Prostated by Grief

In 1907, spinal meningitis was sweeping through Portland, killing scores. One family it ravaged was the Miller family of Lents. Jacob and Jessie Miller had eight children, and six of them died within the course of one week. According to the newspaper article at the time, the remaining family was "prostrated by grief." Jacob lived for another 11 years and Jessie died in 1957. The two children who survived, Jesse and Alexander went into the U.S. Army during WW1.

This is an URBAN Cemetery!!!

If there is one inescapable fact about Multnomah Park, it is in an URBAN area! Whenever I am there I see hookers, tweekers, bums and other assorted citizenry. Across the street on Holgate is a plasma center that is always busy. Across 82nd is a motel, a car parts store, Starbucks, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Quiznos, Value Village, and right next door is a wholesale used car lot. The cemetery is right in the middle of it all. When the cemetery was deeded back in 1888, all that surrounded the cemetery was farmland and orchards. This photo is taken from just outside Starbucks looking across the street to Walgreens and you can see some of the tall fir trees in the cemetery. A little green oasis in a sea of asphalt.

Thats a New One

Dave and I worked in the cemetery for over two hours today in Section H. We were joined by a lovely lady, Roshelle, who didn't seem to mind the cold muddy ground. We made some great progress. Here is one of the stones we unearthed. It is for Peter Kigandertirk. The name sounds dutch, but is it? Yet another mystery. Also, both yesterday and today there were funerals at the cemetery. One in section D and another in section B. I am told that there are more deaths around Christmas than at any other time of year. Must be the fruitcake!

Baby Foxes

Here are two markers for two babies with one name. Baby Joe Fox, 1910-1912 and Baby Joe Fox 1914-1916. I would like to think that if there were a third Baby Joe Fox, that he lived to a rip old age.

One thing leads to another

Looking at the above photo of a monument in rather poor condition it is hard to tell what it says. I took the photo of this monument on a recent trip to the cemetery on a whim. About the only thing I could easily read is that this person died in Oct. 1906, they were 60 some years old and 12 days, and they are at rest. I figured I should be able to find someone in the database who died in Oct. 1906 so I searched the spreadsheet and found one person: Eliza Fenton Plummer. you can now make out her name at the top Eliza Fenton, probably the words "wife of" and an 'H C'. The surname is still illegible, but there does appear to be an 'E' towards the end of the name. The date of death can be surmised as '28'. Eliza Fenton Plummer is buried near her husband H C Plummer!
Having looked through Funeral Notices printed in the Oregonian, I've learned there's a pattern in when a Funeral Notice is printed after a person's death; and that is usually two days. But for some reason I went to the Multnomah County Library's on-line files of the Oregonian for Oct 31, 1906 to check if I could find Eliza Fenton Plummer's Funeral Notice. To my disappointment it wasn't there. However, there was a Funeral Notice for a Frank Crupy who was being buried at Multnomah Cemetery. I went back to the data base to find a Crupy being buried there and found only one person with that surname. The only information I found in the cemetery database was for a "Mr. Crupy" who is buried in Section A, Lot 17, grave nr 1. At least now we now have a name for Mr. Crupy and we now know when he died, 104 years ago. There is no marker at A, 17, 1 commemorating Mr. Crupy.

October 10, 2010 has come and gone and with it a lot of hype over 10-10-10. Well, I looked in the Oregonian archives - available on line with a Multnomah County Library Card and found a listing for those who departed this life the last time the calendar read 10-10-10.
Timothy J Lynch, aged 83; Mary Ellanore Dine, aged 3 months; and Olaf Lawrence, aged 55. Two of these people are now located at Riverview, while I was unable to locate the third.

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.

OH JOY

I just could not pass this one up. I was walking through Section D, on a beautiful early autumn day and there he was, Mr. Obediah H. Joy. I love some of the names in the cemetery!

Pure and Holy

I suppose that by reading the words inscribed on this granite stone, that one would suppose that Miss Tennie Johnson was "Pure and Holy." At the time of her passing, Miss Johnson was around 76 years of age. To live to that age in 1914, was certainly an achievement, and if she did it by being pure and holy, I say: Good on ya, Miss Tennie!

Morningside Patient: Bolamatoff

Ermia Bolamatoff was an Aleut native living near Valdez, Alaska in 1914 when he was brought before the Magistrate Mr. Wickersham on charges of homicide. Though he did have a translator during his hearing, he was found guilty but insane and remanded to Morningside Hospital. He died three months after arrival at the facility. I have not seen the trial transcript so I can't make comment on Ermia's capacity, but I can't help but wonder if he was adequately and competently represented at his brief hearing.