Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne was a man who got things done. He was a practicing physician, a devoted husband, a loving father of eight, the founder of Washington's Citizens Library, a co-founder of the Washington Female Seminary, an ardent supporter of abolition, and, it seems, a bit of a medical detective!
When residents of his community (
was directly linked
to our burial practices. He believed contaminated matter from buried and
decomposing bodies was running off into the streams and water sources and
causing the same diseases to strike new victims. Cremation would eliminate
disease-ridden contaminants from leeching into the soil and water supplies
and spreading the often-times fatal illnesses.
The innovative doctor, determined to stop the cycle of disease, set
out to build a crematory. He approached the trustees of the public cemetery
in the City of
Undeterred, Dr. LeMoyne built the crematory in 1876 on his own land,
then called Gallows Hill, now a parcel on 
and a furnace room. Using
only sketchy information about how one of the world's first crematories was
built in Europe,
The first cremation at LeMoyne's facility took place on December 6, 1876. A total of 42 cremations were done there, the last in 1901. LeMoyne, ironically, was the third person cremated in his own crematory. He died in 1879.
His family made preparations for his burial in accordance with his wishes: his body was cremated in the little building on Gallows Hill. Then the ashes were placed in an urn under a simple stone monument in front of the crematory. The inscription reads:
F. Julius LeMoyne, M.D.
Born Sept. 4, 1798 Died Oct. 14, 1879
A Fearless Advocate of the Right
Today, the LeMoyne Crematory is administered by the
