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.

Little Victories and Slow Progress

When we started uncovering markers at the cemetery more than two years ago, we knew it would be a long term project.  When we first started, we would spend three days a week in the cemetery, regardless of the weather, uncovering stones.  Now, it's more like twice a week in good weather (not freezing or pouring).  I remind myself it is still progress.  Take Mr. Peter Norberg for example.  We know he died in 1919 and was interred in Section H, but the records were a tad sketchy.  So when we uncovered the markers in Lot 19...there he was.  A small victory for Peter, for us, for Metro and for that one researcher who will at last find Peter in the records; could be huge! 

Charles R. Welch

1889 - 1918

Died in the Service

Charles R Welch has a flag placed by his granite monument in Section A.  He died while in the service.  He didn't die in battle on the European front like so many did.  Charles was stationed at the Vancouver Barracks when he was struck down and killed by influenza.  In 1918 it didn't matter where you were, or were stationed, your life would be impacted in some manner by the great influenza epidemic.   Charles' service is remembered this Memorial Day.

Our meetings with the Lost Alaskans group in Anchorage were fantastic.  The group is highly energetic and committed to knowing what happened to all of the Alaskans who were sent to Morningside Hospital and never returned home.  Our work in Portland is helping to answer those questions.
One of the things we learned was that some of the people who were being tried for being insane were able to use the judicial process to help fight those charges and at times got the sentence delayed, or even successfully fought those charges.
Of course there were people sent to Morningside who now would not be institutionalized and for whom medication now are used, but there were definitely those who could only be helped by being institutionalized/hospitalized.
Eric and David both benefitted by attending the meetings, and are extremely honored at being invited north.  The Lost Alaskans group is an awesome group of people who were very touched when they were shown photos of the markers of Alaskans in Portland area cemeteries.  We are now currently busy helping the project by helping with data extraction from the Death Certificates obtained at the Oregon State Archives in Salem, and from various quarterly reports issued by the Hospital.  The stories being gathered are poignant and ones that shouldn't be forgotten.

Tuesday May 8, 2012

     Today we had the great fortune of being shown some of the spectacular scenery that makes up the area around the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet and the Prince William Sound.    There aren't any words I can think of that really describe this beauty, but "WOW" suffices, at least temporarily.
     The month is May, but we look out of the warm vehicle and it sure looks like it's still mid-winter out there.  It really isn't winter, the trees are starting to bud, the lows are up in to the 30's, and the daylight hours are quite long.  Nothing like the long freezing nights of winter.
     The stories that emanate from this place called Alaska are thick with hope and hardship, riches, hope, brokenness, death and insanity. Lots of insanity.   The winters alone cause a certain insanity that we, in the 21st century call seasonal affective disorder, but our Victorian friends called Melancholia.  
     If you were a guy from the lower 48 states back in the late 1800's and heard of the gold to be found up here you might be tempted to drop everything and head north to find your fortune.  You would become one among hundreds.  If you were an enterprising young woman just off the boat from France you might just get an idea to head to the gold fields of Alaska and try to make your fortune through the business of selling kindness to strangers. 
     There are tales of cannibalism during the Gold Rush; harsh winters can cause that - witness the Donner Party.  One man we know of did exactly that; three men in a cabin over a brutal Arctic winter and one survived physically though the experience claimed his reason and he spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum, namely Morningside Hospital of Dr. Coe in Portland. 
     Between 1904 and 1968, Morningside Hospital became home for "paretics (those suffering from tertiary syphilis) , "homeosexuals", "morons" (though we call their condition Down's Syndrome these days), "idiots" (developmentally disabled), epileptics, sufferers of tuberculosis, and the rather general but applicable label of "delusional manic depressive."  I supposed that covers most bases . . . 
     The winters are long, hard, and cold in Alaska.  You'd better be prepared.

We drove by The Park Monday on our way to the airport.  Fitting somehow to drive by and be reminded that the reasons we're heading to Anchorage lie therein.  Juries of 6 men found their peers to be mentally insane and those people were then sent south to Portland and Morningside Hospital.  Many of those people never returned and became The Lost Alaskans.  We have found the last resting spot for quite a few of those Lost Alaskans.  A few have monuments lovingly purchased by family.  Many have 'temporary' cement markers with their names and location imprinted on them.  Some have plain markers with no name but only a location on them.  Some people unfortunately remain lost buried in unmarked graves, or in graves that have been resold. 

While in Anchorage we expect to learn and share a lot of information on The Lost Alaskans, and to meet some very fascinating women who have been involved in this project for several years now.