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Medford in 1906

To its expanded March 9, 1906 issue extolling the virtues and wonders of Southern Oregon, the Medford Mail appended this list of Medford industries:


A Few Medford Enterprises.
   It has been told in other paragraphs of this paper that Medford is a prosperous little city situated in the center of the Great Rogue River Valley. These same paragraphs have incidentally, perhaps, made mention of some of the many features which have helped to make it prosperous, but as these mentions are undoubtedly scattered to quite an extent it will not be amiss to here mention them collectively and under one head.
    The foremost enterprise of which our townspeople are justly proud is the Iowa Lumber and Box Co. This company annually manufactures into fruit boxes for the fruit trade of Southern Oregon and California fully seven million feet of pine lumber. It employs upwards of 100 men nearly the entire year. This factory also manufactures all kinds of building material.
    Medford also has a planing mill, R. W. Gray, proprietor, which manufactures building material.
    Medford has a flour mill, established in [1889], A. A. Davis, proprietor. It has a daily capacity of 80 barrels.
    Medford also has a feed and chop mill, Edw. Russ, proprietor.
    Medford also has a foundry and machine shops, Trowbridge and Danielson, proprietors; a steam laundry, D. C. Wilson, proprietor; a creamery, Gaddis Bros., proprietors; a vinegar factory; an ice manufacturing plant; an electric light plant and water pumping station, which the city owns and operates; marble and granite works--two--Hicks and Kershaw and F. W. Wait, proprietors; two brick yards, Childers Bros. and G. W. Priddy, proprietors.
Medford Mail, March 9, 1906, page 21


    Medford, Jackson County, Or.--Population, 2000. It is 329 miles from Portland. One of the best fruit districts in the state. Apples are unexcelled. Rogue River district is one of the few regions of the world where the Newtown Pippin is raised to perfection. Pears and peaches are also raised in great quantities. A good corn region also. Alfalfa does well and stockraising prospers. The business interests include electric light plant, water works, two newspapers, two banks, flour mill, distillery, brewery, two planing mills, large lumber mill and box factory, utilizing fir and sugar pine lumber. A water canal ten feet on the bottom and 16 feet on the top has been surveyed from Butte Creek and Fish Lake and constructed for a distance of 16 miles; when finished will be about 45 miles long and will furnish power and water for irrigation in Rogue River Valley. Shipments consist of fruit, flour and livestock. Several hundred carloads of fruit sent to Europe annually.
"Cities on the Railways," Sunday Oregonian, Portland, April 1, 1906, page 32


MEDFORD, pop. 1,791; Jackson Co. (S.W.), pop. 13,698. 5 m. E. of Jacksonville. Southern Pacific; Rogue River Valley R.R. Tel. Exp. Bank. Planing and a grist mill, brewery, distillery and machine shops, etc. Center of a fine fruit and mining belt; also devoted to agriculture and stock raising.
                                                                              Estab.  Pages    Size        Subsc.      Circ.
Mail . . . . . . . . Friday . . .
. . . .  Republican . . . 1889 . . 8 . . 17x24 . . 1.50 . . 2,200
    A. S. Bliton, Editor and Publisher.

Southern Oregonian
                     . . Tues & Fri. . . . Independent  . . 1902 . . 8 . . 15x22 . . 1.50 . . 1,600
    Southern Oregonian and Printing Company, Publishers.

N. W. Ayer & Son's American Newspaper Annual, 1906, page 731


Last revised December 27, 2013