USA > Oregon > Douglas County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 48
USA > Oregon > Jackson County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 48
USA > Oregon > Josephine County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 48
USA > Oregon > Coos County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 48
USA > Oregon > Curry County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 48
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from the east, accompanied by 400 men, 120 women and 170 children. These pioneers brought 2600 cattle, 1300 sheep, 140 loose horses and forty mules, with agricultural and household implements suited for use in the new country, where they set about making their homes.
CHAPTER XLI.
GENERAL PROGRESSION.
Organization of the County-Precincts-Interruptions of Growth-Mills-The Wheat Crop-Jackson the Leading County-Division of the County Present Boundaries-Mineral Resources Vast but Unexplored.
The county of Jackson was organized by an act of the legislature passed January 12, 1852, creating and defining the limits of the county. Its boundaries are as follows: Beginning at the southwest corner of Umpqua county; thence east to the northwest corner of Douglas county ; thence southerly along the western boundary line of Douglas to the southwest corner of that county; thence east along the southerly boundary of Douglas to the southeast corner thereof; thence northeast to the eastern extremity of the Rogue river valley; thence south to the boundary of California and Oregon; thence west to the Pacific coast; thence north to the point of beginning. Thus the county originally embraced a very extensive area, from which, in subsequent years, the counties of Josephine, Curry and Coos have been carved, while still a good-sized principality remains under the original name. Previous to the formation of the county, the whole region south of the Willamette had been nominally attached to one or the other of the northern counties, the legislature by enactment dated December 28, 1847, giving the name of Linn county to "all of Oregon south of Marion county and east of Benton."
Jackson county's public affairs were first managed by a board of appointed offi- cers, of whom James Cluggage, N. C. Dean and Abel George were county commis- sioners; Dr. C. E. Alexander, clerk; E. H. Blanchard, elisor, to serve until the election of a sheriff; Thomas MeF. Patton, prosecuting attorney; and Richard Dugan, treasurer. These officers dated the beginning of their official life in the spring of 1853, the first meeting of the board of commissioners taking place March seventh of that year. One of the first acts of the board was the establishment of precincts. These were at Emery & Company's sawmill, Ashland; at the house of William Law- less, at the Dardanelles; at Benjamin Halstead's house, in Perkinsville (Perkins' ferry); at Harkness & Twogood's house, on Grave creek ; at Hardy Eliff's house, on Cow creek; at Dr. Edward Sheil's, on Applegate creek; at Miller & Company's house, on Canyon creek (Illinois river) ; at J. C. Anderson & Company's place, on Althouse creek; at the Robinson House, in Jacksonville; and at Gamble & Tichenor's, in Port
WALLING - LITH-PORTLAND-OR.
FARM RESIDENCE OF COL. JOHN E. ROSS, 3 MILES N.E.OF JACKSONVILLE, JACKSON CO.
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Orford. Each of these precincts was empowered to elect one constable and one justice of the peace, excepting Jacksonville and Althouse, which were entitled to two of each.
It was while the pioneer miners and farmers were thus industriously engaged in laying broad and deep the foundations of a permanent civilization that hostilities with the Indians again began. In August, 1853, a number of residents of Bear creek valley fell victims to savage ferocity and vindictiveness. Instantly the flames of war broke forth. Companies of volunteer soldiery, armed with rifles, shot-guns, revolvers, or whatever weapon at command, were organized, and arrangements were made for vigorously prosecuting hostilities against the natives, and avenging the blood already spilt. Within five days a force of men were in the field sufficient to check the enemy and protect the helpless from the incursions of the cruel marauders. The details of the series of encounters known as the war of 1853, have elsewhere been fully treated, and so will be merely referred to upon occasion. Mining operations and general improvements were almost entirely brought to a standstill during these difficulties, but revived immediately upon the conclusion of peace, and quickly assumed a more perma- nent character than at any previous time. At that epoch a very large proportion of the newly arrived immigrants were farmers by occupation and choice, and were of a class peculiarly adapted to satisfy the needs of a country like this, being young, vigor- ous and inured to hardship and and active labor. These established themselves upon land claims on Bear creek or other tributaries of Rogue river, affecting, mostly, the level bottom lands as more productive and easily cultivated than the hill lands.
The town of Jacksonville, the most flourishing locality in Oregon and a most important trade center, quickly regained the commerce which had been hers before the war, and supplied all the neighboring camps with the necessaries of life. Pack-trains laden with the articles indispensable to miner and settler, were arriving and departing daily. The rich resources of the valley lands were being drawn upon to furnish breadstuffs, to the exclusion of the products of the Willamette valley ; trains of wagons had begun to traverse the new routes, and were engaged in freighting goods ; and everything appeared to warrant a continuance of these flush times. By 1854 two flouring mills upon Bear creek were built, the one by the Thomas Brothers, the other by Hellman, Emery and Morris, of Ashland. The former was the Eagle mills, now owned by the Farnham heirs; the other the Ashland mills, at present owned and conducted by Jacob Wagner. Considerable wheat had been raised in 1853-an exceptionally favorable season-and in the following year the farmers prepared to enter upon its culture to a great extent. The value of the bottom lands for the crop had now become known, and its extreme profitableness was recognized. Wheat raising then became and has ever since maintained its standing as the principal farm crop, exceeding any other, and even all others combined, in extent. The conditions surrounding the agriculture of this region have always been peculiar. A first-rate home market has always existed, nearly sufficient at all times to consume the most plentiful crops, and this has been a cash market also, wherein money could be imme- diately realized by the producer of grain, vegetables and meats. The very large con- sumption of flour, the miner's chief article of subsistence, created the demand for wheat in preference to other food products, and the continuance of that demand main- tained the conditions which surrounded agriculture at the beginning. Withont com-
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petition from abroad, and with almost positive certainty of at least a tolerable crop, the industrious and provident farmers became, in the course of time, the most pros- perous and wealthy of their class on the Pacific slope, and the Rogue river valley, partaking of their good fortune, advanced with rapid strides toward prosperity and plenty.
The new facilities for making flour induced many more to enter upon wheat growing, and it was remarked that the quantity of that grain in the Rogue river valley in the fall of 1854 was greater in proportion to the population than elsewhere in Oregon. The wheat crop of 1855 was an extremely abundant one, the general average being over thirty bushels per acre, while many fields produced over forty. The two mills on Bear creek being incapable of turning the immense crop into flour, another and much larger mill was erected at Phoenix, by S. M. Wait, at great expense. Wheat flour of an excellent quality sold as low as four cents per pound, wholesale, a trivial price in comparison with its cost three years before. Lumber, also, was held at moderate figures, being produced in considerable quantities by various small saw mills. A. V. Gillette had erected the first of these in 1852, and William Hughes in the fall of the following year put up a small water power mill to cut lumber for Fort Lane, then in process of erection. Hughes received $125 per thousand feet for his lumber. In 1854 Milton Lindley constructed his mill near Phoenix, a water driven concern.
Jackson county in the fall of 1855 had attained the foremost place in the list of Oregon's counties, being the most populous and wealthy of all. At no time in its history had affairs borne a more encouraging appearance, aside from the coming Indian troubles, or had brighter or more cheering anticipations filled the minds of its inhabi- tants. When hostilities finally closed in the spring of the next year, affairs revived from the stagnation produced by the appearance of war, and business quickly assumed more than its usual activity, as if to atone for the season of enforced idleness. New firms were established at various points, especially at Jacksonville ; mechanics were in demand at high wages and steady employment; and the thousand and one ways in which flush times manifest their existence, became visible. The gravel mines were now being worked extensively and by more improved means than during the earliest years. The sluice was in use wherever a sufficient supply of water could be procured, and ground sluicing also was much depended on. The out-put of gold had reached its maximum. The total amount could not have been less than three millions annually, if we count the whole extent of the present Jackson county and the territory to the west, wherein were included the very important mines of Sailor Diggings, Althouse, the Ocean Beach diggings, and many other productive sources. Josephine county was set off from Jackson by act of the legislature dated January 22, 1856, since which time it has not been customary to include her yield of gold with that of the present county. This loss of territory restricted Jackson county's boundaries somewhat, and subsequently they have continued thus : Commencing at the northwest corner of township 33 south, range 5 west, the line follows Cow creek eastward to the divide between Rogue river and Elk creek; thence northeast to the source of Rogue river ; thence southi along the east line of range 4 east, to the California line; thence west to the intersection of the west line of range 4 west , thence north to township 36; thence
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west to the southwest corner of that township; thence north along the west line of range 5 to the place of beginning.
In the earlier years of the gold excitement, and before the county began to be surveyed by land surveyors, the southern boundary of Oregon, like all arbitrary divisions of the surface of the great northwest, was, necessarily, not determined. In the year 1851 the legislature of Oregon, we may instance, passed an act appropriating funds to enable the surveyor-general to ascertain "if Shasta Butte City [since called Yreka] were in Oregon or not." Such was the condition of ignorance of topography which necessarily pervaded the public mind at the time, and still, but to a lesser extent, pervades it. If the country was almost a terra incognita at the time as regards its topography, still more so was it true of the geology of the land. And most unfor- tunately that condition of geological ignorance remains almost unabated to the present. It would be easy to show that Southern Oregon, particularly Jackson county, is unex- celled in its boundless resources for the study of geology, and its associated branch paleontology, but no one has appeared as yet to lead the way to even the most meager application of them to the natural history of the region. It is probable, however, that in the near future we may look for such a thorough examination of the rock forma- tions of the country as will demonstrate fully its unexampled resources, both in a scientific and utilitarian point of view. The importance of a geological survey was early recognized. Some naturalists, employed by the United States in the early "fifties" made a sort of random inspection of certain districts on the Pacific coast, and reported large discoveries of coal, quartz and other valuable minerals, whereby the Oregon legislature was induced to resolve, on January 20, 1855, that " Whereas, a general geological reconnoissance has been made by United States geologists for the territories of Oregon and Washington, showing the existence of extensive beds of coal, limestone and other minerals; Resolved, that our delegate in congress be instructed to procure a sufficient appropriation to make a survey in detail of the coal fields and gold region of Oregon." The subject proceeded no farther, and Oregon, while owing noth- ing to the general government for a correct knowledge of her resources, owes as little to individual skill and enterprise. The great stores of useful minerals which certainly exist in Southern Oregon are suffered to lie dormant, awaiting the touch of the mighty magicians of the future, whose knowledge, skill and enterprise shall exceed ours as we exceed our ignorant ancestors.
CHAPTER XLII.
SOCIAL AND OTHER TOPICS.
Mining Regions Most Fruitful in History-Effects of the Decreased Gold Production-Educational-Agricultural Society-The Telegraph-Chinese in the Mines-Fraser River-Other Rushes-The Ledford Massacre- Romance of Indian George and Mary.
From the settlement of the Indian difficulties until the present time, the history of Jackson county presents the diversified, yet unbroken, record of a mining and agricultural country, and neither branch has been subject to fluctuations sufficiently noticeable to be particularly alluded to. The stirring scenes of earlier years have been rightly judged to contain all history of general interest, and in comparison with the events of 1851-6, the remainder of the chronicles of this region are singu- larly bare and uninteresting. The sharpest discernment sees little in the later years but the usual happenings of a settled and somewhat progressive community who have achieved exemption from savage foes, and from want and scarcity of subsistence. Political wrangles, sporadic mining excitements of uncertain origin, the success or failure of crops, the details of an occasional homicide, the opening of communication with this or that sea-port, and matters of similar tenure had taken the place of the exciting episodes attending the discovery of gold, the settlement of the country, and the subjugation of the savages. Nevertheless, the country was actively progressing. Matters had assumed a tamer aspect, as was to be expected, but this por- tion of Oregon was keeping equal pace with the Pacific coast in general, and in all essentials of civilization and refinement was far in advance of the remainder of Oregon. The lack of outward communication was, in most ways, felt as an evil; yet, it would be easy to point out wherein it was a real good. This is especially true of the earlier years, when a large yield of gold created an ample market for farm products. But, in later years, the number of miners decreasing and that of farmers increasing, the sup- ply increased above demand, and, for the first time, Rogue river valley had farm pro- ducts for export, but had no means of exporting them, excepting the comparatively small quantities demanded by the neighboring mining camps of Southern Oregon and Northern California, and the grazers of the Klamath country. Farming, in conse- quence, failed to keep up its former rate of growth, but can hardly be said to have declined, although its profits most certainly did. The contracted agricultural region of the Rogue river country continued to furnish the requisite supply of edibles, the imports from abroad being still confined to such articles of merchandise as are always in demand, but never can be furnished by a new country. Thus it continued to be, in most respects, self-sustaining, and to a greater degree than any other mining town now in recollection. In subsequent years, as wheat-growing absorbed less and less the united powers of the farmers, other products came in vogue, most of them being
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JACKSON COUNTY.
introduced with a view to supplying outside demand. Wool, bacon and beef became staples, and proved the adaptability of the climate and soit to their production. Graz- ing became more and more important as a pursuit, and capital looked more and more closely for opportunities for investment in flocks and herds. The grassy plains beyond the Cascades began to be populated with domestic animals, and a profitable and import- ant industry came to be recognized.
Social advancement kept even pace with material progress. Many schools, churches and societies date their foundation from the active years succeeding the Indian wars. The tone of public sentiment in Jackson county, if we may judge from circum- stances, always favored the education of youth, and the excellent effects thus far pro- duced are to be ascribed to the intelligent foresight of many of the early pioneers. And under a better school system than the execrable and slip-shod one in vogue in Oregon, still greater results might easily have been attained. The county became tolerably well provided with common schools, while an institution of learning, to be styled the Western University, was projected by enthusiastic citizens of Jacksonville, in the years just preceding the rebellion. This concern, advertised for a while in the Sentinel, was to be a full-fledged college, and to secure its existence a site was donated it, being the property known as Dr. Overbeck's grove. But the projectors' intentions came to naught, and Southern Oregon is yet without a university.
In 1859 the Sentinel recommended the establishment of an agricultural society, as a measure of importance to the farmers, who would become united in action upon mat- ters affecting their mutual interests. The society would also result in disseminating agricultural information and so be of further use. On February 8, 1860, the first meeting of the future association was held, John E. Ross being chairman, and organiza- tion was effected. The work of the society has been of use to the country at large, and its annual exhibitions have been very creditable. It is recollected that at the first of these, held where the court house stands in Jacksonville, the various agricultural, horti- cultural and manufacturing industries of Jackson county were well represented. Speci- mens of the "Gloria Mundi " variety of apples, the first raised in the valley, were on exhibition, grown upon the Skinner place on Bear creek, and these were purchased by Thomas Chavner, flushed with the distinction of owning in the treasures of Gold Hill, at the rate of two dollars and a half apiece. No doubt they were worth the money to the fruit-hungry pioneers.
News from the outside world, at first so slow to penetrate to the camps of Southern Oregon, the most isolated of all the inhabited part of the coast, coming at first by the chance sources of occasional travelers and packers, afterwards brought by mail more or less regularly, and on the establishment of newspapers collected and disseminated with somewhat of care, for many years was uncertain and precarious. When San Francisco and all California had to depend on the monthly steamers, and, later on, the Pony express, the great events of the world's happenings could only reach to this region in a most fortuitous and often roundabout way. But with the construction of the overland telegraph the improvement was felt even on Rogue river, and when the wires reached Yreka in October, 1858, we find the Sentinel congratulating itself that it was within sixty-five miles of a telegraph office and hoped that Jacksonville would soon he included in the electric circuit. Six years later the wish was gratified in the building 45
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of the through telegraph line, and since then Jackson county has felt herself as more nearly a part of the outside world.
If it be permissible to include under the head of social movements anything per- taining to the "Mongolians," we may here speak of the Chinese invasion of the mines. These peculiar people came early to Jackson county and mostly began work upon claims previously abandoned by whites-their universal custom-and made no effort to discover new claims, being far from proficient as prospectors. Their course here was exactly the same as in the better known mining districts of California. That is to say; they minded their own business (an amiable and valuable trait, for which the Chinese are to be commended above all peoples)-worked early and late-gathered little "stakes"" by the slow process of accretion of " colors "-made no rich strikes; or if they made any they never mentioned it-let politics, whisky, fighting and all other Caucasian forms of iniquity severely alone-indulged themselves only in "tan" and other inscrut- able Celestial modes of abasement-in a word lived the life of all poverty-stricken Chinamen far from home and friends. As in California they came at first silently, labored quietly, and hardly was their presence known until the stolid yellow face of " John " peered from every bank and every worn-out placer from, Jacksonville to Althouse and from the South Umpqua to Sailor Diggings. When the whites awoke to their numbers, many of them had accumulated gold and departed for the Flowery Kingdom, but their places were filled by greater numbers as thrifty, careful and accu- mulating as themselves. The Chinese question then, as now, was a difficult one to deal with. Why it required any interference at all is not clear; but possible danger might have been apprehended from a class of beings whose habits, manners, traditions and general behavior is so entirely different from what is American and therefore proper. Besides, these Chinese were digging American gold and taking it to China, which was indistinctly but firmly regarded to be wrong. These people could not be fought, for they were unarmed and interposed no resistance. By an apparently happy stroke of genius the California policy of taxing them was introduced across the border and a tribute of two dollars per month was levied upon all Chinese and Kanakas, under the title of Foreign Miners' tax. Store-keepers of those nationalities were mulcted in fifty dollars per month. This act, passed in January, 1859, took effect at a time when the influx of heathen was greatest. Its effect was to somewhat diminish their apparent numbers, but the wily strangers found ample means to evade it, and in respect to the Chinese, have ever since maintained a hold upon the placers and in some instances have ventured upon hydraulic mining, with good results.
In April, 1856, occurred the Ledford massacre, the last of the tragedies caused by Indians. It occurred at Rancheria Prairie, at the head of Big Butte creek, and con- sisted in the murder of five white men by certain Indians of the Klamath tribe, who were residing at that place. Eli Ledford and J. Brown, of Jacksonville, and S. F. Conger, W. S. Probst and James Crow, of Butte creek, set out to cross the Cascades eastward to the Klamath lake country. They were mounted and provided with arms, and proceeded up Big Butte on a trail that had not been traversed, thus far, during the season. They were not subsequently seen alive by any white men, and their fate was only discovered through the merest chance. It appeared that on the fourth of May following, Indian Agent Abbott, with a small party set out from Jacksonville for his
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JACKSON COUNTY.
station among the Klamaths, and followed the trail of the other party up to a point in the mountains where the unmelted snow prevented further progress, and from whence Ledford and his party had turned back. Following the previous party to the Indian rancheria, Abbott found it deserted, the houses burned, and indications that rendered it probable that the five men had been murdered. Four of their horses were found lead, having been taken to a thicket, tied to a tree, and then shot. Abbott and his men returned to Jacksonville, and told their suspicions; a company of thirty citizens, with John Hillman and H. Klippel as leaders, set out for the spot, and after consider- able search found the bodies of Ledford's four companions buried, their throats cut, and .many brutal wounds and bruises upon them, by the character of which it was judged that they were killed as they slept. Ledford's body was afterwards found at some distance away. The murderers were sought for far and wide, but without success. It is thought that they went into hiding in the prairies above Flounce Rock, until the melting of the snow allowed of their escape to their own country. The pursuit had lasted a month, when the searchers disbanded and left for their homes. In after years suspicion fastened upon several prominent Klamaths, among them a war chief, Skookum John, who was killed at Fort Klamath, in November, 1863, by Captain Kelly and Sergeant Underwood, while trying to arrest him. Two others, who were supposed to have had something to do with the massacre, met with violent deaths, and finally the last of the suspected braves was wiped out of existence at Camp Baker, near Phoenix, at the same date as that of Chief John's death. The event of the hanging of this Indian, Tyee George, on the nineteenth of November, 1863, is well remembered in Jackson county, and with its attendant circumstances has there become one of the principal romances of the time. Some Klamaths sought and obtained from their agent, Rogers, nicknamed "Sugar Foot," permission to reside on the west side of the Cascades. They came in small numbers, their chief men being George and Jack, and made themselves at home, roaming at will over the land and somewhat disturbing the settlers. They were said to have threatened individuals' lives, shot cattle, thrown down fences, and committed divers other misdemeanors. In consequence of these charges, George, who was indiscreet enough to come to town, was arrested in Jacksonville, and immediately delivered over to Charles Drew, commanding the volunteers at Camp Baker. Here his doom was speedily met: for by an unexampled stretch of arbitrary authority, the man in command ordered the Indian's execution at once, and he was hanged in the presence of the soldiery, without the least delay. Jack escaped death, and with the most of his people hastened to safer fields, leaving George's mother, Old Mary, to enact her part in this little but sorrowful drama, by burying her son where he now lies, by the side of her own humble wick-i-up, and kindling upon his grave the sacred fire that in the beautiful Indian superstition is supposed to guide the wandering soul to the islands of the blessed. Poor old Mary is still known in Jack- sonville where her woes and maternal devotion have raised up sympathizing friends; and poetry has lent its aid to make memorable an episode resembling that of Rizpah and her sons, described in the scriptures.
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