Albany history comes alive at Masonic Cemetery July 23

J. K. Weatherford, Delazon Smith, Nicholas Riazance, Felix O'Toole, and Reuben Coleman Hill are long dead but telling of their life stories will almost bring them back during the History in Headstones tour at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, 2014, at the Albany Masonic Cemetery. 

The free 7th annual event is sponsored by St. John's Lodge No. 17, AF & AM, and the Albany Regional Museum.  The cemetery is at the west end of Seventh Avenue at Broadway Street. 

The program begins with a short ceremony conducted by the Masons to dedicate a newly installed interpretive sign.  Afterward, visitors can wander the cemetery until 8:30 p.m., visiting the graves of seven former Albany residents whose histories will be recounted by volunteers. 

Balloons will mark those gravesites, and fliers and maps will be available to help guide participants to those buried in the cemetery established on the Harvey Gordon Donation Land Claim. 

J.K. Weatherford

Darrel Tedisch will portray J.K. Weatherford, founder of the Weatherford, Thompson, Cowgill, Black & Schultz law firm.  Mike Cowgill is Weatherford's great great grandson.

Weatherford was born in Missouri in 1848.  In 1864, Weatherford was offered the chance to drive an ox team to Oregon with a wagon train, and he took it.  Upon arriving, he went to work for the Thomas Kay Woolen Mills in Brownsville and later hauled supplies to miners in Boise.  Realizing the importance of an education, he enrolled at Corvallis College, now Oregon State University, graduating in 1872. 

Weatherford Hall, built in 1928, is named for him. 

Weatherford taught school in Linn County and was elected county school superintendent.  While serving his term, he read law, paving the way for the Oregon Supreme Court to admit him to practice in 1875, a job he continued until he died in October 1935.  It is said he particularly liked to defend people charged with murder.

Delazon Smith

Delazon Smith will be portrayed by Richard Hammel. 

Smith was born in 1816 in New York and arrived in Oregon in 1852.  He was a farmer, lawyer, and newspaperman, founding the Albany Democrat newspaper and editing it until his death.  He also served in the Territorial House of Representatives, was a delegate to the state constitution convention, and served as a U.S. senator but was not elected to a second term.  He wrote a letter to his wife on February 14, 1859, from Washington, D.C., stating that Oregon had been voted into the Union.  He died in 1860. 

Nicholas Riazance will be recalled by his daughter, Jeannine Riazance Lawrence.  

Riazance was born in western Russia not long before his father was killed in World War I.  Shortly after, he and his mother moved to Strasbourg, France, where he earned a degree in chemical engineering.  Later, while studying at the University of Caen, he was recognized for his athletic ability after he swam the English Channel from Calais to Dover in 18½ hours. 

He could play three games simultaneously while blindfolded.  He spoke Russian, Latin, German, and English. 

After finishing his education, Riazance worked in the textile industry in France and later moved to Poland to become assistant professor of hydrochemistry at the University of Cracow.  During World War II, he was sent to Germany to work as a metallurgist for the Messerschmidt aircraft plant. 

He, his wife, and three children emigrated from Strasbourg to the United States in 1958.  He joined the Bureau of Mines and came to Albany in 1966.  He died in 1980. 

Felix O'Toole will be portrayed by Larry Bardell. 

O'Toole has the largest monument in the cemetery.  He arranged for the marker before he died in August 1888 at age 74.  The gravestone cost $2,500, and payment came from his estate that was valued at $43,000.

O'Toole, whose friends called him "Doc," was born in Ireland about 1820.  He was a shoemaker in Detroit and sold boots to fishermen in Au Sable.  O'Toole moved to Albany in 1878, where he lived on proceeds generated by rentals and the interest on many accounts. 

A bachelor, he was respected for his social nature, his good word for everyone he met, and he was well known for his courage and generosity. 

R.C. Hill

Reuben Coleman Hill will be portrayed by David Fitchett. 

Hill, born in 1809, died in 1890, was a physician, a Baptist preacher, and a schoolteacher.  Educated in Kentucky, he married Margaret Graham Lair in 1832, crossed the plains to the California gold mines in 1850, and came to Oregon in 1851. 

He lived in a tent in Corvallis but soon moved to Albany, where he preached in the Monteith House.  He taught school in Albany and organized the Corvallis Baptist Church, the North Palestine Church in Benton County, and the Good Hope Church on Oak Creek in Linn County.  He assisted in organizing the First Baptist Church in Albany in 1867. 

Mary Arnett will tell the story of Rufus and Bessie Hale, African Americans,  who operated the Deluxe Shoe Shine Parlor in Albany for years.

Bessie Hale

Bessie Wyatt Hale was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, in 1899 and moved to Idaho in 1922, where she met her husband-to-be, who was employed by the railroad.  Rufus Hale was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1897.  The couple married in Idaho and moved to La Grande and then to Albany in 1931.  During the Great Depression, he worked as a chauffeur and she kept house for her husband's employer. 

Tired of working for others, the Hales opened the shoeshine parlor at 213 First Avenue SW in 1939 and operated it together until Rufus died in 1971.  Bessie kept the parlor open until she died from a stroke in 1990.  She believed she was the first woman on the West Coast to make her living shining shoes. 

Help clean headstones 

Those at least middle school age and older are invited to help preserve some of the cemetery's headstones during a cleaning party from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, July 12. 

Materials will be provided, but participants are asked to bring their own gloves. 

To sign up, contact Kathy Griffiths at jkgrif@comcast.net or call the Albany Regional Museum at 541-967-7122.