Ghosts of Oregon History Worth Meeting – and a Few to Avoid!
Time: Noon to 1:15 pm
Venue: WOW Hall
291 W 8th
Eugene, Oregon
97401
We will meet at the WOW Hall, 291 W 8th. Learn more: https://wowhall.org/about-us/. Walk, ride a bike or take the bus. You may park on the street or in the parking lot of FOOD for Lane County's Dining Room, across 8th from the WOW Hall. A freewill donation acknowledging the Dining Room's generosity may be made at the meeting.
Lunch will be available for $15.
Topic:
As Halloween approaches, those familiar with Oregon history might harbor an eerie yen to meet the specters of certain remarkable people. For example, Eliza Young, a Kalapuya woman who was displaced from the Mohawk area in the 1850’s is reported to haunt her grave in Brownsville—her story would surely be full of interesting turns. The extraordinary kindness of Sheriff W.W Withers of Eugene did not protect him from a tragic end. How would he describe his final moments? Hazel Ying Lee broke multiple barriers for women when the Chinese-American became the first female fighter pilot in the US. What is her view from the Wild Blue Yonder? How would Laura Stockton Starcher, the first female mayor in the U.S., feel about her legacy today? Fern Hobbs was an emissary of Gov. Oswald West and became the highest paid civil servant of her times. How did it feel to clean up the most notorious and vice-ridden town in Oregon in 1908 by declaring martial law? Would the ghosts of doomed couple Hermann and Lina Petersdorf, who met their end in 1905 near the Long Tom River, tell us if their deaths were truly a case of murder/suicide… or was it actually a double murder?
Then there are the folks whose ghosts are best left undisturbed.
The recent remodel of the Lane County History Museum revealed previously unseen 1860’s-1913 files of coroner’s reports from Lane County, stored in the last three boxes to be unpacked from the renovation. In this program, local historian and writer Jennifer Chambers will tell some of the stories in those boxes and describe people she has learned about through her studies of Oregon history. She will tell us which ones she would love to meet as apparitions and which she will be sure to avoid!
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Biography:
Jennifer Chambers is a writer, speaker, and host of the Same Crime, Different Time and Resilient with Jen Chambers podcasts. A former columnist and co-owner of a publishing company, she founded the TEDxVenetaWomen event and has spoken at conferences across the U.S. She attended the University of Iowa Summer Writing program. After surviving a traumatic brain injury that erased her memory before age 15, she relearned everything from walking to speaking. In addition to writing history and fantasy books, she serves on the boards of both the Lane Library League and the Fern Ridge Public Library.