Godfred Erickson

Godfred, like so many Swedes seeking a btter life in America, immigrated to the U.S. in 1905. We don't yet know what part of Sweden he came from, but we do know that in 1910 he is living in Nehalem, Tillamook County, and working on the railroad. After working for a time in Tillamook he moved south to Coos County to again, work on the railroad. We know that from his death certificate.
Whatever Godfred's dreams were they were cut short by the Influenza pandemic of 1918. Godfred has the unfortunate disctinction of being one of the first people to die in Multnomah County from Influenza in the late fall of 1918. He wasn't the first to die, but he is the first to die of those unfortunates who died of Influenza in that terrible winter and who are buried at the Park. He became sick on October 10th, had pneumonia by the 13th and was gone just after midnight on the early morning of the 17th.

Loving Friends

Ms. Olive May entered the Garden of Untimely Demise on September 19, 1942 when she fell down a flight of stairs. She had no family to see to her final resting place so her friends saw to it that Olive had a proper burial at Multnomah Park. She was fortunate to have so many friends who cared about her enough to erect such a handsome stone.

Garden of Untimely Demise

Theodore Sykes was an African American man who was married and worked in the ship yards of Portland. He was only 36 when he was murdered when he stepped between two men vying for the affections of a married woman.

Unknown Man

Like all cemeteries, Multhomah Park is the final resting place for those who die without letting us know their names. Such is the case of a 65 year old man whose body was found in the Columbia Slough on February 20, 1929. According to the records he was interred in an unmarked grave in Section C, plot 9.

Perspectives

This photo was taken from the far NW corner of the cemetery looking SE. I think I took the photo in August when the shade of the trees was definitely a welcome place to be.

Roman Tomb in Portland?

Tom and I went to Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery today where I took photos for a class I'm taking this term. Among the family crypts were two like the picture. These crypts are made of poured concrete and were built around 1920. I just think they are way cool!

Poor Farm

The Multnomah County Poor Farm was the home of many people, most of them elderly for many years. Many of those folks came to rest in Multnomah Park. I am beginning the research to find out who they were and where they are now. Many of the former residents of the County Poor Farm became part of the anatomy lab lessons at the Oregon Health Sciences University. I honor them.

Mover and Shaker

Plympton Kelly was a mover and shaker in the early days of Portland. He gave the eulogy at the funeral of his good friend O.P. Lent in 1899. Mr. Kelly was friends with many Portland pioneers. He also served on the first Multnomah Cemetery Board of Directors.

Headstone of the Week - Homespun Headstone

The loved ones of Hattie Amanda Gibson made her marker from concrete using bold block letters. The creative use of letters and numbers makes this stone a true work of heart.

R.I.P. Hattie Amanda

The Millhouse Boys

Richard Dick Millhouse died on December 3, 1918 of influenza. His son, Raymond, died the next day. They were both laid to rest in Section D on December 12th, side by side.

The 1918 flu epidemic was merciless.

RIP Richard and Raymond.

Headstone of the Week

Barbara, wife of Alexander Meyer, died July 6, 1909
Aged 73 years, 6 months & 4 days.

Which makes her birthday on February 2, 1836.

Headstone of the Week

We don't know much about Captain A. Montgomery other than what is on his grave stone. He was a Mason, he served in the Mexican War of 1846 and he died in Portland at the age of 73 and is buried in the first grave sold in Section C.

Headstone of the Week

In the 1930's, the cemetery was the scene of much vandalism. This marble stone originally was upright and when it was vandalized, the cemetery had it reset to lay flat in cement. There are many stones like this at Multnomah Park.

Cool Thoughts on a Warm Day

The warm weather is with us today, so I am having cool thoughts of a snowy afternoon several months ago.

Headstone of the Week

Here rests a Woodman of the World

A Small Flower in the Garden of Untimely Demise

Ernest Degagne was almost 10 years old when he was playing with friends and wading in the Willamette River near the foot of Porter St. when he fell in to deep water and drowned. The two friends that were with him knew he drowned but said nothing until the police came looking for them. Ernest's body was pulled from the river by grappling hooks near where he went in. A sad day that was, back in 1924.

Headstone of the Week

Lucinda Armentrout Deardorff,

March 22, 1831 ~ December 28, 1897

Peaceful be thy silent slumber.

We Love Thank-You Letters!

We volunteer at the cemetery because we believe in what we are doing, but it helps when our work is acknowledged. Here is a recent email from a very sweet lady who lives in Illinois:

I was very surprised to see that the grave stone of my uncle Esta Scott Alger has been found with a posting date of April 24, 2011, just a month ago. (Section G, Lot 3-4). That is great and thank you so much.

It was very special yesterday because I had unexpected visitors who were very interested in learning more about the family history. The woman is the granddaughter of Esta Scott Alger and Mabel C. Alger. She and her husband now live in North Dakota. I wanted to show her the site to show her grandmother's grave, and there was her grandfather's also.

When we were in Portland in 2004 we found the grave of Mabel and the babies but were unceremoniously chased out by a herd of very angry bees and had never seen Esta's. And then, although there was a record that Esta was buried there, he couldn't be found. Now it is complete, and thank you so much for posting. It is very much appreciated, especially since we live in Illinois and can't get out there again.

UNDERTAKER: Final Journey Begins Here

Back in the good old days Funeral Homes did not exist. Rather, the people who would frequently undertake the final preparations of a person's final trip would be a furniture store. One of those furniture stores in Portland was the A D Kenworthy furniture store in Lents. They were located on the ground floor of the IOOF Halls on "Main" Street, Lents at what is now the corner of S.E. 92nd Avenue and Ramona Street.

The building still remains, but the furniture store "undertaker", like many of it's customers is now long gone.

Spruce Squadrons - WWI

While wandering the cemetery looking for graves of veterans that will be marked for Memorial Day Weekend I found several gravestones indicating that the deceased was a member of the Spruce Squadron. Having not heard of them - I confess I've not really been all that interested in things military - I decided to learn more about what they were about and was not too surprised that there isn't that much information about them. What I did find out is that during World War I we needed old growth spruce wood to make airplane wings and the Pacific Northwest (Oregon & Washington) supplied the spruce wood to the allies. Robert Swanson (2008) reported that 50,000 soldiers supervised 100,000 lumber workers in Oregon and Washington, while 10,000 worked at building railroads and roads in to the forests.

Carl J Tittle was one of those men who were a part of the Spruce Squadron. He was from Ohio, but served in Company 23 of the Spruce Squadron. Carl is part of the Garden of Untimely demise since he died too soon in a house fire on his farm near Damascus. He left a wife, Mary Esther (Bowder). He is also listed in our WWI garden since he served during the Great War in an important support role. He is buried in Section F, near Arthur Watson who served in Company 64 of the Spruce Squadron.

Memorial Day 2011

Our first Memorial Day event went very well. The sun came out for a little while and the rain stayed away. We met some of the families and learned more about the cemetery residents.

Headstone of the Week: Side by Side

John P. Sheffield March 5, 1897, died one week after his beloved wife of 60 years, Sarah. Here they have been in repose together for more than 100 years.

Keeping the Family Together

Family Cremains in a Vault at Portland Memorial

Headstone of the Week

Jay Dee Boyer

Located in what was the wilds of western Washington County, Oregon is the now former town of West Timber, where a Post Office and railroad station were located west of the town of Timber. This is where J D Boyer found employment after moving from Pennsylvania to Oregon in the early twentieth century. The trees would have been big at that time since that was before all the big ones were laboriously cut down, and before the Tillamook burn fires occurred later on a few miles west. What prompted Jay Dee to move from home in Pennsylvania where he was born in 1895 to parents who moved from Germany we will most likely never know. But move to Oregon he did, and found a job working for the Eagle Timber Co., in West Timber.

We know little of Jay Dee's life, other than his parent's names were Chas., and Veronica and they were both born in Germany. We know that Jay Dee was single at the time of his death from heart issues and pneumonia. Jay Dee died at St Vincent's Hospital on 9 October 1927. According to his Certificate of Death he was buried two days after his death on 11 October 1927. A funeral service to which friends were invited was held at St Stevens church at E. 42nd and Taylor on Wednesday, October 12, 1927. Jay D Boyer is buried in the back of the cemetery in Section G.

J D Boyer, 1895-1927

Mr. Lepley and the Quest for Gold

Louis Lepley was a gold miner in Nome, Alaska in the early 20th century. We know that prior to taking up mining he was living in Montana with his wife. He arrived in Alaska during or before 1902 and commenced on finding the stuff that dreams are made of. (See photo of the mining digs. Lepley is the third man wearing the black shirt and hat. Thanks to Eric Larsen for these great pictures.) We know that in 1909 he was taken into care at the Morningside Hospital Mental Hospital here in Portland, where he died in 1919. He is interred, along with many other Morningside Hospital patients in the far back corner of the cemetery.

Hamilton Sandridge

Several times Eric and I have talked about episodes that we refer to as 'serendipity'. Eric isn't quite used to it yet - it freaks him out a bit. I take the events of 'serendipity' for granted. These events happen to everyone who researches their family history. It happens to us at the Park. It is very much like the people at the Park are asking us to tell their stories. To oblige we use information that is easily found online in the Oregonian files, courtesy of the Multnomah County Library, and at ancestry.com.

Today, as an example of some of the serendipity events we experience, Eric was looking for a specific grave and was wandering around looking for it, but couldn't see it. He stopped, put his probe in the ground and it hit a buried temporary marker. Many of the temporary markers, which are pretty plain cement markers, are buried under up to several inches of sod and are not visible. After uncovering the temporary marker that his probe hit he realized that he had just found the marker he had been searching for.

This week someone sent me a link to a story on CNN about 'invisible graves' in Northwest Georgia. Please take some time to read the story - now, before finishing this posting.

When Eric and I fulfill photo requests on Find A Grave we look at all of the markers in a Lot. Sometimes there may only be 4, normally 6, sometimes 10 and maybe more depending on how many infants are buried in the lot. Today while fulfilling a photo request I found a buried temporary marker that was hidden by several inches of soil. It was just another one of the many temporary markers the are at the Park that are hidden under the soil.

While we were enjoying a post cemetery coffee at Starbucks Eric asked me if I had a headstone I wanted to write about for this week's memorial. I didn't at the time, but thought about a cool surname that I came across today in the Park. While looking for Alice Petrie in Section H I located and photographed the temporary marker for Hamilton Sandridge. I hadn't heard of the surname Sandridge before and thought it sounded cool!

Hamilton Sandridge, born ~1879 Virginia; died Oct 28, 1940, Portland

According to the Oregon Death Index Hamilton died in Portland on 28 Oct. 1940. He was buried five days later on Novemeber 2, 1940 at Multnomah Park Cemetery according to the funeral notice on page 10 of the November 2nd issue of the Oregonian. He lived at the time at 6410 SE 60th. No friends were invited to his funeral, or burial. No flowers were not asked for. No next of kin were listed.

We do not yet know the cause of death, or who is parents are. However, we do know that in the 1930 U.S. Census Hamilton is recorded living in Portland on SE 9th. He is about 51 years old, he is listed as a roomer and is single. His occupation is listed as "Car cleaner" working for the railroad co. It must have been dirty work cleaning out rail cars. Both of his parents were born in Virginia and he can read and write but has not attended school within the last 5 years. His race is listed as "Nig".

We do not yet know if Hamilton's parents, or his grandparents, were forcibly removed from their ancestral homes to work the plantations of the south. We don't yet know how the surname of Sandridge came to be. This morning Hamilton's temporary marker was hidden from view - it was an invisible grave. This afternoon it no longer is hidden from view. We know more than we did, but not by much.

Two of the people for whom I was fulfilling a photo request for will have their story told. It will be told with sensitivity and care, but it is going to be a difficult story to tell since it involves love, a tormented soul, and unclaimed cremains.

In the meantime we honor Hamilton Sandridge.

98 Year Old Tragedy

Many a time when Dave or I are just walking through the cemetery that our attention is called to a certain stone or a group of stones. The spirit of the cemetery want their stories told, and here is a story that is very sad indeed.

Such is the case of the Strang family. On May 10, 1913, at approximately 7pm, Mrs. Lillian Strang had a complete lapse of sanity and poisoned and then shot her children. The poison was bisulfide of mercury, a deadly toxin. Apparently, Mrs. Strang "came to her senses" after she shot her baby and then herself with a .22 rifle and tried to give her children emetics. It didn't work.
Mrs. Strang's husband, Earl, arrived home at 10:30 p.m. and phoned the doctor telling the doctors that "something is very wrong with my wife and children and you'd better come quick." The doctor arrived and immediately summoned the police and Mrs. Strang and her children were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital where they lingered for a time before death mercifully claimed them. The youngest child, Oakley, only 6 months at the time, was not given the poison, but was shot through the head and survived. Not surprisingly, Mr. Strang left town soon after and moved to Roseburg where he began a new life and later a new family. His son, Oakley, who survived the attempt on his life by his mother, died in 1971.

A Demise of an Untimely Nature: 1915

Little Lloyd Hallett was probably enjoying the warm sun on the deck of the houseboat near Hayden Island where he lived with his family when he accidentally fell into the Columbia River. His body was recovered several days later downriver.

Headstone of the Week

This is one of the only upright arched marble stones in the cemetery. It is a style found abundantly in the cemeteries in New England. Featured prominently is the arch of oak leaves and acorns representing sacred eternity and the Corinthian columns on either side holding up the over-arching protection of God. I celebrate the memory of Mr. James Wilson who, after living 68 years died peacefully in his sleep. Now he sleeps under the maple trees in Multnomah Park Cemetery.

An Untimely Demise

On February 21, 1920, 13 year-old Gilbert Kuehl was riding his bicycle near the intersection of N.E. 17th & Glisan when he was struck by a car driven by Mr. William Daughtrey. About a month after his untimely death, Gilbert's father, Albert, who ran a boarding house, filed a wrongful death suit against Mr. Daughtrey for $7,500. There were no further entries in the paper about this suit, so it may have been settled out of court, as these things usually are.

Albert Weideman

In late May 1927 young Albert was one of 32 boys who took swimming lessons at a local YMCA.

Six years later on May 29, 1933 he is out with a group of boys playing at what was called May's Lake, just a short distance from Parkrose Highschool where he was a Junior. The boys were having fun playing with a raft in the water. Who knows, maybe they had read about the adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer and wanted to build a raft? During playing with the raft they thought it would be fun to try and overturn it. In their attempt to overturn the raft Albert got hit in the head by a piece of wood that knocked him out. He sank in to deep water and drowned. He left his parents Otto and Emma and a younger brother Richard. Albert is our latest addition to the Garden of Untimely Demise.

Sleep Soundly Silent Snow

A late winter storm brought a coating of snow to the area yesterday. For a few hours, the cemetery was covered with the quilt of winter.

Mary's Tree

We were looking for the markers of several Morningside Patients recently. We found only one.
One patient from Alaska is Mary Link. She was about 41 years old when she left this life on September 19, 1921 at Morningside. There is no marker - if there ever was one - for Mary. Rather at her site is a rather large tree which I now call Mary Link's tree. Long may it grow, watching over the sleeping ground.

Headstone of the Week

Baby Stilwell lived a very short time, just 23 days in 1922. I am told that until after WW2, a child was given a name only after the baby had lived at least 3 weeks and was still healthy. In some cultures, the baby only received his/her name upon completion of their first year of life.

There are many "Baby" headstones at MPC.

R.I.P. Baby

The wrought iron cross in section F is a mystery since there are no names on it. It is a beautiful work of art.

I was at the New Era Cemetery in Clackamas County
on Feb. 9, 2011 and discovered that that cemetery has four of these wrought iron crosses of varying sizes.

What is the history behind these monuments?

Deeper Meanings

A deeper study into the meanings of the type of monuments we find in cemeteries reveals this interesting factoid from the pages of a Victorian book about the meaning of ancient symbols:
The obelisk represents the sacred male energy coming from heaven, connecting with the sacred female receptive energy of the earth. Where they meet is sacred. Life begins at that place, or perhaps in some belief systems, life returns there to begin again. The top of the obelisk points toward heaven, beginning the cycle of life all over again.
I think I can live with that.

A Flower in the Garden of Untimely Demise: Harvey Hibbard

It was probably a warm summer's day in August, 1920. Two young boys playing in the cool space under a house. Harvey Hibbard and his friend were doing what little boys do, playing coyboys and indians. Unfortunately, the gun was loaded and little Harvey was shot.

Unfortunate because it was a childs game we would now see as abhorant, and unfortunate because the .38 Harvey took from his home did have a bullet in it. A bullet that went through his chest below the right lung. Harvey was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital where he died from the bullet wound at 8 pm. Another flower in the garden of tears.

Headstone of the Week

William H. Fenton born 1872, died in 1914.
Here rests a Woodman of the World

Headstone of the Week

George was the son of Edison Tanquary and was 48 years old when he died on April 12, 1918. He had siblings named Millie, Nellie, C.M. and L.H. He could have been a victim of the influenza epidemic that swept through Portland in 1918.