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.