USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 71
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Coos county was organized December 22, 1853, out of portions of Umpqua and Jackson counties. The name is that of the natives of the bay county. It contained about the same area as Clatsop, and had over 25,000 acres of improved land, valued, with the improvements, at $1, ISS,349. The legisla- ture enlarged Coos county by taking off from Douglas on the north and ca ,t enough to straighten the north boundary and to add two rows of townshit-s on the east. Or. Jour. House, 1882, 290. It is now considerably larger than Clatsop. The live-stock of the county is valued at over $161,000, and of farm products for 1879 over 8209,000. Total of real and personal assessed valuation was between 8800,000 and $900,000. The gross valuation in 1881-2 was over $1,191,000, the population being a little over 4,800, the wealth of the county per capita being $329. This county is the only one m Oregon where coal-mining has been carried on to any extent. A line of steamers has for many years been carrying Coos Bay coal to S. F. market. The second industry of the county is lumbering, and the third ship-building, the largest ship-yard in the state being here. Farming has not been much followed, most of the provisions consumed at Coos Bay being brought from California. Fruit is increasing in production, and is of excellent quality. Beach-mining for gold has been carried on for thirty years. Iron and lead ores are known to exist, but have not been worked. There are also extensive quarries of a fine quality of slate. The valleys of Coos and Coquille rivers are exceedingly fertile, and the latter produces the best white cedar timber in the state, while several of the choice woods used in furniture factories abound in this county. Empire City, situated four miles from the entrance to Coos Bay, on the south shore, is the county seat, with a popula- tion of less than two hundred. It was founded in the spring of 1853 by a company of adventurers, of which an account has been given in a previous chapter, and for some years was the leading town. Marshfield, founded only a little later by J. C. Tolman and A. J. Davis, soon outstripped all the towns iu the county, having about 900 inhabitants and a thriving trade. It is situated four miles farther from the ocean than Empire City, on the same shore. Between the two is the lumbering establishment of North Bend.
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COUNTIES OF OREGON.
The place is beautifully situated, and would be rapidly settled did not the proprietors refuse to sell lots, preferring to keep their employés away from the temptations of miscellaneous associations. Still farther up the bay and river, beyond Marshfield, are the settlements of Coos City, Utter City, Coaledo, Sumner, and Fairview. Coquille City is prettily situated near the mouth of Coquille River, and has about two hundred inhabitants. It is hoped by improving the channel of the river, which is navigable for 40 miles, to make it a rival of Coos Bay as a port for small sea-going vessels, the government having appropriated $130,000 for jetties at this place, which have been constructed for half a mile on the south side of the entrance. Myrtle Point, at the head of tide-water, is situated on a high bluff on the right bank of the Coquille, in the midst of a fine lumber and coal region. It was settled in 1858 by one Myers, who sold out to C. Lehnhere, and in 1877 Binger Herman, elected in 1884 to congress, bought the land on which the town stands, and has built up a thriving settlement. Other settlements in the Coquille district are Dora, Enchanted Prairie, Freedom, Gravel Ford, Norway, Randolph, Boland, and Cunningham. Gale's Coos Co. Dir., 1875, 3 .- 61; Official P. O. List, Jan. 1885, 499; Roseburg Plaindealer, Ang. 15, 1574.
Crook county, named after General George Crook, for services performed in Indian campaigns in eastern Oregon, was cut off from the south end of Wasco coun y, by legisla ive act, October 9, 1882. The north line is drawn west from the Lend of the John Day River, and east up the centre of the Wasco channel of said river to the west boundary of Grant county, thence on the line between Grant and Wasco counties to the south-east corner of Wasco, thence west to the summits of the Cascade Mountains, and thence along them to the intersection of the north line. It lies in the hilly region where the Blue Mountains intersect the foot-hills of the Cascade Range. and for ycars has been the grazing-ground of immense herds of cattle. There are also many valleys fit for agriculture. Prineville is the county seat. It is situated on Ochoco River, near its junction with Crooked River, a fork of Des Chutes, and has a population of several hundred. It was incorporated in 1880. Ochoco, Willoughby, Bridge Creek, and Scissorsville are the subor- dinate towns.
Curry county, named after Governor George L. Curry, organized December 18, 1855, is comparatively an unsettled country, having only a little more than 1,200 inhabitants. Its area is greater than that of Coos, the two coun- ties comprising 3,331 square miles, not much of which belonging to Curry has been surveyed. The value of farm property is estimated at between five and six hundred thousand dollars. The assessed valuation for 1879 was abont $220,000. The territorial act establishing the county provided for the selce- tion of a county seat by votes at the next general election, which was pre- vented by the Rogne River Indian war. At the election of 1858 Ellensburg, a mining town, was chosen, and the choice confirmed by state legislative enactment in October 1860. Port Orford is the principal port in Curry county. Chetcoe is the only other town on the coast. There is no reason for the nnsettled condition of Curry except its inaccessibility, which will be overcome in time, when its valuable forests and minerals will be made a source of wealth by a numerous population. Salmon fishing is the principal indns- try aside from lumbering and farming.
Douglas county, named after Stephen A. Douglas, was created January 7, 1852, out of that part of Umpqua county which lay west of the Coast Range. In 1864 the remainder of Umpqua was joined to Douglas, and Umpqua ceased to be. Its boundaries have been several times altered, the last time in 1882, when a small strip of country was taken off its western border to give to Coos. Its area previous to this partition was 5,796 square miles. The valuation of its farms, buildings, and live-stock is nearly five million dollars. A large portion of its wealth comes from sheep-raising and wool-growing. In 1880 Douglas county shipped a million pounds of wool, worth three to four cents more per pound than Willamette Valley wool, and sold 27,000 head of sheep
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DOUGLAS, GILLIAM, AND GRANT.
to Nevada farmers. The valuation of assessable real and personal property is between two and three millions. In that part of the county which touches the sea-coast lumbering and fishing are important industries. Gold-mining is still followed in some localities with moderate profits. The population is be- tween nine and ten thousand. Roseburg, named after its founder, Aaron Rose, was made the county seat in 1853. It was often called Deer creek until about 1856-7. It is beautifully situated at the junction of Deer creek with the south fork of the Umpqua, in the heart of the Umpqua Valley, has about 900 inhabitants, and is the principal town in the valley. It was incorporated in 1868. Oakland is a pretty town of 400 inhabitants, so named by its founder, D. S. Baker, from its situation in an oak grove. Dearly's Hist. Or., MS., 79. It is on Calapooya creek, a branch of the Umpqua River, and the Oregon and California railroad passes through it to Roseburg. Wilbur is another picturesque place on the line of this road, named after J. H. Wilbur, founder of the academy at that place. It is only an academic town, with two hun- dred population. Canonville, at the north end of the Umpqua canon, has a population of two or three hundred. Winchester, named for Colonel Win- chester of the Umpqua Company, the first county seat of Douglas county, Galesville, named from a family of that name, Myrtle Creek, Camas Valley, Looking Glass, Ten Mile, Cleveland, Umpqua Ferry, Cole's Valley, Rice Hill, Yoncalla, Drain, Comstock, Elkton, Sulphur Springs, Fair Oaks, Civil Bend, Day Creek, Elk Head, Kellogg, Mount Scott, Patterson's Mills, Round Prairie, are the various smaller towns and post-offices in the valley. Scottsburg, sit- nated at the head of tide-water on the lower river, named for Levi Scott, its founder in 1850, and by him destined to be the commercial entrepot of south- ern Oregon, is now a decayed mountain hamlet. The lower town was all washed away in the great flood of 1861-2, and a whole street of the upper town, with the military road connecting it with the interior country, was made impassable. Another road has been constructed over the mountains, and an attempt made to render the Umpqua navigable to Roseburg, a steamer of small dimensions and light draught being built, which made one trip and abandoned the enterprise, condemning Scottsburg to isolation and retrogres- sion. Gardiner, situated on the north bank of the Umpqua, eighteen miles lower down-named by A. C. Gibbs after Captain Gardiner of the Bostonian, a vessel wrecked at the entrance to the river in 1850-laid out in 1851, was the seat of customs collection for several years, during which it was presumed there was a foreign trade. At present it is the seat of two or more lumbering establishments, a salmon-cannery, and a good local trade.
Gilliam county was set off mostly from Wasco, partly from Umatilla, in the spring of 1885. First county officers: commissioners, A. H. Wetherford, W. W. Steiver; judge, J. W. Smith; clerk, - Lucas; sheriff, J. A. Blakely; treasurer, Harvey Condon; assessor, J. C. Cartwright. The town site of Alkali, the present county seat, was laid off in 1882 by James W. Smith, a native of Mississippi. First house built in the latter part of 1881, by E. W. Rhea.
J. H. Parsons, born in Randolph co., Va, came to Cal. in 1857, overland, with a train of 30 wagons led by Capt. L. Mugett, and located in San José Valley, where for twelve years he was a lumber dealer. In 1869 he went to British Columbia and was for 8 years engaged in stock-raising on Thompson's River, after which he settled on John Day River, Oregon, in what is now Gilliam co. He married, in 1877, Josephine Writsman, and has 4 children. He owns 320 acres of bottom-land, has 5 square miles of pasture under fence, has 2,000 head of cattle, and 200 horses. His grain land produces 30 bushels of wheat or 60 bushels of barley to the acre.
Grant county, called after U. S. Grant, occupying a central position in eastern Oregon, contains over fifteen square miles, of which only about one- ninth has been surveyed, less than 200,000 acres settled upon, and less than forty thousand improved. It was organized out of Wasco and Umatilla counties, October 14, 1864, during the rush of mining population to its placers on the head waters of the John Day. Spec. Laws, in Or. Jour. Sen., 1864, 43-4.
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COUNTIES OF OREGON.
Its bonndaries were defined by act in 1870. Or. Laws, 1870, 167-8. In 18,2 a part was taken from Grant and added to Baker county. Or. Laws, 1872, 34-5. These placers no longer yield profitable returns, and are aban- doned to the Chinese. There are good quartz mines in the county, which will be ultimately developed. The principal business of the inhabitants is horse- breeding and cattle-raising; but there is an abundance of good agricultural land in the lower portions. The population is about 5,000. The gross valu- ation of all property in 188I was over $1,838,000, the chief part of which was in live-stock.
Cañon City, the county seat, was founded in 1862, and incorporated iu 1864. It is situated in a cañon of the head-waters of John Day River, in the centre of a rich mining district now about worked out. It had 2,500 inhabi- tants in 1865. A fire in August 1870 destroyed property worth a quarter of a million, which has never been replaced. The present population is less than 600 for the whole precinct in which Canon City is situated, which comprises some of the oldest mining camps. Prairie City, a few miles distant, Robin- sonville, Monnt Vernon, Monument, Long Creek, John Day, Granite, Camp Harney, and Soda Spring are the minor settlements.
Jackson county, from Andrew Jackson, president, was created January 12, 1852, ont of the territory lying south of Donglas, comprising the Rogue River Valley and the territory west of it to the Pacific ocean. Its boundaries have been several times changed, by adding to it a portion of Wasco and tak- ing from it the county of Josephine, with other recent modifications. Its present area is 4,689 square miles, one third of which is good agricultural land, about 91,000 acres of which is improved. Corn and grapes are success- fully cultivated in Jackson county in addition to the other cereals and fruits. The valnation of its farms and buildings is over $1,600,000, of live-stock half a million, and of farm products over half a million annually. The valuation of taxable property is nearly two millions. The population is between eight and nine thonsand. Mining is the most important industry, the placers still yielding well to a process of hydraulic mining. Jacksonville, founded in 1852, was established as the connty seat Jannary 8, 1853, and incorporated in 1864. It owed its location, on Jackson creek, a tributary of Rogne River, to the existence of rich placers in the immediate vicinity, yet unlike most mining towns, it occupies a beantifnl site in the centre of a fertile valley, where it mnnst continue to grow and prosper. It is now, as it always has been, an active business place. 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. Bowles' New West, 449; Hines' Or., 78-9; Bancroft ( A. L. ), Journey to Or., 1862, MS., 44. The town of Ashland, founded in 1852 by J. and E. Emry, David Hurley, and J. A. Cardwell, and named after the home of Henry Clay, has a population about eqnal to Jacksonville. It is the prettiest of the many pretty towns in southern Oregon, being situated on Stuart creek, where it tumbles down from the foot-hills of the Cascade Range with a velocity that makes it a valuable power in operating machinery, and overlooking one of the most beautiful reaches of cultivable conntry on the Pacific coast. It has the oldest mills in the county, a woollen factory, marble factory, and other manufactories, and is the seat of the state normal school. Cardwell's Emigrant Company, MS., 14; Ashland Tidings, May 3, 1878. The minor towns in this connty are Barron, Phoenix, Central Point, Willow Springs, Rock Point, Eagle Point, Big Butte, Brownsborongh, Pioneer, Sam's Valley, Sterlingville, Thomas' Mill, Uniontown, Woodville, and Wright.
A pioneer of Jackson county is Thomas Fletcher Beall, who was born in Montgomery co., Md, in 1793, his mother, whose maiden name was Doras Ann Bedow, being born in the same state when it was a colony, and dying in it. In 1836 his father, Thomas Beall, removed to Illinois, and his son ac- companied him, remaining there until 1852, when he emigrated to Oregon, settling in Rogne River Valley. In 1859 he married Ann Hall of Champaign
713
JACKSON AND JOSEPHINE.
co., Ohio, then living in Douglas co., Or. They have 12 children-8 boys and 4 girls. Beall was elected to the legislature, and served at the regular session of 1864, and at the called session of 1865 for the purpose of ratifying the 15th amendment of the U. S. constitution. He was again elected in IS84. He has served as school director in his district for 25 years, less one term.
John Lafayette Rowe was born in Jackson co., Or., in 1859, his parents being pioneers. He married Martha Ann Smith, Jan. 1, 1883.
Mrs John A. Cardwell, widow first of William Steadman, was born in Ireland in 1832, removed to Australia in 1849, married Steadman in 1850, removed to San Francisco in IS31, and was left a widow in 1855. She mar- ried Cardwell, an Englishman, the following year, and they removed to Sanis Valley in Jackson co., Or., where Cardwell died in May 1882. Mrs Card- well has had 5 sons and 6 daughters, one of whom died in 1868. Cardwell wrote the Emigrant Company, MS., from which I have quoted.
Andrew S. Moore, born in Susquehanna co., Ohio, in 1830, emigrated to Oregon in 1859, settling in Sanis Valley, Jackson co., where he has since re- sided, engaged in farming. In 1864 he married Melissa Jane Cox, of Linn co., Iowa. They have 7 sons and 4 daughters.
Arad Comstock Stanley, born in Missouri in 1835, was bred a physician, and emigrated to California in 1864, settling near Woodland. He removed to Jackson co., Or., in 1875, settling in Sanis Valley where he has a farm, but practices his profession. He married Susan Martin in 1862. Their ooly child is Mrs Sedotha L. Hannah, of Jackson co.
John B. Wrisley, born in Middlebury, Vt, in 1819, removed to New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin, where he married Eliza Jane Jacobs of Iowa co., in 1843. He came to California in 1849, and to Rogue River Valley in 1832. His daughter Alice was the first white girl born in the valley. She married C. Goddard of Medford, Jackson co. Wrisley voted for the state constitu- tions of Wisconsin, California, and Oregon; has been active in politics, but always rejected office.
Joshua Patterson was born in Michigan in 1857, immigrated to Oregon in 1862, and settled in Rogue River Valley. He married, in 1880, Ella Jane Fewel, and resides at Ashland. Has 2 children.
Thomas Curry, born near Louisville, Ky, in 1833, removed with his parents to Ill., and came to Or. in 1853, settling in the Rogue River Valley, where he has since resided. In 1863 he marrie l Mary E. Sutton, who came with her parents to Or. in 1854. Of 5 children born to them, 2 are now living.
Jacob Wagner, an immigrant of IS51, was born in Ohio in 1820, and re- moved with his parents first to Ind. and afterwards to Iowa. Settling in Ashland, he has been engaged in farming and milling during a generation. He married Ellen Hendricks of Iowa, in 1860, by whom he has had 7 children, 2 of whom are dead.
Franklin Wertz, born in Pa in 1836, married Martha E. V. Beirly of his state, and the couple settled at Medford, where 5 children have been born to them.
Josephine county. cut off from Jackson January 22, 1856, was named after Josephine Rollins, daughter of the discoverer of gold on the creek that also bears her name. Its area is something less than that of Curry or Jackson, between which it lies, and but a small portion of it is surveyed. The amount of land cultivated is not over 20,000 acres, nor the value of farins aud improve- ments over $400,000, while another $300,000 would cover the value of live- stock and farm products. The valuation of taxable property is under $400,- 000. Yet this county has a good proportion of fertile land, and an admirable climate with picturesque scenery to make it fit for settlement, and only its exclusion from lines of travel and facilities for modern advantages of educa- tion and society has prevented its becoming more populous. Mining is the chief vocation of its 2,500 inhabitants. When its mines of gold, silver, and copper come to be worked by capitalists, it will be found to be possessed of immense resources. Kirbyville, founded in 1852, is the county seat. The
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COUNTIES OF OREGON.
people of this small town have attempted to change its name, but without success. An act was passed by the legislature in 1858 to change it to Napo- leon-a questionable improvement. Or. Laws, 1858-9, 91. It was changed back by the legislature of 1860. Or. Jour. Sen., 1860, 68. The question of whether the county seat should be at Wilderville or Kirbyville was put to vote by the people in 1876, and resulted in a majority for Kirbyville. Or. Jour. House. It retains not only its original appellation, but the honor of being the capital of the county. The towns of Althouse, Applegate, Waldo, Slate Creek, Murphy, Galice, and Leland are contemporaries of the county seat, having all been mining camps from 1852 to the present. Lucky Queen is more modern.
Klamath county, the name being of aboriginal origin, was established October 7, 1882, out of the western part of Lake county, which was made out of that part of Jackson county which was taken from the south end of Wasco county. It contains 5,544 square miles, including the military reservation and the Klamath Indian reservation. The recent date of the division of ter- ritory leaves out statistical information. The altitude of the country on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains makes this a grazing rather than an agri- cultural county, although the soil is good and the cereals do well, excepting Indian corn. Linkville, situated on Link River, between the Klamath lakes, was founded by George Nourse, a sutler from Fort Klamath, about 1871, who built a bridge over the stream and a hotel on the east side, and so fixed the nucleus of the first town in the country. It is the county seat and a thriving business centre. Nourse planted the first fruit-trees in the Klamath country, which in 1873 were doing well. It contains the minor settlements of Fort Klamath, Klamath Agency, Langell, Bonanza, Mergauser, Yainax, Tule Lake, and Sprague River.
Simpson Wilson, born in Yamhill co. in 1849, is a son of Thomas A. Wil- son, who migrated to Oregon in 1847. Father and son removed to Langell Valley, in what is now Klamath co., in 1870, to engage in stock-raising. Simp- son Wilson married, on the 16th of July, 1871, at Linkville, Nancy Ellen Hall, who came across the plains with her parents from Iowa, in 1858. This was the first marriage celebrated in Klamath co. They have 2 sons and 3 daugh- ters,
John T. Fulkerson was born in Williams co., Ohio, in 1840, his parents having migrated from N. Y. in their youth. In 1860 John T. joined a train of Arkansas emigrants under Captain Joseph Lane, migrating to Cal. and set- tling in the San Joaquin Valley, where he remained until 1865, when he re- moved to Jackson co., Oregon, and in 1867 to Langell Valley, being one of the earliest settlers of this region, then still a part of Jackson co. He mar- ried, in 1866, Ellen E. Hyatt, formerly of Iowa, who in crossing the plains a few years previous lost her mother and grandmother. They have 4 sons and 3 daughters.
Jonathan Howell, born in Guilford co., N. C., in 1828, and brought up in Ill. He came to Cal. in 1850, overland, and located in Mariposa co., residing there and in Merced and Tulare 9 years, after which he returned to the east and remained until 1876, living in several states during that time. When he returned to the Pacific coast it was to Rogue River Valley that he came, re- moving soon after to the Klamath basin, and settling near the town of Bo- nanza. He married, in 1860, Susanna Statsman, born in Schuyler co., III. They have living, 2 sons and 1 daughter.
Thomas Jefferson Goodwyn, born in Suffolk co., England, in 1846, went to Australia in 1864, and from there migrated to Oregon ten years later, settling at Bonanza. He married Genevieve Roberts of Jackson co., in 1881, and has 2 sons and 2 daughters.
John McCurdy, born in Pugh co., Va, in 1836, and reared in Ill .; migrated to Portland, Oregon, in 1864, where he chiefly resided until 1880, when he settled in Alkali Valley, Klamath co. He married Frances M. Thomas of McDonough co., Ill., in 1857. They had 2 sons and 1 daughter, when in im- migrating his wife died, and was buried in the Bitter Root Mountains.
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LAKE, LANE, AND LINN,
McCurdy has a brother, Martin V., in Lassen co., Cal., and another brother, Joseph, in Nevada.
Lake county, organized October 23, 1874, took its name from the number of lakes occupying a considerable portion of its surface. It formerly embraced Klamath county, and its first county seat was at Linkville. But by a vote of the people, authorized by the legislature, the county seat was removed to Lakeview, on the border of Goose Lake, in 1876, previous to the setting-off of Klamath county. It contains 6,768 square miles, less than 44,000 acres being improved. Its farms and buildings are valued at $451,000, the assessed valuation of real and personal property being ahout $700,000, and the total gross valuation over $1,039,000. This valuation is for the county of Lake before its division, there being nothing later to refer to. The population is less than 3,000 for the two counties of Lake and Klamath. The settlements a:e Drew Valley, Antler, Hot Springs, Chewaucan, White Hill, Sumner, and Silver Lake.
Among the settlers of this comparatively new county are Thomas O. Blair, born in Ohio, who emigrated in 1859 by ox-team. Before starting he married Lovisa Anderson. They reside on Crooked Creek, near Lakeview. Charles A. Rehart, born in Perry co., Ohio, came to Oregon overland in 1865. He follows farming and shcep-raising in the Chewaucan Valley. He married Martha Ann Brooks in Dec. 1576.
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