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Medford in 1884 MEDFORD. A
recently established post office in Jackson County.
page 206 MEDFORD
ITEMS.
It begins
to "look like business" at Medford now
since the cars have reached the place. A large well has been dug to
furnish water for the locomotives, and a windmill has arrived to pump
the water up into the tank which will soon be built. The lumber for the
depot building, all dressed and fitted, was brought up by last
Saturday's train and can be put together in a very short time. The town
has more than a dozen buildings now ready for occupancy, and several in
course of construction. All the sawmills within reasonable (or
unreasonable) distance in the valley have been drawn upon for lumber,
and still there has been obtained only a small proportion of what was
wanted. As soon as lumber is brought up on the cars the building boom
will set in, in earnest.The several proprietors of the town, Messrs. Beekman, Phipps, Mingus and Broback, have divided their lots, each taking an agreed number, to which he has secured full individual title. Thus far lots to the value of about $8000 have been sold. The following list comprises most of the purchasers, although there are a few whose names are not down. Some of them have bought two or more lots each: W. B. Roberts, P. B. O'Neil, S. B. Hadley, Rachel E. Stanley, B. Rostelle, Byers & Jacobs, D. H. Miller, H. C. Mulvany, T. E. Stanley, F. B. Voorhies, Augustus Johnson, Nettie L. Howard, Vrooman & Miller, R. T. McCullough, Wm. Egan, P. McMahon, J. W. Cunningham, James Hamlin, A. L. Johnson, S. L. Dolson, G. Naylor, F. Heber, Wm. Robinson, ---- Robinson, J. C. Slagle, A. A. Raine, Isaac Woolf, Thos. McAndrews, John Wolters, Wm. Angle, J. S. Howard, H. F. Torrey, Mr. Hurt. The lots range from $100 to $500, those in what is considered the business part of town, 25x100 feet are held at $300, and a higher price is asked for the corners. Vrooman & Miller have their store building about finished. It is a fine room, 24x40 with a neat front, which they had made in Portland. One side will be occupied by Dr. Vrooman's Drug Store, and the other by Mr. Miller with a large stock of hardware, stoves and tinware. Mr. Miller will also have a tin shop completely fitted, and has engaged a first-class tinsmith. They will receive 10,000 lbs. of freight from Grants Pass this week, and will be ready for business within a few days. Byers & Jacobs will build a brick block 50x60 and another brick store 20x40. Large piles of brick are already on the ground, having been hauled from Jacksonville. The buildings will be made but one story high at first. Thos. McAndrews promises to burn a large kiln of brick and also put up one or more brick buildings during the coming season. T. E. Stanley and Betterton & Work have the two saloons, have been occupied for some time, as have also the blacksmith shops of Emil Peil and another of whose proprietor [George Crystal] we cannot give the name at this writing. J. S. Howard has the appointment of Notary Public, and is ready to attend to any business pertaining to that office, and also to conveyancing in all its branches. He has done all this work in the transfer of town property thus far. J. S. Howard has his store completed, and a portion of his stock of groceries already in it, with new goods on the way. He will be the postmaster, and it is expected the office will be opened very soon. Egan & McMahon have a fine, roomy livery stable building and barn, and are well prepared for business, having good horses, new buggies and hacks, and a good supply of hay and grain. Mulvany & Slagle are carrying on business at the Railroad Blacksmith shop, and if you want good work done a low prices give them a call. You will find John Slagle at the forge. J. W. Cunningham, of Jacksonville, is building a good sized hotel, and wants to have it ready for a dancing party on Washington's birthday. H. F. Torrey, of Willow Springs, is also building a good sized hotel, and wants to have it ready for a dancing party on Washington's birthday. A. L. Johnson, the real estate agent, has lumber on his lot for an office and will move over from Jacksonville as soon as the building is ready. Wm. Angle has a good sized dwelling house about completed for himself. H. C. Mulvany also has a dwelling house built and in use. S. B. Hadley has a good assortment of merchandise in a temporary store building, and will put up a good, permanent building, 25x40. F. B. Voorhies has his restaurant building completed, and is prepared to furnish the public with good meals at all hours of the day. A. S. Johnson has just finished a building for a meat market, and will begin the butchering business within a few days. Some six or seven wells have been dug in the town, all furnishing good drinking water at a moderate depth. George Howard is clerking in his father's store and F. W. Broback is clerking for Mr. Hadley. Roberts & O'Neil will build on their lots as soon as lumber can be had. Robinson Bros. have their barber shop about ready to move into. F. Heber will put up a wagon or cabinet shop on his lot soon. Ashland Tidings, January 25, 1884, page 4 MEDFORD.--In company with several others we paid a visit to the new town of Medford this week and found considerable activity there in the building line. The lumber for the depot buildings has commenced arriving from the north, and the work of putting it up will be commenced at once. A water tank to be run with windmill power will also be placed here. Among the business men who have got started in business we noticed the following: J. S. Howard, with a stock of general merchandise, and Sam Hadley in the same line of business. McMahon & Egan keep a livery stable there well supplied with livery outfits to go to any part of the country. Two saloons have also opened out there, one kept by Werk & Batterton and the other by T. E. Stanley, both appearing to do a good business. The new building for Vrooman & Miller's drug and hardware store is about finished, and a portion of their stock has already arrived so that they will be ready to commence business in a few days. Besides this there are two blacksmith shops, owned by Slagle & Mulvaney and Geo. W. Crystal, a boarding house by Wm. Angle and a butcher shop and barber shop owned by parties whose names we did not learn. Several other buildings are in course of construction, one being a substantial hotel building owned by Mr. Cunningham of this place. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, January 26, 1884, page 3 MEDFORD ITEMS.-- Things are lively at Medford. The new buildings going up and the trains arriving and departing give an air of briskness and "business" to the place which is something novel for the people of this valley to witness. There are now thirty-six buildings in the town, all new, of course--a pretty good record for three months, with lumber as hard to get as it has been. The windmill for the water tank is nearly completed--the large arms, or wings, are being put on this week. If there is wind enough to turn the mill one day in each week the pump will carry up water enough to keep the engines supplied. F. B. Voorhies has his restaurant and variety store building nicely painted--a great improvement to its appearance. Ashland Tidings, March 7, 1884, page 3 OLD PIONEER OF MEDFORD STOPS HERE
ON VISIT
James M. Hansbrough, former joint representative from Douglas and
Jackson counties and now manager of the Franco American Hotel
at Yreka, is in Medford spending his vacation and renewing old
acquaintances. Although past 70 years of age, and once prominent in
political circles of the state, the part of his life that "Jim" enjoys
most in his reminiscences are the days when he was conductor on the
Southern Pacific line running through Medford from Portland to Ashland.
"The road was completed to Ashland in [1884], the year when I came on," he said. "On the same run was Dennis McCarthy, one of the most popular engineers the Southern Pacific ever knew. He was a big, jovial fellow, and all the kids along the line thought the world of him. He died just a few years back. "I can remember several of the children in the towns along the way, and occasionally meet them now--they're all grown up of course, and some of them have their own families. You see, often their folks would put them on the train, say, in Roseburg and entrust them to my care until they got to maybe Medford or Ashland, where they would visit relatives or friends. "Medford then was nothing more than a couple of tanks here and there, a house or two and perhaps a store. But like the other towns, it had its group of youngsters around the station to watch the train pull in. There was little Billy Isaacs, who now runs the Toggery clothing store, and the little Angle girls, Prudence, who is now Mrs. Hal Platt, Katie, now Mrs. Earl Gaddis and Bernice, now Mrs. Horace Howard. I believe the latter is in California." Mr. Hansbrough stayed with the railroad until 1903, in spite of being elected to the state legislature in 1902. He was succeeded in this office by the late W. I. Vawter. The former conductor is a brother of H. C. Hansbrough, who was the first representative to congress from the state of North Dakota, after which he was elected U.S. senator and held the office for 18 years. Medford Mail Tribune, October 20, 1927, page 3 Jackson County Seat Nears 50th Anniversary
PIONEER REVEALS START Mrs. J. W. Barkdull Tells of Rush for Lumber To Build Homes As Railroad Pushes On. MEDFORD,
Or., April. 28.--(Special.)--When Oregon celebrates her diamond jubilee
here this summer, the city of Medford will observe her golden
anniversary, Mrs. J. W. Barkdull, who was here before the first train
whistled into the flat to give birth to a city, maintains. For it was
50 years ago that Medford got her start.
"You couldn't even get lumber to build houses," the little woman, who has lived in southern Oregon since the day she was born in 1861, recalled yesterday. "The railroad was yet to arrive, but the news of its coming had brought many people into Medford. It was too muddy to haul lumber, and so the people lived in the backs of the stores, which were going up on Front Street to face the railroad tracks, and at the Empire Hotel, the first in the city." It was a two-story frame building, located in what is now the heart of the city, and Mrs. Barkdull's sister-in-law, Mrs. J. W. Cunningham, operated the hostelry. Leading among its guests was the late Dr. E. P. Geary, physician for the railroad. The Barkdulls were fortunate enough to get sufficient lumber to build a small home. It occupied the same lot where the Barkdull business building is now located, and on which Mrs. Barkdull has lived since coming here in 1884. As soon as the neighboring farmers "got their crops in," they all started teaming to bring in the lumber and needed merchandise. The first mail was also brought in by team from Redding, where the railroad stopped. J. S. Howard, the first postmaster, lived in the back of the post office, which also faced the approaching rails. The first school was taught in the Lee Jacobs house, which still stands on South Central Avenue. The same building was used for church when a minister happened along. "But the churches soon came to Medford," Mrs. Barkdull stated yesterday. "The first settlers were all church people, and the first lodge, 'The Good Templars,' was a prohibition organization. "When the first rails were completed into Medford there was a general celebration, and the two trains a day were met with the same festivity which accompanied arrival of the circus. The people all came down to meet the trains and to watch them fill up on water from the windmill, which was a landmark for many years. "The main street of Medford, as it remains today, followed the line fence which divided the Phipps and Broback farms, which preceded the city." [Main Street was near the fence line, but not right on it. See the town plat.] For the benefit of anyone who thinks that Medford hasn't made an important growth during those 50 years, Mrs. Barkdull has preserved a birdseye view of the city which reveals the windmill, the pine trees, the Empire Hotel and the few houses which dotted the railroad tracks. [The view referred to was printed in 1891.] Undated clipping shortly after April 28, 1934, probably from the Portland Oregonian or Portland Journal. Last revised December 21, 2017 |
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