Featured Photos

Photo caption:

This photo was taken in 1918 at the annual cherry picnic at the home of Marion and Lily Young in Wilsonville. The eight elderly gentlemen are Civil War Veterans, members of the Grand Army of the Republic.  Click on the photo for a closer look and more info.

Description:

This photo was taken at the annual cherry picnic at Marion and Lily Young’s home in Wilsonville, Oregon.  The occasion is also a recognition for surviving GAR members (Grand Army of the Republic) and a meeting of the Women’s Relief Corps of World War I.  We know it is spring of 1918 partly because the infant is Dorothy Lehan, born in April, 1918.  The two stars in the window are for Marion and Lily’s two sons, Norris and Dorris, who are both serving in France.  Their wives, Fanny and Mattie, along with their children, Margaret, Hardy, and Dorothy, are living with Marion and Lily.  I do not know the significance of the other insignia in the windows.  There are not many men in the photo, perhaps because it is the height of World War I.The GAR members include Peter Meeks, seated in front of his daughter, Dessa, Lily’s sister-in-law.

Other GAR members could include the following Civil War vets at Pleasant View:
John Edward Vinson, age 79  (1839 – 1924)
David F. Fletcher, age 79 (1839 – 1935)

If you can match any of these veterans to their photo, or if you can identify anyone else in the photo, please let me know. It is likely that a large number of these individuals are buried at Pleasant View Cemetery. Charlotte

Individuals identified in this photo who are buried at Pleasant View Cemetery include:

Marion Calvin Young
Lily Ann Young
Mattie Dale Hayman Young
Fannie Gale Hayman Young
Dorothy Jean Young Lehan
Hardy Shelby Young
Rosa Graham Thies
Matilda Clementine Zumwalt Graham
Peter Meeks
Josephine Graham Conner
Rosetta Graham Wright
Rob Graham
Lillian Graham Crist
Jack Angus
Jessie and Helen Angus (sisters, not sure which is which)

Individuals identified in this photo who are buried elsewhere include:

Margaret Young Stinson
Dessa Meeks Graham
Reed Graham
Helen Graham Ross
Thelma Ann Graham Carlson
Lillian Graham
Lydia Failmetzger

 

Photo caption:  

This photo is from the estate of Wallace Young. 

His notes at the top are as follows:

“The first lumber school building at Pleasant Hill could have been built before 1890.  Pleasant Hill between Sherwood & Wilsonville, Oregon is where the children of the pioneer Zumwalts, Bakers, Youngs and older grandchildren went to grade school and Lily Ann Graham and succeeding Graham girls taught.  Lily (Mrs. Marion Calvin Young) took this picture in 1918 when building was only still being used in bad weather for funerals at the Pleasant Hill Cemetery on the same grounds, where many of these pioneer families are buried.”

From Stephen Baker:

“I distinctly remember this building in the early 1950’s.  It was used as a gathering place before/after funerals in the rain, as a polling place (I distinctly remember going with my parents to vote there, talking with the people and fascinated with the whole voting process — it might have been Eisenhower’s in 1958.  Not sure, but it was in the fall, cold, rainy and getting dark early — we voted around 5/6PM).  Later, it was used as a storage building for the clean-up equipment.  It was located close to the road and in the vicinity of the light pole.  My great-grandfather (Alison) went to school there, along with his siblings…….walking/riding a horse from their home at Graham’s Fy/Bell Road intersection.  Later, my grandfather & siblings also went to school there (this would have been around 1905-10).” I have also spoken with Barb (Murray) Boozier about this building and she guesses it was there until about 1955.  She recalls that it was located just downhill (east) of the center gate in the vicinity of what are now Blocks K and J.

“My polling recollection could have been Eisenhower’s FIRST election in November 1952, but more likely his re-election in November 1956 (given my age of 7 at that time).  My first recollection of attending a funeral at PVC was for my elderly g–g-aunt Emma Baker in Dec. 1954, and we took shelter in the old school building before the service.  I was 5 at the time, but remember the musty smell and the cold, dank feeling of the unheated room with rough floorboards and ancient cobwebs on the very high ceilings.  I have a very graphic memory of certain things.  This probably made a big impression on me along with the rainy day, the muddy pile of earth next to the grave, the first funeral I’d ever attended, and the fact that I adored my elderly aunt.”

If you have more information about it, I would love to hear about it.   Charlotte