Pioneer cemeteries of Oregon's history #1

 Little Fox here.  I have been trying to keep busy this winter and I have decided to research a little bit of Oregon's history.

Today I am at Champoeg State Park.  In the 1840s the question of the area known as Oregon was a disputed area.  The United States and the United Kingdom both wanted to lay claim to the Oregon area.  In 1843 one hundred and two representatives voted whether to join the United States and/or United Kingdom and the vote was 50 to 52 in favor of joining the United States.  It took a couple of years for the territory to be established but by 1848 the Oregon Territory was established.

The next stop on our trip is to the Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland.  It's a pioneer cemetery.  In Oregon, a pioneer cemetery must have at least one person buried before 1909.  Clearly I need to be careful around these monuments. 

Lone Fir is the first cemetery in Portland.  

We will start at block 14.  

Block 14 is an area where patients from the nearby Oregon Hospital for the Insane (yes, that was the real name).  They also buried over  800 Chinese men at block 14 and from 1928 to 1940 they disinterred many of them and sent the bodies back to China.  However, research has shown that there are still bodies buried at block 14.  In the future, a memorial garden is to be planted at block 14 to honor the patients and Chinese who are/were buried there.

Crawford Dobbins is Lone Firs first resident. Crawford died when the steamship Gazelle exploded killing many aboard. Colburn Barrell owned the Gazelle and the land where  Dobbins and others from the explosion are buried here and hence Mt. Crawford cemetery was established until Barrell's wife suggested Lone Fir as the name.  

Let's see who else we can meet.