The new display at Riverside Cemetery, shown on June 26, 2026.
Just in time for the 250th anniversary of the founding of America, a new display gives the public easy access to the stories of people who shaped the beginnings of Albany as a town.
I noticed the display on the SW Seventh Avenue frontage of Riverside Cemetery. The installation was not quite finished when I stopped to look at it Friday, but that didn’t keep me from reading the message board itself.
Photos for the display were provided by the Albany Regional Museum, the viewer learns. A grant from the Linn County Cultural Coalition paid for the making of the sign itself.
The display has a paragraph each about six of the notables who got Albany started in the middle of the 19th Century. It also shows images and provides text on some of the town’s traditions in the early days.
Viewers learn about the history of how the cemetery itself, which started as four separate burial grounds, came to be.
It takes only a few minutes to look at those photos and read the accompanying text. If you do, you’ll know a little more about the families who built the community that eventually became what Albany is now. (hh)
John Burkhart was born 11 years after America’s founders declared independence.
The display tells us about six of the Albany pioneers who are buried at Riverside Cemetery.
Findagrave link for Riverside-
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/39342/riverside-cemetery?
Directory-
https://www.albanyriversidecemetery.org/directory.html
What a nice gift from Albany Regional Museum to the Community!
Thanks for sharing Hasso.
Thank you for posting the signs. I read everyone. I have been on the annual tour of the cemetery many times and always enjoy hearing about the lives of Albany’s early settlers.
Thanks, Hasso. Love this kind of history. Out here in Oakville at the Oakville Cemetery, about four miles west of Tangent, we found a birthdate of 1802, two years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Here’s 1780-
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27035936/martha-smith
Thank you. We’ve looked at almost all of them. Many are no longer legible.
Actually, according to findgrave, there are 4 older births in Riverside-
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/39342/memorial-search?fulltext=&firstname=&middlename=&lastname=&cemeteryName=Riverside+Cemetery&birthyear=&birthyearfilter=&deathyear=&deathyearfilter=&bio=&linkedToName=&plot=&memorialid=&mcid=&datefilter=&orderby=b&page=1#sr-28044260
How does Mr Burkhart come to Albany in 1847 with his wife Sarah when she died in 1844?
She actually lived until 1884. Typos happen, even in signs.
Didn’t they mess up the Direction indicator for Masonic?
https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2021/195/CEM39089_f4cb036a-65c6-46da-a11e-1b564321d8c9.jpeg
Bill. Yes, the Masonic compass was not aligned correctly. xtreme graphix kindly created a new overlay, but some nimrod peeled it off last year. It had withstood many OR winters. Sorry that it still bothers you…Same goes for new Riverside sign–several eyes pored over final proof but we did not catch the math discrepancy.
I think i read an article about the Simpson trail from you,a while back .have you been down that trail ,ohhh say I. The last week? You would be surprised to say the least at what you will find .that once buitiful trail bustling with all kinds of wildlife.from the coyote’s,rabits,and deer.maple trees, small oaks,and more.gone all gone the only thing left standing are the trees that were bigenough to not be affected from. The jaws of the brush hog that ravenged our forest park mercilessly;and of course you standing there shocked at what you just found .