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    D. M. Lowe closed his winter term of school at the Pond school last Friday.
"Pleasant Ridge," Chillicothe Morning Constitution, Chillicothe, Missouri, February 25, 1890, page 1


    Elgin Recorder: D. M. Lowe, teacher at the Pleasant Hill school, Elgin precinct, narrowly escaped being burned to death Wednesday evening. It appears that Mr. Lowe has been afflicted with heart trouble recently, and while moving around the room with a lamp in his hand, he was taken with a fainting spell and fell over on the floor, exploding the lamp and setting fire to the house, and had it not been for a young man, who was staying all night with Mr. Lowe and who dragged him out of the house, he would undoubtedly have been burned to death.
The Dalles Times-Mountaineer, February 20, 1892, page 1


    D. M. Lowe, of Hopland, leaves next week for Union County, Oregon, where he has large timber interests. His many friends wish him the best of success.
"Current Happenings," Ukiah Daily Journal, Ukiah, California, March 25, 1898, page 7


    D. M. Lowe of Hopland, who has been on a mining trip to Siskiyou County, returned here during the first part of the week. He comes down for the purpose of attending to his harvesting. He will return to the northern mines.
Ukiah Republican Press, Ukiah, California, June 3, 1898, page 1


    Lowe's--At East Hopland. One mile from Hopland. Will meet guests. On the banks of the Russian River. Fishing and bathing. Can accommodate four. Adults, $7.00 per week. Address, Mrs. D. M. Lowe, Hopland, Mendocino County, Cal.
San Francisco Call, April 29, 1900, page 24


    D. M. Lowe, Game Warden of Mendocino County, arrested Charles and William Thompson, whom he caught spearing steelhead trout in Taylor Creek. Thompson was held to the superior court.
"Mexican Quail Being Introduced," San Francisco Examiner, February 19, 1904, page 9


    D. M. Lowe and E. B. Hunt, of Ashland, came into the Courier office Saturday and on behalf of Ashland and its people expressed appreciation of the way the town and visitors and exhibitors were treated by Grants Pass during the fair.
    "Your town knows how to play the part of host, and we want to let you know how much we appreciate the treatment we have received," said Mr. Lowe.
    Mr. Lowe is the man who prepared the exhibit which Ashland had at the fair and which carried away the honors. He has had a wide experience in this line of work, having prepared the California exhibit at the St. Louis fair.
    The Ashland exhibit here was boxed and will go to the Chicago land show, and Mr. Lowe has returned to Ashland, where he will prepare an exhibit for the national apple show at Spokane for the people in the north end of the valley.
    Mr. Hunt is one of the best known growers in the Ashland country.
Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, October 14, 1910, page 7


    Poultry fanciers and poultry breeders generally of Grants Pass and Josephine County will meet again Wednesday night of next week to further plans for organizing the Southern Oregon Poultry Association. Meetings were held Thursday and Saturday of last week, and the meeting next Wednesday night will be addressed as before by D. M. Lowe, of Ashland, one of the moving spirits in the proposed organization. Coming from Ashland with Mr. Lowe will be a number of Ashland men and probably some of the women chicken fanciers.
    Deputy County Clerk E. S. Veatch also states to the Courier that he expects a generous turnout at the coming meeting, and that explanations by Mr. Lowe and others will be so convincing as to the value of an association that he expects the organization to soon be a fact and doing valuable work in breeding more and better chickens in Southern Oregon. Everybody interested in chickens is invited to participate in the meeting.
Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, April 28, 1911, page 5


    Work on the district fair that is to be held in this city in September is progressing, and according to all preparations now being made, the fair this fall will be by far the biggest and best that has been held in the district since the inauguration of the present fair system. On every hand is manifest an interest in the fair. Many ranchers and fruit growers are preparing their products for exhibition and the list of exhibitors is growing daily. D. M. Lowe, who has charge of the exhibits, is working incessantly and is enthusiastic over the prospects. All interested in the contest for prizes are urged to observe the following notice from Mr. Lowe:
    "Now is the time to select samples of grain for the 1912 district fair. Cut the grain near the ground, selecting good stalks and uniform heads of its kind, and tie in bundles about four inches in diameter. Wrap them in canvas or any old cloth to keep flies from specking the bundles, then suspend by wires to keep mice from getting at them. There are some good premiums offered for samples of grains, alfalfa and timothy. Try for them.
    "Arrangements will be made for the cold storage of fruit. Select some good, solid Early Alexanders, wrap them about one inch deep in their own foliage, then give them a good covering of cotton batting. Place only one layer deep in a box and put in cold storage. Mark the contents of the box on a card on the inside, giving also owner's name and residence. On the end of the box (outside) mark 'Care D. M. Lowe, Superintendent District Fair,' and deliver to Ashland Cold Storage Company.
    "School scholars should now be preparing grains, grasses, legumes, pressed flowers and native woods for their department. Especially care will be taken to make this department of the fair prominent. Write me, or give Secretary Day of the Commercial Club of Ashland your name if you desire a premium list and one will be sent you. We are expecting them shortly from the printer.
Ashland Tidings, July 22, 1912, page 1


    How to get more people to Oregon is a problem upon which many keen and intelligent men are working. How to get more men on the farms of Oregon is an even greater problem and one vital to our well being.
    Four years ago this fall D. M. Lowe came from Mendocino County, California, and located on a farm near Ashland, Or., and thereby hangs a tale. If D. M. Lowe's experience were emulated by more people the problem of getting men on the land would solve itself.
    Just across Bear Creek and directly north of Ashland there is a wide stretch of land which rises gradually into gently sloping bills. This land has always been rather contemptuously referred to as the "dry land district." Strangers coming to Ashland and making inquiry as to why this land was not farmed were told that the soil was too light or that the land was shallow and underlaid with ledges of rock or that a person would starve to death trying to make a living there, as it was only suitable for dry land farming and not very good for that.
    As Mendocino County was settling up rapidly with foreigners, Mr. Lowe decided to move. He wanted to come to a good farm district near a progressive town, a district with good climate, pure water and beauty of surroundings. After looking over a large amount of territory he visited Ashland. The "dry land" district just north of Ashland attracted his attention, and seeing that it was almost in Ashland's front dooryard he wondered why nothing was done with it. Since no one had a good word to say for it, he decided to find out the facts for himself. The mayor of Ashland had a mortgage on a quarter section three miles north of Ashland, in this dry land district, having made a loan on the basis of $10 an acre. When Mr. Lowe asked him about it he expressed his fear that he would have to take the land for the loan, and he didn't think the land was worth $10 an acre.
    Mr. Lowe found a quarter section on the foothills of this district which pleased him, and making several hundred borings he discovered that the soil, with the exception of a few acres, where a shelf of rock came almost to the surface, averaged a depth of from 10 to 12 feet. Taking a score or more of samples of soil from the different borings taken at different depths, he sent them to the University of California for soil analysis. The report showed the soil to be rich in potash and to contain a large amount of humus, and also stated the soil was rich in other elements of plant food. The land was overgrown with poison oak, a heavy growth of brush and scattered oaks. Mr. Lowe, with J. A. Harvey at Ashland, an old-time neighbor of his from California, bought this quarter section from A. D. Helms and immediately commenced the clearing of the land. The chopping down of the large oak trees and grubbing out of the manzanita and poison oak cost a trifle less than $50 an acre. About three hundred cords of oak wood were secured. When the poison oak and manzanita had been grubbed out the large stumps were blown out with powder. The brush was burned and the land plowed. The total cost of the place, including cost of the land, clearing, plowing and making ready for an orchard was not quite $100 an acre.
    One hundred and twenty acres were planted to pears, commercial varieties, such as D'Anjou, Bosc, Howell and Bartletts. On the ridge where the ledge of rocks come near the surface, apricots and peaches were planted. The pear trees were set out 72 to the acre, quincunx style, one tree being planted in the center of each square of four trees. As it was hillside land the rows of trees were set to conform to the contour of the land, the upper row being planted in a three-degree curve and being about three-quarters of a mile long. A grade of two feet to the half mile was established, enabling the water to start at the top of the row and run down without soil erosion to the bottom of the orchard, thus providing for and taking advantage of the rainfall or melting snow, or subsequent irrigation if the waters should be stored in a reservoir in the hills above. Between the young trees corn, potatoes and broom corn were planted.
    The 40 acres of field corn planted between the trees averaged 10 bushels to the acre, not by any means a phenomenal yield, but a very satisfactory one, since the corn found ready sale as chicken feed at $25 per ton on the cob unhusked. The five acres of sweet corn also proved a profitable crop. The 1911 crop of potatoes, consisting of 20 acres, turned out not only good in quantity and quality, but excellent in price as well, bringing from 2½ to 3½ cents per pound. Broom corn turned out so well that this year 12 acres were planted, which have produced an average of 600 pounds to the acre, selling for $140 per ton, making a revenue of over $60 per acre from broom corn. Not orly that, but it was purchased locally and the brooms will be made in Ashland. The corn not only proved a profitable crop, but served the double purpose of keeping grasshoppers and other fruit pests from attacking the leaves of the trees.
A Remarkable Exhibit.
    This year at the fair at Medford there was an exhibit consisting of 220 varieties of dry land products, which took the first prise. These 220 different products were all raised on the quarter section of D. M. Lowe, land at one time thought to be of little or no value.
    The picture which accompanies this article [similar to the photo at the head of this page] shows conclusively that in addition to being splendid fruit land, this land, with intelligent care, will produce almost anything raised in the Pacific Northwest. It would do too large a contract to name all the varieties represented, but in the exhibit there were 51 varieties of canned vegetables, 21 varieties of field and garden seeds. Some of the varieties which can readily be recognized in the picture are kale, field corn, kaffir corn, broom corn, milo maize, oats, wheat, turnips, beans, onions, potatoes, squash, beets, carrots, radishes, pumpkins, sunflowers, muskmelons, casabas and watermelons.
    If the man who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is a public benefactor, he can be given cards and spades and still lose out when compared to Mr. Lowe, who has grown 220 varieties of dry land products where only poison oak and manzanita grew before, and where the land was considered dry and light and the soil too shallow to be of any value for farming purposes.
    In Ashland they paraphrase the remark "Let George do it," and make it "Let Lowe do it." At least it seems so, for Mr. Lowe, having been a civil engineer for many years, has discovered that with very slight changes the road from Ashland to Crater Lake can be materially shortened. Being an expert orchardist, he is usually called upon to give expert testimony about the growing or setting out of orchards. Having frequently arranged displays for land shows and fairs, he is usually called upon either to arrange Ashland's display or to act as one of the judges at the various Southern Oregon fairs.
An Out-of-Doors Man.
    Mr. Lowe is an out-of-doors man. A pioneer by nature and instinct. His face is bronzed by a life in the open. He has a heavy mop of black hair, an eye that looks straight at you and a handclasp that does not lack strength and heartiness. If there is a district anywhere within a few hundred miles of where he lives that is almost unknown, that is just where you can count on finding him blazing a trail or cutting through the windfalls so his pack horse can get in.
    Mr. Lowe is 47 years old, though he doesn't look it by 10 years. He hails from Ohio, but came west when he was a boy. Twenty-seven years ago he came to Oregon, moving to Wallowa County. Twenty years or more ago, however, he went to Mendocino County, California.
    Mr. Lowe is an old-time neighbor of Luther Burbank, and it was his acquaintance with Burbank that induced Mr. Lowe to take a course in pomology. In addition to other experiments he is making on his farm in Ashland, he is investigating the grape industry. The hill land north of Ashland gets several hours more sun each day and averages five degrees warmer in winter and two degrees cooler in summer than the city of Ashland on account of the air drainage sweeping through a natural gap from Pilot Rock to the canyon of Rogue River. Mr. Lowe is conducting experiments with Tokay, Muscat and Red Imperial grapes, to see if they have a sufficiently large percentage of sugar to compete with the California grape. If so, he thinks that the hill lands of Southern Oregon will prove an ideal grape-growing district, and will rival California's famous product. In the Southern Oregon exhibit, which is to be shown at Pacific Northwest Land Products show in Portland later in the month, Mr. Lowe's 220 varieties of dry land products will be a prominent feature.
Oregon Journal, Portland, November 3, 1912, page 63


    A special from D. M. Lowe, who is attending the Portland Land Show as a special representative of the Ashland Commercial Club, states under date of the 17th inst.:
    "Many exhibitors are jealous of our dry farming proposition. This show is the grandest thing on wheels outside of any specific national proposition. The Ashland district display looms up in fine shape, and unless greatly mistaken, I begin to see affairs forming our way."
    It is, perhaps, needless to state that the Pacific Northwest Land Products Show opens at Portland today. Mr. Lowe is already on the ground, having left this vicinity last Wednesday, and his car of exhibits preceded him by 24 hours. C. E. Whisler of Medford will be the right-hand man of Mr. Lowe in exploiting the products of Southern Oregon. Medford's specialty will be pears, while Grants Pass will enter the ring as the champion of apples and grapes, thus forming a phase of "community of interests." Ashland hopes to win laurels as a general all-round exhibit, embracing dry farming products, field and garden seeds, also apples of the best quality from representative orchards which have already made an enviable record. Watch Portland dailies for developments in regard to this exhibit from day to day.
Ashland Tidings, November 18, 1912, page 1


    D. M. Lowe was present at the Commercial Club meeting Monday evening and reported upon the progress toward the exhibit to be placed in the eastern land show at Chicago in November. Mr. Lowe reports that things are in fine shape and that large pictures will be used in connection with the exhibits themselves. Secretary Chapman of the Oregon Development League will be in the upper Rogue River Valley in a very short time to confer with Mr. Lowe and others in regard to the matter of the exhibit.
    Mr. Lowe also reported that the Talent Commercial Club has signified its desire to join the Ashland club in the matter of this exhibit, and that it would assist in paying the expenses.
    He will soon be ready to discuss the extent of said exhibit with the club trustees. Mr. Chapman of Portland will be at the meeting. He is banking on Southern Oregon for a fine dry farming display and announces that the Oregon Development League will render all the aid it can.
    Mr. Lowe says prospects are bright for a great display. His ranch was visited recently by Mr. Burnett--United States agriculturist from Washington City--who says he has seen no greater variety or finer quality in all his coast travels. He has 120 acres of corn which Ohio experts estimate to go sixty bushels to the acre. In the valley this year are 5,000 acres of corn, as against 400 acres a few years ago when the crusade for more corn was started.
    Mr. Lowe met with the Talent Commercial Club Tuesday night. Realizing that its best interests lie with Ashland, Talent asks permission to combine with Ashland in exhibiting at the Chicago show and share the expense. A feature of this joint exhibit will be large paintings of the ranches where the exhibits were grown and glimpses of the surrounding scenery and topography.
Ashland Tidings, September 8, 1913, page 6


    D. M. Lowe on Tuesday received a letter from Governor Oswald West appointing him one of the commissioners of the state of Oregon to the Chicago Land Products Show. This is in recognition in part of the excellent exhibit which Mr. Lowe had at the Land Products Show in Portland last November, and in part because Governor West realized that Mr. Lowe as a practical farmer was especially fitted to honestly and effectively set forth to the farmers of the East the resources of Oregon. The governor could not have made a better choice.
Ashland Tidings, October 9, 1913, page 1


    At the meeting of the Commercial Club Monday evening D. M. Lowe again appealed to the residents of Ashland and the Rogue River Valley for exhibits to be sent to the Land Products Show at Chicago in November. Mr. Lowe stated that he had at present one and one-half tons of stuff from his own ranch in storage for the show and wanted all the best fruits and vegetables of the valley to be there. The Ashland Ice & Storage Company has set aside a room for the storage of stuff for the exhibit and everyone is urged to leave their specimens there.
    Mr. Lowe is giving his time in this matter, being paid simply his expenses, and certainly deserves the cordial support of the club and of every resident of Ashland and every rancher in the valley.
    Tom Richardson, of the Oregon Development League, was present and complimented Mr. Lowe and the club highly on the showing at Portland. He also read a telegram just received from Secretary Chapman of the Portland Commercial Club showing their appreciation of the exhibit there last year and asking him to tender the club the thanks of the Portland organization and assure them of their hearty cooperation in the Chicago exhibit.
Ashland Tidings, October 9, 1913, page 1


    Tom Richardson of Portland, Bert R. Greer and B. W. Talcott of the Tidings motored to the D. M. Lowe ranch on the north side of Bear Creek Tuesday and enjoyed a real old-time chicken dinner at the Lowe home. Mr. Lowe is proving himself one of the most successful farmers in the valley, and Mrs. Lowe demonstrated her ability to dish up a dinner second to none. The visit was a revelation to all three of the gentlemen as to the possibilities of the soil on the north side of the valley without irrigation and shows that an adequate mixture of brains and work with Oregon soil and climate is all that is necessary to make a marvelous success. The entire Lowe family will be exhibitors at the Chicago Land Products Show, even five-year-old George having garden products in cold storage for the event.
Ashland Tidings, October 9, 1913, page 8


    La Grande Observer: D. M. Lowe of Ashland, Ore., passed through the city this morning on his way to Elgin, where he expects to find a number of his former scholars and friends. Mr. Lowe is not now a teacher, but one of the most progressive boosters for the state of Oregon. He is going to the Chicago land show in the capacity of state commissioner. Not only that, but he has some 3,000 pounds of products grown on his farm that will vie with the best products displayed there for first money, and he wants to be on the ground to see the blue ribbon come his way. In all he will have 281 entries, and it is safe to assert that if he could take most of the first prizes at the Portland show last year he will hardly run second at Chicago for the products of the Rogue River Valley have an international reputation. Mr. Lowe is a civil engineer by profession and farmer by choice. He is owner of a 100-acre pear orchard and is successful by reason of being in close touch with the agricultural school. But all of this is of minor importance to the scheme which Mr. Lowe has for the year 1915. It is his purpose to boost the state during the Panama-Pacific exposition by a display of the products of Oregon. He is going to ask the legislature for an appropriation of $5,000, which will enable all farmers and producers of the state to make an exhibit at the gateway of Oregon, his own city of Ashland. Furthermore, he purposes to induce travelers to the fair to have their railroad tickets routed through Oregon, Ashland being the first city which the traveler from the far East will see on coming into the state. A first impression, after traveling over some hundred miles of mountain waste in Northern California, will prove of incalculable value in inducing prospective settlers to make Oregon a favored spot. "I want you to say for me," said he, "that I have nothing to sell, not even an acre of ground, and I am doing all this for the real benefit of the state. I intend to hold all the land I own and increase it if I can. On my return trip from Elgin I would like to meet your Commercial Club, for I have a number of interesting things to tell them."
Ashland Tidings, November 13, 1911, page 3


    ASHLAND, Or., Feb. 1.--(Special.)--In recognition of the showing made by D. M. Lowe on behalf of the Ashland district at the Pacific Northwest Land Products Show held in Portland last fall, the Commercial Club of Ashland has presented Mr. Lowe with a handsome silver cup, with the following inscription: "Presented to D. M. Lowe and family by the Ashland Commercial Club, in appreciation of services rendered at the Pacific Northwest Land Products Show, November, 1912, at which exhibition the club won the first prize for the best district agricultural display, together with four supplementary prizes."
Oregonian, Portland, February 2, 1913, page 8


    Ashland is going to get into the Eastern Land Show "game" on a big scale next fall. This news was contained in a letter received yesterday by manager Chapman, of the Portland Commercial Club, from D. M. Lowe, of Ashland, who will have charge of collecting a comprehensive exhibit showing the varied products of the Ashland section.
    Not only will an excellent collection of agricultural and horticultural exhibits be sent by Ashland, but the club plans to send along a representative to explain the collection of products to inquirers and answer questions made concerning it. An effort will be made to unite the whole Rogue River Valley in one big showing, so that the maximum benefit may be realized by that section of Oregon.
    It is Mr. Lowe's plan to make up a dry-farming exhibit from one ranch that will make up a part of the showing. A former display of this kind attracted much attention. He has been advised by Mr. Chapman that the state will make its chief showing at the United States Land Show at Chicago next fall and that the State Immigration Commission will do everything possible to aid the people of the Rogue River Valley in shipping their exhibit and installing it where it will attract the most attention. Mr. Chapman says that such a display of products will do more than anything else to stimulate interest in the section represented and bring it new settlers.
Oregonian, Portland, May 21, 1913, page 15


The Ashland Tidings, Ashland, Ore.
    Gentlemen: Your article to the Chicago Tribune has been quite largely circulated by the Land Show people.
    I have been introduced on all occasions as Farmer Lowe, the man from Oregon that knows how to hoe, and "Hoe, You Sucker, Hoe," the photograph of Georgie, the five-year-old farmer, is a slogan of the Chicago Land Show.
    The lecture platform has claimed my attention since I left Ashland, and I spoke in almost [all] the states between Oregon and Illinois, and will journey south from Chicago and land in New Orleans, and thence possibly to Cuba, before I return home, which will possibly be early in January. We are receiving every recognition due us at the hands of the people of Chicago and the state of Illinois.
    Wishing I could be in Ashland to swallow some sunshine, I am,
Ashland Tidings, December 1, 1913, page 1


    A wedding of interest to Ashland people occurred at Yreka, California, November twenty-sixth in the marriage of Jewell D. Lowe and Miss Edna Carpenter of Weed. The bride is a well-known and popular young lady of that city, and the groom is a foreman with the Weed Lumber Company. Mr. Lowe is the son of D. M. Lowe of Ashland, and many Ashland friends will wish the young couple joy and prosperity in their new home, where they will welcome their friends after December first.
"In the Social Realm," Ashland Tidings, December 4, 1913, page 4


    D. M. Lowe of the Rogue River Valley, Oregon, farmer and special representative of the Ashland Commercial Club, who had an exhibit of 314 different entries grown on his ranch, has been commissioned by the Cuban government and Rudolph Spreckels & Co. to go to Cuba for the purpose of experimenting with the growing of alfalfa on the island. He will make the test with self-inoculated seed from the exhibit here.
    Mr. Lowe won five silver cups and one gold cup last year at the Portland (Ore.) land products show for the best display of agricultural products, competing against seven states and Canada, and displaying only products grown on his own ranch. He also received the grand prize offered by the Portland Commercial Club for the best community exhibit.
"Bohemians See Northwest Crops," Chicago Tribune, December 8, 1913, page 13


    D. M. Lowe of Ashland, Ore., is visiting his brother, J. H. Lowe, northwest of the city. Mr. Lowe is en route to his home from Chicago, where he attended the big land show.
    The Chicago Tribune says regarding Mr. Lowe:
    D. M. Lowe of the Rogue River Valley, Oregon, farmer and special representative of the Ashland Commercial Club, who had an exhibit of 314 different entries grown on his ranch, has been commissioned by the Cuban government and Rudolph Spreckles & Co. to go to Cuba for the purpose of experimenting with the growing of alfalfa on the island. He will make the test with self-inoculated seed from the exhibit here.
    Mr. Lowe won five silver cups and one gold cup last year at the Portland (Ore.) land products show for the best display of agricultural products, competing against seven states and Canada, and displaying only products grown on his own ranch. He also received the grand prize offered by the Portland Commercial Club for the best community exhibit.
Chillicothe Constitution, Chillicothe, Missouri, December 10, 1913, page 5


    Ashland people are interested in the United States Land Show annual exhibit at Chicago, if the crowd that went out to Dreamland Theater Monday evening to hear D. M. Lowe tell the story is any criterion. Dreamland would not hold them, and five people were turned away to every one that got a seat or in hearing distance. Lowe jumped into his story at once and gave an account of the trip made by the Oregon and Northwest competitors and exhibitors. Aside from the work at the show itself, addresses were made in Pittsburgh, Rochester, Buffalo, Erie, New York, Ann Arbor, Bay City and surrounding cities in a special campaign east. During the show many points were reached in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. On the return trip west three days were spent talking in Northern Missouri and Iowa and another three days from Kansas City to New Orleans. Homeward bound talks were made at Wichita, Rawlins and Henneber [sic], Montana. The trip covered 9,200 miles, and all told Mr. Lowe delivered 142 addresses and lectures.
    After a general account of the campaign Mr. Lowe gave one of the main lectures he delivered in Chicago, using 77 of the 600 covered slides which showed up many beautiful points of scenery about Ashland and Southern Oregon as well as the production of this valley in horticulture and agriculture.
    Among the exhibits shown were:
    Thirty-two hundred and seventy bushels oats from forty acres.
    One hundred and eight bushels white Oregon dent corn per acre.
    Two hundred and four 100-pound sacks onions per acre.
    One hundred and fifty-four sacks potatoes, ordinary yield.
    One hundred and seventy-four pounds Chile squash.
    Forty-four-inch-long potato squash.
    Twelve three-quarters strap leaf turnip.
    Twenty-four-pound Swedish turnip.
    Sixteen-pound California winter table radish.
    Samples grain seven feet two inches high. C. C. Chapman rounded up every tall man attending the show to top that grain and then imported from Wisconsin their tallest man, who fell, reaching only six feet nine inches, The Stetson hat prize offered to the man that was taller than the grain still remained untaken.
    A $1000 check was offered anyone bringing a North- or Northeast-grown apple that tasted better than ours--apples to be cut and tasted by the man and left to judge for himself.
    Several managers of the great state fairs in the Middle West offered unusual facilities for display of products for all Rogue River Valley the coming fall.
    A feature of Mr. Lowe's talk was that it was practical and along lines that would appeal to everybody interested. It was relieved of the transparent hot air atmosphere quite common in promotion work and the originality and naturalness of the story and the man succeeded in demonstrating truly what can be done in this country with its magnificent variety of resources and possibilities.
    A letter from R. P. Cross, general manager, says: "The show of 1913 was above the standard in decorations and in the number of exhibits. The land show went through sixteen days of fog, mist and rain in the eighteen days it was open. With rain pouring down on many days and in the darkest weather during the daytime Chicago has ever experienced we averaged 24,900 people a day, 1500 less than the year before. The exhibit of the Ashland district and the Rogue River Valley certainly attracted a great deal of attention. I understand that many of the products were from your own farm. It is surely the right kind of combination where products can be shown and the man who grew them is on the spot to explain that such a wonderful collection of products is not the result of collecting prize exhibits from all over the state. A number of my assistants at the show spoke to me about your lectures and the enthusiasm you put into your work. It is impossible that such work will not bring good results."
Ashland Tidings, January 8, 1914, page 1


    Grants Pass Courier: D. M. Lowe, the Southern Oregon booster who has recently returned from a six weeks' trip to the land show at Chicago and at various other points where he delivered lectures upon the Oregon country, gave the lecture Monday evening at the regular meeting of the Commercial Club, a small but enthusiastic audience of ladies and gentlemen being present. A rainy night was responsible for the small attendance, The lecture was illustrated by about one hundred colored lantern slides, showing Southern Oregon scenes and horticultural and agricultural subjects. This lecture was delivered by Mr. Lowe 142 times throughout the East and aroused great enthusiasm for this portion of the West, as did also the magnificent display of which he had charge at the land show.
Ashland Tidings, January 19, 1914, page 4


    The problem of maintaining an up-to-the-minute exhibit at the Commercial Club exhibit building near the depot during the coming period of tourist traffic incident to the Panama-Pacific Exposition was solved in a very satisfactory manner Monday night when the Commercial Club accepted a proposition submitted by D. M. Lowe to have a complete charge of same. Mr. Lowe proposed to install an exhibit of products of the upper valley and to superintend the arrangement and needed changing of same throughout the season for the very modest sum of $100. His proposition was grabbed at by the Commercial Club, as it has always experienced difficulty in keeping up the exhibit. Mr. Lowe is an adept at this work and has already on hand many of the grains and grasses and other products that will go to make up an attractive display.
Ashland Tidings, August 6, 1914, page 8


    Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Lowe entertained at dinner yesterday at their farm house across Bear Creek. The guests were John M. Scott, general passenger agent of the Southern Pacific, and agents George Kramer of Ashland and A. S. Rosenbaum of Medford. The dinner was typical of Mr. Lowe's hobby, dry farming, and everything on the table was only such as could be raised on a dry farm. The table fairly groaned with the burden of good things. The menu consisted of chicken pot pie, Irish and sweet potatoes, cabbage, pickled pears, huckleberries, meat, salad, angel food, cake, peaches, nectarines, gooseberry and loganberry pie, homemade bread and delicious creamy milk. The guests were shown over the farm after dinner by Mr. Lowe, and they gained enthusiasm over his method of agriculture with each step over the model farm.
Ashland Tidings, December 3, 1914, page 5


    D. M. Lowe, the local rancher who has won nationwide fame for his dry farming exhibits, shipped what he says is the best display that he has ever gotten together to the Panama-Pacific exposition at San Francisco last week. Mr. Lowe will leave Friday for the city to install his exhibit and will remain in charge of it through the summer.
    His shipment of bundled grains, which was sent by freight, weighed 3,400 pounds. A shipment of the various fruits, vegetables and the like was sent by express, this portion of the exhibit weighing 500 pounds.
    The freight shipment included 240 bundles of sheaf grain, almost all of different varieties.
    The exhibit includes one hundred and eight varieties of thresh grain, eighty-four varieties of canned fruit, three dozen kinds of jellies, twenty-two varieties of dried beans, sixty-five kinds of field and garden seed, sixty kinds of corn, and fifty varieties of green fruits and vegetables.
    He also takes with him a four-foot panorama of his ranch on the foothills across Bear Creek.
    Everything in his exhibit was raised on his place and constitutes the strongest piece of evidence that could be procured that the Rogue River Valley is the greatest section in the world for diversified farming.
    Mr. Lowe's display will not be in the Oregon building but will be entered in the agricultural palace, for competition with the rest of the world.
    Mr. Lowe's first big triumph in this line was at the [1904] St. Louis fair, where he carried off the first honors. At that time he was representing California. Since then he has exhibited at numberless fairs and land shows and has never failed to carry off the first prize. After the Chicago land show last year, at which he was one of the biggest and most sought-after men, Mr. Lowe intended to retire from such work, but he was finally prevailed upon to enter an exhibit at the Panama exposition, and Ashlanders believe that his record will be sustained.
Ashland Tidings, January 28, 1915, page 1


    D. M. Lowe was in the city from his ranch north of town this morning and reports that all who wish to see over one hundred varieties of grasses and grains, which will be sent to the exposition and added to his exhibit there, should come out to his ranch this week. Mr. Lowe extends a cordial invitation to anyone who is interested to come out and look over this wonderful exhibit in the field. Varieties of grain in various stages of hybridization form a most interesting part of the exhibit. Mr. Lowe is experimenting quite extensively with the crossing of the various kinds and is getting results. The addition to Mr. Lowe's prize-winning exhibit will be shipped to the exposition the last of the week.
Ashland Tidings, June 21, 1915, page 1


    The Sams Valley school is extremely lucky in securing the services of Miss Hazel Lowe, daughter of D. M. Lowe, as teacher for this term of school. Miss Lowe was one of the star members of last year's teachers' training class at the Ashland high school.
"Local and Personal," Ashland Tidings, September 23, 1915, page 5


    Marine night at the Manufacturers and Land Products Show, which was staged last night, was marked by increased attendance and special entertainment features. It was one of the notable days of the week. Crowds filled the exhibit pavilion at the Armory, and occasional sailors in the uniform of the Navy lent a picturesque touch to the throngs of visitors.
    It might be thought that marine men would be lost at a land show, but they seemed quite at home. The fruits, grains and vegetables on display interested them, and they spent much time looking over the various manufacturers' booths, particularly those exhibiting machinery and other devices.
    They listened to the band concert, watched the moving picture show, applauded Mrs. Harry McQuade, the soloist of the evening, who was accompanied by Lucian Becker, and took the show in generally to their hearts' content. S. S. Hewitt was chairman of Marine day. Cooperating were the memberships of the Motor Boat Club, the Yacht Club, the Rowing Club and the various pilot and mariners' associations.
    General Chairman Hewitt pointed to the fact with pride that there are 12,000 gasoline power boats on the Columbia River. Many of these are operated for profit in the fisheries and elsewhere, while a large percentage are pleasure craft. Masters of both classes of boats rubbed elbows last night at Portland's exposition.
    A parade from the Chamber of Commerce to the Armory opened last night's show. The First Band, Coast Artillery Corps, led the column. Thus heralded, in almost continuous column of people followed to the show and crowded the space about the exhibits until closing time at 10:30.
    Industrial films and motion pictures of the opening of the Dalles-Celilo Canal were shown at the movie theater last night. "Happy Jack" Walker, a veteran entertainer, and Abe Goldberg were other attractions.
    Western Oregon vies with Eastern Oregon in displaying the riches of the state. They are spread before the visitor with a lavish hand. Nothing, it seems, has been overlooked in bringing together the varied crops of Oregon's fertile soil, the wealth of her mines and the output of her manufacturing plants.
    No exhibit in the whole show, perhaps, is more wonderful than that of Jackson County, and the surprising thing about it is that every item in the large showing came from one farm. There is everything imaginable in the display, grains, fruits, grasses, vegetables, etc., and it was all grown by one farmer, D. M. Lowe, who is in attendance to explain it to visitors and answer questions. 
    "There are more than 1000 entries in the exhibit," said Mr. Lowe modestly, "but I don't know the exact number of items. I know there are more than I have in the Panama-Pacific exhibit at San Francisco and I have 1036 there."
    Mr. Lowe won the medal of honor at the San Francisco fair for the best farm exhibit in the world. He also captured the gold medal for barley, as well as a gold medal for the greatest number of various products.
    In his exhibit at the local show Mr. Lowe has over a ton of corn, the ears being perfect in kernel and most attractive in appearance. He has fruits on show that make the mouth water and vegetables that are amazing.
    He has produced all these surprising things on a farm of 700 acres between Ashland and Medford.
    All the county exhibits are attracting no end of attention from visitors. It is hard to pick any out as being the best when all are so uniformly good. Josephine County has a splendid showing of grapes that is being much admired. H. E. Gale is in charge.
    This is the second year of the Flame Tokay grape industry in Josephine County. Last season but one car of these grapes were shipped to outside markets, This year there were 10 carloads sent away, and the industry appears to be growing by leaps and bounds.
    Columbia County has a strong exhibit, which is in charge of Asahel Smith, who after years spent in bringing to perfection the potato, both in Canada and the United States, has been hailed the potato king of the world.
    This exhibit is particularly strong on root crops, the product of rich delta and tide lands along the Lower Columbia being shown. Among other things are many beets that are larger than one's head.
    Exhibits of an educational nature are interesting features of the Manufacturers and Land Products Show, and an entire afternoon can be spent with profit looking over the various displays. During the afternoons there is time for a careful inspection, and officials advise women to come at that time to get the most good from their visit.
Oregonian, Portland, October 29, 1915, page 8


    D. M. Lowe, Southern Oregon "dry farmer" who has won highest honors at every big exposition and land show in the United States for many years with his dry farm exhibits, exhibited at the Jackson County fair last week some wheat which he believes is absolutely the best wheat Oregon can grow. The Sperry Flour Company sent Mr. Lowe fifteen pounds of the wheat last year, Mr. Lowe raising 21 bushels at the rate of 44 bushels to the acre from the small amount sent. The Sperry company secured the first bushel at a cost of $6,000, according to Mr. Lowe, an expert working several years to produce it. Mr. Lowe was one of the farmers throughout the United States who were sent small amounts of the original wheat, which is called Sperry wheat. The 21 bushels which Mr. Lowe raised will be distributed in small amounts among the farmers of Rogue River Valley so that by the end of next year a good record will be had of the performances of the grain on every type of soil and under the conditions in every part of the valley.
    The wheat Mr. Lowe planted was sowed on light, dry land, but during the hot spells was not in the least affected. The product Mr. Lowe shows at the county fair is beautiful wheat, uniform, fat grains with a high gloss. He states that analysis has shown it to contain a remarkably high proportion of flour elements, so high that he is willing to stake his reputation that the Sperry wheat is the coming wheat for Oregon to grow.
    Much more grain is being raised in the valley this year than since the years prior to the fruit boom, and a great deal more interest is being taken in grain raising. To exemplify this is the fact that at the county fair this year there were thirty exhibits of grain collections as against six in 1915.
Ashland Tidings, September 18, 1916, page 1


    Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Lowe entertained a number of friends at dinner at their ranch Sunday afternoon, which was an enjoyable event, long to be remembered by the participants. This dinner has become an annual feature at the Lowe ranch, and at 1 o'clock a six-course dinner was served by the hostess, after which the guests were taken over the ranch and shown the different varieties of fruits and grain which had been exhibited at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, Chicago Land Show, State Fair, Portland Livestock Show and Jackson County Fair, and which had gained prizes and medals at all places exhibited. After looking over the ranch the guests were turned loose in a large vineyard and told to help themselves, which they proceeded to do.
    Those in attendance were Mr. and Mrs. George N. Kramer, Mr. and Mrs. V. O. N. Smith and son of Ashland; Mr. and Mrs. Wortman and son, Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Cate and three sons of Medford; Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Lowe and family and Mr. and Mrs. Jewell Lowe. John M. Scott, general passenger agent of the Southern Pacific Company, and H. A. Henshaw, general freight agent, were expected guests. but on account of being called to Canada on business were unable to be present, and telegrams were received expressing their regrets.
Ashland Tidings, October 22, 1917, page 4


    Never has Oregon demonstrated more fully its right to recognition as a self-sustaining state than at the Manufacturers' and Land Products Show, now in progress at the Auditorium.
    A trip through the colorful lanes of exhibit booths, heaped high with the produce of field and farm and orchard, is literally an excursion through an agricultural and horticultural heaven. Surely, not even at the traditional New England Thanksgivings was there ever assembled such a prodigality of garden truck and glowing fruits.
    Yesterday was "Lower Willamette Day." Two concerts were given by McElroy's band, one in the afternoon and one at night, and similar entertainments will form a portion of each day's programme at the show.
    Because this is "Good Roads Day," and no discussion or celebration of good roads in Oregon would be complete without reference to the master example, the Columbia River Highway, scenic views of that famous road will be shown tonight at 9 o'clock by Samuel Lancaster, who was engineer of construction.
    The Columbia Highway scenes will be in motion pictures, taken by the Interior Department of the United States, and will be supplemented by individual views of Oregon scenery in color from photographic studies made by Frank I. Jones.
    A splendid exhibit completed yesterday is that of Jackson County, with D. M. Lowe, of Ashland, in charge, assisted by Mrs. Lowe.
    Every item in the exhibit, which would comprise 1100 separate entries if there were room for all, was grown by Mr. Lowe's son, Donnie Lowe, who is now wearing the Army uniform. And all came from the celebrated Lowe farm, Walnut Grove, three miles from Ashland.
    There are specimens of beardless black barley, which bristled with beards before Mr. Lowe began his experiments upon it two years ago, and wild oats that have been tamed and made to weigh 31 pounds to the bushel, and any number of things that are equally interesting. The display of Rogue River fruit is especially fine.
    Several of the agricultural and horticultural exhibits are found with the machinery exhibits on the lower floor for lack of room in the main hall. Among these are wonderful showings of apples from Hood River and The Dalles and the exhibits of Clackamas and Washington counties.
    O. E. Freytag supervises the Clackamas County exhibit, which features a fine collection of grains and garden vegetables. A single squash weighs 150 pounds.
    Mrs. J. S. West is in charge of the Washington County exhibit, which adjoins that of Clackamas. and is a worthy rival. It is fully as complete in its display of Oregon's bounty, but lays especial stress upon the quality of potatoes and onions grown in Washington County.
    A "dry-land" exhibit from Sparta, Baker County, is in process of construction under the supervision of L. L. Holcomb, of Sparta. Garden produce and fruit, grown on unirrigated land, testifies to the efficacy of dry-farming methods if properly carried out.
    The Oregon Agricultural College, with Miss Fannie Virgil in charge of the section, has an interesting and educational display of domestic science and food conservation. A long gallery features, by a unique arrangement of glass plates, views of the college building and activities.
    In the machinery section, at intervals, all is clatter and bustle, for the looms and engines and other mechanical devices of Oregon factories are not only on display, but may be seen in actual operation.
    Soldiers in uniform are admitted free this week.
    The prices of admission for night and Sunday attendance have been announced as follows: Night admission, 25 cents; children over 10 years, 15 cents. General admission to Sunday concerts or organ recitals, 10 cents.
Oregonian, Portland, November 6, 1917, page 15


    D. M. Lowe, Jackson County's representative of the land show, stirringly appealed to Chamber of Commerce members Monday afternoon to join in a campaign to eliminate the horse races as a cost feature of the state fair.
    "Let none of the receipts at the gate, from concessions or from appropriations, be used to support a gambling institution," he pleaded. "Spend the money in adding to the attractiveness of those exhibits which show our strength as a state and reveal our leadership in agriculture. If the races are to be carried on, let it be done as a separate feature, requiring those who want to see the races to pay.
    "Besides, the automobile has taken the place of the horse and people don't go to see horse races any more. There is only one race horse breeding farm in the West."
    Mr. Lowe, declaring that he wanted to tell Portland the way outstate people are thinking before he returned to his home, asked that in another Liberty loan campaign bankers be omitted from the list of those sent out as speakers from Portland.
    "Send men from the shipyards, men in overalls, with calloused hands, who have given a son or two to the military service of Uncle Sam and who are paying for Liberty bonds--that kind of speakers will get bigger subscriptions than the most solid bankers or the most eloquent orators."
    Mr. Lowe urged that Portland demand of the outstate that booth attendants at next year's land show the men who thoroughly understand their business rather than commercial club secretaries. He averred that Oregon should discourage the organization of a Farmers' Non-Partisan League in the state.
    Professor Oliver H. Richardson of the University of Washington, a member of the Washington state council of defense, discussed the historical background of tho present war.
Oregon Journal, Portland, November 27, 1917, page 13


NOTICE OF SALE OF ESTRAY--Notice is hereby given that on the 15th day of February, 1918, I took up the following described estray, running at large at my ranch near Ashland, Oregon, Jackson County, to wit: One light red cow naturally muley, about five years old, weighing on February 15, 1918, 980 pounds. Marks, crop off of right ear, under half cropped in left ear; brand J. K. or J. B. connected on left hip. That I have made the affidavits and fulfilled the requirements of the law, and said animal will be offered for sale at public auction by J. W. Hatcher, constable of Ashland district, at the ranch of D. M. Lowe & Son in section 20, township 38, range 1 east, 3½ miles north of Ashland, Oregon, at 3 p.m. on 28th of March, 1918, to satisfy costs and expenses that may have been regularly made.
    Date of the first publication, March 14, 1918.
Ashland Tidings, March 14, 1918, page 4


    D. M. Lowe, accompanied by his son, D. M. junior, is in the city for the purpose of selecting a site for an experimental farm. Mr. Lowe has operated a similar project at Ashland for 11 years, and has done much to spread the fame of the Rogue River section by the exhibits he has placed at the various fairs and shows during that time. If he decides to locate here, the farm will be in charge of his son, who has just returned from service in the army.
Evening Herald, Klamath Falls, October 24, 1919, page 1


    Donnie Lowe, who has been managing a Seattle lumber company for the past year or so, has been the guest of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Lowe, at their home near Ashland this week, while on his way to Weed, where he has accepted the superintendency of the Weed Lumber Company. Mr. Lowe arrived Sunday and was accompanied by his wife, whose presence was somewhat of a surprise to the former's parents. Mrs. Lowe was formerly Miss Jocelyn White of Seattle, and she and Mr. Lowe were married Thanksgiving.
    D. M. Lowe has sold his fine stock ranch across Bear Creek, several miles north of Ashland, to his son, Jules D. Lowe, and Bruce Clark, former superintendent of the Weed Lumber Company. The new owners have already taken possession of their property.
"Local and Personal," Ashland Tidings, March 2, 1921, page 4


    To the Editor:
    I have been reading with much interest the several letters printed in your columns in regard to the political situation and especially the letters of Gus Newbury and Ed Kelly, candidates for office. Feeling that I know something of the sentiment of the people I am constrained to add a few words that may be of benefit.
    It has been talk among certain politicians of the county for some time that a new issue had to be made and unless it was made, neither Newbury or Kelly had any choice to be elected judge.
    For many months we have had a ring of bootleggers and their sympathizers practically openly violating the law. Case after case has been tried in our courts where aided by certain attorneys, the defendants have in most cases been cleared, and the people, already groaning under a load of taxes that is unbearable, feel that very little has been accomplished with all this money and this ring is still defying the law.
    One thing sure, no matter what the cost, the law must be enforced. No ring of criminals no matter who they may be can permanently defy the law.
    The issue today is one of common decency and law enforcement.
    No one knows better what the issue is than some of these men writing these letters, but they are trying to change the issue by charging an organization and its members with law violations when they know nothing about the facts, for I am giving them the benefit of the doubt and assume that if they knew who the lawbreakers were, they would furnish such facts to the officers of the law. They are attempting to throw out a smokescreen behind which they can hide as to the real issue.
    I note in his last letter Gus says "when mob violence is an issue" undoubtedly thinking that he has successfully changed the issue. However, let me say that high taxes is an issue in this campaign. The courts and the law-enforcing officials must stand for the enforcement of the law, no matter what the character of the law violation is, and this includes bootlegging as well as mob violence. I notice that both Newbury and Kelly are strong against the latter, but I have not seen any statement of theirs in regard to the former.
    It cost the county a lot of money to try Mr. Newbury's client the famous "Shine" Edwards three times before conviction was had, and while Gus is so anxious to declare his position against the Ku Klux Klan, it would be pleasing to a lot of us taxpayers to learn from him whether his defending bootleggers in the past is going to render him partial or impartial to them when they come before him as judge.
"Communications," Medford Mail Tribune, May 15, 1922, page 4


    MEDFORD, Ore., July 20.--Ignited, according to the owner, by a spark from a descending forest patrol airplane, the residence of D. M. Lowe was burned to the ground at a loss of $5000.
    The Lowe residence is at the edge of Barber Field, the airplanes passing it when alighting. The exhaust of the plane, according to Lowe, set fire to grass, which, fanned by the wind, ignited the grain field and house.
Salt Lake Telegram, July 20, 1921, page 2


    MEDFORD, Ore., July 19.--Ignited, according to the owner, by a spark from a descending forest patrol airplane, the residence of D. M. Lowe, well-known agricultural expert, was burned to the ground yesterday afternoon at a loss of $5000. The Lowe residence is at the edge of Barber Field, the airplanes passing it every day when alighting. The exhaust of the plane, according to Mr. Lowe, set fire to foxtail grass which, fanned by the wind, ignited the grain field and house. Fire Chief Lawton of Medford made a run to the field with a chemical engine and saved all but one acre of the barley crop.
San Jose Mercury Herald, July 20, 1921, page 1


    MEDFORD, Ore., July 29.--(AP)--Jackson County's recall campaign, one of the bitterest campaigns ever fought out in Southern Oregon, came to a close last night with a mass meeting of Medford citizens opposed to the recall of Sheriff Terrill, and today both factions are busy getting their supporters out to the polls. The Ku Klux Klan was the main issue, charges being made by the supporters of Terrill that his opponent, D. M. Lowe, was a member of the Klan, while Lowe made an affidavit yesterday that he "is not a member of the Klan," immediately countered by affidavits from former members of the Klan that he "was" a member, with the people divided as to the truth of the affidavits largely by their partisan sympathies.
    At 11 o'clock today a light vote was reported in all parts of the county, but it was believed a very heavy vote will be registered before the polls close at 8 o'clock tonight.
Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Washington, July 29, 1922, page 1


    MEDFORD, Ore.,--July 29.--In the bitterest election ever held in Jackson County, in which the issue was a clearcut one between the Ku Klux Klan and anti-Klan forces, the movement to recall Sheriff Charles E. Terrill was defeated. In 41 of the 56 precincts in the county including Ashland, Terrill, standard bearer of the anti-Klan forces, was leading.
    The movement to recall Sheriff Terrill was launched ostensibly by the Rogue River Valley Ministerial Association, but it was charged freely it was a Klan move and in the last days of the campaign affidavits were filed by former Klansmen declaring Lowe, the opposition candidate, was a Klansman and they had sat in Klan meetings with him. Ashland and Central Point gave Lowe a majority. Sixty percent of the normal vote was cast.
    D. M. Lowe, farmer and candidate against Terrill, was accused by three former Klansmen of being a member of the Ku Klux Klan on the platform and in the press and the issue was Klan and anti-Klan.
    Lowe was backed by the ministerial association and Terrill by the citizens' league. A record vote was polled in the country precincts, but the storm centers of the fight were this city and Ashland.
Wallace Press-Times, Wallace, Idaho, July 30, 1922, page 4


To the Editor:--
    "There is no fool like an old fool."
    This saying occurred to me when I read the column article in the Mail Tribune of September 1st, signed by Wm. M. Colvig, but it had added force and significance when I later heard it rumored over town that a certain defeated primary candidate had dictated the article and persuaded Uncle Bill to father it.
    I cannot remember of ever reading a single newspaper column that contained more of half truths, of misstatement of facts, and downright falsehoods than this joint effort of two disgruntled Republican bolters. So far as the misstatements relative to Charley Thomas and Bert Anderson are concerned, I shall have nothing to say, as they are amply able to take care of themselves, but when Uncle Bill, or his epistolary friend, or both of them, charge that I am a Democrat and ran for sheriff in the recall election as a Democratic candidate, I will just call them, and will state in passing, that they knew it was a falsehood when they wrote it, for party lines are not drawn in a recall fight and party regularity is not brought into question. I have been a Republican all my life. I believe in and support the Republican Party from principle. For twenty years, in Mendocino County, California, I was a registered and recognized Republican, serving for years on the Republican County Committee, and for twelve years have been a registered Republican in Oregon. I have occasionally voted for a good man on other tickets, and no doubt shall continue to do so in the future, but I have never joined any "Independent Voters League" in an attempt to disrupt my party organization, and to defeat its candidates. The only time I have ever departed the least from the straight and narrow way was when the Democrats, without my consent and. knowing I was a Republican, wrote my name on their ballots some years ago, and nominated me for the legislature, and I was foolish enough to accept. However, I was no worse than Geo. Alford, our candidate for county commissioner, this year, receiving the Democratic nomination the same way. In the meantime, everyone in the county is laughing at the situation this Independent Voters League finds itself in--shot to pieces by the withdrawal and repudiation of good men, denounced by both the Republicans and Democratic organizations, weighted down by the endorsement and support of the bootleggers union, by the Knights of Columbus and by a little gang of renegade Republicans and Democrats. This league is fast reaching such a point of offensiveness that even the bootleggers will be tempted to get out.
Medford Clarion, September 8, 1922, page 1


    Separated from each other for 26 years, during more than 16 years of which time neither knew where the other was living, D. M. Lowe, Ashland rancher, and Lucian Lowe, his brother, were reunited Sunday morning at the general hospital here.
    In 1899, in Ukiah, California, Lucian arrived for a visit with his brother, who was at that time operating a theater in Ukiah. At that time, Lucian was to have been married to a Ukiah girl, whom he had known for years.
    After attending the theater one evening, Lucian suddenly disappeared, and for 16 years no member of his family knew of his whereabouts. He then got in touch with D. M. Lowe and, although the brothers corresponded for several years, they never met.
    Finally, the correspondence ceased and for a period of four or five years D. M. Lowe heard nothing of his brother's whereabouts.
    Last Friday, the Ashland man received word from Yreka that a man whose name was Lowe had been taken to the hospital suffering from an attack of paralysis. The latter had been found at Forks of Salmon and, unable to speak because of the stroke, was unable to give his name or the names of relatives. Men who knew him here identified him, but were unable to give the names of relatives.
    D. M. Lowe came here Sunday morning and identified the man as the brother who had been missing for 26 years.
    Lucian Lowe was taken to Ashland, where it is said he is improving in health rapidly.
    And again, the Lowe brothers, inseparable companions in their youth, are united.
Siskiyou News, Yreka, December 10, 1925, page 10


    Funeral services for Mrs. D. M. Lowe, who died Friday at her home in East Ashland, were held at  Litwiller's Mortuary Monday afternoon at Ashland. Interment was in the family plot.
    She was born July 16, 1869, near Trenton, Mo., where she lived until she was married to D. M. Lowe July 29, 1888. They moved to Eastern Oregon early in her married life, then to California, where she was active in church and community organizations.
    In 1909 Mrs. Lowe and her family moved to Ashland and bought a farm in the Valley View district. In a short time the old Myer ranch was purchased, where the family lived until 1934.
    During the residence of the family in the Valley View district Mr. and Mrs. Lowe represented the Ashland and Medford localities at county, state and national fairs where they were outstanding exhibitors, winning many silver cups, trophies and first ribbons. Mrs. Lowe's superior canned fruit contributed largely to this success.
    For a time the family resided near the fair grounds in Medford, and during this time Mrs. Lowe served the Pythian Sisters as their most excellent chief. She has been active in the Order of the Eastern Star in Ashland and the Daughters of the Nile in Medford.
    Mrs. Lowe is survived by her husband, D. M. Lowe, and three sons, Jewell D. Lowe and Chief Petty Officer L. Don Lowe, now serving the navy in the South Pacific, both of Ashland; George K. Lowe, Eugene, Ore.; a daughter, Mrs. Carl Andersson, Long Beach; a sister, Mrs. Emma Gentry, Bolivar, Mo. Three grandchildren, Jacqueline Donne Lowe, David Lowe, and Mrs. Carlin Andersson Rau, Long Beach, and a great-grandson, Mrs. Lowe's namesake, Martin Rau.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 5, 1944, page 10


    Ashland--David Marion Lowe, 94, of 1919 Eagle Mills Rd., Ashland, died Tuesday.
    He was born Sept. 8, 1864, in Chillicothe, Mo., the son of John and Mary Lowe. He came to Southern Oregon in 1909 from Hopland, Calif. and was a rancher and orchardist here.
    Mr. Lowe was active in the Jackson County and Oregon State fairs between 1915 and 1935.
    Survivors include Jewell Lowe and L. Don Lowe, both of Ashland; Mrs. Hazel J. Andersson, Long Beach, Calif., George K. Lowe, Eugene; three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
    Mr. Lowe's wife died in 1944, and a son, Lucian, died when he was three years old.
    He was a member of the Ashland AF and AM lodge and the Knights of Pythias, Medford.
    Funeral services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Litwiller's Mtn. View chapel. The Ashland Masonic lodge will officiate. Interment will be in Mtn. View cemetery.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 14, 1958, page 9


    ASHLAND, Ore.--(AP)--Don Lowe is 102, but his memory of the great San Francisco earthquake is painfully clear.
    "I can still remember the streets of Frisco terribly broken up and dead bodies and stuff lying around," Lowe told the Medford Mail Tribune. "It was a real bad time."
    Lowe is one of the few surviving witnesses of the massive earthquake and fire that killed 700 people 94 years ago Tuesday--on April 18, 1906.
    On that day, Lowe was 8 years old and with his father, D. M. Lowe. They had come the previous day by train from their farm near Ukiah, Calif. In town to sell horses, they were staying at the Palace Hotel. They were sleeping in their room on the third floor when the earthquake struck at 5:13 a.m.
    "It rolled me right out of bed," he said. "Dad didn't get knocked out. But we got right out of there. Dad was a solid man. He didn't frighten much. But it was scary. He got right out of that building."
    The city burned for three days before the fires were put out. When the smoke finally cleared, nearly 500 blocks of buildings were leveled by the combination of quake, fire and dynamite used to create a fire line.
    Born Oct. 30, 1897, in Hopland, Calif., near Ukiah, Lowe often traveled with his father, who sold and bought horses and cattle. A former logger who retired as an electrician from the city of Ashland, Don Lowe moved to Ashland with his parents in 1909.
    Although he uses a hearing aid, his health remains strong, and so do his ties to that unforgettable morning.
    "My wife and I stayed in the Palace Hotel later and tried to get the same room my dad and I stayed in, but we couldn't," he said. "It had been completely remodeled."
    His wife, Jacqueline, died in 1993. They had been married more than 70 years.
    The hotel, although damaged, was one of the few buildings left standing after the quake. Other buildings close to the hotel were destroyed, Lowe said.
    "There was very little movement--a few wagons," he said of the scene outside. "There were a lot of people on the street, getting out of the buildings. We could still see buildings shaking. There were aftershocks, even three or four hours later."
    The bigger danger was from the fires.
    "It was the fires that Dad was getting away from, mostly," he said. "There was big cracks all over. People had fallen in them. There was a lot of people killed, a lot of people hurt."
    Initially, his dad tried to get them a boat ride north across the bay.
    "We couldn't make it," Lowe said. "All the docks were in such bad shape. What few boats there were, why, the police and so forth had them…trying to save lives."
    They started walking south, heading to the nearest train station.
    It took the Lowes four days to reach their home in Ukiah, thankful to have survived the deadly earthquake.
    "I never been in one since," he said. "But, yep, that was plenty."
The Columbian, Vancouver, Washington, April 20, 2000, page 5
Last revised June 12, 2025