Ashland, Oregon

“ He founded and built up the great wholesale grocery house of Allen & Lewis, until now its patrons cover the whole country from Ashland, Oregon, up to the furthest limits of Alaska. Many a distressed country retail man he has helped along for years until farms and business grew up to help him out. Like Henry Failing, C. H. Lewis never pressed a customer, and his word was as good as government bonds throughout the whole northwest. ”

“ In 1877 the men and women who settled the Rogue River and other southern valleys, and whose isolation, Mining adventures, and Indian wars gave them a history of their own, hardly identical with but no less interesting than that of the settlers of the Willamette Valley, met at the picturesque village of Ashland and founded the Pioneer Society of Southern Oregon on the 13th of September of that year, about 800 persons being present. Its first officers were L. C. Duncan president, William Hoffman secretary, N. S. Hayden treasurer. ”

“ The Ashland college and normal school, organized in 1878 from the Ashland academy, is also under the management of the conference.
The Catholic Church, next in point of time, had a rude church at Champoeg on their first entrance into the Willamette valley in the winter of 1839-40. In February 1846 a plain wooden church was dedicated at Oregon City, and in November St Paul's brick church was consecrated at Champoeg. In the autumn of 1851 a church was begun in Portland, which was dedicated in February 1852 by Archbishop Blanchet. ”

“ The population has not increased in twenty years, but has remained stationary at between eight and nine hundred. This is owing to the isolation of the Rogue River Valley, the ownership of the mines by companies, and the competition of the neighboring town of Ashland. ”

“ A woollen-mill at Ashland manufactured goods to the value of from forty to fifty thousand dollars annually, and was the property of two or three men. Its goods were in great demand, being of excellent quality.
The woollen manufactures of the Pacific coast excel in general excellence any in the United States, which is due to the superior quality of the wool used. The blankets made at the Oregon mills, for fineness, softness, and beauty of finish, are unequalled except by those made in California from the same kind of wool. ”

“ A petition was addressed to Captain Alden, in command of Fort Jones in Scott Valley, asking for arms and ammunition. Alden immediately came forward with twelve men. Isaac Hill, with a small company, kept guard at Ashland. [7]
On the 7th of June, Hill attacked some Indians five miles from Ashland, and killed six of them. In return, the Indians on the 17th surprised an immigrant camp and killed and wounded several. [8] The houses everywhere were now fortified; business was suspended, and every available man started out to hunt Indians. ”

“ It has an elevation of 6535 feet. It was named because of the emigrants that traveled over the Meek Cutoff, or emigrant route , that passed nearby . EMIGRANT BUTTES, Umatilla County . These buttes are west of Stanfield , and have an elevation of 759 feet . They are close to the route of the Old Oregon Trail , and were named for the emigrants that traveled that way . EMIGRANT CREEK , Jackson County . Emigrant Creek is southeast of Ashland and is supposed to be so named because emigrants who crossed the Cascade Range over the Applegate route came down this stream into Rogue River Valley . ”

“ This feeling is likely to be deeper rooted when the institutions, as in Oregon, had their origin in denomina- tionalism. Some citizens at Monmouth, Drain, Ashland, and Weston undoubtedly prized the normals because they believed them to be of financial advantage ”

“ Portland leads the ports of the world in the export of lumber, and stands first on the Pacific Coast in the exportation of grain. Astoria, the oldest town in the state, has a beautiful harbor, and is situated near the mouth of the Columbia. Its principal industries are fishing, salmon canning and lumbering. The principal inland cities, Oregon City, Salem, Albany, McMinnville Corvallis, Eugene, Roseburg, Ashland, The Dalles, Pendleton, La Grande, Baker City, Prineville and Klamath Falls, are good manufacturing points, and are shipping centers for the products of the surrounding country. ”

“ Another ditch, built in 1878, eleven miles long, was owned by Klipfel, Hannah & Co., Jacksonville, and by Bellinger, Thayer, Hawthorne, and Kelly of Portland. It brought water from two small lakes in the Siskiyou Mountains to Applegate Creek, and cost $30,000. Ashland Tidings, Sept. 27, 1878. The results were entirely satisfactory. A company was formed by W. R. Willis, at Roseburg, in 1878, with a capital of half a million for carrying on hydraulic mining on the west bank of Applegate Creek. ”

“ People are conservative when called upon to levy taxes for which they do not see a special need con- nected with their own individual interests.
4. The schools, with the possible exception of Ashland, 48 were not located in strategic positions. On account of poor means of communication, Ashland did not have the constitu- ency in Lake, Klamath, and Coos Counties that a casual exam- ination of the map would lead one to believe.
5. The equipment, buildings, and training school facilities were entirely inadequate to meet the higher normal school standards. ”

“ There were avenues and streets, squares and public parks, wharves and warehouses, churches and theaters and an immense population—all upon the map. Astoria at that time was a small place or rather two places—the upper and the lower town—between which there was great rivalry. The upper town was known to the people of lower Astoria as Adairville. The lower town was designated by its rival as "Old Fort George or McClure's Astoria." A road between the two places would have weakened the 135 differences of both, isolation being the protection of either. In the upper town was the customhouse ”

“ If they did not stop at Astoria, they would sail on up the river until they reached the outlet of the Willamette Valley. And every man of much prominence was busily engaged in trying to find the favored spot. It was not even a question of buj'iug the townsite. The whole country was open to location. The land was free. No one knew whether it would be English or American. But it did not cost any money to claim it if the true location could be determined. And so there were, counting in Portland, the ten locations we have named ; and the result was a contest for the survival of the fittest ”

“ He met with resistance from the Indians, and lost fourteen men in battle. In 1824 Ashlej^ discovered a southern route through the Rocky mountains, led his expedition to Great Salt Lake, explored the Utah valley, and built a fort. Two years later a six pounder cannon was hauled from the Mis- souri river across the plains and over the mountains, twelve hundred miles to Ashley's Fort. A trail was made; many loaded wagons passed over it, and within three years Ashley's men gathered and shipped back to St. Louis over two hundred thousand dollars worth of furs. ”

“ During the two years, from 1874 to 1876, the population of the town nearly doubled and many new buildings, consisting of canneries, warehouses, and dwellings, were erected. There was much money in circulation as every one had money and the fishermen were prodigal with theirs. Small change was seldom used, the quarter being the smallest coin in general use. This was the period of Astoria's greatest growth. From a small shipping station in the sixties it had grown to be a town of about two thousand people, controlling the most important industry on the lower Columbia and holding a large trade. ”

“ Between 1846, the year following the first American settlements on Puget Sound, and 1848, population did not much increase, nor was there any commerce to speak of with the outside world until the autumn of the last-named year, when the settlers discarded their shingle-making and their insignificant trade at Fort Nisqually, to open with their ox-teams a wagon road to the mines on the American River. ”

“ The volume of business and shipping increased in even greater proportions than the population. The city has two banks, grain elevators, a weekly newspaper—the Clark County Clipper—several general stores, hardware, drug and jewelry stores, confectioneries, etc., a good public school system, and the Catholics, Methodists, Christians and Presbyterians all have neat church edifices. The Ashland postoffice is authorized to issue international money orders, express, telegraph and telephone facilities are ample, and taken altogether, Ashland can be described as a wide-awake, progressive little city. ”

“ The agents of Astor were beforehand. They had built their fort, mounted their cannon and run up the stars and stripes. The country and its great river was secured for the United States for all time, with the added inestimable value of a foothold on the great Pacific ocean. The services of these valiant Americans were worth more to the nation than that of a thousand President James K. Polks.
A more extended notice of the building of this Astoria fort will be given in connection with the chapter on fur companies. ”

“ During the first thirty years after the real growth of the city began the population was almost exclusively American, but with the advent of the fishing industry came the hardy fishermen and sailors of northwestern Europe who found here an opportunity to carry on their customary avocations with the assurance of profitable returns for their labors. During the first few years of the salmon business a great number of fishermen came from other states, so that Astoria had a floating population of nearly two thousand during the summer months. ”

“ It is not hard to understand the fact of so many townsite locations having been made in the vicinity of Portland. Everybody in the country in those pio- neer days, could see as well as we can now, that there would be somewhere above the Columbia river bar a town started, which would grow into a great city, and make fortune or fortunes for the lucky proprietors. Every man had his individual ideas of the proposition. The city would either be at Astoria, where Astor located, or it would be up near the mouth of the Willamette river. ”

“ Now at last Astoria citizens resolved to do for themselves; they had leaned on Holladay and Villard and got unfulfilled promises. Portland was the meeting point of the transcon- tinental Northern Pacific and Union Pacific and the ocean- going ships of the Columbia River since 1883-4; now (1887) the Astoria men made up their minds they would bring that meeting point nearer the sea to Astoria in their view, the logical place.
They could not build the 100-mile railroad themselves ”

“ Astoria at the present day is a cosmopolitan city of about ten thousand inhabitants, composed largely of foreigners. As in earlier times fishing is the main industry, though the rapidly growing lumber industry bids fair soon to surpass it in importance. ”

“ Nearly all the inhabitants, except those connected with the Hudson's Bay Company, are settled in the Wilhammette valley ; the extreme southern cottage being on Mary's river, about one hundred miles from the Columbia. Twenty or thirty fam- ilies are at Astoria and the Clatsop plains ; and by this time, there may be as many on the north side of the river, in the neighborhood of Nisqually abd other ports on Puget's sound.
Between Astoria and Fort Vancouver, but o'ne white man resides on the bank of the river for purposes of cultivation ”

“ In 1890 the city had a population of six thousand one hundred and eighty-four, a very great increase over the 146 census returns of ten years before. Two years before this the Astoria and South Coast Railroad was started and the road built from Sea Side to the middle of Young's Bay, a distance of about fifteen miles. Though this road did not enter the city for several years its building had a marked effect on Astoria. Prices for city property increased very rapidly, and during the years 1889 and 1890 a real estate boom was in progress. ”

“ Ships now began to sail for Astoria, and the trading-post flourished in the beautiful climate and amid the majestic scenery. But the English claimed the country. In June, 1812, war broke out with England, and Astoria became threatened with capture by the English. It was decided by Astor's agent to abandon the post; but Astoria had taught the United States the value of Oregon.
The Oregon trail from St. Louis, by the way of the great rivers, the Missouri, the Yellowstone, and the Columbia, followed the fall of Astoria, and began the highway of emigration to the Pacific coast and to Asia. ”

“ A. site had been previously selected on the south side of the Kansas river, near the mouth of McDowell's creek. The original intention was to make the entire trip by water, the colonists believing the Kansas river to be navigable, but upon arriving at Kansas City they found that their boat would be unable to proceed farther. Emigrant wagons and teams were procured for the remainder of the journey, and on April 22 they reached their destination. Many of these colonists were admirers of Henry Clay and the town they laid out was named Ashland, after the great commoner's residence in Kentucky. ”

“ But the prospects for a city were blighted by the adverse claim of Amos Short, an immigrant of 1847, who settled first at Linnton, then removed to Sauvé Island where he was engaged in slaughtering Spanish cattle, but who finally took six hundred and forty acres below Fort Vancouver, Williamson who still claimed the land being absent at the time, having gone to Indiana for a wife. ”