The mystery of the Little Lamb of God

Some years ago, during efforts to maintain the Deep River cemetery and push back the encroaching forest flora, a small grave stone was discovered outside of the fenced burial ground at the edge of the woods. The top of the gravestone was adorned with a sculpture of a lamb laying down signifying the grave of a lamb of God. While years of exposure had dulled the once crisp engraved lettering, it could still be seen the grave stone was for a child named Ihannelma Maunula who was born in 1890 and died in 1892. Its words and its construction spoke volumes. Clearly this was the headstone of a child who had been loved. The sculpture of the lamb suggested the family was affluent for even back then such stones were costly. The stone seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere. Had the stone been laying there unnoticed all this time? Was the child buried there or had the stone been discarded? If it was a burial site, why was it outside the normal bounds of the cemetery? For years, these questions remained unanswered. It was considered to be the Mystery of the Little Lamb of God, and the site was treated with a certain amount of reverence when the cemetery was mowed each year in advance of Memorial Day.

But mysteries exist to be solved. Annette (Wirkkala) Boslar, who tends her family plot at the cemetery, noticed the gravestone and recognized the Maunula family name. She contacted Roxanne Hendrickson and informed her it might be a relative of hers. Roxanne’s mother, Sally, had been a Maunula before her marriage to Teddy Swanson. This prompted a focused effort on the part of the Maunula family descendants, including Roxanne and her cousin, Jody Benson, to look for answers.

Through the combined genealogical records of the Appelo Archives in Naselle and the microfilmed parish records from the Latter-Day Saints Family History Library in Salt Lake City, a clearer picture emerged. Two cousins, Alexander Maunula and Erik Maunula had, at separate times, emigrated from Finland to America. Alexandar brought along his wife, the former Sophia Emilia Karhulahti and son Oscar, (who later in life dropped the first u from the name) the father of Sally Manula Swanson.

Cousin Erik Maunula left the family farm in Kälviä, Finland and arrived in America in 1872. He first lived in Pennsylvania for four years before moving to Astoria in 1876. There he joined his brother Emanuel and began his career as a fisherman, eventually becoming an investor and cannery owner and manager. In 1880, Erik purchased a farm in Deep River Valley, in the location currently owned and farmed by Bill and Rosemary Oatfield. Erik met and married Elisabeth Karhulahti, the sister of his cousin Alexander’s wife and they lived at the Deep River farm during the time Nelma, as she was called, was born and died. In 1897, they moved to Astoria for their children’s education while continuing to live part of the year at the farm. On September 21, 1900, Erik and Elisabeth granted a deed to the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church for a 66 by 95-foot lot on their farm property for the construction of a church. That church, built by early Finnish settlers, is still used for weddings and Christmas celebrations, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Nelma’s cause of death is unknown, however, at that point in time, thirty to forty percent of children did not survive infancy. She was buried in the Deep River Cemetery. Upon his death, Erik was buried alongside her. In 1926, Elisabeth died, and the family purchased a plot at the new Ocean View Cemetery in Warrenton, Oregon where she was buried. The remains of Erik and Nelma were later moved from Deep River to join her in the family plot at Ocean View with a new grave stone marking their location. No longer marking her grave site, the Deep River Lamb of God stone was apparently set aside in the edge of the woods.

Roxanne’s husband Chuck Hendrickson and her brother Mike Swanson recently recovered the Deep River headstone. Hendrickson cleaned it, cast a new base for it and it is now relocated to the left of the front door of the historic Deep River church. A plaque above it on the outside wall of the church denotes her name and historical information. While little Nelma’s remains are in Warrenton, her original stone now rests on the grounds of her birth ensuring the memory of her short life will remain alive in the history of Deep River Valley. And thus, the Mystery of the Little Lamb of God can now be put to rest.