 10 miles up the Grande Ronde River from its mouth. The only thing to identify it as a burial site is a sunken area with a small Sumac bush growing in one end and a small pile of rocks. It is the grave of an unknown man that washed ashore during high water in the early summer months of 1925 or 1926.

Fred Haberman and his wife, Minnie, owners of the property, guided the Weatherly's to the burial site. They and Fred's mother, Mildred Haberman, who homesteaded in the Joseph Creek area in 1912 and has lived there since then, provided some information about the buried man. Mildred's husband, Rudolph Haberman, along with Jim Chaffee and Bill Tippett were hunting for sheep on the Chaffee place in 1925 or 1926 when Haberman's horse shied at something in the bushes. The men noted a strong odor and followed it to the body of a mnan that apparently had been washed ashore by the high water. The victim wore long underwear, a Pendleton type shirt, loggers' boots and socks, but his pants were gone

As the word spread, many persons came to look at the victim. Attempts to identify the man were made, but none led to success. Because the Grande Ronde River drains northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington, the body could have come down the Grand Ronde for many miles. The victim didn't appear to be poor. The viewers guessed he was a farmer, logger or sheepherder. The man had fairly good clothes, somewhat long hair, a stubble of beard and teeth in good condition with quite a lot of dental work.

Word of the body was sent to the coroner of Asotin County with someone riding a horse to Rogersburg and boat to Asotin. The coroner offered Marion Jenks, postmaster at Rogersburg at the confluence of the Grande Ronde and Snake Rivers, $50 to build a coffin and bury the body. Rudolph Haberman helped Jenks; but the coroner never came to see the victim.

UNKNOWN, Man Abt 1925-1926, victim of Grande Ronde River