A speaker at the "bread-and-butter" meeting in Jacksonville on Saturday last made a statement that we cannot allow to pass unnoticed. He declared that when the Republican Party in this county went out of power the county was deeply in debt, and county warrants worth only thirty-five cents on the dollar. The reverse is exactly the case, and we dare any man to disprove it. When the Republican Party of Jackson County came into power in 1862 the county was sixteen thousand dollars in debt, and its warrants selling as low as thirty cents. In 1866, when the "bread-and-butter" Democracy assumed the control of the county, not a single dollar was owing; there was money in the treasury, and scrip was payable on presentation. These are actual facts, well known by every citizen who has been a resident of this county since 1862. They are proved by the official exhibits of the county, and any person who can stand before the people and make such a false statement as was made on the occasion referred to must either be very ignorant, very unscrupulous, or have a wonderful degree of effrontery.
    Now we ask: What have the "bread-and-butter" administrations done for the county? How have they lightened the burdens of the people? Let us see. From the organization of the county in 1852, to the present time, nearly four hundred thousand dollars have been taken from the pockets of the people in the form of taxes. Where has this immense sum gone? How has it been applied? Look at our county buildings. A court house scarcely fit for a barn, a jail somewhat like a "spring house" on a first-class Pennsylvania farm, and a dingy and dilapidated building in which are the Clerk and Sheriff's offices, comprise them. Look round at our roads and bridges. Start out to California, and it is over a toll road. Travel northward, and you pay toll at the crossing of Rogue River. Go east, and a ferry on the same stream compels you to put your hand in your pocket again. Westward, you are stopped by Applegate, which at times is impassable for want of a bridge. How many head of stock have been stolen since the organization of the county without the thieves being punished? Facts are stubborn things, and if the people of this county will look around and ask themselves how the taxes have been applied, they will fail to find any answer. The people of this county pay a heavy sum annually for hospital purposes. How are the sick poor provided for? In nearly every instance by charitable contributions. It is not a month since a collection was taken up to aid a sick miner and enable him to go to San Francisco for medical assistance. It is notorious that the county hospital has been so badly conducted that it is the dread of our sick poor, and a disgrace to a civilized community; and if people pay a tax for its support, they have a right to demand that it be expended to some purpose. Be it understood that we do not charge fraud on any person, but say that a thorough and searching reform is needed in the administration of our county affairs; and we presume the people care more for light taxes and security for life and property than they do for the success of political wire-pullers.

Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, May 23, 1868, page 2


    On my travels north after leaving Yreka, the next and last place of note before crossing the line into Oregon is the little mining town of Cottonwood, situated twenty-two miles from Yreka, and six miles north of the foot of the Siskiyou Mountains, on a creek of that name, and near where it empties into the Klamath River. Nearly all the miners here have families, cottages, and small tracts of land, on which they spend much of their time in gardening.
    The gold in this district is coarse in size and fine in quality. Nowhere in the vicinity can you fail to obtain a good prospect with the pan, though water is scarce the year round. At the time I was there first some miners were prospecting for the blue lead, and had already gone some fifty feet through rock and expected to have to go one hundred feet further before striking it. On my return I was informed that the company were getting well paid for their trouble, they having already struck a prospect of $20 to the pan.
    The bed of the Klamath River yields well, as a company that worked a portion of the river last fall found out, and now several other companies are making the necessary arrangements to go to work this season.
Daily Alta California, San Francisco, June 18, 1868, page 1

    They who go as pioneers into a new country and labor patiently for its improvement and development--who, though beset with difficulties, never lose faith in the future, and who, while working for the present, feels that in founding a community and establishing it in prosperity and correct principles, they are also working for all time to come--such men are our truest heroes. To act this part well requires large faith, broad aims, a catholicity of sentiments and principles, and a patience satisfied to look at the aggregate results of the efforts of twenty years, rather than a disposition to form a hasty judgment of success or failure, based on the limited observations and experiences of a day or a year. To plant the seeds of a community and wait for them to grow and bear fruit calls for the exercise of all the faith and philosophy there is in man. The highest exercise of this faith was manifested in the settlement of this western continent by our ancestors, two and a half centuries ago; and ever since, as rapidly as attempts have been made to establish new communities in the march across the continent, the same qualities have been called more or less into play.
    There are said to be evidences that the American continent was first  peopled by a general movement from north to south. This earliest American migration seems to have been impelled by a fixed law which in the early ages controlled the movements and guided the destiny of the race. The same phenomenon was witnessed in the great migration from the east of Asia to the western shores of Europe, fifteen hundred years ago. Movements like these belong to a certain stage or period in the progress of mankind. But the last "American migration" is something totally different. The great movement for the settlement and subjection of the American continent, which has been making for the last two hundred years, is directed by ideas. It does not spring from obedience to a blind instinct, but is an effort of modern civilization.
    The men who laid the foundations of a community in Oregon, who have labored to give it stability and character, who conceived and have been identified with all the progress the state has made both in material prosperity and moral ideas, have possessed in large degree this modern spirit, and have signalized it by patient working. The disadvantages they have been compelled to meet have been many, but the most considerable of them have been overcome. As a community we have now reached a point whence we must go forward with greatly accelerated speed. Let no casual observer assert that our people are indolent and indisposed to exert themselves to build up the general prosperity. They have done what they could. Let the circumstances be considered, the sparseness of our population and the extent of country over which it is spread, our remoteness of situation, the difficulty of communicating with the world at large as well as with each other, the cost in time and money of getting here, and the fact that other portions of the country, as Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota, lying within comparatively easy reach of the increasing population of the East, have absorbed most of the emigration towards the West--let all these things be considered, and it must be admitted that the advancement which Oregon has made has been, under the circumstances, quite surprising.
    The conviction is growing that better things are immediately before us. The Pacific Coast is quickening with new energy, and Oregon feels the impulse. The Pacific railroad will soon begin to pour a population across the continent, and Oregon shall be ready to meet and receive the incoming tide. Naturally, the people of the southern part of the state want a chance with the rest. The scheme in which they take a most lively interest is the proposition for
forming a junction with the Central Pacific, crossing the Cascade Mountains in the vicinity of the California line, traversing Rogue River and Umpqua valleys, and forming a connection with the Willamette. This is the proposition submitted in Mallory's bill asking for a subsidy, now before Congress, and recent information from Washington, received in this quarter, inspires a hope here of its passage at an early period of the next session. It is claimed that the Cascade Mountains may be crossed by this route as easily, if not more easily, than by the middle fork of the Willamette; and certainly if the thing is practicable the connection should be made by a route which will accommodate Southern Oregon. A surveying party is now out in the Cascade Mountains east of this place with a design of making more [of] the rough observations of their nature than were ever made before. It is proposed to demonstrate the fact this summer that the mountains in this quarter are actually pervious to a railroad. Another great problem to be demonstrated is the existence of an easier route than has yet been surveyed through the hills and mountains between the Umpqua and Rogue River valleys. It is confidently believed that a better route can be found than that traced in the United States Railroad Surveys.
    This place seems to be steadily flourishing and present an appearance of freshness and thrift not equalled by many of our Oregon towns. Stocks of merchandise here are certainly larger and better than any to be found south of Salem. Imported goods of every description, including agricultural and mining implements, are hauled from Crescent City (Cal.), a distance of one hundred and twenty miles. The road is a mountainous one, and every pound of freight hauled over it to Jacksonville costs three and a half cents. This is the price at present, though it is sometimes higher. From San Francisco to Crescent City freight costs ten dollars per ton, so that by the time goods reach here they have paid a tariff of eighty dollars on the ton. A people who have to struggle with such [a] disadvantage must have many circumstances in their favor to counterbalance them. These the people of Jackson County seem to possess, for it is certain that no portion of the state shows better evidences of prosperity.
    The southern part of the state still derives great advantage from its mines and gold. These extend over a large section, and though few rich and extensive strikes are made, the aggregate amount of gold produced each year is very considerable. This keeps the "circulating medium" in this quarter of the state comparatively abundant. Of course many mines are entirely worked out, and in many other places work is suspended on account of scarcity of water, but when water can be obtained the miners are still delving away. Chinese are working over many old diggings, and along the bars of Rogue River these people may be seen in numerous places employing their patient industry in washing out the gold which white labor has neglected as too small pay. In some places they have large wheels constructed, driven by the current, for raising water for their sluices. It will be many years before the placer mines of Southern Oregon are exhausted, and after a while many localities will be worked with profit which will not now afford sufficient pay. It is expected also that the quartz interests of the southern counties will eventually have great importance.
    For the products of agriculture there is a fair market in Jackson County--quite as good in fact as in any part of the state. The supply required by the mines is a considerable item. For some time past the government demand for flour and grain at Fort Klamath has called for no small portion of the products of this valley. Flour is also sent from here into Northern California. Some of the best-improved farms in Oregon lie in Jackson County, and their owners are doing fully as well as any farmers in Vermont.
    The harvest is about ended here, and the yield is large. On the whole, this is probably the most productive season Oregon has ever known.
    The way the temperature rises here in an August afternoon is decidedly uncomfortable to contemplate, yet it is not so hot how by several degrees as it was some days ago. It is not an unusual thing for the mercury to rise about 100 deg., and last Sunday it was 110 in the shade in this town. In the coolest place that could be found the thermometer indicated 102 deg. Yet it is observable that the heat seems less oppressive in these parts than in many others where the thermometer indicates a temperature lower by ten or fifteen degrees. The air is less sultry, and seems less close and stagnant. Its elasticity is such that the hottest days do not produce the feebleness and languor which are experienced in many localities.
is Ashland, sixteen miles from Jacksonville, on the stage road. Quite a number of buildings are going up at that place this summer, and the woolen mill, which is expected to be an interest of great value to this part of the state, will, ere long, be in operation. A portion of the machinery has already arrived, and the rest will come without delay. The building is now ready for the machinery. The manufacture in Southern Oregon of a large and important class of goods which have heretofore been imported at high prices will be a great point gained.
    The disgust which prevails among the "Democracy" on account of the action of the New York Convention is painful to see. Of course all, or nearly all, of them "can eat crow" and vote for Seymour and Blair, and nine-tenths of these would as soon be one as the other. Every Republican who meets a Democrat is loud in his praises of Seymour's gold-paying policy and Frank Blair's war record. Blair is especially commended for his prompt action in clearing Missouri of "Democrats," for firing upon a promiscuous crowd in St. Louis in 1861, for offering a resolution in Congress to expel Clark, a Democratic member from Missouri, for the conflagrations of rebel property which he caused when "marching through Georgia," etc., etc. All these things are wormwood to the "unterrified," and many are the deep-drawn d--ns which escape the barrier of their teeth. But the dilatability of the Democratic esophagus is wonderful, and before the close of the campaign most of them will be seen devouring "crow" with astonishing voracity. But there are some who cannot do it, and the Republicans of this county have assurances that quite a number who voted "Democratic" in June will vote for Grant and Colfax.
Oregonian, Portland, August 8, 1868, page 2


    The facilities for travel afforded by the daily stage line from Portland to Sacramento are a vast improvement upon the old times, when we had to go pounding along trails on cayuses, fortunate if we could make forty miles a day. The Oregon traveler is forever done with the jerky gait of the cayuse, and may now pass over the principal thoroughfare of the state, from the northern to the southern boundary in sixty hours, hardly feeling the tedium of the trip. The stage line is admirably organized and efficiently managed; the roads are as good as they can be, and the company put the mails, express and travelers through in just about the shortest time and best style in which that thing can be done. The state, throughout its whole length, derives very great advantages from this line. It is about the only means by which anything like a general circulation is kept up among the people of Western Oregon.
    Undoubtedly the time will come when this part of the state will have advantages equal to those possessed by any other; for nature here has done her share, and is only waiting for the industry of man to do the rest. Though this valley may appear to be somewhat remotely situated, its isolation is no more complete than portions of Willamette. A fair degree of activity is observable in several parts of Douglas County. This town (Oakland) is really a thriving place. Great improvements have been made here during the past year, and all the people of the town seem to have something to do, and to be doing it. Roseburg also wears a healthy look. These places are about equal in size, and there is a contest between them for metropolitan honors. This rivalry is further stimulated by a proposition which is on foot to divide Douglas County. Oakland is in favor of division, and Roseburg opposes. The former wants to be the county seat of the new county, while the latter fears that in case the division is made, leaving Roseburg near the edge of the county, the seat of government will be transferred to Myrtle Creek or some other place more centrally located than Roseburg. The proposition seems to be to divide the county by the north branch of the Umpqua River to its intersection with the south branch, and from this point follow a line due west to the ocean. The question will be brought before the Legislature at the coming session. It is evident that the county is inconveniently large and that much interest is taken in the matter of dividing it. The friends of division hope to get an act through the Legislature submitting the question to the people to be voted upon.
    As there is no great profit in grain growing in Umpqua, the people have of late years devoted their attention pretty largely to the rearing of stock. Cattle, however, are not now numerous; the failure of grazing accounting for the disappearance of the large herds which were once seen here. But there are large numbers of sheep in the valley, and no part of Oregon seems better adapted to rearing them. Experience in this quarter has shown that there is a good profit in sheep husbandry. There are more good horses in this part of the state than formerly--though the rearing of good horses has never yet received sufficient attention in any part of Oregon. Properly managed, it would be very profitable.
    The production of grapes might be successfully carried on in Southern Oregon. In Rogue River Valley they are said to ripen well, and they may also be grown in Umpqua. In Willamette it is known that they do not always ripen. But experiments have shown that in the southern part of the state they may be counted on as a sure crop. When industry shall search out all the avenues of employment which may be found in Oregon, it is safe to predict that grape-growing in this part of the state will not be neglected.
    Much interest is manifested here in the Bohemia mines. There are numbers who think they certainly have "struck it,'' and there is considerable running to and fro in consequence. There are said to be one hundred men in the mines, and many others are alternately between their homes and the new district. Everybody has "specimens," and there is the usual talk about "feet," "strike," "dip," "wall-rock," etc., etc, with an abundance of scientific disquisitions on the nature, origin, extent and richness of the new quartz field. The assays do certainly show very promising results.
Oregonian, Portland, August 10, 1868, page 2


    From Oakland to Scottsburg by mail. Started at an early hour; driving out "under the opening eyelids of the morn"; tasting what the poets call the fresh, dewy breath of the rising day. Beholding the sun, which a few hours since sank to its bed in ocean, now "repair its drooping head, trick its beams, and flame with new-spangled ore in the forehead of the morning sky." Taking large draughts of an atmosphere whose elastic, vitalizing energy gives new life and causes the blood to
forget its sluggishness and to leap and flow with renewed activity and vigor. Over hills gilded by the beams of the rising sun; across valleys whitened by the hand of Ceres; winding through columnar forests; passing brooks and streamlets which wander under pendant shades with mazy error; coursing along the precipitous banks of a river which tears impatiently through mountain gorges; now slackening the pace so as to linger where the great trees throw their shadows far away upon the road, and now rising upon the crest of a high-climbing hill where the heat of the sun is tempered by breezes from ocean--such was my employment during a day in the forepart of the present month of 1868.
    But it may be as well to quit this attempt at sentiment right here--for unlike the wit of the person in the old play, it is not at all nimble, and does amble well. Mr. Gradgrind's philosophy about facts, however sordid it may be, affords safer grounds to tread on. Let us therefore look about us for something which the world regards as a little more substantial than sentiment about sunshine and breezes and warbling brooks. In short, let us see what we find at Scottsburg. 
    I have before me the first ten numbers of the Umpqua Weekly Gazette, a paper which made its first appearance at Scottsburg, on the 28th of April, 1854. Its publisher was Wm. J. Beggs; its editor, D. J. Lyons. Mr. Beggs, after having been variously employed upon the Oregon press for a number of years, went to California about 1860, where he has since been connected with sundry newspaper enterprises. Mr. Lyons is still a resident of Scottsburg. The Gazette was the first paper published in Oregon south of the Calapooia Mountains. The introductory number contains an appeal to the citizens of Scottsburg to come forward with liberal subscriptions to build a wagon road from their town to Winchester, as this was deemed the measure upon which the prosperity of both places depended. The wagon road was built, but neither town has fulfilled its early promise. Of Winchester, the site only is known; the town, with the exception of the residence of the proprietor, is no more. Scottsburg is a little more fortunate. The town at this time contains about half a dozen families, with one store and one receiving and forwarding warehouse. The great flood of 1860 carried away about thirty buildings on the lower street, the most considerable portion of the town. In the last number of the Overland Monthly we have an account of Klamath City, a town that was and is not. Scottsburg is hardly to be reckoned in the same category, for the place still exists, and as a shipping point has considerable business; but it is not the place which it promised to be in the heyday of its youth fifteen years ago.
    Succeeding numbers of the Umpqua Gazette inform us that the Umpqua River is a very favorable place for the entrance of shipping; that the bar is short and easily passed; that there is a good depth of water in the river and that "although we do not claim the depth of water on the bar which the Columbia has yet we should be unwilling to exchange, and take its twenty-odd miles of dangerous navigation between the outer bar and a harbor for the extra two fathoms." Also, that the "Umpqua should not be placed by the side of the picture" of stranded vessels; "for it is quite exempt from those causes whence result such serious losses of human life." But the Umpqua, though a tolerably safe entrance, did not succeed in establishing its claims as a rival of the Columbia. Yet it was once supposed that there was serious rivalry between the two rivers, and Scottsburg actually contended with Portland for the trade of Oregon. Indeed the Umpqua Gazette did not hesitate to prophesy "that in a few years the T-rail will cover the wagon road, and heavy trains, laden with produce and provisions, will be running from Scottsburg to Portland." It is amusing now to revive these incidents in our history; yet fifteen years hence many of the expectations and enterprises of this time will seem as strange and extravagant as do the pretension which were set up by Scottsburg in 1853-4.
    It ought to be added here that the Umpqua Gazette, which professed such brilliant things for this town, expired after a brief existence of less than one year. The material of the office was taken to Jacksonville, and used to commence the publication of the Sentinel.
    The decline of Scottsburg was owing to the failure of the mines in the Southern part of the then territory, which were supplied through this place, and to the completion of the road from Crescent City to Jacksonville, thus cutting off the remainder of the trade in that quarter. Yreka, Cottonwood, Sailor Diggings and all the mines of that region at one day got their supplies here. Citizens of this place relate that they have known times when pack trains numbering in the aggregate more than one thousand animals have been waiting here for vessels to arrive to give them loads for the interior.
    Yet this place is still a shipping point of considerable importance. All the goods consumed in the valley of the Umpqua are supplied through Scottsburg. Oakland, Roseburg and Canyonville receive their goods by wagon from here, and at this time this forwarding business is going on with considerable activity. A steamer from San Francisco enters the river once a month, bringing merchandise for this trade, and carrying away the products of Umpqua Valley. Wheat, flour, bacon and wool are shipped from this place in considerable quantities; and from Gardiner, a point on the river some miles below, a large amount of lumber, sawn at that place, is sent away. The manufacture of lumber at Gardiner last year amounted to three million feet. Timber in great quantities grows upon the Umpqua River and the tide sloughs about its mouth, and lumbering will long continue to be an important interest here. The valley of this river for a distance of sixty miles from the ocean is in all places quite narrow, never exceeding a couple of miles in width. Bound by difficult mountains which seem in most places quite impervious, and destined for ages to come to defy the efforts of the hand of man to subdue their native wildness, there is little chance here for a community, based on agriculture, to grow and expand. But there may easily be great improvement, and in a few years there doubtless will be. In the valley, within fifteen or twenty miles of this place, are many thousands of acres of land equal to the very best in the state; and though all of it is claimed, a very small part only is cultivated. If flour can be made at Canyonville, ninety miles distant, and hauled here for shipment to California, it could surely be made with profit in the valley a few miles above this place. There is yet no mill in operation this side of Oakland; but this want will soon be supplied by the completion of one new building six miles distant from here. Twenty dollars a ton is now paid for hauling each way between Scottsburg and Oakland, and a little more between Scottsburg and Roseburg. The completion of a railroad from Portland through the upper valley of the Umpqua would cut off the trade in general merchandise through the mouth of this river; yet the lumber and agricultural interests of this quarter will always be considerable enough to keep communication with San Francisco open. Freight is taken from here to San Francisco by steamer for eight dollars per ton. The last steamer took out forty tons of wool and a large lot of bacon--products of the upper valley. Probably a third part of the wool of Umpqua goes to the mills of Willamette; the remainder finds an outlet by this way to San Francisco.
Morning Oregonian, Portland, August 17, 1868, page 2


Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, September 19, 1868, page 1