Mary Drain Albro founded the Pioneer Rose Association in 1936 with other descendants of Oregon pioneer families. The mission of the Pioneer Rose Association was collecting and cultivating roses that came across the plains or around the Horn with pioneers. The emblem of the club was the “Mission Rose”, Rosa damascena bifera, and their motto read “With the Bible, the Flag, and the Rose, they built the Empire.”
She grew thousands of roses from cuttings, she collected and recorded many stories. She said about some of her roses, “their history may not be pure, but the stories are good.”
After 13 years of service the Pioneer Rose Association disbanded. In the end the Pioneer Rose Association was the work of Mary Drain Albro. She collected twenty three roses she felt were documented to have come across the plains, around the Horn or had a connection to Oregon pioneer history. Mary Drain Albro blazed the Pioneer Rose Trail and laid the path for others to follow. She will be honored for her contributions to Oregon on the naming walls the Walk of the Heroines on the Portland State University campus in downtown Portland.
Mary Drain Albro would be pleased to know her only remaining rose garden, “Roses of Old Oregon”, planted in Lone Fir Cemetery was one of the components that led to the 2007 listing of the cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places. The garden is tended by Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery and will be restored following Oregon State Historic Preservation Office guidelines.
The Pioneer Rose Association collected stories about the families who brought the roses and felt that the roses would be best preserved by planting them in public spaces where gardeners would tend them. Universities and colleges seemed to be a good match.
Lewis and Clark College
In May 1938, the Pioneer Rose Association planted a garden at Willamette University in Salem. Mary dedicated the planting of a “Mission Rose” to Anna Maria Pitman Lee, wife of Jason Lee.
Whitman College
Dedicated in May 1939, five “Mother’s Rose”, Rosa virginiana, bushes were planted to honor the memory of Narcissa Prentiss Whitman at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington
Pacific University
Mary honored Tabitha Moffat Brown at Pacific University in Forest Grove in May of 1942. The “Old Memorial Rose”, Rosa wichuraiana, was planted as a tribute to Mrs. Brown, who founded a school for orphans that eventually became Pacific University
Mothers Memorial Cabin
At the Mother’s Memorial Cabin at Champoeg State Park, Mary Drain Albro dedicated a rose garden in 1948.