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Ireland isn鈥檛 generally the first thing that comes to mind when one considers Kent Valley, but a little patch of green could make you believe otherwise.

This one-of-a-kind place is called . It鈥檚 east of I-5 and just off Orillia Road, and it might have Irish roots deeper than just about anywhere else this side of Notre Dame.

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Around 1880, long before Washington Territory became a state, a man from Limerick, Ireland named Richard O鈥機onnell turned the four-acre patch of rocky land on the edge of the valley into a de facto .

With modest headstones from the 19^th century — chiseled with names like Donley, Mullen and O’Brien — along with ornate monuments from the more recent past, the moss and grass that cover the ground and the evergreens that surround it give St. Patrick Cemetery the feel of an outdoor church.

Like so many hundreds of thousands of people in that era, Richard O鈥機onnell had immigrated to the U.S. from Europe in the mid-19^th century looking for a better life and more opportunity. O鈥機onnell was a farmer, and he had a total of 80 acres in the valley where he grew hops and potatoes.

鈥淗e probably figured he couldn’t raise very much hops up there on that rock pile,鈥� said Richard O鈥機onnell鈥檚 grandson Tom, recalling the quality of the glacial soil.

Tom O鈥機onnell is 93 and still lives on his grandfather鈥檚 farm, just down the hill from St. Patrick Cemetery.

鈥淚 remember him,鈥� says Tom O鈥機onnell of his grandfather. 鈥淚 was 13 years old when he died. I remember him sitting in the big chair by the woodstove, and he had a big beard and he never moved around much in my time. He was 96 — I think — when he died [in 1935]. He fell out of bed and broke his hip.”

Richard O鈥機onnell, his grandson says, likely created St. Patrick Cemetery at the edge of his farm for another practical reason, in addition to the land being difficult to farm.

鈥淗is first wife died. Nobody knows where she is, but I assume she’s up there someplace. So he gave [the land] to the church,鈥� O鈥機onnell said.
St. Patrick Cemetery became the property of what鈥檚 now the Seattle Archdiocese sometime around 1900.

O鈥機onnell says that the cemetery served a modest-sized Irish community in the valley, and a nearby and now long-gone Catholic church across the river was a community gathering place for decades.

鈥淎ll the Irish settled in the valley, because that’s the way they lived [in Ireland], on the river or by the water someplace,鈥� O鈥機onnell said. 鈥淎nd all of the Swedes and Finns and Norwegians moved up on the hill. That’s where the timber was. See? They moved to the place [that was like] where they came from.鈥�

And why was the cemetery named after St. Patrick?

鈥淲ell, he was supposed to have driven all the snakes out of Ireland,鈥� said O鈥機onnell. 鈥淪t. Patrick is a saint as far as the Irish people are concerned.鈥�

St. Patrick is still an active cemetery. Burials still take place there regularly, and it ceased being only for those of Irish descent many decades ago. Ethnic cemeteries, which are more commonplace in other parts of the country, are few and far between in the Northwest.

The land is managed by the Associated Catholic Cemeteries of Seattle and the grounds are maintained by crews from nearby Gethsemane Cemetery. Tom O鈥機onnell says this wasn鈥檛 always the case, that taking care of it used to be much more of a community affair.

鈥淚n the old days, maybe we’d get about ten or 15 of the parishioners with their lawn mowers, go back there and mow the lawn maybe two or three times a year,鈥� O鈥機onnell said.

鈥淔act is, there was a person, Mr. Wrighton, that kept the books and did the hole diggin’ and the whole works,鈥� O鈥機onnell said. 鈥淗e was 鈥楳r. Cemetery,鈥� and he did a great job to keep that thing going.鈥�

Like his grandfather, Tom O鈥機onnell鈥檚 father was also a farmer on the family鈥檚 80 acres. Tom himself ran a raw milk dairy there (called a 鈥渏ug-in鈥�) for several years in the 1950s and 1960s before going to work for the U.S. Post Office as the postmaster for Kent.

鈥淚’m the third generation here. My grandfather, my father, myself and now my son is here,鈥� said O鈥機onnell. 鈥淗e’s got a horse boarding business, and I’ve got another son that lives on the other side of me, and I’ve got a daughter living in one of the houses.鈥�

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To hear Tom O鈥機onnell tell it, the ancestors and other family members already buried in St. Patrick Cemetery will be part of the celebration, too. And, when his time comes, O鈥機onnell says that he鈥檒l be buried there himself.

鈥淯p there, right by my father and mother. They’re up there,鈥� O鈥機onnell said. 鈥淎nd I’ve got two brothers up there.鈥�

How does he feel about joining his late family members on that 鈥渞ock pile鈥� his grandfather dedicated as a cemetery nearly 140 years ago?

鈥淭hat don’t bother me,鈥� O鈥機onnell said. 鈥淲hen you get to be 90, you know you’re not going to live much longer. You don’t want to because you’re falling apart,鈥� he said, laughing heartily.

In fact, O鈥機onnell says, this reminds him of a story.

鈥淢y brother is back there in the cemetery,鈥� he began. 鈥淏ut when he was younger, we would get together, and one night we were drinking a little. So he said, 鈥楴ow, we don’t know which one of us is going to die first, but when the one is still alive, he’s gotta come back with his Irish booze and have a little drink, and pour a little bit on the one that’s passed away.鈥� My brother said that,鈥� O鈥機onnell said.

鈥淎nd I said to him, 鈥榊ou know that sounds real good,鈥� and I said, 鈥業f I’m the last one here, you suppose [it鈥檚 okay if] I run it through my bladder before I pour it on ya?鈥欌��

Asked by a gullible reporter if he had followed through on this promise to his late brother, O鈥機onnell laughed.

鈥淗ave I actually done that? I don’t think so,鈥� O鈥機onnell said. 鈥淚 live close enough to home I can do it at home and just go back there.鈥�

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle鈥檚 Morning News, read more from him鈥�here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast聽here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks鈥�here.