Lone Fir Cemetery

History

19th and 20th centuries

The original land owner, James B. Stephens, purchased a land claim extending from the east bank of the Willamette River to present day Southeast 23rd and from Stark Street to Division Street. J. B. Stephens' father Emmor Stephens died shortly after the Stephens family arrived to Oregon in 1846 and was buried on the family farm. In 1854, Stephens sold the land to Colburn Barrell, with the caveat that he maintain Emmor's gravesite. Barrell owned a steamboat the Gazelle, which in 1854 exploded near Oregon City, killing a passenger and Barrell's business partner Crawford Dobbins. Barrel then set up a cemetery by setting aside 10 acre and burying the casualties of the explosion at the site of Emmor Stephens, calling it Mt. Crawford.

Plots at the cemetery were then sold for $10 with 20 acre additional being added to Lone Fir by 1866. That year Barrel offered to sell the cemetery to the city of Portland for $4,000, but the city declined and instead Barrell sold it to a group of Portland families and plotholders. The cemetery was then renamed the cemetery to Lone Fir, which was suggested by Colburn Barrell's wife, Aurelia, as there was only a single fir tree at the site.

In 1903, a $3,500 memorial to the soldiers of the Indian Wars, Mexican–American War, the American Civil War, and the Spanish–American War was built at the cemetery. The Soldier's Monument was paid for by donations by over 500 citizens. This was the location of many Chinese graves, which were removed the next year.

21st century

In 2004 it was discovered that more graves of Chinese persons likely remained at the site. it was removed in August 2007. In January 2007 Metro took over control of this section of the cemetery after a transfer from the county. On August 16, 2007, the cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places. On November 25, 2020, the portion of cemetery's war memorial honoring Mexican-American soldiers was vandalized with graffiti,

Currently the cemetery is located between Stark Street on the north and Morrison Street to the south, with Southeast 20th Avenue bounding on the west and Southeast 26th on the east.

Notable burials

The cemetery is the resting place for several former mayors of the city, as well as other politicians and famous citizens.

• Eliza Barchus (1857–1959), landscape painter
• J. A. Chapman (1821–1855), Mayor of Portland
• William Williams Chapman (1808–1892), U.S. Representative from Iowa Territory
• George Edward Cole (1826–1906), postmaster of Portland, Territorial Governor of Washington
• George Law Curry (1820–1878), Governor of Oregon Territory
• Thomas J. Dryer (1808–1879), first editor of The Oregonian
• Alma Francis (1890–1968), Broadway and silent film actress
• Melvin Clark George (1849–1933), U.S. Representative
• James C. Hawthorne, founder of Oregon Hospital for the Insane
• Frederick Van Voorhies Holman, attorney and city promoter
• Harry Lane (1855–1917), Mayor of Portland, U.S. Senator
• Asa Lovejoy (1808–1882), delegate to the Oregon Constitutional Convention and a founder of Portland
• Esther Pohl Lovejoy (1869–1967), physician and public health pioneer, suffrage activist, and congressional candidate
• Daniel H. Lownsdale
• William S. Newbury (1834–1915), Oregon lawyer and Mayor of Portland
• Earl Riley, mayor of Portland
• Harriet Redmond, suffragist
• Henry S. Rowe, mayor of Portland
• Samuel L. Simpson, poet
• William Wallace Thayer (1827–1899), Governor of Oregon, Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court
• Socrates H. Tryon, namesake for Tryon Creek State Natural Area

References

References

1. Portland Historic Landmarks Commission. (July 2014). "Historic Landmarks – Portland, Oregon".
2. Metro. "Friends of Lone Fir".
3. [http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/cc/ds1/history_loneFir.shtml A Brief History of Lone Fir Cemetery.] Multnomah County. Retrieved on March 2, 2008. {{webarchive. link. (October 9, 2006)
4. (2004-11-18). "Parking lot may lie atop cemetery". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
5. In 2005 city leaders proposed removing the government building that was constructed over the graves of these Chinese immigrants and re-connecting that portion with the main cemetery;[http://www.portlandonline.com/leonard/index.cfm?a=hhghh&c=chedf Leaders push plan to fix historic Lone Fir cemetery.] Portland Online. Retrieved on March 2, 2008.
6. Nakamura, Motoya. (August 16, 2005). "Demolition begins new chapter at Morrison Building site". The Oregonian.
7. Oppenheimer, Laura. Metro takes over lost, historic section of Lone Fir cemetery. ''[[The Oregonian]]'', January 5, 2007.
8. [https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/weekly-list-2007-national-register-of-historic-places.pdf Register of Historic Places: National Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 8/13/07-8/17/07], registry number 07000824. National Park Service. Retrieved on August 31, 2007.
9. (November 26, 2020). "Vandals topple statue, tag war memorial at Lone Fir Cemetery". KION News.
10. Lone Fir covers {{convert. 30.5. acre
11. Kestenbaum, Lawrence. (2008-06-16). "Multnomah County, Oregon". The Political Graveyard.
12. [http://www.friendsoflonefircemetery.org/burialfacts.html Some Interesting Burial Facts.] {{Webarchive. link. (2007-09-10 Lone Fir Cemetery. Retrieved on March 2, 2008.)
13. (August 23, 1968). "Obituary: Alma Francis Fields". [[The Oregonian]].
14. (2009). "Search cemetery records". Metro Regional Government.
15. (1958). "Book Review: Women Doctors of the World by Esther Pohl Lovejoy (1957)". Bulletin of the Medical Library Association.
16. "Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy (1869–1967)".
17. News, Helen Silvis of The Skanner. "Black Suffragist Hattie Redmond Remembered with New Headstone".
18. (4 July 2018). "Redmond, Harriet (1862–1952) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". The Black Past.