Thursday, October 14, 2010

October 10, 2010 has come and gone and with it a lot of hype over 10-10-10. Well, I looked in the Oregonian archives - available on line with a Multnomah County Library Card and found a listing for those who departed this life the last time the calendar read 10-10-10.
Timothy J Lynch, aged 83; Mary Ellanore Dine, aged 3 months; and Olaf Lawrence, aged 55. Two of these people are now located at Riverview, while I was unable to locate the third.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Charles Niblen, 1852-1928

Located near the center of Section A in lot 25 is the grave of Charles Niblen, a Swedish immigrant. It is the only marked grave in Lot 25. Charles came here on March 15, 1928 after his demise on March the 13th, a Tuesday. At least through 1920, as indicated by the 1920 U.S. Census, Charles was a fruit farmer on Section Line Road about a mile and half south-east of the Mount Tabor Post Office. Section Line Road was to later be known as Division Street. During this time Charles lived with a younger sister Agnes who had also immigrated from Sweden, but in 1875.
Charles first appearance in a U.S. Census is in the 1880 Census from Knappa, Clatsop County, Oregon. His surname is spelled Neblin. He is about 28 years old at the time, single, a fisherman and living in a boarding house catering to no less than 17 fishermen. Those fishermen were from Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Ohio, England, Maine, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts ranged in ages from 20 to 36 years old.
Fishing apparently was not to his lifestyle since after that time he is recorded in the Censuses as being a fruit farmer. Sometime after 1880 Charles married and had a daughter, Annie (or Amy) in April 1896. Unfortunately we don't know the name of his wife, but by 1900 the widowed Charles had moved to Portland where he is living with his mother Annie, sister Agnes, daughter Annie, and two boarders, the Tamaschis who were born in Japan. Charles is one of many fruit farmers making a living in the Mount Tabor neighborhood. In 1908 he sells some property, 20 acres in total, to the widow of brewer Henry Weinhard.
We do not yet know where Charles and Agnes' parents, Eric and Annie, are located. but Agnes lived to be 98 years old, finally departing in 1958. She is now located at nearby Lincoln Memorial Park.