Multnomah County Oregon Biographies

Fredrick H. Ramsey

Born: 1825 in Pa.

Died: Jan 2 1895 in St. Johns, Oregon

Father: Was from Ireland

Mother: Was from Pa.

Ramsey came to Oregon in the year of 1844, he was one of the earliest pioneer’s to settle in Oregon.

Ramsey settled on 282 acre Donation Land Claim located on the North side of what was called St. Johns Village where the Columbia Slough flows into the Willamette river, and owned 200 more acres on East side of St. Johns and land up in Washington. There is a Ramsey Lake and a Ramsey Creek named after him.

Fred was a man of legend and myth, some say he made moonshine and would row his boat over to Fort Vancouver to sell it. I’m sure he had other means of income. In the years of 1852 and 1853 there was a Lieutenant that was stationed at Fort Vancouver at this time, it was Ulysses S. Grant our future President and he [and] Fred were good friends. (I wonder why?)

Fred was also friends to the Native Americans who lived along the river. Two Native Americans are said to be buried at the Ramsey Cemetery and 2 to 3 white settlers and some say that his brother John is also buried there, but there is no proof of his brother being buried there at this time. We may never know.....

At the time of Ramsey’s death in 1895 he had already sold most of his land off, Ramsey Villa Acers is what it was called. William Gatton had bought up some of his land. So when Ramsey died he deeded some of the land back to make the Ramsey Cemetery so Ramsey would be buried on his land he once owned. The Gatton family is another story of a family that came from Iowa and settled in the area in 1852 and owned a very large some (sic) of acres in St. Johns Village.....

Ramsey lived in the river down on the Slough in a houseboat. (did you know that a whale once came up the slough and cat fish weighed  up to 20lbs? that would have been a sight to see.) On with the story. It was a cold January night in 1895 and Ramsey heated up his ol wood stove, maybe a little too much, and caught his houseboat on fire and was killed in the fire. A sad ending to someone we really do not know all that much about, he never married, he did have family that lived in the area, and left quite a Will, leaving all his money to his nephews in the sums of $2,000 to $3,000 and the land up in Washington was given to his brother and money to the Sister’s of Charity of Providence, and to St. Vincent’s hospital in the sums of $2,000 or more to each, which was quite a bit in those days.

Notes:

The Cedar Tree that is by Ramsey grave site was planted when he died-it is 111 year old and still growing.

Ramsey also had a herd of Dairy cattle & had hunters cabins, so rich people could go hunting & fishing.

©Christie Shellito

Source: Donated by Christie Shellito but a combination of many different researchers hard work
 

John Mock was born John Muck, of German parents Harry and Elizabeth Muck. the name was later changed to Mock.

John was born in Mechanicsburg, Pa. on October of 1838. He and his parents came to Oregon in 1853 and settled on DLC land which is now St. Johns or North Portland. John was about 13 when his family came to Oregon it took about 6 months for the journey. At the age of 18 John went to the mines of Eastern Oregon and Idaho to look for gold and started running a pack train business.  He then came back to Oregon about 1864 and bought up some land the total about 450 to 500 acres and started to farm. In 1868 his father also sold some of his land to John.

John married Mary Sunderland in 1874 on August 2, the daughter of another settler. Mary was 18 and John was 35.

John became a real estate developer along with other things. And at this time is when he builds the Mock's Mansion (or Mock's Crest Mansion), a grand old Victorian style home. The home was built in 1894. There are hand painted murals on the walls of the home that were painted by John's mother. The home still stands today but has been left abandoned for many years. It will take a lot of time and money to restore it back to its former grander.

John died in 1916 and Mary in 1934. John and his family are buried at the Columbia Cemetery on Columbia Blvd. in St. Johns.  

Mock's Mansion built 1894

Harry  Lane was the grandson of Joseph Lane. Born in 1855 in Marysville (now Corvallis), Oregon and died in 1917 in San Francisco, California. He is buried at the Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. Harry married Lola (Clary) Bailey. 

Harry Lane graduated from Willamette University in 1876, received a medical degree in 1878 and post graduate in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. Practiced medicine in California and Oregon.  He became superintendent of the Oregon State Insane Asylum from 1887-1891, was elected Mayor of Portland, Oregon from 1905 to 1909. He proposed that there would be a city Festival and it was called the "Festival of Roses" and this is how the Rose Festival came about at the close of the Lewis and Clark Exposition of 1905.

Lane was a charitable physician of the poor in Portland, he donated much of his time to them at no cost.

In 1912 he was elected to the State Senate until his death in 1917. While in the Senate he worked in the fields of child labor, Indian Affairs and opposed the war against Germany in 1917. The public was against this action and the stand he took, a few weeks later Harry Lane died.

"Funeral To Be Tuesday

San Francisco, Cal., May 24.--(U.P.)--Accompanied by Mrs. Lane, the body of Senator Harry Lane of Oregon, who died in San Francisco last night, will be shipped to the family home in Portland aboard the Oregon express, leaving here this evening. A delegation from the United States senate leaves Washington tonight for Portland, arriving there Monday, and on Tuesday the funeral will be held. None of the details for the services in Portland will be arranged until Mrs. Lane reaches Portland."

©Christie Shellito