Walk among the dead at Portland's Lone Fir Cemetery
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Lone Fir Cemetery tour guide Elizabeth Britt (middle) dresses up for Halloween alongside other guides. Photo: Meira Gebel/Axios
If you're brave enough to walk among the dead at Lone Fir Cemetery, you're sure to find some interesting tales of Portland's not-so-far-off past.
Why it matters: Lone Fir may be home to some of the most famous Portland names — including James Hawthorne, Asa Lovejoy and Donald Macleay — but there are thousands more laid to rest there who also made an impression on the city's history.
Flashback: Lone Fir's first burial was in 1846, and the southeast Portland cemetery remains active today. More than 30,000 souls are buried there, but only 17,700 graves are marked across the site's 30 acres.
- The once-solitary tree it's named after is still there, but 700 others have popped up in the last 175 years, making it a de facto arboretum.
Axios took a tour of Lone Fir with historical guide Elizabeth Britt to learn about several notable Portlanders buried on its grounds.
Adam "Gus" Waterford
Known to be Portland's first Black firefighter and the city's first post office clerk, Waterford faced a wave of discrimination but still became a well-known activist in the state's Republican Party.
- He was buried in an unmarked grave when he died in 1909, but in 2015, Madison High School students raised money to give him a proper headstone.
Julius Ceasar
Born a slave in 1830, Ceasar was a beloved personality who loved drinking and baseball. He was known for his catchphrase "play ball," which is carved on the top of his headstone.
- On the Fourth of July 1906, he was found under a pile of lumber at the Alder Street dock. Even though his death was suspicious, it was never investigated.
Addie Decker
Panned as a cautionary tale by The Oregonian at her death in 1876, Decker turned to sex work after her "respected" husband and young child died.
- She would bring a rocking chair to their gravestones and little trinkets her daughter used to play with.
- Britt said on a quiet night, by the Decker plot, you can hear "the rocking chair and a ghostly sound of a little child laughing."
Hendrik Jacob Eerligh van Gogh
Yes, the first cousin of Vincent. He was a rear admiral in the Dutch Royal Army who came to the U.S. on a tourist visa.
- Historians believe van Gogh landed in Portland in 1885 after borrowing a large sum of money from his cousin Theo — Vincent's brother — and never paying it back.
- In a letter, the famous van Gogh wrote to Theo, "I sincerely hope that you have got that money back since," referring to Hendrik, who died in 1886 at 33 years old.
Block 14
Nearly 200 patients from the Oregon Hospital for the Insane and 2,800 Chinese immigrants were buried between mid-1800 and 1920 in unmarked graves at the southwestern corner of the cemetery, which has since been designated as a historical site by the state.
- While many have been reinterred, it is believed that there are still many more uncovered remains.