LeMoyne Crematory: The First Crematory in the United States

Washington County is home to many unusual landmarks, the LeMoyne Crematory is one that usually comes to mind. Although there were crematories built in Europe during Dr. LeMoyne's time, this was the first crematory in the United States. The information from this post comes from Lew Hays, who wrote A Collection of 300 Columns written for Sunday Editions of The OBSERVER-REPORTER and information from page 4 of the May/June Focus of 1998.

Dr. LeMoyne was a doctor ahead of his time. He also began to notice that all of his patients were getting sick and dying from similiar symptoms. With this in mind, Dr. LeMoyne became very convinced that these deaths and illnesses were directly linked to burial practices at the time. He believed that whatever illness came from the decomposing bodies ran off into streames and other water sources, causing the same symptoms in new bodies. Dr. LeMoyne's solution was to cremate the bodies, which would end the cycle of buring old, sick bodies and creating new sick people.

The idea of cremation came to Dr. LeMoyne when he came across Bavarian nobleman, Joseph Henry Charles, Baron De Palm, speak. The Baron was a diplomat and was brought to New York on business, and Dr. LeMoyne was a member of the Theosophical Soceity of New York City. The Baron spoke at one of Dr. LeMoyne's events as the leading proponent of cremation. The idea made sense to Dr. LeMoyne, but there was nothing like this in America at the time, which gave him the motivation to put this idea into practice.

With this idea in mind, Dr. LeMoyne approached the trustees of the public cemetary about donating money that was needed for the construction of the crematory on cemetary property. Cremation was not a popular concept at the time, so the trustees never considered his offer. That's when Dr. LeMoyne decided to take matters into his own hands.

Instead of building a crematorium on the cemetary's land, Dr. LeMoyne used his own land and funded the project completely on his own. "Gallows Hill" was once a place where prisioners of Washington County were hung, but became the new location for the crematory. John L. Dye was enlisted to construct and create the project, using the only questionable information he was given about crematories in Europe. It was a one-story, brick facility that measured 20x30 feet. The building had only a reception room and furnace room. The cost of the buidling was $1500. Dr. LeMoyne created the oven all on his own, flames never touched the bodies while in the cremation process.

The first cremation took place on December 6, 1976. As years went on, cremations became more popular and throughout it's years, the LeMoyne Crematory held 42 cremations, Dr. LeMoyne's was the third. His ashes are buried in front of the crematory. It is also said that while the crematory attracted national attention, local residents were less than impressed. Dr. LeMoyne was the only Washington County resident to be cremated in his crematory.

Today, burial practices have very much improved and disease is thought to no longer be spread through the ground. Not only that, but cremation is now a more popular burial practice. Even though citizens of Washington County questioned this burial practice at the time, it has certianly taken off here and all across the United States. To say the least, Dr. LeMoyne was a man way ahead of his time.