Pioneer Cemetery
Oregon City, Oregon

The trail ended here.
The route from East to West
Across the plains and great mountains
In wagons and on foot they came
Dreams to build, a new frontier.

I tread the ground lightly.
The soft grass makes grave impressions.
Mount Hood gleams white in the morning sun.
Beneath the towering pines, the stones slumber,
Whispering stories only the wind may hear.

History is etched in the soil of these green hills.
The ruts hold fossil memories.
The names do bear repeating.
Listen.
They are here:

Hatch, Meldrum, Bright, Price.
Fields, Barrett, Kellogg, Maple.

I ask for understanding, kneel in reverence, and touch
The moss that cakes in the crevice of
Dates and letters too dim to see.
The rains have washed the years away.
And now who will know their struggle?
The infant sons and daughters who never had a chance?
The young wives lost in labor?
The men who fought and died in bloody Civil War?
These many hands cleared a forest and gave a legacy to
This land.
But who remembers?

Here’s Dr. William Allen, born 1814, Kentucky,
Died in Canemah, Oregon, in 1851.
And here’s Sgt. B.W. (?) Allen,
Co. E., 1^st Oregon Cavalry.
Father and son?  Does anyone know?

Honor Marks Whitlock, wife of William Whitlock,
Born July 10, 1826, in Dorset, England,
Died on Christmas in 1893.

Sisson Chase, born in 1786,
His wife Dorothy in 1792.
He died the year before Lincoln was shot,
And she the same year Custer fell
At the Little Big Horn, 1876.

“Of such is the kingdom of heaven”
Says a stone whose name is forever erased.

Nash, Murray, Donaldson, Comstock.
Walker, Leland, Riley, Weir.

Some are well known to history here
Like Dr. Forbes Barclay, whose house
Still stands in the old part of town.
Born at Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Dec. 25, 1812,
Died May 13, 1873,
His stone “erected in honor”
By the citizens of Oregon City in 1875.

Then there’s John C. Hackett, 1825-1895,
“One of the Avengers of Dr. Whitman”
The missionary Whitman massacred by
The Cayuse Indians in 1847.

Warner, Charman, Diller, Goucher.

Here’s Archy Clark of Glasgow, Scotland,
1825-1870.

Here Anthony Warner of Walton on Thames, Surrey, England,
Died 1899, aged 61 years, 3 months, and 27 days.

Seba Norton, 32^nd Illinois Infantry.
J.O. Wetherell, 1^st Minnesota.
M.T. Root, 9^th Michigan Cavalry.

And here lies William Livingston Holmes
Born in Nashville in 1802,
“Came to Oregon 1843” and died in 1879.

John Fleming, 1795-1872,
“The Pioneer Printer of Oregon.”

Lowe, Campbell, Miller, Bock.

William and Nancy Elliott
“Crossed the plains to Oregon in 1846.”

Clackamas Bill died Feb. 1873,
Age 28.

Chase, Simmons, Scott, Burns.

Here the Barlows:
William, born in Indiana in 1822,
Died in Barlow, Oregon, 1904,
His wife Martha Ann,
And brother? John Lawson, born 1828,
“Came to Oregon in 1845”
And left this world in 1879.

Here the Nachands,
“Pioneers of 1847”
“We are weary.  Let us rest.”

Fancher, Hood, Nehren, Thomas.

Yes, there is poetry in these stones.
What more can I, poor scribe, attend.
They speak for themselves.
I but their witness, to you.

Rinearson, Taxer, Winckler, Good.

Here Elder John Darnell, 1804-1894,
“Gone to a fairer land
Of pleasure and love
To join the bright band
Of angels above.”

Theirs is the faith that triumphed
In the face of life’s great unknowable
Question and Answer.
“Gone but not forgotten”
Some tombstones say.
Is it true?
How many stones are completely unreadable,
Or chipped and broken,
Knocked down by vandals?
Too many, too soon, we do forget.

Yet…

We journey on, we hope, we dream,
We make our way as best we can,
Lurching along in our covered wagons of
Destiny.
The mountains offer their solid assurance.
Gray and snow-capped in the blue distance of
This fresh, springtime sky…

It’s quiet here.
Very peaceful.
They chose a perfect spot.
The stones don’t lie.
Sit down, listen, and rest.