St. Paul Memorial Day honors pioneers and volunteers

For a small town, residents of St. Paul have played an oversized role in the settlement of Oregon, a supposition backed up by the countless stories of those buried at St. Paul Pioneer Cemetery.

With dozens of Oregon’s earliest settlers interred at the gravesite on Highway 219 — including members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, numerous war veterans and about a dozen who voted on Oregon’s first government — Shirley Southerland is working with the city’s Historic Resources Board to make sure residents know their city’s history, one historical figure at a time through the now annual St. Paul Memorial Day Observance.