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Gailpioneer again... There's a great pioneer cemetery in Union, Oregon. There is a lovely marble statue of a woman who died young. An anonymous donor regularly delivers red roses to this grave. My favorite epitaph in that cemetery is "First I wasn't, then I was, and now I ain't no more". There's a family who died in a carriage accident, a murderer, and a cement bunker-like structure of a man who feared being buried alive. The caretaker in Union is a wealth of information about the cemetery.

Your listeners should know that a branch of geography, called medical geography, within demography, makes for a fascinating study of any community and the historical millieu.

Great program!!

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Cemeteries??? I just heard that you are looking for ideas on listener's favorite cemeteries. Mine's the Lebanon Pioneer Cemetery. Between 2000 and 2006 when I was the 7th-8th grade social studies teacher at Lebanon Middle School/Pioneer K-8 School my students adopted the cemetery and did geographic fieldwork there in the fall and service learning on the annual "Day of Caring" SOLV project in May. The cemetery was researched and documented by Pat Dunn and Jeanne Robinson in the 1990's. The kids and I use their Lebanon Cemetery Book to learn both in the classroom and then go to the cemetery. There's a rich variety of gravestone types (marble, white bronze, and granite) and some interesting stories. The marble stone of Daniel Simons, a veteran of the War of 1812, is carved with a pioneer wagon with oxen and an epitaph in cursive writing that reads "Men like these won the West" (or something close to that). The first burial was in 1850 and was a 13-year old girl who died of diphtheria. Her stone has a carved rose. One of Oregon's first female physicians, Clara Montigue Davidson is buried there. After the death of her young daughter, she dedicated herself to medicine and went by wagon back to Philadelphia for medical training. Clara's death was caused by an infection, probably blood-borne, that happened when she lanced a boil on a farm child's leg. A favorite epithaph is on Philothea Elkin's grave--"She hath done what she could." At least two of my students are descendents of people buried in the cemetery. The kids' favorite story is Ray (Rae) Leonard, a "he" who swapped stories, out-fished and hunted all "his" cronies. When Ray suddenly took sick, the town doctor was called in. After an examination the doc revealed that their friend was a woman. Kids say they've found out the identity of Lebanon's first cross-dresser! Cemeteries are great places for learning, to teach about demographics such as change in family size, causes of death, age at death, and migration. One year on Halloween, some over-zealous 8th graders called the police to report that someone had "started a fire in our cemetery". It turned out that it was the Civil War re-enactment group who, to deter vandalism, were set up with a bonfire and cider for trick-or-treaters. We don't have any ghosts, that I know of. One girl did tell me that her grandmother, who lives near the cemetery, had her keep an eye out for the fairies that dance around the large cedar tree on the east side of the cemetery on warm summer evenings. Several kids have reported sightings.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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