SISKIYOU IN EARLY DAYS--HOW JUSTICE WAS DISPENSED.--Sometime during the year of '51, or '52, a young man appeared before the Yreka Alcalde and complained that an old chap hailing from Oregon owed him a considerable sum of money but would not pay him. It seems that the young man had been hired by the Oregonian to drive an ox team to the mines, and had agreed to give him a hundred dollars a month, and during the time the complainant had loaned his employer about fifteen hundred in money. After hearing the plaintiff's statement, the Alcalde without requiring any bond of the plaintiff for security of costs, or damages to the defendant, issued a writ of attachment against any property that might be discovered, and summoned the old chap to appear before him forthwith. The officer usually in attendance on the primitive court started out and in a short time returned, having the defendant with him, but had not been able to find any property. The court informed the defendant of the nature of the complaint, and immediately commenced asking him questions. The honest Oregonian made a clean breast of the whole affair, acknowledged that he was justly indebted to the plaintiff for $2,500 borrowed money, and for several months' service at $100 per month, but said that he had no money or property except a yoke of oxen and a cart, which the plaintiff could have at any time. The Alcalde soon figured up the interest on the whole amount at ten percent per month, the ruling rate at that time, and entered up judgment accordingly. The case seemed a desperate one for obtaining any money. Nothing was "in sight" but the yoke of cattle and the cart. But desperate cases sometimes require desperate remedies. Through want of a more convenient place the Alcalde usually held his court in a public saloon, adjoining which was a small private room. To this the court and the executive officer adjourned to consult. After a few minutes' absence they returned, when the Alcalde said to the officer: "Take the defendant into that room and stand him on his head and see what he's got." The Constable seized his man by the collar and dragged him into the room. Presently he returned bringing a well-loaded buckskin waistcoat and called for a "blower" [probably a "putty blower"--a pea shooter]. Having procured one he commenced cutting the pockets and emptying out their contents. After finishing the job he "weighed" and found that he had developed just twenty-three hundred dollars, just enough to satisfy the plaintiff's demand and pay the Alcalde's fee, two ounces, and the Constable's fee, which was an ounce. The Oregonian departed from the presence of a primitive California court a poorer if not an honester man.
The Semi-Weekly Union, Yreka, California, August 31, 1864, page 2




Democratic Times, Jacksonville, April 8, 1871, page 1


    Oregon, twenty years ago, was yet in territorial swaddling clothes. Only a short time had elapsed since the fame of her beautiful valleys and noble streams, already blended in our national poetry, had reached the overcrowded settlements at the East. Astor had established a small trading colony, which yet bears his name, at the mouth of the great river whose solitary grandeur had awakened poetic inspiration. Douglass, the naturalist, had pushed alone far among the majestic mountains that crown the western slope. Fremont had touched it among the southern lakes, and Lewis and Clark had stood and gazed in silent wonder over its almost endless plains to the eastward. When the question of boundary between Oregon and British North America assumed a public prominence, it attracted attention to our extreme western possessions; but there was another influence greatly instrumental in the settlement of the new territory and in molding the character of its population.
    Round the campfires of the trappers and mountain men, from the Yellowstone to the Arkansas, the enchantments of the reputed fairyland beyond the Rocky Mountains were a constant theme, and the few who had courageously penetrated to it, drank from its crystal streams, and beheld its wondrous beauty, were regarded with a sort of envious admiration. Passing from mouth to mouth, and losing nothing, the wonderful stories of Oregon and its beauty and fertility were occasionally related in the settlements along the Mississippi and its tributaries, creating a feverish and unsettled longing. In 1850, the government, wisely perceiving the importance of inducing emigration to our northwestern territory, offered a princely share of the public domain to all bona fide settlers in Oregon. The offer was tempting. Along the frontier line of the Mississippi States was echoed "land for the landless," and soon the plains, heretofore dreaded as an almost impassable Sahara, were dotted with moving caravans pressing to the promised land. Therefore--drawn mainly from the border states and territories, and composed largely of men whom civilization, with irksome restraints and apparent encroachments on the liberty of the citizen, had pushed to the verge of the wilderness--it is not surprising that the population of the young territory should be not only of a marked American character, but of a peculiar type of Americanism. These pioneers were brave people, who accepted the liberal offer of the government and its consequent trial and hardship with all the pluck which characterized the frontiersmen. They had been in the advanced guard of progress, they had cleared the way for the settlement and development of the Mississippi Valley, and were still willing to cleave new homes at the very outposts of our domain. While they brought with them their marked Western prejudices and their half-nomadic habits, they brought also their sturdy independence, and that keen sense of right and wrong inseparable from strong courageous natures, that left its sterling impress upon every public act and record in Oregon's early history. Society in the young territory was by no means rude or unsettled. Inferior, perhaps, in some of the refinements of the older communities, it was superior in the absence of many things with which older communities were cursed and hampered. Life and property were comparatively safe. Wherever the territorial law extended, it was simple and effective in its operation. Where it did not, through lack of judicial organization, justice was reached by shortcuts, unobstructed by the complex machinery of modern law, unclouded by the perplexing and uncertain verbiage of legal lexicons. In such localities justice was administered by alcaldes elected by the people. Their jurisdiction was ample, their decisions were final, and the mandates of their courts were generally respected; but their acts were vigilantly scrutinized by those who invested them with official dignity. Consequently, the administration of this backwoods magistracy, always subject to the powerful test of public opinion, was usually honest and just. Occasionally, however, bad men stole into office, and under their extensive powers perpetrated wrongs that in the absence of any court of appeal were hardly redressible. Under such circumstances an episode occurred during the early history of the territory that illustrates this simple judicial system, and recalls vividly the stories of the just Caliph of Baghdad, over which childhood has lingered with so much delight and admiration.
    Prior to January, 1852, there were no county organizations south of the Calapooia Mountains, a range stretching from the Cascades to the Pacific, and dividing western Oregon nearly midway between the Columbia and the California boundary; and for nearly a year later no courts were held in that region, other than those of the local alcaldes. In [January] of 1852, a rich and extensive discovery of gold on Jackson Creek, within half a mile of the present site of Jacksonville, had brought a large number of miners to that locality, both from other portions of the territory and from California. At this time, justice was dispensed within the new district by an individual named Rogers, who had been elected prior to the gold discovery. [There is no record of Rogers' election, but it was unlikely to have occurred before the gold discovery, since the Rogue Valley's white population would have been fewer than twenty.] Rogers was known as a man of stubborn, willful nature, and not credited either with discernment or honesty; but, hitherto his decisions, involving no considerable amounts of property and not outrageously unjust, had passed unquestioned by the people. When, in the fall of 1852, the mining camp was at the full tide of prosperity, a complication arose between two mining partners, involving the right to a mining claim and the settlement of a partnership, the adjudication of which was finally taken in hand by the people, and resulted in stripping a dishonest judge of his undeserved honors.
    Two miners, named respectively Sprenger and Sims, owned and worked in partnership a valuable mining-claim on Jackson Creek, and, late in the fall, Sims, taking the partnership funds, started for Portland to purchase a supply of provisions, leaving Sprenger at work in the claim. During his partner's absence, Sprenger met with a serious accident, which confined him to his cabin, crippled and helpless. There was "lack of woman's nursing" in the wild mining regions, but there was no lack of kindly, generous sympathy for the unfortunate among the rough miners, and Sprenger was nursed and cared for with all the proverbial humanity of this class of people. When Sims returned, finding his partner likely to be a burden on him for the coming winter, he at once ejected him from the cabin and took possession of the claim. Sprenger appealed to Alcalde Rogers for restitution, but appealed in vain. His suit was conducted with considerable skill by a fellow miner named Kinney. Every point of law, both territorial and local, were on his side; every principle of equity in his favor; but the pleadings of his advocate fell on the ears of a corrupt and unfeeling judge, whose decree stripped him of every dollar of his worldly possessions. His counsel, suspecting the credibility of some of Sims' witnesses, and satisfied that the trial was as unfair as the decision was unjust, demanded a new one, which was refused by the alcalde.
    Poor Sprenger was almost in despair. He was a cripple, dependent on public charity, his means entirely exhausted--cheated and robbed by the man who should have stood by him in his misfortunes. In his distress, he sought the services of a neighboring miner named [Paine Page] Prim, who, report said, was a lawyer, but who, for the sake of avoiding annoyance in petty trials where the fees were not commensurate with the lawyer's services, had kept his true calling a secret . Sprenger found the disciple of Blackstone in a tunnel, vigorously swinging his pick among the muddy and dripping boulders, looking more like a Cornish miner than an expounder of legal perplexities. Prim was disposed to disavow any knowledge of law for the sake of saving himself the trouble of a case, where, under the circumstances, defeat was certain; but his humanity overcame his selfishness, and, moved by the recital of Sprenger's grievances, he threw down his pick and espoused the injured man's cause as zealously as if expecting a generous fee. Kinney, the former counsel of Sprenger, was sought, and a consultation entered upon. Every known point of the law bearing upon the case was discussed. Every familiar maneuver or pretext, likely to assist in obtaining a new trial, was proposed, and the advocates waxed more earnest upon each examination of the subject. All, however, to no purpose. The known obduracy of the alcalde and his suspected collusion with Sims rose everlastingly before them, presenting an impassable barrier between them and justice. A protracted and exhaustive view of the case only left the attorneys less hopeful than ever--when Prim, in a half-soliloquy, remarked: "If we only had a Court of Appeal."
    "Great God, sir!" exclaimed Kinney, springing to his feet in a state of intense excitement. "Why did we not think of that before? We will have a Court of Appeal, sir!"
    Prim did not understand him, thinking he referred to a probable election and the organization of the regular judiciary, and suggested, gravely, that their client would probably starve, and reach the Court of Death, before they would get it before any earthly tribunal.
    "No, sir!" continued Kinney, with increasing warmth; "I say we will have a Court of Appeal within twenty-four hours. Who made the d--d scoundrel alcalde? We, the people, sir! and if we have the power to create one court, we can make another high enough to try and hang the one below it, if necessary."
    A new light dawned upon Prim. Kinney was right. His strong good sense, by going back to first principles and invoking the power of the people to correct an abuse which was the result of their own shortsightedness, had solved a problem that to the lawyer was full of stubborn impossibilities. A Court of Appeal was resolved on. Sprenger was immediately dispatched to summon the "boys" to a miners' meeting. He was not armed with any wordy legal process, with its angular and imperious verbiage, but with a writ that found a soft spot in every rough breast among the mining population; a writ that the miners never resisted--an appeal to their sympathy and sense of justice. Never was imperial ukase more potent. Never did the fiery cross on highland height rouse the clans more effectually than this simple appeal did the mining population in the early days; and the crippled envoy was as successful as his advocates could wish. The "boys" threw down their tools, and, deserting their claims, flocked to the town nearly a thousand strong, and in a perfect ferment of indignation. A committee waited on the alcalde to demand a rehearing for Sprenger; but he declined to open his court for the purpose of reversing his own judgment. Kinney at once sprung upon a stump, called the meeting to order, and suggested the organization of a Court of Appeal, and its investment with full power to review the proceedings of the court below. The proposition struck the popular chord, and the affirmative response that swelled up from the crowd, which was now in ill mood for trifling, almost drowned the speaker's voice. A gentleman named [U. S.] Hayden, a native of Connecticut, known for his uprightness and probity, was unanimously pointed to for the position of Chief Justice. In vain did Mr. Hayden protest and decline the proffered honor; in vain did he modestly insist that he was ignorant of law and unwilling to bear so grave a responsibility. The popular current was too strong; a wild yell of acclamation proclaimed him Judge of Appeal, investing him, in a limited sphere, with a power as supreme as ever clothed czar or sultan. The new justice did not wait for a formal certificate of election, but proceeded with the organization of his court in a manner that showed him to be a man of no ordinary business capacity. A clerk and sheriff were at once appointed, a record opened on which was spread the extraordinary proceedings of the hour, and when the court was in working order, a mandamus issued commanding Alcalde Rogers to appear with the records of his court. The writ was disobeyed, the alcalde refusing to recognize the appellate powers of the new court. An unexpected complication having thus arisen, the process was about to be enforced by the excited people, when Justice Hayden, maintaining the dignity of his court amid the greatest uproar, solved the difficulty by ordering the parties in equity to appear before him for a new trial. Sims dared not disobey, seeing that the dissolution of the high court would be the signal for popular violence, and securing the services of Orange Jacobs, a young attorney from Michigan, promptly responded, and the trial at once went on. A venire was issued for a jury--twelve good and lawful men--subpoenas issued for witnesses, and the case formally opened. Jacobs, of whom little was known except that he was recognized as a quiet, unassuming miner, appeared with an able and apparently exhaustive argument, protesting against and denying the extraordinary jurisdiction assumed by the court as contrary to the organic law of the territory, and therefore against public policy and revolutionary; and moved that the case be dismissed for want of jurisdiction. He pleaded as one wedded to his profession as an abstract science, jealous of the law's infringement for its own sake; but he appealed to a judge who sat for the dispensation of justice more than for the vindication of law, and, as might have been expected, his motion was overruled. Prim and Kinney managed the case with the skill of veteran attorneys, and in knowledge of the peculiar circumstances surrounding it overmatched their opponent, who deftly and courageously met every argument and sifted every witness with all the adroitness of a thorough legal expert. During a stubborn argument on a law point presented by Jacobs, he became so earnest as to venture to bet a small sum that it was good law and supported by ample authority. Kinney sprung to his feet triumphantly; he knew the point was law, but he knew his man, and understood the composition of the jury. Drawing his buckskin with an air of the most supreme confidence, he flung three of the old-fashioned fifty-dollar slugs upon the table, and demanded the amount of his opponent's bet. It was bluff against knowledge, and bluff won. Jacobs was a recent immigrant, without "color" in his wallet, and responded not; there was an audible smile on the faces of the jury, and the court, with becoming gravity, pronounced the point "not well taken." Jacobs fought over every inch of ground and opposed every effort of Sprenger's joint counsel with a moral heroism, that, in the face of an angry and excited crowd of spectators, was almost sublime; but he was at a sad disadvantage, and talking to a court and jury who did not care a fig for law when conflicting with their ideas of right and wrong.
    The witnesses examined and the issue made, Kinney presented the case to the jury. He dwelt on the right of every citizen to the peaceful possession of his property, and on the duty every man owed to society in the protection of his neighbors' rights; but it was when he referred to the relations existing between the two men that crude human nature triumphed over legal science and skill. Drawing a distinction between partnerships in civilized communities and those in the wild mining region, where the social amenities of life were uncommon, he showed the former to be mere commercial and financial connections among men, while the latter were ties of brotherhood, sanctioned and prescribed by custom, and imposing obligations than which there were none stronger. He told the jury that a man's partner was required to be his friend, to sustain him in evil and in good repute, to share with him in health, to nurse him in sickness, to divide his last ounce of dust with him, and to stand by him when all others had deserted him. He summed up the evidence clearly and forcibly, showing the jury, who were becoming each moment more impatient to render their verdict, that Sims had disregarded his neighbor's rights, violated the common law of the region, and robbed and abandoned--not Sprenger--but Sims' partner. It was then that decorum ceased, and the honest manhood of the rough crowd found vent in applauding cheers. The jury rose and swung their hats, forgetting the dignity of their position, while Justice Hayden with difficulty restored order, and informed them that the case was only half tried. It was now Jacobs' turn. He rose, quiet and self-possessed, conscious of a strong prejudice against himself and client, and presented an array of legal objections that under other circumstances or before another tribunal would have been most formidable; but he forgot that he was talking law to a court sitting only for the purpose of doing equity, and he talked to listless ears. The court charged the jury--an unnecessary proceeding, perhaps, so far as their understanding of the case was concerned, but necessary to sustain the proper dignity of the court, which would have been infringed had this important formula been dispensed with. The charge was one that might be a model for higher courts. His Honor instructed the jury that they must strip the case of all the legal mystifications with which Sims' counsel had surrounded it, regarding no law but that of right and wrong, and decide upon their belief of an existing state of facts established by the testimony, and in such a manner that justice would be done, though all the law in Christendom fell to the ground. And they did so decide it. At first, they experienced great difficulty in their finding. Some of them were in favor of recommending the hanging of Sims; others stoutly demanded the punishment of Rogers as particeps criminis. One or two suggested the mercy of the court; but the difficulty was solved by the permission of special instructions. Jacobs again objected, but he looked askance at Kinney's plethoric buckskin, and his now feeble protest was again overruled. Of course, the verdict was for the complainant, and the court at once ordered his reinstatement in possession of his claim, his share of all partnership property, and an allowance of all charges during his sickness. The decision was received with a deafening yell of applause, amid which the court adjourned. It was then that the half-smothered feeling of indignation against Rogers found vent. The evidence had disclosed unmistakable rascality and malfeasance on the part of that official, and his contemptuous noncompliance with the order of the superior court could not be passed in silence. A low sullen murmur, like the sweep of an approaching storm over a treeless prairie, was heard. Knots of angry men gathered together; louder and louder grew the tumult, till a fierce, determined voice rang out, "Hang him!" and five hundred voices hoarse with rage echoed the dreadful words that nearly paralyzed the poor wretch with terror. It was a fearful moment for Alcalde Rogers. The excited throng swayed to and fro like angry human waves. The cry swelled into maddened fury, and his life was not worth a minute's purchase, when Jacobs, Hayden, Prim, and others, sprung among them, and begged them not to stain the record of a noble day's work by the commission of a terrible and unnecessary crime. Fortunately, their counsel prevailed, and after the most strenuous exertions, Rogers was allowed his life on condition of his resigning the alcaldeship, which he immediately did without a single demurrer, glad to escape so easily. The case, however, was not over. The functions and existence of the Court of Appeal had by no means ceased, and it appearing that Rogers was in possession of part of the property of which Sprenger had been robbed, he was forced to disgorge the last dollar, which was only done by means of an execution, and justice was satisfied.
    The principal parties to this case have disappeared from sight, but the remembrance of it is yet fresh among the old settlers of southern Oregon, and the proceedings therein are still of record in the archives of Jackson County. Some of the actors in this little drama are still among us. Jacobs, who stood before that exasperated mob and pleaded in behalf of the sacred principles of law, now occupies the position of Chief Justice of Washington Territory. Prim has been Chief Justice of Oregon, and is now associate Justice on the Supreme Bench of that State. "Chief Justice" Hayden has held the honorable place of Recorder for the principal town of southern Oregon for nearly twenty consecutive years, having repeatedly refused higher honors; while Kinney has long since gone to plead, in obedience to a resistless mandate, before a higher tribunal than all.
    The day of the pioneer is over. The star that he followed has reached its zenith, and he can go no farther. We may now regard him as a soldier in the cause of human advancement, whose battles have been fought and won, and he may well look back in surprise at the wonderful social and material results that have followed in his wake. The shifting sands of the desert have covered up his footsteps, but the solid and substantial foundation laid by the pioneer for the social structure of the Far West will be as lasting as it is surprising. Separated by thousands of miles of lofty mountains and barren plains from the ties and influences of civilization, these wild rough men in the early days established a code of ethics for the regulation of the social duties, that was founded on the soundest principles of morality. Without written law, they enforced justice, and decided all questions relating to individual rights with that unerring judgment which springs from a keen discrimination between right and wrong, and is worthy of the jurisprudence of the highest civilization.
William M. Turner, Overland Monthly, March 1874, pages 224-230  This article was reprinted on page 4 of the March 7, 1874 Oregonian.  The Sprenger-Sims case was dramatized, with considerable artistic license, in 1962 on "Death Valley Days" as "Justice at Jackson Creek."


    The first courts held were by justices of the peace, called alcaldes as in California, chosen by the miners informally. The first on Jackson was named Rogers, and afterward Hiram Abbott officiated in the town of Jacksonville. Before the election of alcaldes the miners met and selected officers and judges to act for special occasions only, in short to administer arbitrary justice.
    One Springer had a mining claim on the left fork of Jackson Creek who was wounded by an accidental shot so that he was not able to work his claim for several months. So one Simms jumped his claim. A contest following the case was brought before alcalde Rogers, who decided it in favor of Simms, the jumper. The miners, thinking the decision unjust, held a meeting of all the miners on both branches of Jackson Creek to see what should be done about it. At this time Mr. Prim, who had kept secret the fact that he was a lawyer, not wishing to be troubled with the petty quarrels of the miners, was at work mining on the left fork of Jackson Creek. Springer in some way came to think Prim knew something about law or practice in courts, [and] went to him in great trouble, for it was a rich claim and the miners had been supporting him while recovering from his illness in order that he might go on with it afterward--went to him and begged him to help him. Prim asked him what he could do, but Springer begged so hard that Prim finally wrote a notice calling a meeting and told Springer to go to all the miners on both forks of the river and call them together.
    Prim would not undertake the case himself, but told Springer to employ Daniel Kenney, a brazen-faced pettifogging lawyer, to conduct the case, with Prim behind him to direct things. The people convened, Kenney, following directions, mounted a stump and proposed U. S. Hayden should be elected supreme judge to organize a court of appeals, which was done, Kenney appearing for Springer and O. Jacobs for Simms. Jacobs was afterward chief justice of Washington Territory. Springer won the case and [was] reinstated in his claim.
History of Judicial Affairs in Oregon, interview by Hubert Howe Bancroft with Paine Page Prim, 1878    Spelling of "Simms" and "Springer" is Bancroft's.


    In 1853 his probity and inflexible sense of justice were recognized and he was elected second "alcalde" of this mining district, and even among a wild and turbulent population his decisions, so equitable, so true to the principles of justice, were never questioned.
"Death of Hon. U.S. Hayden," Sentinel, Jacksonville, February 5, 1879, page 2




    In 1852 there were no civil courts established in Jackson County except what was called an [alcalde's] or miner's court, which adopted the common law of the United States as to property, and the Mexican law as to life and death. . . .
    The first grave ever dug in Jacksonville was for a white man that was shot down by a gambler, and the next grave was for his murderer, who was convicted by a miner's jury, before W. W. Fowler, "alcalde," and hung on a warrant of the "alcalde." White men and Indians were all liable to the same punishment. It was by high miner's court from which no appeal would lie; it was quick and beneficial.
"Pioneer Times," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 21, 1886, page 2


Democratic Times, Jacksonville, September 18, 1891, page 1


    Three weeks after his marriage Mr. A. J. Snyder started with his wife for California, but first stopped a year in Illinois, and a while in Burlington, Iowa, following his trade, in order to raise the means necessary for the trip. He left the latter place April 25, 1852, with a wagon made by himself and four horses. At Kanesville, now Council Bluffs, he refitted for the journey, and joined a train of about thirty wagons. While crossing the plains they had a little trouble with the Pawnee Indians, at the Loup Fork of the Platte River. Mr. Snyder came on by way of Fort Hall to the Dalles, Oregon. On the Columbia river he built and ran a steam paddle wheel boat, on which he carried passengers and made money between the Dalles and the Cascades. Then he followed mining at Rich Gulch near Jacksonville, in Southern Oregon. Provisions were scarce, and he suffered much privation. He took in a partner because he had a bellows, anvil and a few tools, costing him about $3,000, which in the East would be worth only about $65. While there he was Alcalde for the miners, under miners' law. He followed blacksmithing until the fall of 1853, when he left there with $1,600 for San Francisco, by way of the Crescent City.
The Bay of San Francisco: A History, Chicago, 1892, vol. ii, page 104


    A RUNAWAY.--On Monday last Clark Rogers, Sr., living south of the city, had a serious accident. He went out to do some mowing with a mower, and when fairly at work his team struck a yellowjackets' nest, causing them to run away. Mr. Rogers was dragged some distance, and had a very narrow escape. He was some injured internally, and is under the care of Dr. Ransom, of Turner.
Capital Journal, Salem, July 19, 1895, page 4


    About 6 o'clock Saturday evening Clark Rogers, an old and highly respected
resident of Marion County, while at work in his barn on his farm seven miles south of Salem, fell and fractured his skull. He did not regain consciousness and died at 7 o'clock Sunday morning.
    When the accident occurred Mr. Rogers was engaged in storing away some choice ears of corn for seed. Having prepared a number of ears, he mounted a dry goods box about 3½ feet in height to hang the cars on a nail in the joist. He lost his balance and fell to the barn floor, striking his head at a point just behind the right ear on a plow.
    He was discovered within a few moments afterwards by a daughter who promptly summoned assistance and removed the unfortunate man to the house, when medical aid was immediately obtained. He did not regain consciousness, dying as above stated. An examination disclosed the fact that his skull had been fractured by the fall.
    The deceased leaves a wife and eight children, viz: Mrs. Mary McIntyre, of this city; Mrs. Sadie Emberson, of British Columbia; Clark Rogers, residing 4 miles south of Salem; Amelia Rogers, living at home; Clarence Rogers, of this city, Clayton Rogers, Cecil and Laura Rogers, all at home.
    Deceased is an old pioneer, having come to Oregon as early as 1850, settling south of Salem, where he has since resided.
    Funeral services will be held from the Methodist church at Turner at 2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, Rev. Belknap officiating. The remains will be interred in Twin Oak cemetery. All friends of the family are invited to attend the services.
Daily Capital Journal, Salem, October 4, 1897, page 1


    "In the spring of 1853 a miner named Rogers was appointed alcalde, to settle all disputes. Two miners had a dispute as to the ownership of a claim. Their names were Sims and Sprenger. Sims had wintered in the Willamette Valley, while Sprenger had held the claim. Sprenger broke his leg, and because he was unable to help work the claim, Sims arbitrarily claimed the entire property. They presented their case to Alcalde Rogers, who decided against Sprenger, awarding the claim to Sims. Sprenger appealed to the higher court of the justice of the miners. A meeting was called and more than 1000 miners attended. Rogers refused to change his decision, even when he was threatened with violence. Jerry, my father's partner, solved the difficulty by suggesting that if Rogers was judge the miners could appoint a supreme judge to overrule his decisions, so they elected U. S. Hayden of Connecticut superior alcalde, or chief justice. Jerry, my father's partner, wrote a book in which he gave the full particulars of this trial. I had this book for years, but I loaned it to a preacher and he claimed that he lost it, so I never got it back. In any event, after the miners had elected U. S. Hayden superior alcalde they appointed a bailiff, selected a jury and tried the case. P. P. Prim, later supreme [court] judge, and Daniel Kinney represented Sprenger, while Orange Jacobs, who later became a supreme [court] judge in Washington Territory, represented Sims. The jury restored Sprenger's right to one-half the claim."
Interview with Mamie Day Nelson. Fred Lockley, "Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man," Oregon Journal, Portland, August 19, 1927, page 10


    In the year 1853, according to the radio story, a judicial tribunal took the place of the people's court. Disputes rose over water rights to mining ground and to property in general. A mass meeting was called on Jackson Creek and a man by the name of Rogers was appointed alcalde, or judge, with unlimited power.
    A case in which two miners fell into dispute over a jointly owned mining claim, one denying the other his partner's rights proved his undoing. He decided in favor of the plaintiff. The miner who lost his interests went through the camps explaining the injustice done him. A meeting was called with 1000 people in attendance, most of them miners, and a "superior alcalde" adopted.
    U. S. Hayden, a highly educated miner, was elected chief justice. He in turn appointed a bailiff, and a jury was drawn. P. P. Prim appeared for the appellant and Orange Jacobs for the respondent. The "pardner" was reinstated. Prim was later elected to the circuit court, which position he held for 8 years, and then became Chief Justice of Oregon. Jacobs went to Washington and was later a delegate to Congress. Joseph E. Wetterer, "KMED Broadcast Reviews Pioneer Times in J'Ville," Medford Mail Tribune, January 5, 1930, page 5

Last revised November 1, 2023