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“Greenwood Hills Cemetery is run by a group of volunteers that form the Maintenance Association GHCMA. Dedicated to maintaining the grounds in a manner that respects the dead, honors the living and preserves a valuable connection with our rich pioneer history. Through responsible stewardship of resources, we strive to maintain a safe and beautiful open space where people can come to remember the past and enjoy the natural world which we hold in sacred trust for the future.”
The Grand Army of the Republic was a fraternal organization of Civil War veterans. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois and dissolved in 1956 when its last member died. Peak membership was 490,000 in 1890.
Fourteen veterans formed the Grand Army Cemetery Association and purchased the Portland land in 1882. The Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War took over the cemetery’s management.
Salmon Brown, son of abolitionist John Brown, was buried here in 1919. As a young man in 1856, Salmon Brown took part in an event that foreshadowed the Civil War: the Pottawatomie Massacre of five pro-slavery settlers in Kansas. Brown moved west after the war.”
