Asa Lawrence Lovejoy (1808- 1882) was one of the founders of Portland, and in 1845, in one of my favorite coin tosses in history, lost the naming rights to Portland to Francis Pettygrove (Lovejoy was going for *Boston*, his hometown, Pettygrove hailed from Portland, Maine). The whole story is here. Lovejoy is buried in Portland at Lone Fir Cemetery, and the epitaph on his tombstone reads,He endured the adventures of the plains and mountains, and here—beside the Willamette chose and wisely developed the site of the greatest city of the Columbia valley, afterward holding many offices of public trust, and passing with the esteem of all.
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