Lone Fir Cemetery, the oldest existing cemetery in Portland, Oregon, is situated between SE Morrison Street, Stark Street, 20th Avenue, and 26th Avenue. It began in the 1840s as a single grave on a pioneer land grant. This grave was occupied by Mr. Emmor Stephens, who died in 1846. His son, James B. Stephens, sold the farm in 1854 to Colburn Barrell, a shipbuilder, under the agreement that he would maintain Emmor Stephen’s grave site. Later that year, Mr. Barrell’s partner, Crawford Dobbins, died in a steamship explosion. This tragedy prompted Mr. Barrell to turn 10 acres of the farm into a cemetery which he named Mount Crawford in honor of his deceased partner. The following year, Barrell purchased 10 adjacent acres. Two additional purchases were made in 1865 and 1866, bringing the total area of the cemetery to its present-day size of 30 acres.
Barrell felt that the cemetery belonged under the public’s control and offered to sell it to the City of Portland, but the offer was declined. As a result, Mount Crawford was bought by a private group, including Byron P. Cardwell, Robert Pittock, and Levi Anderson. That year, the new owners of the cemetery opted to change the name to Lone Fir Cemetery because of a solitary tree standing on the site. The new name was devised by Mrs. Amelia Barrell.
In tandem with Portland’s population growth, Lone Fir’s population began to grow as well, and its new inhabitants reflected the diversity of Portland’s residents in the late 1800’s. Grave markers’ inscriptions reveal a various ethnic groups including German, Swedish, and French settlers. Also recorded are a significant number Chinese and Japanese people. Some of the earliest burials were of Oregon governors George Law Curry and William Wallace Thayer, and Portland founders Asa L. Lovejoy and Daniel H. Lownsdale.
By 1928, the cemetery had deteriorated, and the state of Oregon granted the property to Multnomah County. In 1947, the county decided to use the western end of the cemetery as the site of a new County building, and 265 graves were subsequently exhumed. Multnomah County relinquished control of the cemetery to the Metropolitan Services District (Metro), but maintained possession of the adjacent County building. This building was closed in 2002 and plans were made to sell the site. But in 2004 human remains were discovered under a parking lot, and it was thought that these were Chinese burials which had gone unrecorded.
The following information was provided by J. J. Goodwin to the Oregon Historical Society on May 20, 1953: the Portland Bureau of Health was established in 1881, and has no records previous to that time. When Multnomah County took over Lone Fir Cemetery in 1928, the sexton's records were turned over to the County Clerk. But such records as were kept by the first sexton, Pat Kiernan, 1866-1881, were kept in the family, and held by his daughter, Mrs. Cason; these are now scattered or destroyed. Records of the second sexton, Albert Johnson, 1881-1886, were also kept in his family. The city firemen's association probably has complete records of their burials in Lone Fir. The Masons should also have a record. There are about 23,000 recorded burials in Lone Fir, and 30 acres. All graves are numbered from the north end. "H" indicates half grave (baby).
The collection consists of two distinct sets of records: the notes, data and transcriptions compiled by J. J. Goodwin, probably in the 1930s and 1940s; and original records of Lone Fir Cemetery itself, dating from 1866 to 1935. Also included are a few items from other sources, such as a brochure and a deed to a family plot.
The bulk of the collection consists of J. J. Goodwin's drawings and notations on cemetery plats, and records of burials, deaths, and removals. The cemetery plats are both photostats and line drawings, as well as a large series of 67 notebooks. The notebooks include random notes about particular grave sites, such as details about the deceased, age, sex, cause of death, etc.
Also among the Goodwin materials are records of deaths, burials, and removals taken from a variety of sources that include: sextons records, surface records (grave markers), the Health Bureau, the Count Clerk’s Office, and various newspapers. Not all the people mentioned in these records were buried in Lone Fir Cemetery. Of note are two notebooks (Goodwin vols. 61 and 62) containing lists of Japanese burials, and a list of soldier burials, probably from the Civil War.
The second series contains 11 volumes of original records of Lone Fir Cemetery itself. These records were maintained by Multnomah County and given to the Oregon Historical Society in 1982, many years after the Goodwin materials were acquired. Included in the Lone Fir records are the articles of incorporation and minutes of meetings of the board of directors, as well as lot and block sale books. Volume 3 of this series includes some names of Chinese burials.
The collection is arranged in three series:
The collection is open to the public.
The Oregon Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library prior to any use of reproductions. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use of reproductions may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright holders.
Lone Fir Cemetery records, Mss 2010, Oregon Historical Society Research Library
For logs of Chinese removals, see records of the Chinese Benevolent Association of Portland, Oregon.
J. J. Goodwin records: gift of Spencer Hinsdale, 1952.
Original records from Lone Fir Cemetery: gift of Multnomah County Records Management Division, 1982.
Deed to Tideman Johnson plot: gift of Jean Johnson, 1990 Apr., Library Accession 19851.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Formerly part of Mss 2010-1
Formerly Mss 2010-2. Includes letter of transmittal and copy of photograph of gravestone.
Arthur C. Spencer III of the Oregon Historical Society correspondence with Donald Clark, Multnomah County Commissioner
Due to the varying sizes of the materials in this series, the physical arrangement of the items is not consecutive.
Includes photostats of a few legal documents. Taken from records at the City Hall.
Lot and block numbers in these records can be traced in burial plats recorded in Goodwin volumes 1-57, listed below in sub-series "Burial plats: lot index of blocks."
Names of deceased, death dates, block and lot numbers. Not posted to Goodwin volume 58. Letters of alphabet together, not aphabetized. Written in ink. Taken from surface records.
Name, date, lot and block number. Most entries have been posted to Goodwin volume 58. In ink. Letters of alphabet together, not alphabetized. Typed. Taken from surface records. Goodwin was not sure whether the date is of death or burial.
Name, date, lot and block number. Copy of list kept by Pat Kiernan (first sexton from 1866-1881). Kiernan did not keep a record book, only memoranda and notes on scraps of paper. These were not passed on to the succeeding sexton, but to Kiernan's daughter Mrs. Cason. Goodwin made this copy of the notes, which are now lost. Arranged approximately by date. Typed.
Name, date, space, lot and block number. Arranged by date.
Name, date of burial, space, lot and block number, undertaker; unknown burials. Includes postings from box 7, folder 6; box 1, folder 6, followed by box 1, folder 7-10. Arranged first by letter of the alphabet, then by date of burial; i.e., "A"s, etc. arranged by date of burial instead of being alphabetized. Typed.
Based on court house records, with additions from surface and other records. Names and initials of undertakers written in pencil in right hand margin.
Name, date, undertaker, space, lot and block number. Posted to Goodwin vol. 58. Letters of the alphabet together, not alphabetized. Penciled notebook. Taken from court house records.
Graves 15-118. Name, date of burial, and grave number. Arranged by number. Typed. 4 p. The numbers replaced wooden markers removed when the county took over the cemetery and cleaned it up. These are all listed in Goodwin vol. 57.
Name, date, age, address, cause of death, undertaker. Arranged by date. Penciled notebook.
Name, age, address, cause of death, undertaker. Arranged by date. Penciled notebook. Taken from Health Bureau records.
Name, space, lot and block numbers. Arranged by date. Pencilled slips.
Name, undertaker, space, lot and block numbers. Posted to Goodwin vol. 58. No order. Penciled notes. From county clerk's records, corrected by information from surface records when marked by X in red pencil.
Name, undertaker, space, lot and block number. Posted to Goodwin vol. 58. No order. Penciled notes. Some material omitted from Goodwin vol. 58.
Name, date, age, cause of death, undertaker. Not in Goodwin vol. 58. Arranged by date (some out of order). Penciled notebook. Taken from Health Bureau records and private sources, including a Japanese association which marked the graves about 1932-1933.
Name, lot number, some dates, many unknown. Arranged by lot number. Penciled notebook. A few are not Japanese. When crossed out, information has been transferred to Goodwin vol. 61. Taken from surface records.
Name, outfit, GAR post, some dates. Not all buried at Lone Fir. No order. Penciled notes, 6 leaves. Probably from surface records.
Diagrams of lots, showing name, birth and death dates or age and death date, owner of lot, changes in lot ownerships, removals (sometimes on opposite page), occasionally cause of death. More than one burial in grave indicated by additional slip pasted on plat.
Lots outlined in red pencil had curbs around them; most of the curbs were removed after Goodwin made his survey of surface records.
Blocks contain various numbers of lots. Arranged by block and lot number. Taken from surface records (tombstones, etc.); records in possession of Albert Johnson (sexton, 1881-1886); records from the Bureau of Health at the City Hall; and other sources.
Includes Masonic, county, children's burials; postings on reverse of pages are beginning of another record and have no relation to this volume.
Taken from the
Name, date, misc. information. Not all buried in Lone Fir. Arranged approximately by date. Penciled notebook. See also Goodwin vol. 65 below.
Includes 1870, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1879 (from city directory), 1881. [28] p. Also 1871-1904 mixed in no order (5 leaves). Date, name, cause of death, miscellaneous information. Not all buried in Lone Fir, but Lone Fir burials indicated in pencil. Arranged by date. Typed.
Name, date, misc. information. Not all buried in Lone Fir. Also contains some notes on burials. No order. Penciled notebook.
Name of deceased, date of burial, lot owners and sales, undertaker, lot location. No order. Penciled notes. From county clerk's records.
Name of owner, date of purchase, price, space, lot and block number. Letters of the alphabet together, not alphabetized, A-P only.
Name of owner, lot and block numbers. Letters of the alphabet together, not alphabetized. Typed. From County Clerk's records.
Name, block and lot numbers, notations of sales. Arranged by block and lot number. Typed. From records of Albert Johnson, sexton, 1881-1886, and from recorded deed in county clerk's office, from surface records, especially curbs before they were torn out.
List of lots in numerical order, with names of owners. Arranged by block and lot number. Also includes deaths of Jan.-March 1870. Penciled notebook. Probably surface records checked against county records.
Includes 3 in 1939. Name of deceased, locations moved from and to, date of removal. No order. Penciled notes. Most of this information is in lot books, Goodwin vols. 1-57. From county records.
Name of deceased, locations moved from and to, dates of death and removal. No order. Typed. From county records.
Undertaker, name of deceased, age, cause of death, location of grave, type of grave (single or double), size of box for enclosing casket, charges (for digging and lining grave, etc.). Not order. Notebook in ink. Original sexton's record, but notes in pencil were taken from Health Bureau records.
Cover title: "Wauna date book 1932." Errors, unrecorded changes, etc. No order. Penciled notebook. Information from various sources, including relatives, now transferred to Goodwin vol. 58.
Originally designated Mss 2010-1. Received from Multnomah County Records Management Division, 1982.
Due to the varying sizes of these volumes, they are not physically arranged in consecutive order.