Lone Fir Cemetery

File:Stephens, James and Elizabeth at Lone Fir Cemetery, 2012.JPG

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.{{cite web |author=Metro |author-link=Metro (Oregon regional government) |title=Friends of Lone Fir |url=http://www.friendsoflonefircemetery.org/history |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130712022451/http://www.friendsoflonefircemetery.org/history/ |archive-date=2013-07-12 |access-date=September 15, 2011 |website=Friends of Lone Fir}} 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 {{convert|10|acre|m2}} 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 {{convert|20|acre|m2}} 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.[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 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061009193233/http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/cc/ds1/history_loneFir.shtml |date=October 9, 2006 }} The Soldier's Monument was paid for by donations by over 500 citizens. Then in 1928 Multnomah County took over control and maintenance of Lone Fir. In 1947 the county paved part of the cemetery and later constructed a building on the site.{{cite news |title=Parking lot may lie atop cemetery |url=http://www.seattlepi.com/local/200150_cemetery18.html |agency=Associated Press |work=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date=2004-11-18 |access-date=2003-03-02}} This was the location of many Chinese graves, which were removed the next year.

In 2004 it was discovered that more graves of Chinese persons likely remained at the site. 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. it was removed in August 2007.{{cite news|title=Demolition begins new chapter at Morrison Building site|first=Motoya|last=Nakamura|date=August 16, 2005|work=The Oregonian}} In January 2007 Metro took over control of this section of the cemetery after a transfer from the county.Oppenheimer, Laura. Metro takes over lost, historic section of Lone Fir cemetery. The Oregonian, January 5, 2007. On August 16, 2007, the cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[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. On November 25, 2020, the portion of cemetery's war memorial honoring Mexican-American soldiers was vandalized with graffiti, The statue which stood atop this section of the war memorial was toppled and vandalized with graffiti as well.{{cite news|url=https://www.koin.com/news/crime/vandals-topple-statue-tag-war-memorial-at-lone-fir-cemetery/|title=Vandals topple statue, tag war memorial at Lone Fir Cemetery|publisher=KION News|date=November 26, 2020|access-date=November 27, 2020}}

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. Lone Fir covers {{convert|30.5|acre|m2}} and has over 25,000 graves, with over 10,000 of those unknown due to poor maintenance. It is home to the Pioneer Rose Garden.History in bloom. The Oregonian, May 24, 2007.

The cemetery is the resting place for several former mayors of the city, as well as other politicians and famous citizens.{{Cite web | url = http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/OR/MU.html#RBB1CQ6LY | title = Multnomah County, Oregon | access-date = 2008-03-02 | last = Kestenbaum | first = Lawrence | author-link = Lawrence Kestenbaum | date = 2008-06-16 | work = The Political Graveyard | location = Ann Arbor}}[http://www.friendsoflonefircemetery.org/burialfacts.html Some Interesting Burial Facts.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070910064921/http://www.friendsoflonefircemetery.org/burialfacts.html |date=2007-09-10 }} Lone Fir Cemetery. Retrieved on March 2, 2008.

{{Columns-list|

• 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{{cite news|work=The Oregonian|location=Portland, Oregon|page=1|title=Obituary: Alma Francis Fields|date=August 23, 1968}}
• 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{{cite web|title = Search cemetery records| publisher = Metro Regional Government | year = 2009| url = http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=11326 | access-date = August 3, 2009}}
• 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{{cite journal|last1=Marshall|first1=Mary Louise|title=Book Review: Women Doctors of the World by Esther Pohl Lovejoy (1957)|journal=Bulletin of the Medical Library Association|date=1958|volume=46|issue=1|pages=139–140|pmc=200230}}{{cite web|last1=Jensen|first1=Kimberly|title=Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy (1869–1967)|url=http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/lovejoy_esther_clayson_pohl_1869_1967_/#.VvDG3xinwbc|website=The Oregon Encyclopedia|access-date=22 March 2016}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theskanner.com/news/politics/15133-a-headstone-for-hattie-redmond-commemorates-100-years-of-womens-suffrage-2012-07-23|title=Black Suffragist Hattie Redmond Remembered with New Headstone|first=Helen Silvis of The Skanner|last=News|website=The Skanner News}}
• William S. Newbury (1834–1915), Oregon lawyer and Mayor of Portland
• Earl Riley, mayor of Portland
• Harriet Redmond, suffragist{{cite web|url=https://blackpast.org/aaw/redmond-harriet-1862-1952 |title=Redmond, Harriet (1862–1952) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed |date=4 July 2018 |publisher=The Black Past |access-date=2019-01-17}}
• 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

}}

• Anti-Chinese violence in Oregon
• Hillsboro Pioneer Cemetery
• River View Cemetery (Portland, Oregon)
• List of cemeteries in Oregon

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• [http://www.oregonmetro.gov/cemeteries Metro Pioneer Cemetery Program]
• [http://www.friendsoflonefircemetery.org/ Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery]
• [http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=39055 Lone Fir Cemetery: famous names] at Find a Grave
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929121452/http://www.wweek.com/html/cultfeature102500.html Willamette Week: Portland's most interesting residents don't walk the streets. At least you'd better hope they don't.]
• [http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/cc/ds1/docs/interesting_burials.pdf Interesting burials at Lone Fir]
• [http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/08/metros_historic_pioneer_cemete.html History in stone: Metro's pioneer cemeteries are filling up and wearing out] – The Oregonian

{{Buckman, Portland, Oregon}}

{{National Register of Historic Places Oregon}}

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Category:1855 establishments in Oregon Territory

Category:Buckman, Portland, Oregon

Category:Cemeteries in Portland, Oregon

Category:Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon

Category:Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Oregon

Category:Metro (Oregon regional government)

Category:Portland Historic Landmarks

Category:Cemeteries established in the 1850s