Snowy Day

Portland is seeing a strong winter storm now with snow on the ground and freezing rain on the way.   BRRRRR!

However the weather, Dave and I still got to the cemetery to document its changing appearance.  Snow is such a rare occurence in Portland that a few pics are absolutely necessary.

 

This angel is not from Multnomah.  Rather this photo was taken in January 1980 at Lone Fir Cemetery during the remarkable snow and ice storm combination storm that year.  From David A Anderson's photos on flickr.

Faces in the Snow

Here are a few of the faces etched onto stones.  The recent snow creates a perfect medium to photograph them, with good reflection of light.  These are the faces of strength and character.  I honor them. 

The Glory of Autumn

The colors were inspiring on this beautiful fall day.  Just had to share! 

Thieving Magpie . . .

I went to the cemetery yesterday with a bag of peanuts for our resident crows.  Yes, I know I'm not supposed to feed the wildlife and they rarely get treats from yours truly, but the bag was in the truck and, well, I just could not resist.  My friends say I'm terminally "critter co-dependent."  Yeah, Okay...guilty.

So anyway, I put a couple of handfulls of the peanuts on a headstone and stood back to take a few photos...this is one.  This lucky crow is down for TWO peanuts at a time.  In fact, he/she came twice and picked up two peanuts each time. 

So much for the phrase "Eat like a bird."

Just South of Aunt Sally

I was going through some old cemetery books and came across this entry from 1920.  Apparently William Rowley purchased two lots, "south of Aunt Sallie."  Well, that tells me all I need to know, just like "Unknown Man Sunday."  If any of the readers of this blog wonder why we don't know where all these folks have been put, this is what we're up against.  These old entries don't have the lot or grave numbers, and "Aunt Sallie" never was identified.  The formers owners of the cemetery, Mr. & Mrs. Dorsey had their own special way of identifying of the burial places of incoming residents.  The blocks were divided up into areas designated for the various undertaking firms who did business with the cemetery.  We know, for example, that J.P. Finley purchased most of blocks G & H at a discount then resold the graves to their customers at a slight profit.  Then there was Kenworthy, Miller & Tracey, Lerch, Holman, Mt. Scott and many others who brought their charges to lay in the earth of Multnomah Park.  Unfortunately for us, the records of block, lot and grave assignment are missing or incomplete.  This has caused some big headaches in the past when a grave, thought to be vacant,  was sold, opened and . . . . whoops . . . bones!!!!  which were then carefully put back and the grave closed.  This is one reason why Multnomah Park is closed to new grave sales.  It all has to do with Aunt Sallie . . where ever she is. 

OCCUPIED

Here's one for all you cemetery sleuths out there (you know who you are) - Who is in Grave 5, Lot 14, Block D?    The old cemetery records simply list the space as - you guessed it, "occupied"  No name, no date, no funeral parlor, no data at all. 

The size of the stone and the lettering would lead us to believe the stone might have been put there sometime before 1935..... does that help?

The Week After Memorial Day

A week after Memorial Day this year, the weather was warm and sunny, very much unlike the weather ON Memorial Day.  Oh yes, we were there under our little blue Metro-provided canopy (Thanks, Monty) and braved the rain and cold breeze.  Very few people visited until after the rain stopped later in the afternoon.

The flags and flowers will remain on the graves until next week when they will be collected and the flags recyled for next year.   The flowers will be recyled as well but in a different way.  After all, Metro is dedicated to recycling in every form.

BLOWS OUT HIS BRAINS . . .

Carl O Gullander was too young to die.  But apparently felt it was better than what he was going thru.  He arrived in New York on 22 May 1900 on the "State of Nebraska" from Sweden.  He moved to Portland where he married "Mary" in May 1902.  "Mary" sued for divorce in September 1907 claiming that Carl did not contribute to her support.  On January 16, 1907 a well dressed Carl walked in to the tourist hotel in Tacoma, Washington, and in front of shocked witnesses walked up to a mirror and shot himself.  His body was returned to Portland where he is buried at Lone Fir.  He left a brother.

Religious Fanatacism

On June 19, 1919, Ina Edwards, 34, was cooking breakfast for her family when her husband, Thomas, 39, walked into the kitchen and shot her point plank in the chest.  She died instantly.  He then went to the neighbors and called his brother who lived nearby and told him what he had done.  Then he calmly walked back to his wife's body, laid down next to her and shot himself. He did not die immediately but continued to quote Revelation until he bled to death on the floor. 

The neighbors described Thomas as an unemployed iron worker who was fanatically religious and had fallen on hard times.

The couple had four children.

Thomas and Ina are buried in Section A, side by side.  

While locating markers today, we were treated to a momentary peek through the clouds of the sun. 

Fate?

On 13 Jan 1934, 49 year old, Mrs. Charlotte M Marsch  was out and about on the streets of Portland when she was struck by a car and died at Good Samaritan Hospital soon thereafter.  Upon hearing of her friend's death 60 year old Maggie McNeel went out to buy a new dress to wear for her friend's upcoming funeral when she too was struck by a car and died at Good Samaritan Hospital from injuries sustained.  Both ladies' funerals were held at Holman & Lutz on 16 Jan 1934 with burials at the Rose City Cemetery.  Maggie was a single woman, while Charlotte was married and worked as a garment inspector at Jantzen Knitting Mills.

Their death certificates were inspected on 2 November 2012 at the Oregon State Archives in Salem.

Through it All

In uncovering the layers of history of Morningside Hospital, I was told recently by a former employee that from 1928 until the hospital closed, a Catholic mass was said in the large room every week and also that a local parish (Ascension) had regular volunteers who assisted and visited the patients.  Indeed, the hospital was seen as an extension of the parish and patients were included, whenever possible, in parish life.  In death, patients were given last rights and then burial in a Catholic cemetery.  According to the former employee, (who, by the way is now 80 and has a remarkably good memory of her time at Morningside) other faiths represented in the neighborhood were regularly invited to the hospital on behalf of the patients, but none other than Ascension Parish responded.  Quite remarkable!

Headstone of the Week - The Broken Chain

Several weeks ago, Dave and I were in Salem at the State Archives.  On our lunch break near the old IOOF Cemetery, (which is huge and quite fabulous, by the way), I found this old stone with a curious carving.  It shows the broken chain in symbolism that the person under the stone no longer has any ties to this earthly realm.

The stone dates from 1884 and is sheltered under a large Madrone tree, which preserves the carving nicely.  

 

The Great Mystery

Marcus Peterson was a patient at Morningside Hospital when he died on June 21, 1940 at the age of 79.  He was buried the following day in Multnomah Cemetery in Section H, Lot 20A, grave 4.

We know he was admitted to Morningside in October of 1932 with a diagnosis of "senility and atherosclerosic dementia."  We might call that Alzheimer's today. 

Marcus' time at Morningside were easy years.  He was housed, fed, clothed and looked after.  He died of pneumonia, what some call "the old man's friend."   A nurse who wrote a medical column around that time in the New York Times said that a combination of pneumonia and a little morphine was "one shallow breath away from unraveling the great mystery." 

Salacious, "En Dishabille"

In the wee hours of January 1, 1922, Mrs. Agnes Purdin and her lover, Howard Sigsby were nestled together in Agnes' home on SE 47th St., when her estranged husband broke into the house, disturbing the sleeping lovers.

Agnes and Sigsby managed to get out of the bed before Purdin shot Agnes three times in the head.  Sigsby was shot three times before Purdin took a hatchet to his head, reducing it to pulp.   

Purdin left the house and returned later to look for his things.  Three days later, a neighbor, not having seen any activity in the house, wandered over and looked through a window.  What she saw was Howard's body on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood; she called police.

The case was sensationalized in the press.  Purdin was arrested and tried and found guilty of manslaughter.  He served seven years for murdering two people in cold blood.  His attorney argued that he was insane at the time of the murder; the jury bought it.  It was improper, after all, to be a married woman and found to be "en disabille" with a man who was not your husband.

Sigsby is interred in Section B, with a small block marker.  Agnes is interred at Rose City.   Once Mr. Purdin was released from prison, he left the state.  

Our Work is Noticed!

Our work with the Lost Alaskans project and Morningside Hospital has received some good press by Katy Muldoon in the Oregonian.  For some reason the stories of these people resonates with us.  For some they were removed from their traditional home to a strange land.  For others who went to Alaska to search for their riches their journey ended with a one way ticket to Portland.  But many were helped by their stay at Morningside as well and were released and remember their stay there in a positive way.

Show Girl

While researching the interments for 1917, I came across this little flower of wisdom!
According to the obit, the mortal remains of one Mrs. Sallie M. Smith were, at the undertaking parlor of Miller & Tracy, perpetually embalmed.   Hmmm!
If my extensive college education has taught me anything, it is that the word "perpetual" means "indefinite."  That is, her remains are preserved forever.  Even with the advanced state of embalming chemicals available to the undertakers of the time, Sallie's remains would eventually deteriorate without fresh solution pumped though her body.  Perhaps she was immersed in a vat of formaldehyde to keep her fresh and life-like. Was she used as a demonstration of the latest preservation skills to convince families to embalm their loved ones?  I would think so, since embalming has a steep markup.
It's been 95 years since Sallie was "perpetually embalmed."  Gee, maybe I'll wander over to Miller & Tracy to see if she's still there!

UPDATE:  It seems that Mrs. Smith wasn't so well preserved after all. My friend, Christoph managed to get a hold of the mortuary record for Mrs. Smith.  Seems that a month after this notice ran in the paper, she was buried at Rose City Cemetery in a "Half Couch Casket" trimmed in grey velvet.  

Miller & Tracy, like so many small mortuaries in Portland, closed a number of years ago.  Their records, fortunately, are held "perpetually" in the custody of a local (and very helpful) funeral director.  

We don't know for certain that she was "perpetually embalmed" but we do know she is perpetually dead. 

Charlotte Hood, Independent Pioneer Lady

It is common in Portland cemeteries to find people who came across the infamous Oregon Trail.  People endured struggles through hardships to get to the “promised land”.  Some people even know that the Oregon Territory was once owned by the British before it became a part of the United States.  Little is mentioned about the people who were promised land by the British to populate the Oregon Territory, only to have their promise broken.

Resting in Block D Lot 60 is a small and simple complimentary marker for Mrs. Charlotte Hood.  She was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1840 according to her death certificate, but her baptismal record says she was baptized on 14-April-1838.  Either way her parents were James Flett and Chloe (Bird) Flett.  Her grandfather was a Chief Factor for the Hudson’s Bay Company and Governor in what is now Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  The family had numerous prominent ties with the history of early Canada.  At this time the Red River colony (now Winnipeg) was becoming over populated.  The British were aware of the pending threat the Americans posed in taking over the Oregon Territory.  They wanted to populate and secure their stakes in the area.  They offered people the opportunity to come to Oregon where the Hudson’s Bay Company would grant them “houses, barns, and fenced fields along with fifteen cows, one bull, fifty ewes, one ram, and oxen or horses, with farming implements and seed”, to establish themselves with the agreement that they would offer some of their initial crops to the company.  The company would use the crops to fill the demands for grain, hides, meat and tallow for their posts in Alaska, Hawaii, and California.  So good of an offer, that 80 families signed up leading a group that spread out over a mile on 1841 led by Charlotte’s uncle James Sinclair.  They came with all of their possessions pulled in two wheeled carts called Red River carts.  They were forced to ditch their carts and continue their journey on horseback when they reached the Rocky Mountains.  The journey led them through hostile native lands and through other hardships similar to those of the Oregon Trail Immigrants.

After their 2000 mile journey they arrived at Ft Vancouver with everyone who left for the journey, and 3 children that were born on the way.  Unfortunately, upon their arrival at Ft. Vancouver, they were told that the company could not honor the offer made to them in Canada.  However, if they wanted to go to California they would be fitted with the gear they offered their usual trappers.  If they wanted to go to the American side of the river, they would receive nothing.  That if they would go up to Nisqually that they would give them seed and some farming implements, but no houses, barns, of livestock.  Some of the immigrants tried going to Nisqually, but found the grounds difficult to farm, forcing the remaining immigrants to abandon Nisqually for the fertile plains in the Tualatin valley.  After such hardships it made their decision easier to join the American side.  So much that her father and four of her uncles were a part of the men who cast their votes at Champoeg, declaring Oregon as a part of the United States creating a provisional government on the 2^nd of  May, 1842. Charlotte’s mother died in childbirth on the Tualatin Plains on the 22^nd of January, 1843, and her father died there on the 10^th of November, 1843, leaving her and her siblings to be raised by family members.  Charlotte married twice in her life.  First was to Aurora Shumway then second to Thomas Benton Hood.  Having divorced both, Charlotte had 5 children from these two marriages.  Charlotte died from an infection caused from a sliver in her hand on the 16^th of December, 1919, and was buried at Multnomah Park Cemetery were she rests by herself with a simple complimentary headstone.