A name, dates of birth and death, and a quote from the Bible: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Timothy 4:7.
That’s most of what anyone knows of Alexander Stuber, the man whose gravestone was smashed into pieces last fall.
Police were called at 11:40 p.m. Oct. 23 and found that 15 headstones in Camas Cemetery had been toppled.
Camas police investigated the incident and by the next day had arrested Michael Garwood, 21, of Camas. He originally faced 15 counts of violating laws that protect cemeteries and second-degree criminal mischief, but the prosecuting attorney’s office didn’t file the charges. Charges against Garwood could be filed later, Sgt. Scot Boyles said. The case remains open, and police are actively looking for a second suspect.
Most of the gravestones were pushed off their base, so crews put them upright the next morning. Stuber’s marker though, made of 2-inch thick marble, was smashed beyond repair.
“I’ve always dreaded that some day this might happen,” said Ed Senchyna, senior grounds maintenance worker at Camas Cemetery.
Senchyna said they don’t know if Stuber has any living family. When a gravestone is destroyed and the deceased has no known relatives, Senchyna said, the grave often goes unmarked.
But the community wouldn’t have it.
Despite the little knowledge of Stuber — he died in 1908 at age 41 — that didn’t stop the community from making sure the man had a proper grave marker.
Joey Fuerstenberg, owner of Vancouver Granite Works, and donations made to the Friends of the Camas Cemetery covered the $1,000 cost of replacing the stone.
The new marker, a 4-inch granite slab, has been ordered and is expected to be put in in mid-January, Fuerstenberg said.
“We figured since we can’t fix what’s there, we’ll replace what’s there with something better,” Fuerstenberg said.
He said he’s doing it because it’s part of being a “responsible member of the community.”
“It’s sad … especially when there’s not any family there to step up and do anything. This is a good opportunity to help out the community and honor the person who had died,” he said.
But who was Alexander Stuber?
The Camas Cemetery doesn’t have a record of his burial — which may have listed who paid for his plot and a family contact. A search of local newspaper archives turns up no mention of his name.
The 1900 census, however, gives a peek into the man’s life.
He lived in the Columbia Precinct of Clark County, which included Camas, but was born in Switzerland where his mother and father were also born. The document doesn’t indicate when he came to the United States.
At age 34, Stuber was unmarried and worked as a laborer at a sulfite mill, which made pulp for paper. He could read, write and speak English, and he owned his own house.
Two other Stubers, John and Felicie (some documents list her name as Felicia), are also buried in the Camas Cemetery. Burial records indicate the two were husband and wife.
Many people have speculated that Alexander and John were brothers.
Curtis Hughey, a historian with the Camas-Washougal Historical Society, said that there is no conclusive evidence the two were brothers, but he thinks they were because of the clues: Alexander and John are listed right after each other in the census, and they both are listed as being born in Switzerland. They were close in age — John was six years older than Alexander — and the two had the same last name in an area that at the time had a small population.
Other than the census, Hughey said, he couldn’t find any other historical reference to Alexander Stuber.
“He was just a single fella that lived in Camas that worked in the sulfite mill,” Hughey said. “It was kind of a bad place to work; it was hard to breathe in parts of it.”
Regular guy or not, Ed Senchyna said, “I was happy to find out we won’t have any unmarked graves.”
