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OSWEGO PIONEER CEMETERY Formerly known as the "Odd Fellows Cemetery," the Oswego Pioneer Cemetery is located on part of Jesse Bullock's 19th century Donation Land Claim. The cemetery comprises 5.14 acres, and was originally laid out in nine sections in 1891 by Bullock's son-in-law, George W. Prosser who gave the property to the Oregon Iron & Steel Company in 1892 for use by the community; by 1938 it had been donated to the Oswego Odd Fellows Lodge (IOOF #93). The earliest graves in Lake Oswego were found along State Street, southwest of what is now the Lakewood Center for the Arts, and some were removed to the Pioneer cemetery to make room for construction. The earliest known grave in the cemetery is that of Florine Augusta Woodruff Davidson, who died November 29, 1880. The cemetery founders Bullock and Prosser and their families were also buried there in the late 1800's, along with a dozen other pioneer families. Other notables include six mayors of Lake Oswego and Charles Pauling, grandfather of Nobel-winner Linus Pauling who was born in Portland in 1901. In 1936-37, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) prepared a list of 115 individuals whose ancestors fought in the American Revolution. The total number of burials is uncertain. A census conducted in 1953 by the Clackamas County Pomona Grange found 1,400 graves. In 1991, Herb Bumgarner published Oswego Pioneer Cemetery (from which this summary is drawn). His estimate was 815 marked and 64 unmarked plots. Because the cemetery was not well maintained prior to the 1980s, some flat markers may have been overgrown with sod or lost to the elements, perhaps helping to account for the discrepancy between the Grange census of 1953 and the survey of 1991. Today, the Oswego Pioneer Cemetery Association is a 501(c 3) non-profit with a board chaired by Pat Bilow. Ethel Worthington Schaubel, who started the Association and is still involved, was responsible for spearheading the restoration of the cemetery to its current state. Previously it had been maintained with limited continuity by churches and the Odd Fellows Lodge. In 1977, Mrs. Schaubel together with Bill Blizzard, then-owner of the Lake Oswego Review, assumed oversight for the property. In 2000, Oswego Heritage Council memorialized the Oswego Pioneer Cemetery with a plaque which is affixed to a metal stand at the east entrance to cemetery. The plaque and a number of pictures of the cemetery can be viewed here. The Cemetery is located at 17401 Stafford Rd, Lake Oswego, Oregon (east of Rosemont Rd. and next to the Lake Oswego Municipal Golf Course) For questions about interment, contact Jerry Instenes, Sales/Information (503 706 0152).
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