At the end of this month, I will volunteer to help the Lone Fir Cemetery with its Tour of Untimely Departures. And this week, we had our first walk-through. Our leaders of the day were Margaret and Katie.
These two fine ladies walked our group of about 20 volunteers around Lone Fir, explaining how the tour will work. We followed each of the two routes (called North and South) and stopped by each of the graves where an actor will play the person who untimely departed (that usually means they died young).
A few of the actors were with us, to get the feel of things and practice their speeches. The actress who plays Maude McCroskey even came in costume and make up! She told her sad tale of being murdered by her abusive ex-husband, and we were all sad. But then she got to the part where HE became the last person executed in Multnomah County.
On a lighter note, the woman portraying Chloe Connelly Boone Curry told the story of her life, more than her death. She was the great granddaughter of Daniel Boone and came west with her family as a young woman. She became the first teacher in Oregon outside the mission system. She had the perfect demeanor for a teacher… sweet, loving, and with an strong backbone. She reminded me a little bit of myself.
Four graves are visited on each tour, with lots of interesting stories in between. The afternoon walk-through went well, and I look forward to our dress rehearsal next week and then the main event on October 28!
P.S. I couldn’t resist this picture of Margaret and a fellow ghoul admiring a brand new headstone made for a recently-passed fellow. The etched portrait and the leaves are so colorful!
Yesterday morning, Auntie Bridgett and I went on a tour of the Lone Fir Cemetery, just down the street from us at Stark and 26th. This cemetery has been used since 1846, when the farmer who owned the land, James Stephens, buried his elderly father. He later sold the land to a steamship owner named Colburn Barrell, who used it within a year to bury people who died when his steamship The Gazelle exploded.
Mr. and Mrs. Stephens, original owner of the cemetery
The first thing we saw when we got to the cemetery was a lady coming out, followed by a whole flock of crows. She visits the cemetery every morning and feeds them dry cat food she carries in a plastic bag. She likes the attention, she says. I’m sure the crows enjoy the breakfast!
Crow Photo Credit: Bridgett Spicer
We met Joel, our guide, and the other people on our tour. Joel is a volunteer for The Friends of the Lone Fir Cemetery, a group of people who got together after mean people broke into the cemetery on Halloween many years ago and broke a bunch of headstones and monuments. The “Friends” started repairing and guarding the cemetery, and asked the city of Portland to help. They do a good job.
We learned that the graves aren’t really organized, but people are mostly buried chronologically, in time order, from the northwest corner towards the southeast. Of course, there are exceptions , and very recent graves can be right next to pioneer headstones. Many of the old ones are impossible to read because moss grows on the stones. Eternal rest is assured. Eternal identification, not so much.
There are many beautiful black headstones with Russian writing and engraved portraits on them. When Mr. Reagan was President, he offered political asylum to any Russian or Ukrainian citizens who were Christians to come live in America, and many came to the Portland area. There are now thousands of these folks living here, and when they die, they are buried with these very distinctive headstones made by two men, who are the only ones in town who know how to make them. They have information on the front and poetry on the back. Your mommy has been translating them for me.
Russian headstone
Another interesting grave has an urn sitting on it rather than a headstone. James Hansen Frush was chief bartender at the Front Street Saloon, always generous with his friends and very well-loved. While he was alive, he had this big metal urn that he used to offer eggnog during the holiday season. When he died, his friends decided to place the urn over his grave to remember his generosity. But the next Christmas, they missed him, so they came across the river, fetched the urn back to the bar, and enjoyed eggnog in his memory, returning the urn to the grave after the New Year. This back and forth went on for a few years. The urn that is still here is a concrete cast of that urn. There is even a hole there the eggnog would come out.
Bartender’s Memorial Photo Credit: Bridgett Spicer
There are many others, but the last one I will tell you about today is the grave of Eric Ladd. When Eric Ladd was born in Portland, his name was Leslie Carter Hansen. He became an actor, changed his name to Eric Ladd, moved to New York, then Hollywood, and retired back to Portland, very successful. He used the money he had made to help preserve some of the beautiful old buildings in town that were gong to be torn down.
When Eric got sick at 78 or so, a friend was traveling in Romania and found a beautiful iron cross. The friend bought it to use for when Eric died. Then his friends bought some iron fencing from Mark Twain’s house in Missouri (Eric loved Mark Twain’s writings and had made shows of his stories) and put the fencing around the grave to protect the cross. It is ornate, historic, and perfect.
My visit to the Lone Fir ended, as it always does, by me feeling lucky to be alive and happy to learn about all these people who lived here before me. But this time, I have fun information, as well!
Dear Liza 