Re: Larkins, Dibble, Jackson, Starkweather Cemetery
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In reply to:
Larkins, Dibble, Jackson, Starkweather Cemetery
Charlotte Hartley 3/27/08
I am thinking most likely the Mollala Latter-Day Saints
Church owns it, or has been the one paynig taxes on the property perhaps...because it's parking lot is the only access to the cemetary, Oregon has all kinds of these little "forgotten" plots of burials in the back of homesteads from those early days. The church let the family go back and clean it up when I was the reunion President of the Austin-Larkins family. We took rubbings of many of the stones back then after trying to rerect many of them from
vandalizem...to keep for Oregon history. I went back and
sprinkled "wildflowers" amoung the graves afterwards, but none of them really looked to take root and grow. Hubby
and one of the Autin's got stung by bees as we found an
nest in an completely overgrown old tractor sitting there
off to the side. There are real old "fruit trees", mostly
apple on the north side of this plot. We went back there
an year or two, as its been many years even since I've
been to the reunions also. At that time the fencing around
the area had been torn down, more stones desecrated and an new path by the locals ran through the area. I tripped on
an piece of headstone out aways from the cemetary that I
sent the information to Arliene Adams on...if she's still
even around, she was living in Eugene, Oregon. It looks
pretty much like an old time cemetary would. Austin's are
the only ones to have went back and cemented over their
descedents, though they didn't the grave of William E. Larkins. There has been one new house built in front
of the cemetary to the east of the church in recent years. Descendents of the "Starkweathers" were at one time local
neighbors to me here, they borrowed the stories of their
family and xeroxed them off and then left the area there
after. It was an "Jackson" piece of stone that I found come to think of it. I knwo some have went back yearly to take
care of the area, but as to whom, you'd have to contact
the Austin family and see if they are still doing the
reunions. I am 60 years old now and many of these people were about that age when I was around 30 and the reunion President. I did buy an "brick" of which I had inscribed
SKLawson-Larkins-Austin on it for "Pioneer Square" the year I was reunion President, Eldon Austin has the "papers" on it. It has by now been walked on by millions and they use to have Portland's annual downtwon Christmas Tree lightening almost on top of it one time...along with the ceremoney stage. They also built better of two/three solid blocks of an huge massive three/four story shopping Mall near it since then also..most of it underground also, they also named Pioneer Square. Mary Austin had written on the top inside of an box and "mollalla" Indian song that I hope someone preserved in an museum somewhere, as it's said they lived amoung them during the winter. Mollala was their winter headquarters. I think I found the "Chief Lackey" named after William E. Larkins in the Warm Springs Indian Reservation documents when they organized that Reservation. There is another such person later on up near the Nisqually River just south of Tacoma, Washington also...perhaps an son?
More Replies:
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Re: Larkins, Dibble, Jackson, Starkweather Cemetery
Charlotte Hartley 7/06/08
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Re: Larkins, Dibble, Jackson, Starkweather Cemetery
Shirley Kay Lawson 7/07/08
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Re: Larkins, Dibble, Jackson, Starkweather Cemetery
Shirley Kay Lawson 7/07/08
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Re: Larkins, Dibble, Jackson, Starkweather Cemetery
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Re: Larkins, Dibble, Jackson, Starkweather Cemetery