Jacksonville, Oregon

“ E. Barron, and brought up to Oregon by S. G. Elliott, and filed in the office of the secretary of the state at Salem on July 13, 1865. These articles provided for a corporation with a capital stock of sixteen million dollars, that its principal office should be at Jacksonville, Oregon, and that the company should build a railroad from some point on the state line between California and Oregon as should be thereafter designated "to some point on the navigable waters of the Columbia river," and should receive the lands that might be granted by congress in aid of such a road. ”

“ The development of Jacksonville began with the placer gold discoveries there in 1851-52. Leslie M. Scott told the writer in 1927 that Jacksonville was named for Jackson Creek, upon which it is situated, and Jackson Creek was named for one of the men who discovered gold on its banks. ”

“ The principal towns in these valleys are Jacksonville, in Oregon, and Yreka, in California. These towns are noted for their rapid increase in population, the frequent changes and fluctuations in their markets, rich gold mines, frequent Indian wars, and high prices; but it will be seen by the following prices that the government has not been asked to pay as high prices to prosecute these wars as individuals have frequently paid in time of peace for the necessaries of life, while pursuing their common avocations. Yreka was settled in 1851, and Jacksonville in 1852. ”

“ The shifting nature of the population may be inferred from fact that to Jackson county was apportioned four representatives, while Marion, Washington, and Clackamas were each allowed but three. [10]
A scheme was put on foot to form a new territory out of the southern countries with a portion of northern California, the movement originating at Yreka, where it was advocated by the Mountain Herald. A meeting was held at Jacksonville January 7, 1854, which appointed a convention for the 25th. Memorials were drafted to congress and the Oregon and California legislatures. ”

“ Jacksonville was the county seat and trade center of the beautiful Rogue River valley, which has been more benefited by railroad transportation than any other community between the Columbia river and San Francisco bay. Steamboats could run up the Sacramento river one hundred and fifty miles from San Francisco; and other boats could get up the Willamette river one hundred and twenty-five miles from the ship landing to Eugene; and teams, pack trains, and stage lines could serve a limited trade and population in all the region on the north and south route between these river boat termini. ”

“ The new grade extends for eight miles from Priest’s to Jacksonville, in which distance it descends fifteen hundred feet, but in no place does the gradient exceed five per cent. It follows the very crest of a giant hill range overlooking a beautiful valley some two or three thousand feet below. Alongside there is nothing to break the full sweep of one’s vision—not a tree or even a shrub intervenes between the roadbed and the precipitous slope beneath. ”

“ Then there were two chiefs who had their country at the foot of the Siskiyou Mountains on the north side, or south of Jacksonville, namely, Tipso, that is to say, The Hairy, from his heavy beard, and Sullix, or the Bad-tempered, both of whom were unfriendly to the settlers and miners. ”

“ As soon as the news reached Jacksonville that the Rogue River settlements were attacked, a company of some twenty men hastened to take the trail of the Indians down the river. An express was despatched to Fort Lane, to Captain Smith, who sent a detachment of fifty-five mounted men, under Major Fitzgerald, in pursuit of the savages. ”

“ The first successful schools in the valley are just started by persons of our com- pany, are in Jacksonville to be the basis of an academy and one in the country. The first religious societies three Metho- dist are now being organized, with five clergymen, of the same denomination, all of our company, in the field. The most flourishing branches of business are those of the bowling sa- loon, the gambling den and the drunkery and yet there is less of gambling and drinking in the place than you would expect to see. Merchants and mechanics are doing well. ”

“ And, to Tice, prosperity meant an opportunity to return home.
Jacksonville, Oregon, Aug. 7/53 Dear Father and Mother,
I received Mother's and Fred's letters last week which pleased me very much. I write this in great haste. Everything and everybody is in great excitement about Indian war. The Indians of this Valley have turned against the whites. They have killed two men and have wounded five or six since last Friday evening. The whites turned out yesterday and killed some six or seven Indians besides hanging three here in town. ”

“ He deserves much credit for prosecuting this project thus far to a success that is to bring to our doors daily intelligence from the East, and it is to be hoped that the citizens of the Upper Columbia will move in the same matter as soon as the line is completed to Portland.
A ride of twenty hours brings us into the Rogue Valley and to Jacksonville, a region I regard as one of the most beautiful and picturesque to be found in Oregon. The valley is from twenty-five to thirty miles square, entirely taken up by beautiful farms and under high cultivation ”

“ Born in Ohio in 1833, he came to Oregon in 1862, practicing law in Jacksonville and taking part in the journalism of that lively town. He preceded Orange Jacobs as editor of the Jacksonville Sentinel and preceded Samuel A. Clarke, who was to be his railroad rival, as editor of the Oregon Statesman at Salem. He later edited the Oregon Agriculturist at Salem and, in 1872, the Willamette Farmer. He was also connected with the Portland Daily Bulletin, a competitor of the Oregonian, during its last year, in 1874-75 , and edited the Pacific Farmer in 1888. ”

“ They followed a narrow trail across the Siskiyou mountains and along the bank of Bear creek. It was their custom when they reached this valley, to stop to rest and recuperate their animals. The wild grass grew so high in the valley that the man who herded the mules had to stand on the back of his horse in order to locate the rest of the herd.
Cluggage had worked at mining and one day, while they were in camp in the valley, went up into the hills where Jacksonville now is. ”

“ In February of 1890, Charlie Strang recalls, a foot of snow went off with a warm rain and carried out the railroad bridges. The mountain just slid into Cow Creek canyon to the north and put a lake 40 feet deep over the railroad. Meanwhile deep snow in the mountains to the south was keeping trains out from that direction. Supplies of all kinds ran short, and the papers were forced to suspend for a time. One issue of the Jacksonville Times, Charles Nickell's paper, came out printed on the backs of old Fourth of July posters. ”

“ When Scottsburg became the base of supplies, instead of the Willamette Valley, he traded between that place and the mines. When war broke out, Dowell was 'the first in and the last out' of the fight. After that he settled in Jacksonville, and engaged in the practice of law and newspaper management. ”

“ But not least of the tributes paid to such marked fidelity, is the immortal chaplet of verse which Oregon's truest and best poet has thus paid to the memory of an unfortunate member of an unfortunate race, and Jacksonville Mary now seems as imperishably enshrined in literature as are Pocahontas and Minnehaha.
When the poem was first tendered me to peruse, I did not catch its full beauty, owing to the difficulty I had in making out Sam's excellent handwriting, and it was not until we obtained a printed copy that my admiration rose to a full sense of its superior excellence. ”

“ Four companies, designated as the southern battalion, were to have headquarters at Jacksonville. The Northern battalion, which was to consist of five companies-two from Lane, one from Linn, one from Umpqua and one from Douglas-were to rendezvous at Roseburg. Each volunteer was to furnish his own horse, arms and equipment, and was to receive four dollars per day from the territory of Oregon for his services. It is said that every able bodied man of proper age in the district placed his name on the muster rolls, which accounts for the fact that there were in all about eight hundred volunteers. ”

“ However, the following afterward appeared in the Umpqua Gazette, written by General Lane:
"Some time since I wrote a letter for publication in relation to the division of Oregon Territory, as proposed by the people of Jacksonville and Yreka, in which I gave my views in opposition to such a division and urged the establishment of a state government for reasons I think will be considered legitimate and proper. A new Territory cannot be made as proposed. The delegation from California does not think of entertaining the idea of clipping their state." ”

“ Sutton, born in Cass county, Illinois, in 1849, came to Oregon with his parents when he was 5 years old. His first newspaper work was done in the office of the Oregon Sentinel as Jacksonville in 1862, as apprentice, under Orange Jacobs, editor, only three years after W. G. T'Vault, Oregon's first editor, had severed his connection with the paper. Two years later he went to Portland and worked in the William Davis Carter job office. Back to Jacksonville, he worked a few months in Jackson county's only drug store, then returned to the Sentinel office as foreman. ”

“ The agitation in favor of railroads in Oregon was started, contrary to the general experience, not by men of capital able to build roads, but by men without capital, and with views and plans somewhat ahead of their time. The first tangible effort, continuously pushed until the actual construction of a railroad was commenced, started at Jacksonville, in Southern Oregon, in 1864. ”

“ Read at Jacksonville. . . Yours respectfully, EZRA FISHER. N. B. The Methodists have two ministers in Umpqua. Besides these there is no minister of any order except Br. Stevens. I trust one of the six or eight Baptist ministers now on their way overland for Oregon 330 will find a home in Umpqua Valley and help in sowing the seed and reaping the harvest in promising fields. The climate in this valley is mild and remarkably salubrious. ”

“ There were in Jacksonville and its immediate vicinity from seven to eight thousand men, possibly more. The coat as an article of dress had fallen into "innocuous desuetude." Soft slouch hats were universally worn. There were but a few women, and most of them not angelic. The mines were rich, money was abundant, and gambling rampant. I ought not to omit the dance-halls that pointed the lurid way to perdition. I said that money was abundant; I do not mean by this that much United States gold coin was in circulation. There was a five-dollar gold piece that had its origin in Oregon. ”

“ Great masses of boulders and earth are swept down narrow defiles and into the main stream in quantities sufficient to form serious obstructions in the river.
WATKINS, Jackson County. For nearly thirty years Watkins was a post office in the upper Applegate River Valley near the mouth of Squaw Creek. The office was established in March, 1893, with the name of the first postmaster, Mark Watkins. The office operated in this locality until November 30, 1920, when it was closed out to Jacksonville. ”

“ His connection with this paper ceased in 1859, after the name was changed to The Oregon Sentinel. His next editorial experience was in 1863 with a paper called the Intelligencer, in Jacksonville, on a plant in that place first used by parties who started a paper called The Civilian, which died after a brief and fitful career—in fact, was a campaign sheet, as far as can be learned, issued in the interest of the National Democratic party in 1859, in opposition to the regular Democratic party. ”

“ But limited to these pioneer transportation facilities, the trade and population of all this region must forever stand still. There are in what is known as the "Rogue River valley," of which Jacksonville, Ashland, Talent, Medford and Gold Hill are trading points, about a million and a quarter acres of fine agricultural, timber, mineral and grazing lands, and of which in 1863, not more than one-tenth had been taken up by actual settlers. The pioneer farmers saw the necessity and the immense benefits to be gained from a railroad which should pass through their valley from ”

“ The Jlodoc war was now fairly opened; and couriers were sent off in every direction warning the white settlers to flee for their lives. Prom that time the enraged Indians burned, killed and destroyed in every direction, to the full extent of their a.bility. These murders and pillaging of property aroused the Governors of both California and Oregon to action and volunteci-s were called out to aid the U. S. regulars. Col. John Ross of Jacksonville and Capt. 0. C. Applegate of Klamath both raised companies which were accepted ”

“ Mrs. Sallie Applegate Long, Mrs. Jesse Applegate, in Ore. Hist. Soc. Quar., VIII .-182.
278 This church was organized May i, 1852, by Revs. Vincent Snelling and William Sperry. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore., l:ig.
CORRESPONDENCE 467
Jacksonville, the trading town for the rich mining district now attracting many miners on the Rogue River, and but seven miles from the Agency. I trust you will be casting about you with prayerful anxiety to find the very man to meet vice in all its forms and succeed in that place. . . ”

“ I rejoice in the love of our divine Master that you desired. have appointed two more missionaries for Oregon and that they are in their field of labor. The way is now open for me to work directly for you without putting on the air of supreme selfishness and, although we are feeling the effects of what the world calls hard times, I intend to try and do what I can 366 at Jacksonville for Br. Boyakin at Portland and Br. ”