In October 1881, a distinctive gravestone arrived in Port Orford aboard a ship from San Francisco for delivery to the town’s founder, Capt. William Tichenor.
The gravestone would mark the final resting place of Tichenor’s wife, Elizabeth Brinkerhoff, in a private burial ground overlooking the ocean with a pleasant view of town.
Once assembled, the 46-inch monument stood in three layers, diminishing in size toward the top, with a pedestal made of California gray granite and top two sections of highly polished Scotch granite. Its cost was $300, the equivalent in today’s currency of about $6,100. In 1881, it was an unprecedented amount for a gravestone in Curry County.
The Brinkerhoff family was among the first settlers of Manhattan Island. In 1852, Elizabeth joined her husband in Port Orford to become the first known non-indigenous woman to settle along the Oregon Coast.
Mrs. Tichenor was given the moniker “mother of civilization in Southwest Oregon” because of her strong faith and caring reputation as a good neighbor.
It has been said that down below her remote hilltop memorial, the Pacific sings her requiem forevermore.
Sources: "Died: Mrs. Elizabeth Tichenor, wife of William Tichenor." Port Orford Post, 16 Dec. 1880; "A Fine Monument." Ibid. 13 Oct. 1881