Daniel Bonner

Daniel Bonner has the record for being the oldest known person in the cemetery. He appears in the 1880 Census of New York City, living with his family. The census record gives his date of birth as 1816. The earliest birth date of cemetery residents goes to Mrs.Agnes Otty, who was born in 1814. Daniel appears in the 1860 census of Philadelphia and again in 1863 in the rolls of the Union Army Draft Register of Pennsylvania. He is listed in the 1910 Census of Hillsboro at 92 year of age.
Daniel was a resident of Hillsboro, but died in the Multnomah County Poor Farm in Troutdale - now McMenamin's Edgefield Manor on November 27, 1918. He was one of over 1300 Oregonians who lost their lives during the Influenza pandemic - most in a two month period.
Daniel, a coal miner from Ireland, was a resident of the Multnomah Farm for 2 months and ten days. He had been living in the country for about 65 years, and was widowed.
His place of interment is currently unknown.

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.

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.

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.

I can't believe it's been just a few short months since Eric and I have undertaken this project of ours. In this short period of time we have added over 4,000 names to the Find A Grave website database. In the beginning we were transcribing information from photographs taken in the cemetery, but now thanks to Metro we're using data from their database. Still a time consuming process, but it is much easier and quicker using data already on spreadsheets. We've also taken over 5 photos for people with relatives in the cemetery.

During this time Eric has also dug up the history of the Morningside Hospital to which Alaska sent it's mental patients until the 1960's. Several of the patients who died while at the hospital are buried here at Multnomah Park.

This is the marker for Harry Loud, or Lold, who died in 1915. His marker is along the fenceline at the back of the cemetery, along with several other Morningside patients.

Neither Eric or I know where this project will lead us, but we would like to have a user friendly website showing the cemetery and the lots, photos of the markers, and a brief bio of each person. Wouldn't that be grand?!