Skip to main content

Fragment: Malachi not Mikola



I have noticed how mistakes will sometimes be picked up and repeated in history books and articles. One mistake that is repeated in a number of books and articles on Oregon’s shanghaiers is L.M. Sullivan’s middle name. For the record, it is Malachi, just like the minor prophet in the Jewish scriptures. 

Caption in an unnamed history journal


I could offer any number of exhibits as proof, but I shall let his tombstone suffice. This monument, set high up near the top of Mount Calvary Cemetery in the West Hills, is where Larry Sullivan’s daughter, Winnie came to weep at night in the months following her father’s death.

Can you image a young lady in her early twenties, walking up the mud and gravel Burnside Canyon Road and then the winding mud path up into the pitch dark graveyard. It was a dark night in October 1918 when she was discovered by a policeman and returned to custody of her brother.



Here is the monument before which she wept.



 Read more in The Oregon Shanghaiers: Columbia River Crimps From Astoria to Portland

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Last Word on Shanghai Tunnels - Including 14 reasons why the stories are bogus

I have never been on a tour of Portland's so-called "shanghai tunnels," so I am unable to comment on this attraction, except that I have heard that the tour is quite entertaining. Neither have I been to the Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland,  the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, or the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, for that matter. The closest I have come to this sort of tourist entertainment was while visiting the ancient city of York I took my family on the "York Ghost Walk." This tour is a bit of innocent fun with some old ghost stories mixed in with distorted history—just for the tourists.  It may be true that I have no experience with the tourist tours of these basements in the northwest regions of downtown, but I do know a bit about them. There is a great deal of documentation in the newspapers, and in old court records. They were built by Chinese back in the days when Chinatown was the center of gang activity related to the different tongs...

The Steel Bridge and the Railroad

I don’t know if anyone has noticed this, but the Steel Bridge on old postcards is often designated as being owned by any one of three different companies. Most often you will see the words “O.W.R. & N. Co. Bridge across the Willamette,” or something to that effect. Other times the card might read, “O. R. R. & N. Co. bridge, Portland, Oregon.” Then, on occasion, a card might say, “Union Pacific bridge, Portland, Oregon.” This was confusing to me at one time, until I read a little something on the history of the Union Pacific lines in the west, then I became even more confused. The lines were in and out of receivership, leased, sold, given different, but very similar names, and called different names by different levels of railroad hierarchy. When the first Steel Bridge was built in 1888 the company behind the construction was the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company (O. R. & N. Co.), an old and powerful entity that had evolved from the Oregon Steam Navigation Company...

The First Girl "Mysterious" Billy Smith Ever Loved

To cover discoveries not directly connected to the old waterfront I have started a new blog, Oregon Ozone . I stole the name from an Oregonian column from the 1890s. The first girl “Mysterious” Billy Smith ever loved met her tragic death on their honeymoon. Billy had a monument erected over her grave that cost a fortune. Today the beautiful monument—a large sculpted angel—is part of the Historical Monuments on the Cemetery Tour page of the River View Cemetery website. The fact that her husband was a famous prizefighter has escaped everyone’s notice, until now. Read the story in the very first post on Oregon Ozone .