Archives West Finding Aid

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).