In 2018, in time for the centenary of Freemasonry in Davao, we made a two-day documentation of the ‘who’s who’ in the Wireless graveyard, the Davao Veterans and Masonic Cemetery (DVAMC), which was established in 1915. The boneyard was built as a burial place for American Protestant believers but was later expanded to include Masons who, under Catholic rites, are not allowed to find rest in diocesan cemeteries.
Most of those who were originally buried at the Masonic graveyard, were chiefly military servicemen and their families, who were later repatriated to the United States. Those still bur-ied at Wireless are soldiers who married locally, requested to be interred in Davao, or without claimants. Most of those who are buried at DVAMC today are second and third-generation scions of American soldiers, educators, and public servants, including soldiers that once were enlisted in the muster roll of the Thirty-First Michigan Volunteers.
Among the Americans, Freemason or not, honored at the DVAMC are David Jacobson (1876-1970), an American Jew benefactor of Brokenshire Hospital; Jerry N. Roscom (1880-1969), owner of the first horse-drawn carriage in Davao; US veterans George K. Pahl (1885-1963); J. Lindsey (died 1940); (Henrick Calhoun (died 1935); Adam Weison (died 1922); A.P. Bradley (died 1939); and Rufus Scott (died 1937); Henry W. Pahl (1876-1950), a planter in Don Marcelino, Davao Occidental; and Leslie Stevens (1888-1956).
More of the foreigners interred at the DVAMC are Edward D. Christensen (1875-1953), a Padada planter; Harry B. Hughes, Sr. (1882-57), a Malalag planter and great-grandfather of actress Vina Morales; Clarence P. Bumpus (died 1923), British-American soldier; Frank A. Crowhurst (died 1911), a British journalist and Mabini planter; and Hildegard K. Doring: (1923-015), mother of the honorary consul, journalist, and Davao resident Klaus Doring.
Some prominent Davao politicians are also buried at the DVAMC, among them are Pantaleon A. Pelayo (1901-63), former 1934 Constitutional Convention delegate, Davao City mayor, and the wartime ‘Free Davao’ governor, and his wife Luz Valderrosa (1900-82); Protestant pastor Rev. Crispin Fajardo Faune; former Davao City councilors Federico Osias Opada (1938-41), Tiburcio Cervantes (1948-51) and Desiderio Dalisay, Sr. (1950-54) and his wife Regina L. Dalisay (1909-75); and former city assessor Telesforo Oca (1953-60). Opada was also a former councilor of the municipality of Monkayo, Davao de Oro.
Those local profiles interred in the Masonic graveyard also include Philippine News Agency (PNA) writer Bebe L. Berlanas (1931-86); Danilo C. Tesoro (1948-2014), owner of Imageworld, a printing firm; and Augusto C. Tesoro (1931-84) co-owner of Tesoro’s Printing Press; Casimiro V. Arkoncel, Jr. (1933-91), Mindanao Daily Mirror columnist; Casimiro F. Arkoncel (1900-76), founder-owner of Panorama Homes; and Felipe F. Caburian (1898-1938), Davao branch manager of H.E. Heacock, a company owned by Tagum planter Samuel Gaches, an American.
Aside from the fourth-generation Freemasons buried at the DVAMC, some of those who were interred have been moved by their families to memorial parks. The vacated slots, as a result, are rented out to contemporary Masons wanting to be entombed at the site in the future.
The DVAMC was originally owned by David Jacobson, who also owned the Tagdangua Plantation in Pantukan, Davao de Oro; he donated the lot in 1915. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, he was a member of the 44th U.S. Volunteers that arrived in Davao in 1901. After the war, he was appointed as one of the land administrators of former Japanese lands sequestered and later distributed to Filipino war veterans and their families.
