C. H. PIGGOTT / LAWYER and POET

Charles Henry Piggott was an interesting, eccentric character. Piggott had peculiar dietary and health beliefs. He published 'Poetry', and various musings about life, social mores, women, and so on. Piggott built a house in Portland Heights, in the form of a castle, that stands today. He practiced law, but got involved with various shenanigans with one of his business partners, and a scandal involving a murder! (Clarify facts here!)

Piggott had three children by his wife, Ada Pope Piggott, who was 10 years younger.

A 1905 Oregonian listing of church events listed C.H. Piggott as President of the "Ministers and Mediums Spiritualistic Association".

Piggott died in 1924 at age 73, from dilation of his heart after amputation of gangrene leg (or foot). (Diabetes?) His wife Ada died 4 years earlier.

From the Certificate of Death - He was born in Canada. Died a Widower. The Certificate incorrectly had his middle initial as "L". His middle name was Henry!

In the remainder of this blog post, we offer a glimpse of his Castle, and a sample of his writings.

Gleall Castle

Piggott purchased some Portland Heights property and spent $11,000 starting to build a house in 1892. He reportedly named it "Gleall Castle" for his children Gladys, Earl, and Lloyd.

Piggott lost it, before its completion, during the financial panic of 1893. Hence the structure became known as Piggott's Folly.

His whimsical building continued to inspire others. In 1910, a noted New York artist, Théodore Gégoux took up residence there and painted. To learn more about artist and aeronaut Gégoux, visit https://www.gegoux.com

The May 17, 1910 Morning Oregonian had a story about Halley's Comet that noted that a small party assembled and at 2 AM went to the castle to view the comet.

Today the castle is a private residence. Please respect the privacy of the owners and do not disturb them. Direct any questions to the Architectural Heritage Society.

Pigott's Castle is FOR SALE!

Here is the Zillow listing as of November 6, 2022, just in case the castle sells, and the listing goes away. The listing has a bunch of interior and exterior photos. (Thanks to Mike Whitten for calling this to our attention!)

$1,750,000
5 bd 4 ba 3,200 sqft
3 Garage spaces
Property 5,227 sqft

Stories start in all sorts of places. 1892 Piggott Castle's story began. Double thick brick exterior walls w/11 ft ceilings & 9 ft windows mirroring architecture from Rome's seven hills, Piggott built his sanctuary. Fast forward to 1979, current owners saved, restored and treasured the castle. Now, it is available in all its historically cool glory. Once in a lifetime opportunity. The only registered castle in Portland. Brace yourself for a world filled w/phenomenal views and inspirational living.

ZILLOW listing [LINK]

Pearls at Random Strung

In 1908, Piggott published a booklet in Portland, price $1, with the title Pearls at Random Strung | Or | Life's Tragedy from Wedding to Tomb | Including The Scientific Causes of All Diseases, Poverty, Premature Death and Longevity .

Six Pearls

Here are 6 entries from the 111 page booklet, in the public domain, sourced from GoogleBooks. (Link in References below.) Each entry was (re)typeset by Wendy Ice of Bad Monkey Productions in Portland, to make them more visually appealing. We reproduce them here with permission.

Location of the Gravestone

This grave is in River View Cemetery.

Charles Henry Piggott
Born: 1855
Died: 7 July 1924
Buried: 12 July 1924
Section: 14
Block/Unit: A
Space: 17

Advice on getting to PIGGOTT grave

River View Cemetery has several entrances - one at the west end of the Sellwood Bridge, two entrances on Taylor's Ferry Road, and an Upper entrance, on Palatine Hill Road. The most direct route to PIGGOTT is via the upper gate, on Palatine Hill Road. The other entrances require navigating the twisty maze of cemetery lanes.

Consult Google Maps before going toward the upper gate is along Palatine Hill Road. You can get to PHR via Terwilliger, turning onto Primrose, and then by crossing Boones Ferry Road to get onto Palatine Hill Road. Or, you could follow signs to Lewis & Clark College and turn left onto Palatine Hill Road just past the Law School, and go north on PHR to get to the upper gate. (Palatine Hill Road make several dogleg turns.)

Biking or Walking. You can also walk anywhere in the cemetery of course, even from Sellwood. Be advised, the cemetery is on the side of a hill, and has quite an elevation gain up from the Willamette. One can ride a bicycle, but certain lanes (including ones near PIGGOTT) are off limits to through bicycle traffic, so if you are on bike, be respectful if traveling off the approved through traffic route.

Via Transit. You can get out the lower gate on Trimet #35 and other Trimet lines.

The Aerial View shows the location of the grave, in section 14, down by the maintenance shop. You can park on the lane north of the shop, and walk over to the grave.

The Gravesite

Leaving, if you just go down hill from PIGGOTT, you'll come out at the Sellwood Bridge.

How was this grave discovered?

I was returning home from Sellwood, hiking up through the cemetery. There was a groundskeeper meeting in progress on the pavement at the shop, so I stepped onto the grass to go around the group. An impressive slab piqued my interest. Who was this Lawyer and Poet? Once home, Google revealed that there was a Facebook page dedicated to Piggott! I contacted the author of the page about the grave, which was news to them! --JM

The Facebook page has stories compiled from The Oregonian. Link below in References.

Editor's Note

We are Greatly indebted to the author/creator of the Charles Henry Piggott History Page on Facebook, Wendy Ice, who gathered so much info on CH Piggott.

Piggott's wife, Ada Pope Piggott, is also buried in River View, in a different section. She was 10 years younger than Charles, and died 4 years before him, making him a widower. Sec 07, Lot 99, Grave 2

Ada Pope Piggott
Born 15 Mar 1865
Died 15 Oct 1920

Photo credits: J Miller, except for the castle photo. Editor: J Miller.

How this Blog Post should be (was) described on Social Media

A draft of this blog entry was posted on Halloween!

It was a Dark and Stormy Night... Curl up with our final blog post for October 2022. We visit the grave site of one Charles Henry Piggott, learn about his (haunted) "Gleall Castle" in Portland Heights, his "Pearls at Random Strung" booklet, and his quirky life. Boo! https://newcollinsview.blog/grab-bag/C.H.PIGGOTT.html

References

• Charles Piggott House on Wikipedia [LINK]
• Charles Henry Piggott History Page on Facebook [LINK]
• Pearls at Random Strung; Or, Life's Tragedy from Wedding to Tomb: Including ... on Google Books [LINK]
• River View Burial records showed Charles L Piggott. (Should be H, as in Henry). This has been corrected. You can search for any name here: [LINK]
• Find-a-Grave entry, contains Certificate of Death (showing L as middle initial). [LINK]
• There may be an entry on ancestry.com, but one needs to pay to get in there.
• Ada Pope Piggott at River View, on Find-a-Grave [LINK]

Questions for Our Readers

• Was Piggott in that Halley's Comet viewing party at the castle?? (Probably not)
• Are any of Piggott's descendants (Gladys, Earl, Lloyd) living?
• ?
• ?

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