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Medford
in 1910  Medford Mail Tribune, March 24, 1910 My route led me next through the government reclamation project belt, where vast swamps of tule land were being reclaimed by drainage, and the arid lands by irrigation. At the first "city" I stopped "boom" was in the air. In the hotel lobby several old stage drivers sat about, dispossessed and uneasy; they were full of their tales and ready to chat about their forty-odd years of experience in driving stage through this wild land; many of them dated back to the old Oregon-California line before there was a railroad west of the Rockies. An ex-stage driver's readjustment to life is a far more difficult problem than that of our ex-Presidents, because there are so many more of him. All his life he has been boss of the road, a teller of weird tales, a chronicler of hold-up and pitch-over events; his bugle, echoing and re-echoing between the hills, has been the harbinger of news from the great "outside"; for his passing, ranchers, their wives and children, have waited and waved; and his gallant sweep into each town on his route, a triumphal flourish for the thrill of which he would willingly endure untold perils till the day of his death. No man on all his route is so big as he--not even the mayor, or the governor; none is so watched for, so royally entertained. And now here comes the grimy driver of the iron horse, and the stage driver's high- headed, snorting steed must be turned out to pasture; and he must sit about hotel corridors, shining henceforth in the reflected glory of a past ever becoming less consequential to his careless listeners. When the stage driver's occupation goes, there is nothing in all the West to take its place; for there is nothing that can ever give him such state and dignity. I found that these old men, several approaching their three-score and ten, and many of them wealthy, were overjoyed at a chance to take a route away into the mountains, over a rough, lonely road, illy equipped, and with none of the old-time swing and hurrah; nothing was so bad as being left without a route. As I saw into their hearts I found myself hoping that expansion would not be too rapid, that the railroad company would not build its lines too fast into remote sections, and that the old drivers, at least, would have an opportunity to finish life "on the road." There was another tragic aspect to the opening of this vast shut-in section by rail communications with the outside world. Men and women had come in, forty years before, with ox teams, settled on land in a belief that they were to have a railroad, but had grown old hoping against hope for an outlet to the world of markets and people. Time and again the railroad was promised, started, stopped, started and stopped until these early settlers had grown skeptical and grouchy; and now they were too old for it to do them any good; their children or their grandchildren might been fit, but for them the iron horse had puffed in too late. But the younger folks, especially the newcomers, made up for the indifference of the old ranchers. A thriving commercial club kept an eagle eye out for strangers, and I was captured and taken to see everything. City lots were staked out for miles around the town, and farming land in ten- and twenty-acre tracts was ready for the intensive farmer. I was carried, by automobile, with other land lookers all over the great valley, and given an excellent insight into the settlers' opportunities. Each day was spent in a different section of the great project belt. One of the Commercial Club men suggested that I get them out a special booklet for local distribution, at their expense. The same data I was collecting for the railroad company, enlarged upon, would do for them. I readily agreed, wondering why I had not thought of this before. As I was leaving town several of the "live wires" were at the station to see me off--and others on--and one of them remarked, as he told me goodbye. "At Alta they're preparing to get out a lot of advertising matter in the way of pamphlets and folders. Go after 'em right, and I'm sure you can get 'em lined up." I thanked him and made up my mind on the spot that I'd have those contracts or know why. Anne Shannon Monroe, Making a Business Woman, New York 1912, pages 264-267 Oregon's Wonder City
Medford, Supported by Five Hundred Square Miles of Rich Territory, Is a Beehive of Business Activity By C. A. MALBOEUF MEDFORD
is called the "Wonder City." The title is appropriate. It is a city
that does things. The loyalty of its citizens is remarkable. As a
result, Medford is the most active point between Portland and San
Francisco, and, with the exception of Sacramento, the station of
greatest railroad receipts and shipments. It is not a boomtown, but a
substantial, well-built, growing city, supported by a territory rich in
a diversity of natural resources, five hundred square miles in area.
Newcomers alight from the trains at
Medford averaging one for each hour of the day to take up permanent
residence there. This was the record made last year. In 1910, the
increase in population will be greater. One-half of these new arrivals
locate in the city. The other half make their homes throughout the
valley. Nearly all buy orchards. From a quiet country town of
thirty-five hundred people three years ago has sprung a city of nearly
nine thousand people, and the ten thousand mark will be passed before
the end of 1910. The population last New Year's day numbered eight
thousand, an increase of sixty percent in twelve months.
The location of Medford is excellent. It is 329 miles south of Portland, and 443 miles north of San Francisco, on the main line of the Southern Pacific. It is situated in almost the exact center of the Rogue River Valley, which in turn lies in the heart of Jackson County. The elevation is 1,390 feet above sea level, and the Pacific Ocean is seventy-five miles distant on a direct line. The valley at Medford is about ten miles wide, east and west. In Jackson County, it has a total length of thirty-five miles. The area is nearly three hundred square miles. Almost as level and green as a lawn, the valley stretches to the foothills, the latter sloping toward the mountain ranges on all sides. Wealth is apparent in every direction. The valley floor is green and golden with alfalfa and ripening grains and dotted with a vast succession of orchards. It is the exception to see grass in a commercial orchard growing between the symmetrical rows of trees, which are carefully and scientifically pruned. The mountainsides and tops are thickly covered with fir and pine forests, and the outcropping of coal, lime, copper and other minerals tells of hidden riches. From parts of the valley the eye looks upon ten billion feet of merchantable timber. If all the orchards with the same range of vision were under one fence, they would represent a solid block of one hundred square miles. The city is delightful. The main business and residence streets are paved with asphalt, and twelve miles more of the latter will be laid in 1910. Ten miles of cement sidewalks will be augmented by twenty more this year. The business blocks are of brick and stone. The brick is made locally, and inexhaustible supplies of the finest grade of granite are in the hills close by. The Medford homes are as fine as can be found in any city of similar size. By reason of its recent growth, few buildings are seen that are not up to date. The true type of bungalow prevails, but there are many handsome colonial residences, and a number of them represent the expenditure of more than $10,000 each. The three public schools are substantial structures of brick, and the course of teaching is quite complete. It includes manual training and domestic science, which branches are usually confined to the schools in larger cities. A new school building is needed each year to accommodate the increasing number of pupils. A six-story brick hotel is under construction. Another one of five stories is being erected. The largest passenger station in the Pacific Northwest, outside of those in cities upward of fifty thousand people, is being built by the Southern Pacific. One of the largest natatoriums in the United States will be open to the public this fall. An opera house pretentious enough for a Class A city is to be erected. In every direction business houses and residences are going up. Two and one-half millions were spent in 1909 for building materials. Five million dollars are being expended this year for the same purpose. Hotels, apartment houses and dwellings are crowded to overflowing and tents are now being provided to take care of the unprecedented rush of newcomers. Financial conditions are sound. The four banks have deposits of over $2,000,000, which increased fifty percent in 1909. Postal receipts increased thirty-five percent that year. The Medford spirit is proverbial. The people seem to get what they want. A new water system was needed, and the result is that one costing $450,000 has been constructed, furnishing a supply of water sufficient for a city of twenty-five thousand. The city has a good sewer system. Two telephone systems are required to satisfy the metropolitan ideas of Medford. It is said that Medford has more motorcars, cash registers and typewriters per capita than any city in the United States. Today over 325 autos serve their nine thousand people, or one for every twenty-eight persons. The climate scores a strong point, too, by permitting them to do so every month in the year. There is an up-to-date daily newspaper in Medford with a circulation of more than twenty-five hundred. It has complete telegraphic news, and is one of the strongest editorial papers in Oregon. Nothing seems to daunt these people. For instance, Medford is the natural gateway to Crater Lake, one of the world's greatest geological wonders. It is eighty miles distant, and the route leads through some of the finest mountain and river scenery on the continent. The United States government recognized the scenic value and beauty of Crater Lake some years ago and created it a national park, in conjunction with the surrounding section. The accessibility of this great national wonder to the public, by good wagon and auto roads, will be of benefit not only to Medford and the state of Oregon, but to the entire Pacific Coast. The legislature of Oregon recently appropriated $100,000 for preliminary work on a suitable highway to the lake. Unfortunately this action was not upheld by the Supreme Court, but the Medford people did not abandon the project. They said the road must be built, and it will be. They are raising the money themselves, and the success they are making is most pronounced. Nearly $100 a minute was the result of their first hour's effort. The city has eleven churches and twenty-four lodges. There is a large park in the heart of the residence district. The Commercial Club is one of the city's strongest features. Each member is a thoroughly lubricated boosting machine, with brain and brawn as the propelling power. The teamwork of the organization is remarkable and its publicity work is wonderfully successful. Hundreds of thousands of people have learned of the Rogue River Valley and its great opportunities through the untiring efforts of the Medford Commercial Club. A look at the situation fully justifies Medford's aspirations to greatness. The best of conditions go to make apple and pear-growing successful. The climate is superb. It rains just enough--twenty-two inches a year, a trifle over two inches a month, distributed over nine months. There is, therefore, neither flood nor drought. The summer showers insure crops every year in abundance, and remove the necessity for irrigation. This is not an irrigated district, the rainfall and natural conservation of moisture in the soil being sufficient for the proper and perfect cultivation of fruits. Alfalfa, likewise, grows without irrigation for the same reason. The surrounding mountains form a complete rim, leaving the valley like a saucer in the center, and giving needed protection against high winds. The altitude of thirteen hundred feet, which is the average in the valley, and the clear atmosphere, temper the climate in winter and summer. The thermometer tries to climb up in summer, but seldom reaches one hundred degrees, and then the heat is modified at least twenty degrees by the rarefied air. In winter it gets down to thirty degrees above, and sometimes to twenty degrees above, but never lower. Zero and the Rogue River Valley are total strangers. The average annual temperature is fifty-five degrees above. The mild frosts of winter and spring are as invaluable as the elevation, the moisture or the quality of the soil. No fruit-growing section can survive without its frosts, but the latest period of so-called killing frosts is so early here as to render the fruit practically immune against danger. Climatic conditions give the fruit a growing season of forty-odd days longer than many other fruit districts on the continent. This admits of perfect growth, maturity and color, and the keeping quality thus obtained renders possible long-distance shipments. As a place of residence this section is unsurpassed. The climate stands foremost in that respect, while the splendid landscape, the mountains and waterways complete the charm. The Rogue River has been aptly described by an ardent lover of nature as the "Enchanted Valley." Watercourses flow through the valley in many directions. All join the Rogue River, which is a beautiful mountain stream, discharging into the Pacific Ocean. The power back of these streams is tremendous. Within forty miles of Medford the principal falls and cataracts provide power equal to that of over 425,000 horses. The Rogue River alone has far greater power than Niagara. Water is plentiful for all uses. There is more than sufficient to irrigate the whole valley, and some projects of magnitude are now being carried out, which, when completed, will reclaim thousands of acres of hillside and tablelands. About seventy percent of the entire number of trees planted consist of apples, and thirty percent pears. Seven of the best varieties of pears are represented. Of the apples, nearly ninety percent are the yellow Newtowns and the Spitzenbergs. The former is the favorite English apple, and the Spitzenberg is the big red apple so much in demand in the American market. All the Newtowns go to London, and the Spitzenbergs to New York, while the pears go to Chicago and the larger cities East. Indeed some of the pears go to Europe, and growers do not know of any case on record where the condition on arrival at destination was not perfect. The unsurpassed quality of the Rogue River fruit insures the permanency of the industry. Growers smile at the idea of overproduction. The constantly increasing demand for high-class fruit will never be fully taken care of by the limited acreage that is capable of producing it. Thirteen years ago the apple production of the United States consisted of 300,000 cars. In 1908, it was 100,000. It steadily decreased every year. During the same period the prices of Rogue River apples and pears correspondingly increased, and each year a market record of prices was created. How many apples of the 300,000 cars of 1905 or the 100,000 cars of 1908 brought $7 a box weighing fifty pounds in New York and London? What other section produced pears which sold for $10 a box in New York City? The entire Union is a market for high-class fruit and yet the present supply cannot meet New York's demands alone. The argument seems convincing, and the planting goes on continually. The production of these orchards is astonishing. Think of a carload of pears selling in New York City for over $4,600 in 1907, the year of the last panic! This is the world's record for an entire car of fresh fruit. Montreal paid $5.05 a box for a carload of pears. A single pear tree produced $225 worth of fruit. Another acre of pears, $2,250. Sixteen acres of pears yielded the grower $19,000. Newtown apples netted $2,000 an acre. One orchard has netted an average of $800 an acre for seven years. An acre of six-year-old apple trees netted over $700. A car of Spitzenberg apples netted the grower $5 a box in 1909. Forty cars of pears from forty-eight acres netted $40,000. Medford people take great pride in their fruit records. They delight in telling of the marvelous prices paid in New York and London and of the premiums earned by the fruit wherever it has been exhibited. The carrying off by one of the orchardists of the new famous sweepstakes prize, with the title of Apple King of the World, at the Spokane National Apple Show in 1909, was an achievement of which any community might well be proud. It represented the highest ideal in apple culture, and the prize was awarded to an entire carload of Spitzenbergs, which eventually went to Washington, D.C., and paid the growers $5 a box at the shipping point. Attention is called to other resources of the valley. Vegetables grow luxuriantly. A yield of $1,750 an acre a year from onions is authenticated. Two crops of strawberries are produced each year. Grapes, cherries, prunes, apricots and berries grow in the same profusion, but these industries are only starting. The flame tokay, the finest grape product of the fertile hillside lands, will in a few years set the eastern markets ablaze with its brilliant color and great size. These grapes, and other varieties, including the Malaga, pay the growers $250 to $400 net an acre each year. Four cuttings of alfalfa a year from non-irrigated lands yield a profit of $40 to $60 to the acre. Fifteen dollars a ton is a common price for it, and the demand is increasing. Capital is taking active part in the work of development. Electric interurban lines are projected. The Pacific & Eastern, a modern standard steam railway line, is under construction from Medford into the great timber belts, thirty miles to the east, and will be in full operation in the near future. The opening of this vast forest will be of great benefit, and add largely to the industrial progress of Medford. Huge sawmills are projected. It will soon require one thousand cars of box material alone to pack the annual crops of apples and pears. The valley cities tributary to Medford consume thirty million feet of timber annually, and over twenty-five thousand cords of wood. All of this traffic must move to or through Medford. California and Nevada must have their supplies of fir and pine timber. The eastern markets are limitless in their demands. Not less than twenty-five billion feet of timber within fifty miles of Medford are awaiting the ax and the steam donkey. Forty years will be required to log this immense stumpage, and it will take the combined labor of fifteen hundred men working ten hours a day to do it. The headquarters of these men will be Medford and it will of itself mean an additional population of seventy-five hundred. Coal mines, copper properties and other industries are being developed, the power of the mighty rivers is being harnessed, and activity is the order of the day. The great fruit industry, upon which Medford is built, will only play a trifling part in the industrial work when all the wheels of commerce start in earnest here. Sunset Magazine, November 1910, pages 585-588 Questions and Answers
Where is the Rogue River Valley?
Answer.--The Rogue River Valley is in southwestern Oregon, near the California line, with the gold-laden Siskiyou Mountains on the south, the timbered Cascade Range on the east with the beautiful Umpqua Divide on the north. ----
How large
is it?Ans.--The Rogue River Valley proper contains about 1500 square miles. ----
What is
the population of Medford?Ans.--Medford has about 9000 people, almost all of whom are Americans. ----
Name a few
of its prominent features.Ans.--Medford is on the main line of the Southern Pacific railroad, about half way between Portland and San Francisco. It is the chief distributing point of the Rogue River Valley, containing approximately 50,000 people. It is the western terminus of the Pacific and Eastern Railroad, which will connect with the road now being built through Central Oregon by the Hill interests. This line will tap about 8 million feet of merchantable timber. Medford is also the eastern terminus of the Rogue River Valley Railroad, which at present connects it with Jacksonville, the county seat of Jackson County, and which will be at once extended to the famous Blue Ledge copper district. It is the center of an elaborate trolley system which will be built this year bringing every resident of the valley into close touch with Medford. Franchises have all been granted for this line. Medford has four banks with deposits of about two and one-half millions. It has more than 13 miles of paved streets. It boasts of a magnificent, pure mountain water system with nearly 40 miles of mains; a complete and up-to-the-minute sewer system; miles and miles of cement sidewalks; electric lights; a gas plant is at present being installed; one of the finest natatoriums to be found anywhere; two laundries; a theatre at which are seen the best attractions coming to the Pacific coast; it is the second largest railroad shipping point in Oregon; has a new $50,000 passenger depot; has modern brick and stone business blocks; has the largest and most active commercial body in Oregon outside of Portland; a low tax rate; a death rate less than 6 per 1000; a daily newspaper; a fine weekly and several monthly publications; an excellent school system with modern brick school buildings; a public library; a city park; churches of all the leading denominations; the best hotels and grill rooms between Portland and San Francisco, with two new five-story hotels to be built this year at a cost of $100,000 each; all fraternal organizations represented by strong lodges; more automobiles than any city of its size on earth--one to every 30 inhabitants; department stores and shops that would be a credit to a city ten times the population of Medford; has a well-organized police force and a thoroughly equipped fire department; in fact, Medford people enjoy health, wealth and happiness and live in the best-watered, -sewered and -paved city in America. It has lumber mills, box, sash and door factories, machine shops, furniture factory, ice plant, coal mines, gold mines, copper mines, platinum mines, brick and tile works, and everything else needed for a self-supporting community. ----
Anything
else?Ans.--Yes, we have climate and the finest climate in the United States, with a summer temperature of from 70 to 100 degrees during the daytime, which falls to 60 to 70 degrees every night. Heat is never oppressive owing to the absence of humidity. In winter the thermometer seldom if ever gets below 20 degrees above zero. The average annual rainfall is 21 inches, coming chiefly in November, December, January and February with frequent summer showers. Spring opens usually in February, but farmers plow throughout the entire winter. ----
Is that
all?Ans.--Not by any means! We grow every conceivable product that can be grown in the temperate zone and grow it to perfection. ----
How about
fruit, grain and vegetables?Ans.--The best and highest priced deciduous fruits grown in America are grown here in abundance. Apples, chiefly Newtowns and Spitzenbergs, received the highest award at the last National Apple Show in competition with those of every section of the United States. The United States Department of Agriculture is on record as saying that as a pear-producing section, the Rogue River Valley stands in a class by itself. The best pears grown anywhere are raised here, and they stand shipping better than all others. Peaches, cherries, plums, prunes, apricots, almonds, English walnuts, grapes, berries of every description, and many other fruits are most successfully grown. Corn, oats, wheat, vetch, alfalfa, celery, tomatoes, melons, cucumbers and all grains and vegetables thrive as well. ----
Nothing
else?Ans.--Yes, we have good society--the class of people you want your sons and daughters to associate with; the kind you will enjoy. ----
How is the
hunting and fishing?Ans.--It is justly famed as one of the really great hunting and fishing grounds in the United States. Within a few hours' ride by automobile you can find bear, deer, cougars and wildcats, and the average hunter can take in one day the two deer allowed by law. While the mountain streams are all abundantly stocked with the speckled trout, cutthroat and for your "dyed in the wool" angler, the Rogue River steelhead (rainbow trout). These fish may be taken on a fly any month in the year. Chinook salmon, weighing as high as 40 pounds, may be taken on a spoon, and a battle with one of them would afford ample training for an athlete. In addition the valley abounds in small game such as wild geese, duck, grouse, China pheasant, mountain quail, valley quail, snipe, squirrel and rabbit. Surely a paradise for the sportsman! Crater Lake, an ancient crater in Mt. Mazama filled with clear, pure water of unknown depth, is situated in the new Crater Lake National Park and annually visited by tourists from all parts of the world. The Marble Halls of Oregon consisting of caves far greater in extent and of more wonderful construction than the famous Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, extend for many miles under the mountains and are easiest reached from Medford. ----
Anything
you don't have?Ans.--There are no cyclones, nor hard winds, earthquakes, sandstorms, mosquitoes or pests that annoy, contagious diseases or pulmonary troubles. ----
How about
the price of land?Ans.--First-class fruit land ready for planting, within a few miles of Medford, can be purchased from $250 to $500 per acre. Farther out, but still on the main highways, it can be had at from $50 to $100 per acre. Bearing orchards are worth from $800 to $2300 per acre, the latter price having recently been paid for a choice tract without buildings or other improvements. ----
Can fruit
be raised at a profit on such high-priced land?Ans.--Apples have made yearly returns of $2100 per acre. Pears $1244 per acre. An entire carload of Rogue River Valley pears sold in New York in 1909 at 6½ cents [sic] per pear. Another carload lot sold in London last year at $10.08 per box. Peaches net $500 per acre. Other fruits do equally as well. ----
Can these
figures be verified?Ans.--They can and will be, if you so desire, by any bank in Medford. Henry J. Finck in Scribner's magazine for February says: "I was in Oregon 71 days last summer, and if I could have regulated the thermometer to suit myself I should not have touched it three times. A night's sleep in Oregon is worth a week's vacation in the East." On those three occasions he must have been in some other section of the state. "I have examined and studied all the fruit regions of the United States, Southern Canada and Northern Mexico, as well as the principal fruit regions of Europe, and I can truthfully say that nowhere in the world are conditions so favorable for fruit as in the Rogue River Valley. It is the most perfect fruit belt in the world."--states Prof. P. J. O'Gara, pathologist of the Department of Agriculture in charge of government field work on the Pacific coast. And his opinion is amply justified by the practical results obtained. Any fruiterer in New York, Chicago, London, Eng., or other large market will says, "The 'top' comes from Rogue River Valley." Finally--the Rogue Valley is a land of superlatives; it can be justly described in no other manner. When we say our fruit is the best in the world we mean it--not anything less. We say we have the best of everything that is good for man and mean that just as emphatically. We want you to believe it too, but realize that you can't do it until you see for yourself. If you were positive that what we have said was true, you would come to stay, wouldn't you? Yes. You can come prepared to stay then, for it is all true and more. Medford Saturday Review, June 11, 1910, page 2 A WORD WITH THE VISITORS
Medford, with a population of 9000, is the commercial metropolis of
southern Oregon and northern California. It is surrounded by more
natural resources than any place in the West. It has the most
enterprising and progressive class of citizens, the largest per capita
of wealth, and more municipal improvements than any city of its size in
the country.
Medford has three miles of paved streets, and contracts have been let for paving ten miles more. It is completing a half million dollar gravity water system, bringing pure mountain water 20 miles to supply a city of 25,000 population. It has over 25 miles of cast iron mains in its distributing system and 20 miles of sewer system constructed and under construction. Medford is the best one-night theater stand on the coast, and enjoys most of the leading productions, including grand opera. Three hundred and fifty automobiles are owned here, more than in any city in the world of its population. Medford's bank deposits exceed $2,500,000, and are increasing at the rate of 50 percent annually; and postal receipts are increasing at the rate of 44 percent. Real estate transfers have totaled two and a half millions since the first of the year. More desirable homeseekers are coming here than to any other part of Oregon. Medford is the largest fruit shipping point in Oregon, and its freight and passenger business exceed that of any station on the Harriman lines in the state except Portland. The Pacific & Eastern is employing a thousand men in constructing a railroad from Medford east over the Cascades, where connection will be made with the Hill and Harriman lines tapping southern Oregon, giving Medford competition and two outlets to the east. Franchises have been granted for an interurban trolley line to extend from Grants Pass to Ashland, connecting the various towns of the valley and enabling orchardists to ship their fruit at the groves. Construction work will be begun within a month. The Rogue River Valley is the fairest of the many beautiful valleys of Oregon, altitude, soil and climate making it one of the great natural fruit belts of the world. Sixty-five thousand acres of planted orchard surround Medford, and within ten years the annual output will exceed 10,000 cars. It is one of the great pear regions of the earth, all varieties growing to perfection. For five years past Rogue River pears brought the highest price in all markets wherever offered, hold the green fruit record of the world. Pears have sold as high as $10.08 a box in London, and $9.40 a box in New York. The finest Spitzenberg and Newtown apples grown are produced here. Rogue River Newtowns have for years commanded the highest prices in London and Rogue River Spitzenbergs in the New York market. Rogue River apples won sweepstakes prizes and title of "Apple Kings of the World" at the Spokane Apple Show in 1909, and Rogue River pears captured all the prizes at the Alaska/Yukon-Pacific Exposition. Rogue River orchards are the best profit payers and command the highest prices of any in the Northwest, having sold as high as $2375 an acre. They have yield as high as $2250 an acre, and a yield of $1000 an acre net to the grower is not uncommon. Rogue River Valley is freer from fruit pests and the war against pests can be more successfully waged than in any known fruit region. The United States Department of Agriculture maintains a branch here and has easily controlled even such fruit diseases as pear blight. Southern Oregon is the greatest placer mining region in the world, its placers having produced over a hundred million in gold since their first discovery. Though quartz mining is in its infancy, there are many steady gold producers. A million dollars has been spent in developing the Blue Ledge Mine, 40 miles southwest of Medford, on the California border, proving the existence of one of the largest copper belts known. Smelter and railroad are essential to its development and indications are that both will be constructed within a year. Twenty-two billion feet of merchantable timber must find its market through the Rogue River Valley. The Pacific & Eastern will tap the largest sugar pine belt in the world, containing eight billion feet. These are but a few of the natural resources which, when developed, will make Medford the largest city between Sacramento and Portland. Medford Mail Tribune, April 26, 1910, page 1 MEDFORD PROSPECTS OF BRIGHT HUE
Judge W. M. Colvig Tells of Wonderful Outlook for City and Valley. (By Judge W. M. Colvig, President of the Medford Commercial Club.)
In eight years, or just as soon as newly planted orchards come into
bearing, 8,000 to 10,000 cars will be required to transport the fruit
products that will be offered for shipment from Medford. During the
coming season 1,000,000 pear and apple trees will be planted in the
vicinity of Medford.
200,000 Acres Fruit Land.
There are 1,886,000 acres of land in
Jackson County, and it would be largely a guess for me to say how much
of that area is capable of being planted to fruit, but of that amount I
can say positively that over 200,000 acres of tillable land is well
adapted to pears and apples. In addition to this there is a large area
that can be made tillable and equally productive.The apple is a fruit that does not succeed in countries having warm winters, because if the sap is not sent down to the roots of the trees, the fruit always is mealy and stringy and is not a good commercial product. We need frosts and cold weather, but the weather must not be too cold. The apple is not an extreme northern nor a southern fruit, but thrives in a well-defined temperate climate such as we have in Jackson County, where irrigation is not an essential to the successful growing of the finest quality of fruit. Lumber Land Good, Too.
Situated in Jackson County there is also
to be found the largest body of sugar-pine timber in the world. The
bulk of this timber lies in the Upper Rogue River Valley, and when it
has been removed the land will prove of great value for fruitgrowing
purposes.The county is also rich in water power resources. R. S. Towne, of a New York copper syndicate, has expended more than $1,000,000 in developing the Blue Ledge copper mine, located on the headwaters of the Applegate, 35 miles from Medford. This mine is virtually a mountain of solid copper, and has been practically inaccessible. The building of a railroad that will pass this valuable property is now probable. Road to Cross Range.
The Pacific & Eastern Railroad
has been built fourteen miles out of Medford and active construction
work is being prosecuted. We have the assurance of Mr. Allen that the
road will be built, not only to the mine, but across the Cascades to an
eastern connection. Mr. Allen recently announced at a meeting of our
Commercial Club that when he had finished building the railroads he had
projected, the people of Jackson County would have a railroad to the
East. This statement from the builder of this road is taken by us to
mean that he will construct a line that will connect with the Hill or
Harriman road into Central Oregon.I do not believe any other section of the state possesses greater resources than are to be found in Jackson County. We are not dependent on our agricultural interests. Our timber, mining and agricultural resources are contributing their share to the substantial prosperity of the entire state. Medford Boosters Abound.
Medford is a thoroughly cosmopolitan
city and contains as many boosters to the square foot as any other
section of the state. Not long ago the Commercial Club decided to raise
a publicity fund. In one afternoon between 1 and 6 o'clock we raised
$3,500 for that purpose, and within a few days the fund was increased
to $8,400. We have spent $1,000 a month in publicity work during the
past year. Our club has a membership of 300, but we expect to increase
this soon to 400. Based on the school census, Medford has a population
of 7,500. As an evidence of the general prosperity of the county, I
might refer to the fact that the present assessed valuation of Jackson
County property is $36,000,000. Seven years ago the total of the
assessment roll was only $5,000,000. An increase in assessable values
of $21,000,000 in seven years we regard as a record that defies
duplication by any other county in the state.Commenting on the above statement, the Portland Oregonian says: A Happy Land.
Judge
Colvig does not exaggerate the advantages of the Rogue River Valley.
All he says in praise of its climate and productiveness is true. The
chances are that much more might be said of the same purport without
overstating the facts. The time is sure to come when the charms of this
favored region will be celebrated throughout the world. Nobody who has
passed a winter in Medford or Ashland can forget the bright sunshine,
the inspiring prospect of the country. It is destined to be one of the
gardens of the world.An observer who counts the fruit trees by the hundred thousand in the Rogue River country, and sees new plantings constantly under way, can scarcely realize how recently horticulture has begun to flourish there. Some twenty years ago, before Mr. Stewart set out his apple trees near Medford, few of the old inhabitants dreamed of the latent productiveness of their soil. But when the crucial experiment had once been made, it required only a short time to transform the aspect of the valley. Fortunes have already been made from Rogue River orchards, but they are nothing to the wealth the future promises. Nor should the immigrant make the mistake of believing that new men and fresh enterprises are not needed there. The orchards are large, but even the best of the fruit land has hardly yet been touched. There is abundant room in the Rogue River Valley for thousands of immigrants, and plenty of land lies untilled which will produce apples and pears as perfect as any ever grown there. Medford Mail Tribune, January 2, 1910, page 5 MEDFORD'S GREAT BUILDING RECORD Over a Million and a Half Dollars' Worth This Year and Next Year Will Far Exceed That Amount--Architects and Contractors Busier by Far on Projected Work Than Last December
Medford
has experienced one of the best building years in 1910 ever seen in any
town. Its development work in buildings is simply marvelous. Yet with
all the buildings erected, the supply has not equaled the demand. The
record of the year makes Medford the banner building town of Oregon.
Architects and contractors unite in saying that Medford will see in 1911 still greater building development, and that is saying a great deal. The contractors are doing all in their power to get ready for the spring rush, and already they find themselves with contracts for many buildings to be erected next spring. A local gentleman who is prominent in the political life of Jackson County said: "I found in my trip north recently a wonderful spirit and feeling of prosperity. Everyone is acquiring more faith in the Taft administration, and as money is loosening there will be no panic nor hard times. At Portland every contractor and architect is straining his nerves to get ready for the new building era of 1911, and already they are being flooded with orders. The railroads, every business concern, is awakening to the fact that 1911 will bring the greatest period of development work in Oregon history." Just what these statements mean can be shown by the following list of buildings erected in 1910, with their cost as shown: The Natatorium . . . $100,000 Medford Furniture Company . . . 75,000 Garnett-Corey Building . . . 65,000 Southern Pacific Depot . . . 50,000 St. Mark's Block . . . 4,5000 Rogue River Electric Building . . . 25,000 Davis Block . . . 30,000 Medford Grocery Building . . . 30,000 Odd Fellows' Block . . . 20,000 Anderson-Green Garage . . . 30,000 Home Telephone Building . . . 15,000 Mail Tribune Block . . . 20,000 Schmitt & Slewing Building . . . 10,000 Four hundred homes, average cost $2500 . . . 1,000,000 Total . . . $1,555,000 Besides there are the government building, the hospital and two hotels under construction: The Page Hotel . . . $100,000 The Medford Hotel . . . 150,000 Government Building . . . 110,000 Medford Hospital . . . 90,000 Then there are two schools, one in Queen Anne addition and one on Jackson Street, each to cost $35,000-$70,000. The Jackson Boulevard bridge, $15,000. The First National Bank and the Masons will erect buildings also. So that the buildings erected and those under contract for 1910 was $2,090,000. When one takes in the buildings erected and the city improvements for 1910 the total is staggering, and more so when one knows that the supply does not equal the demand. Every architect and contractor in the city reports that he is busier and has more work in prospect for the ensuing season by far than at this time last year. December has been a much busier month in the matter of making preparations for building to be undertaken next year than was December, 1909. Various kinds of contracting work, painting, heating and finishing, is to be had in abundance, for there is more work offering than there are people to do it. In every case the large buildings projected are larger and finer than were those of this time last year. They are going higher into the skies and are more elaborate, costly and bear the marks of permanency in every day. The best talent in the country is being enlisted to see to the planning of these fine buildings and to their superintendence according to the ambitious plans that are being adopted by Medford's up-to-date builders and owners of business lots. The highest grade pressed brick predominates, and for general exterior and interior finish the best in granite and wood that Oregon can produce is being used. Medford Sun, December 30, 1910, page 1  Sunset Magazine, December 1910 Few states in the Union have an agricultural population as wide-awake and progressive, as anxious for expert, technical advice as Oregon. The Oregonians are even willing to pay for this advice. At Hood River the apple growers raised three thousand dollars in one day to pay the plant doctor. Jackson County, in Rogue River Valley, the home of the big pear, went still further. It hired a plant doctor, the best it could find [P. J. O'Gara], on the Chinese plan, paying him five thousand a year to keep its orchards healthy and prevent disease from gaining a foothold. The plan was a success. At the edge of the Rogue River Valley the dreaded pear blight, the scourge that had wiped out almost every pear orchard in the country during its triumphant march from New York to California, was beaten back. Every one of the pear-growing states saw its groves practically wiped out, except Oregon. The fifty thousand acres of young orchards around Medford, Ashland and Grants Pass, though attacked by the disease, escaped unscathed. No special properties of climate, soil or surroundings protected the trees. As in all the latter-day victories of Oregon, the human factor determined the outcome of the battle. Because the Rogue River horticulturists had the open mind, the open purse, the energy and the brains that make for success in any line, they not only succeeded in checking the course of the blight where all others had failed, but they also succeeded in raising more and larger pears and in selling them for higher prices than anyone else in the world. Money talks. The voice of fruit money, the true tales of extravagant apple and pear profits that sounded like the dreams of the wild-eyed promoter, attracted the country's fleeting attention to Oregon. A masterly campaign of publicity, supported by a steady stream of fact literature, held and intensified this unstable attention. Portland started the publicity ball rolling. Practically every community in the state large enough to furnish a full set of officers for a commercial club followed suit, the Southern Pacific and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company keeping pace with the communities, dollar for dollar. The results startled even seasoned campaigners. In Medford, Judge William Colvig, a gray, young pioneer of the 1853 ox-team vintage, argued, pleaded, promised, exhorted, threatened, bullied and abused in turn until Medford's Commercial Club had six hundred members who spent ten thousand a year to promote the legitimate interests of the Rogue River Valley. Attractive exhibition pavilions--close to the railway station, that he who rides might see--sprang up everywhere. Two million descriptive pamphlets, in three colors, were sent out in one year. Whenever a town lagged behind the procession, revival meetings were held by the Portland boost evangelists to stimulate interest in and donations to the cause. No purse, not even the one with the time lock always set for tomorrow, could resist the fervid appeals. At one town noted for the tightness of its three thousand inhabitants the itinerant evangelists raised a promotion fund of four thousand dollars in a revival lasting two hours. Persistent, systematic publicity, if based upon hard facts, never fails. Medford, though a new inn opens for business almost every week, though two five-story hotels are near completion, had to build a tent city to avoid hanging out the sign "Standing Room Only." Walter V. Woehlke, "Where Rolls the Oregon," Sunset magazine, November 1910, page 494 What Medford Needs . . . From
Woman's Standpoint
(MRS. S. A. NYE)
If I could have my wishes in regard to making Medford the "City
Beautiful," I think I would begin by having the electric light,
telephone and telegraph poles removed from the streets and alleys and
the wires placed underground. Oakdale Avenue, otherwise a street of
which any small city could be proud, is an example of the disfigurement
caused by these poles.
I would like to see more parks for Medford, and believe that steps should be taken at once to secure them. The town is growing, the price of property is advancing, and it would be the best business policy to buy land for this purpose now. Nothing adds more to the attractiveness of a city than well-kept parks and plenty of them. I would like to see a general movement toward the removal of fences and hedges abutting on the streets in the residence sections of the city. There is no particular utility in having fences where stock is kept off the streets, and certainly they add nothing to the appearance or value of property. The saloon row along Front Street is an eyesore which will be more apparent when the various improvements contemplated by the Southern Pacific are completed. People going through on the trains will receive a bad impression of the town. This street is a poor advertisement for the city, and if some other location could be found for these places it would be an improvement very much to be desired. The city should have an incinerator to dispose of garbage and rubbish; this is a necessity from the standpoint of health, if for no other reason. We cannot have a clean city without some means of disposing of rubbish. I would like to see the billboards removed from the streets. I would like to see steps taken to abolish the distribution of dodgers, free samples and such trash throughout the residence districts. Billboards and dodgers are twin advertising nuisances. Let them patronize the newspapers. --------
(IRENE HAMPTON ISAACS)
In response to a request to write an article by way of suggestion for
further betterment of Medford, my thought naturally turns to the
subject of deepest interest to me personally and the one nearest my
heart, namely, music.
Our wonderful natural resources continually extolled and utilized to such great advantage commercially by our energetic citizens are making Medford famous. Our business and civic improvements are progressing as rapidly as time and our county court will allow. Musically, Medford again has unique advantages. In her midst are all the chief members of the once-famous Andrews Opera Company, together with an experienced musical conductor whose prestige has brought to our city many of the best theatrical productions of Portland and San Francisco, and who this last winter gave Medford her first grand opera. In addition to this, we have cause for pride that our first symphony concert will be American's greatest orchestra under the leadership of the far-famed Damrosch. These attractions fill our local opera house with an enthusiastic, intelligent audience who appreciate what they hear. Notwithstanding these facts, the question arises, Is Medford artistically keeping pace with her progress commercially? From the fact that a town must first be established commercially, it usually follows that art must wait indefinitely and not become an integral part of any community except a large and long-established one. When one would introduce music into a small town they have the pioneer task of hewing away, inch by inch, the dense apathy that enshrouds the people and of planting here and there a seed of interest which sometimes grows and spreads, but which more often dies at the very outset. Many will be surprised to learn that in Medford, as in other towns, that difficulty arises chiefly over money. In a town so unusually prosperous financially, one really marvels to find this condition prevailing. Money is no object to our citizens when it comes to gratifying some material pleasure or in obtaining some temporal luxury. Music is a part of the soul, one of the few spiritual and eternal acquisitions that it is our privilege to gain, and we hesitate to pay for it and fail to see that we are getting value for the money invested. What we gain spiritually surely surpasses our transitory, material acquisitions, and they who gain most mentally have the richest, happiest lives. Perhaps Medford artistic spirit may awaken early, as has her commercial spirit, and what more do we need to command the admiration and respect of the rest of the world and to truly make our city the "Flower of the Rogue River Valley"? --------
(CATHERINE M. WAKEMAN)
Medford has so much of which to boast that it hardly seems fair to
search out the few small points in which she is lacking; but as it is
this same spirit that has made Medford the progressive little city that
she is, I offer a few stray thoughts that suggest themselves.
Can anyone deny the fact that with all her beauty and enterprise Medford is a poorly lighted city? It would seem time that she had adopted a street lighting plan. Nearly all the cities are today using the curb cluster lights in the business portion, as being the most effective both from a practical standpoint and as an added means of beautifying the city. The small incandescent lights of the residence portion should be replaced by modern enclosed arc lights, placed at the intersections of every other street. A well-lighted city does much toward its advertising. Has it ever occurred to you that our beautiful shade trees, of which we have a few, are frequently permitted to grow so low that their branches interfere with pedestrians and vehicles, besides detracting from an up-to-date appearance of the street over which they project? We need more and good school buildings--not in the business portion, but in the residence district of the city, and built for the future. And while on the school topic, why not give our boys a summer manual training school? Work of this kind is being done in all parts of our country and is meeting with the approval of educators and parents. The work not only gives the boy employment during six weeks of the summer, but is of permanent benefit. Query: Has Medford an ordinance regarding expectorating on sidewalks? --------
(MRS. M. PURDIN)
I would like to see the water question settled and the city have a good
supply of pure water; the projected paving of the streets completed;
the old wooden sidewalks with the extended nail heads disappear and be
replaced with new cement walks; the old fences in front of homes come
down and each yard with a nice green lawn and flowers; a million more
rosebushes in the yards in the city; all the back yards and alleys
cleaned up; and all bad crossings made new.
--------
(MRS. E. B. SHEN)
A good inspector would be a good improvement in Medford. It is rather
trying for the housekeeper to pay the high prices she must for food and
then have a great deal of it unfit for use. If there was a food
inspector the commission men would not dare accept a great deal of the
green stuff which is unloaded in Medford markets. Dairymen would not
sell worked-over butter for first class at exorbitant prices, and the
ranchers would be a little more particular about collecting eggs for
market. If the housekeeper were getting first-class food she would not
object to paying the high prices.
--------
(MRS. L. G. PORTER)
The Medford Commercial Club and the ladies' Greater Medford Club are at
present in the thickest of a great advertising campaign to let the
people of the world know of this wonderful valley of the Rogue.
Possibly through no other advertising medium has Medford been brought
more conspicuously before the tourists than through the band concerts
of the past seasons. Those who have heard these splendid programs can
speak nothing but praise for the Medford band.
Let us have good band concerts this season. --------
(MRS. L. B. WARNER)
One of Medford's greatest needs is not only an interurban trolley line
but a good system within the city limits.
--------
(MRS. E. S. PARSONS)
I would like to see the hastening of installing of gas for domestic
purposes.
--------
(MRS. E. M. JANNEY)
My particular hobby [i.e.,
obsession] at this time is sanitary milk tickets. If the
women demand them they are ours.
--------
(MRS. G. L. DAVIS)
In my opinion have the residence streets uniform in width, the parkings
in proportion to the width of the streets, and all well kept.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 15, 1910, page B1 MEDFORD AND ITS ERA OF BIG
BUILDING
Thriving City Where Five Millions of Dollars Is Being Invested This Year in Substantial Structures By Charles A. Malboeuf, Manager, Medford Commercial Club
Medford looks like a city just built, torn down and
rebuilt again. Streets are re-torn up in every direction, huge piles of
building material block the way, and hundreds of men and horses are at
work laying 16 miles of asphalt pavement. Frame structures stand
astride the thoroughfares in the cause of removal from the business
district and cause a still greater detour of traffic. In every quarter
buildings are going up, either for business or residence purposes.
Garages are to be seen on all sides. More than 350 automobiles are to
be cared for, and additional sales are being made daily. Energy and
activity are rampant. The Medford spirit, after the tremendous
operations of the last year, has merely taken the second breath and
gone at it again. Two and a half millions of dollars were spent in 1909
for buildings; this was thought enough for a city just passing the 7000
mark, but the record is to be exceeded in 1910.
Five millions will be expended before December, and the demand for space continues. Truly an era of new building has been reached, more befitting the ordinary city of 25,000 than one that has increased from 2000 to nearly 10,000 in less than three years. One six-story hotel is being erected, and another four-story structure is going up. Each will cost over $100,000. Five business structures are nearing completion. Four more have been started and more contracted for. The aggregate cost for those under construction today is not less than $750,000. Nearly $1,000,000 is being expended in dwellings, and public improvements represent over $500,000 more. Recreation is not lost sight of. One of the largest natatoriums in the United States is about completed. It will cost $60,000, and its composite features are complete in every detail. The swimming pool, 50x100 feet, required more than ten carloads of cement, and will keep a small part of the people cool for awhile. Twenty carloads of lumber are used in this huge building, and a whole carload of sash and doors are necessary to give light, access and egress. The dancing pavilion takes a solid car of maple lumber for floors alone. Startling Statistics
The
building of a city upon solid modern lines presents some startling
statistical facts. Over 1000 cars of lumber will be necessary in the
construction of buildings in Medford in 1910. More than 800 cars of
cement will be used. Two carloads of nails arrive each month, and the
cost of building hardware and nails in the construction of residences
alone will exceed $200,000. The transformation of the rough land into
lawns of green has already caused the sale this year of nearly six
miles of garden hose. One store alone will sell over 22,000 feet.It is safe to say that the solidity of Medford, as well as its future prospects, were never more assured than at the present time. The 500,000 acres tributary to Medford of themselves constitute an area capable of supporting a city of 25,000 people. Back of this rich cleared land stand more than 23,000,000,000 feet of fir and pine. A great portion of this timber is on level land, making logging inexpensive and after being cleared will provide hundreds and thousands of acres suitable for all kinds of cultivation. One thousand men working every day for forty years will be insufficient to manufacture this vast amount of timber into lumber. This one great resource will support a city of 6000 people. The timber is within the range of vision from any part of the valley. The Pacific & Eastern [Railroad] building by the Hill interest already pierces the heart of the forests and commands 8,000,000,000 feet. In less than six weeks the road will be in operation, after an expenditure of nearly $40,000 a mile of 32 miles. The empire builders officially announced that the Pacific & Eastern must and will go to a connection with the Oregon Trunk, now building, regardless of cost, and as far as men can do the work down the Deschutes River. The Hill line crossing the state east and west will connect with the Trunk System also, and Medford will be the terminus of two great transcontinental systems and the most important city between Portland and Sacramento along the Southern Pacific. The acquisition of these railroads is of immeasurable benefit to Medford and indelibly stamps its future progress. The Hill people, appreciating its great resources, are already prepared to advertise the Rogue River Valley far and wide. Local products, including the highest quality of apples and pears produced, are being shipped to the Great Northern people at Portland for their Oregon exhibit car, which will cover the entire eastern portion of the United States during the next fall, winter and spring months. The problem of securing equipment for the more than 25,000 cars of fruit that will be shipped in less than 10 years from Medford and vicinity is disposed of by the completion of three powerful railroads. Population Growth.
The fruit
and agricultural resources of the valley have been fully demonstrated.
More than 65,000 acres of apples and pears are now growing, and over
10,000 acres are being added every year. Two and a half million dollars
will be expended in irrigation purposes, which will cover every acre in
the valley and enable nearly every acre to be placed under cultivation.
Upon each 10 acres a family will be supported. Electric lines, now
fully capitalized and financed, will serve all corners of the district,
and the great hand of transportation will be foremost in development.Twelve months ago Medford had an estimated population of 6000 people; 8000 was the advertised population at the first of the year, but the census disclosed 9000. During the past 19 months newcomers have settled in Medford and the immediate vicinity at the rate of one person every hour day and night. Bank deposits, which increased 50 percent in 1909, further increased 40 percent the first six months in 1910. Postal receipts increased 33 percent in 1909, but for 12 months ending July 1, 1910 increased 36 percent. The fluctuation of stocks in Wall Street have no effect here. Confidence is supreme, and utmost faith in the city's growth is evident from the public improvements and building construction. Every accessory to the needs of a modern city is being displayed here. The water system, costing with the city mains nearly $500,000, is second only to Portland's famous Bull Run supply. Pure cold water from the eternal snows of Mt. McLoughlin reaches the city by gravity line 23 miles long, with a pressure of 93 pounds. The system is sufficient to anticipate a population of 30,000 people. The new sewer system is completed. The three miles of asphalt pavement completed in 1909 are being increased by 16 miles more this year. Asphalt will cover every street in the business district and the larger portion of the residence section. The main thoroughfare will be paved for a distance of more than two and a half miles long. More than 200 horses and 250 men are at work on the entire contract, which will be completed by November. A second telephone system will be in operation in a few weeks. A gas plant under construction will serve the city for illumination and cooking purposes. The class of Medford's residences is very artistic. Bungalows generally prevail in the smaller structures. Colonial and many other styles are prominent. More than two score of residences already occupied represent a cost of from $5000 to $12,000 each. Great care and pride is being displayed in the surroundings. Natural groves of great oak trees have been selected in the location for many of the most beautiful residences. Civic pride, following in the wake of construction, predicts a city of unusual beauty. Shade trees [omission] roses that bloom nearly every month in the year are being set out, and the landscape is rapidly being transformed into magnificent footwork of velvet green. Cluster lights are being agitated for the main streets, and the acquisition of parks and beautification in general is the order. Building Progress.
The
business district presents almost a solid mile of frontage. The
structures are new, neat and modern. Granite and pressed brick prevail.
Reinforced concrete is coming into use. The buildings now under
erection will nearly all be of class A type. The new Medford Hotel, six
stories in height, will cover an area 50 by 120 feet. [Hotel Medford was built at five
stories; another story was added around 1925.] The
four-story hotel will cover 88 by 146 feet, with basement. Both of
these will be equipped with steam heating plants and telephones and
electric lights, elevator system and modern grills. Building structures
now range from four to six stories in height, with one contemplated at
eight stories. Steel, granite, concrete, brick and stone is being used.
The new Southern Pacific depot, costing $50,000, will be the largest
one in the Pacific Northwest outside of Portland and indicates the
confidence of the railroad people in the future of the city.Interest from all parts of the union continues in the great fruit industry in the Rogue River Valley. The type of newcomers are of the highest class. Chicago, New York and other great eastern cities are represented in the wealthy capitalists now taking up orchards. The man of means is apparent on every side, and building improvements in the orchards are keeping stride with those in the city. Every newcomer is a booster, man and woman, and are untiring in their efforts to surround themselves with their own personal friend from their former section. Real estate values in Medford and the orchard districts have been largest on record during the past 12 months, and an immense influx of people is expected after harvest. Carrying out its regular practice, the Rogue River [Valley] again stands prominent in high-class production in 1910. More fruit will be shipped than in any previous year, and the quality this year will be unsurpassed. The pear orchards are laden with fruit of enormous size. Picking is already under way, and many cars have been shipped. Market reports indicate the continued demand for Rogue River fruits and revenues are expected to surpass those of previous years. Not less than 300 cars of pears will go forward in the next few weeks, and about 400 cars of apples, yellow and red, will follow in September and October. All these conditions more than justify what Medford is doing. Medford Mail Tribune, September 11, 1910, page B1 What September Finds in Medford
September finds
Medford maintaining its lead as the banner small city of the Northwest.
Postal receipts show a gain over a year ago of sixty-eight percent.
Bank clearances and deposits are nearly fifty percent greater. More and
costlier buildings are under way than ever in the city's history.
Railroad business has increased in proportion. The heaviest pear crop
in the valley's history is being shipped, realizing the highest prices
of any fruit in the eastern markets. Double the quantity of apples
produced a year ago will soon be on their way east, while the 65,000
acres of young orchard show a most thrifty growth.
September sees grading completed on the Pacific & Eastern to Butte Falls and the grade into Medford nearly completed. Construction gangs are busy laying the rails, while other contractors are rushing the extension of the Oregon Trunk down the Deschutes, across the Klamath country and the Cascades to a junction with it, thus giving Medford two transcontinental railroads and opening up an immense timber district to lumber manufacturing. September finds rival railroad engineers surveying lines from the Rogue River Valley through a rich mining district, and the largest redwood timber belt in the world, to a harbor at Crescent City. September this year for the first time finds Medford with the best municipal water supply of any city in the West, with a gravity system bringing water twenty-five miles from its source in the snow-capped sentinels of the Cascades, with pure water ample for a city of twenty-five thousand people. It finds Medford with a completed distributing system, exceeding twenty-one miles of cast iron mains and with work begun on nine miles of main extensions. September finds Medford with over ten miles of bitulithic and asphalt paved streets. New contracts totaling over 280,000 square yards of pavement, with curbing and guttering, amounting to over a million dollars, the largest contract ever made on the coast, is but forty percent completed. When completed, Medford will be the best-paved city of its size anywhere. September sees phenomenal building activity in the business and residence districts. It sees the finishing touches being put on the palatial new depot of the Southern Pacific, costing $50,000, the largest in Oregon outside of Portland. It sees the grounds around it being graded preparatory to parking. It witnesses the near completion of the $50,000 natatorium and its galaxy of amusements, the finest institution of its kind north of San Francisco. September will witness the completion of the four-story brick block being erected by the Garnett-Corey Hardware Company, of the granite block erected by the Episcopal Church, of the three-story concrete building erected by the Ray brothers [the Electric Building], of the three-story wholesale story erected by the Medford Grocery Company and of the new pressed-brick Davis block. September sees construction well under way on the Howard brothers' four-story reinforced concrete block [i.e., the Medford Furniture & Hardware Co. Building], costing $100,000 occupying a quarter of a block, on the six-story $100,000 Medford Hotel, on the four-story $100,000 Page Hotel [This building was not built.], giving Medford two first-class hotels and the best hotel accommodations of any Oregon city, and the beginning of construction on the Root building [i.e., the Sparta Building], of the two-story 80x100-foot Mail Tribune building, and several other structures, as well as innumerable residences. September will see the selection of a site and construction preparations under way for the new federal building, for which Congress has appropriated $110,000. And now come the Sisters of Providence and offer to erect a $100,000 hospital at Medford, providing a bonus of $10,000, to purchase the site, be raised. Three-fourths of it has been secured. September sees the completion of surveys, under supervision of the government good roads engineer, for an automobile boulevard to Crater Lake National Park, the scenic wonderland of the world, and contracts let for the construction of the most difficult portion of the road; paid for from a fund of $30,000 raised by public subscription by the patriotic citizens of Medford and vicinity. September also sees a survey for park improvements under way by the United States government. Medford is growing by leaps and bounds. Yet rapid as the improvements are, they cannot keep pace with the demands. There is not now and has not been in five years a vacant building or a house to let. And Medford's future is brighter this September than ever. Medford Mail Tribune, September 11, 1910, page B1 Compare this article with the editorial as originally written, in the Mail Tribune of September 1, page 4.
MEDFORD, Jackson County, incorporated in 1885, covers an area of one
and one-half square miles, and has a population, on school census, of
8,840. It is situated on the main line of the Southern Pacific and
Eastern [sic], and Rogue River Valley railroads.
The assessed valuation of town property, in 1907, was $1,949,781, with
a bonded indebtedness of $165,000. Receipts from the sale of postage
stamps for the quarter ending June 30, 1910, were $6,198.17. The
altitude is 1,290 feet. Two public school houses aggregate a value of
$50,000, and twenty-five teachers are employed at salaries from $40 per
month to $1,200 per year. Eight churches, Christian, Catholic,
Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, Methodist (South), Baptist,
Episcopal and Free Methodist, approximate a value of $24,000, and the
city hall and opera house $20,000. The city marshal and night officer
receive $75 and $65, respectively. The chief of [the] voluntary fire
department receives $110 per month. Common labor commands $2.00 to
$3.00 per day; skilled labor, $4.00 and up a day, and man and team,
$5.00 to $6.00. An electric light plant, private ownership, furnishes
service at 10 cents per kilowatt hour, and scaled lower according to
quantity. The city water system is under public ownership, and the rate
to consumers is 15 cents per 1,000 gallons. Gold, copper, coal,
cinnabar, iron, platinum, asbestos and placer mining, fruit growing and
farming are the principal industries. Coal fields, lumbering,
petroleum, marble, lime, granite and building stone deposits abound in
the vicinity in an undeveloped state. Two marble and granite works,
three livery stables, three planing mills, two boot and shoe stores,
seven groceries, three hardware stores, four gents' furnishing stores,
four general merchandise, four hotels, eleven saloons, cigar factory,
four confectionery stores, and three banks are doing a good business.
There is good opportunity for investment in a cannery, vinegar factory,
orchards and timber. (Having been unsuccessful in obtaining data from
Medford, most of the above information is two years old and does not
show what is considered a remarkable increase along different lines.)
Fourth Biennial Report of the Bureau of
Labor Statistics and Inspector of Factories and Workshops of the State
of Oregon from October 1, 1908 to September 30, 1910, Oregon
State Printing Department, 1911, page 139J. E. FUSELMAN WRITES OF OREGON Happy as a New Convert in New Western Home. SIGHTS THEY SAW AND EXPERIENCES HAD Details of the Trip West--Interesting Data of Country and Climate-- People That Remind Him of Home--All Well. Medford, Oregon, Oct. 10th,
1910.
Editor Reporter,Having been born and raised, and having led an active business career for thirty years, in Martinsville, I am led to believe that I have many friends who read The Reporter who will be interested in hearing from us. A score or more of persons asked me to write to them and I promised that I would do so, and fully intended doing so when I promised, but I had scarcely ever been a day's travel from home before and did not realize that it would take five whole days for a letter to reach Martinsville from here, and five days to get a tardy reply--after it was written by my friends and mailed. Then, too, I believe that we have some friends who did not request us to write, that will be equally glad to hear a word through The Reporter. We were quite grateful and, in a measure, proud of the sendoff accorded us by those who were at the station in Martinsville the night our party took passage for the great and untried far West. It was a tribute of respect to all of us that will not soon be forgotten. Our good friend, Charles ("Corker") Owen, was at the station in Indianapolis and we had a pleasant hour with him before retiring in our sleeper for the night ride for Chicago. A little personal joke on my father here will be excused, I hope. He had never traveled a great deal and had never entered a modern sleeping car. The berths of our Pullman were all arranged for the night ride. He came into the car, and we were shown to our berths. After arranging our luggage, the porter retired. We began parting the curtains and getting ready to retire. Father sat down on his berth and, after looking up and down the curtained aisle, exclaimed, "Well, if we have to ride all the way in this sort of a thing we will not get to see much of the country!" A little explaining quieted him for a fair night's rest, and his astonishment was marked when the car was put to rights in the morning, and each one of our party, even to Elizabeth, was entitled to a whole seat. We told my father that this would be the daily order of change--morning and evening during our entire trip. He remarked that it was too much trouble for the porter. Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Marshall had passage in the same car with us from Indianapolis to Chicago, and you should have heard Mrs. Marshall laugh when told the above incident. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall were accompanied home by a niece of Mrs. Marshall's--a daughter of the late Hiram Gregory, of Brooklyn. We had breakfast together before taking our leave of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall and niece, and getting aboard the Northern Pacific, it being a through train to Portland, Oregon, without further change of cars, where we arrived three days later. The daylight rides across Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon were greatly enjoyed by all. The weather was all that could have been hoped for--clear and bright throughout, so we were enabled to see objects at great distances. Our traveling letter, given us by friends to read on the way, were quite interesting and helpful, for the trip was a long one, being about three thousand miles. One who has only the vague ideas set forth in a school geography knows very little indeed of the vastness of these United States. An occasional stop each day enabled us all to get out for a few minutes of exercise and we nearly always took advantage of the stops. The immense wheat fields of Minnesota and Dakota, with thousands upon thousands of acres yet standing in the shock, were seen on every side. The summer has been very dry, and the shocks were as bright as if cut yesterday. The Bad Lands of Dakota were by no means uninteresting, even though they were unattractive. This waste of land is appalling and is entirely worthless, so far as known, and yet as for oil, coal or gas or some other valuable commodity, who knows what may rest beneath the Bad Lands' furrowed brow! I can readily see why renegades and.outlaws make for these fastnesses when they desire to evade Uncle Sam's rangers, or some sheriff's posse. This section of God's footstool is indescribably rough to one merely passing through its most prosaic and favorable parts. The ascent of the Rockies is so unnoticeable and so gradual, although our train of seven or eight cars was led by two locomotives and pushed by a third--all being of the largest types known--that when we reached the summit, five thousand five hundred eight feet above sea level, Mrs. Fuselman, who had been told of the sublimity, grandeur and of palpitations of heart, shortness of breath, dizziness and whatnot, exclaimed--"Is that all?" I guess she was expecting to go up such sharp declivities as to be able to drop hot pennies into the outstretched hands of monkeys in the rear Pullman, we having taken passage in a tourist sleeper, which we found quite comfortable to travel in. Some of my father's friends had told him that he would never live to get over the mountains, and some had cautioned the rest of us to watch him carefully. Well, it was just one frolicsome, glorious picnic from start to finish, ours being a family party, and there was not a tremor of heart, head or hand on the part of anyone in our car. Not a drop of whiskey or a strychnine tablet was used to keep any person's blood pump in action. In fact, our train stopped on the crest of the Rockies long enough for us to jump about for a few minutes, and to disengage one locomotive, since we here began a descending scale. Our trip down the North Bank Road--along the Columbia River--was very enjoyable, it being through a wonderfully picturesque country from the time daylight overtook us until we reached Portland at eight o'clock in the morning. It was on this part of the journey that our car experienced a decided jolt as we were going downgrade with the Columbia nearby on one side, and a high wall of rough, craggy stone on the other. A rock had evidently been loosened and rolled down so a wheel or some part of our car struck it. It was attended by only a passing flutter of anxiety, then the ever-splendid scenery reclaimed our attention. On reaching Portland, we went to the Hotel Oregon and, after a refreshing splash, we went sightseeing. The street cars took us to Council Crest Heights, where we were enabled to see Portland and the surrounding country as the bird sees them. Magnificent and costly homes stuck in various nooks and crannies on the way up the hill or mountain. Portland is a wonderfully beautiful and enterprising city and, I think, has the brightest kind of a future. Her stores are far ahead of Indianapolis and almost rival those of Chicago in point of beauty, though not so large, of course. In Portland the Commercial Club is a power, and gets up and does things. I was fortunate enough to get acquainted with some very efficient members, who were almost painstakingly cordial in their welcome to Oregon, and were always willing and ready to lay aside their work--and they were a busy lot--to offer any assistance that would enable us to gain information desired. Two or three department stores in Portland that could put L. S. Ayres & Co. in their basement. Earl Fisher and his brother, formerly of Franklin, Ind., cousins of F. O. Good, are in charge of departments on The Pacific Monthly. I was offered employment here by the manager, whom I met, but, Medford being our objective point, I could not consider it. Messrs. Fisher are delighted with Portland and their employment, both having bought beautiful homes. In Meier & Frank's department store we were introduced to Mrs. Nell Cleveland, a niece of Mrs. Scip West. Mrs. Cleveland has charge of the glove counter. After three days happily and profitably spent in Portland and in making side trips to Oregon City, Rose City Park and other places, we took a sleeper for Medford. We made it a rule to arise as soon as 'twas light enough to see, and thus we took advantage of all the daylight we could for observing the country we passed through. 'Twas dark when we passed through Roseburg, one hundred miles north of here. Coming up Cow Creek Canyon, south of Roseburg, afforded the roughest of mountain scenery and we could not refrain from wondering if Medford was going to appear in much such a country, but we were delightfully surprised after a while to see the beautiful, broad valley of the Rogue River come into view and orchard after orchard appear on every hand--orchards from process of clearing and setting out trees to those in full bearing, more heavily laden than I had anticipated in my palmiest fancies and hopes. Do you know that I have seen the apple and late pear trees heavier laden than the Medford booklet shows them? Have seen a dozen apples, good-sized Jonathans, Spitzenberg and other varieties on a foot of limb, and the rest of the tree, and tree after tree, and orchard after orchard almost as heavily laden? You just cannot realize it. How I wish that all of you could see the apples and winter Nelis pears as they actually are now. Apple picking has been on for two weeks. Twenty-five carloads left here Friday for New York. We came here first for Mrs. Fuselman's health, so will let up on the fruit talk pretty soon. Have picked almonds from the trees here, and they are certainly delicious. The tree resembles our peach, and the almond in its hull looks very much like a quarter-grown peach. I do not think they bear prolifically, for people do not grow them in a commercial way. English walnuts will be on the market the last of October. I have not yet seen any bearing orchards. Our black walnut has been planted to a considerable extent and we see rows of them here in the city for shade, and pretty well laden with walnuts; have seen no white walnuts, though they are here. In fact, we have not been out much because of our household goods not yet having arrived, and our trying to get two new homes (which we purchased) in readiness for the arrival. We have two small bungalows in a good, growing residence section of Medford and now, after a lapse of almost a month, we are expecting our goods daily. Medford is a city of ten thousand inhabitants, and she has them, too--and scarcely a house for rent and not a store room. At least five hundred residences, some of them finer than anything in Martinsville, have been built this year and more starting daily. More business buildings, equally as substantial as the Citizens National Bank building, are now being erected than all the business rooms in Martinsville. In addition to this are two fine six-story hotels being put up of concrete, granite and brick. Fine Oregon grey granite is only fifteen or sixteen miles distant. Medford has few factories, I understand, but you just keep your eye on us. The Southern Pacific is the main dispenser of injustice as regards to railroad transportation and freight, but it is only a question of a short time until Harriman and Hill will have lines through here from the Pacific to the interior and Eastern Oregon. In a very few years Oregon will be plied with transportation of all kinds and in all parts. Oregon is a comer. I find since I got started to writing that I am like the parrot that kept calling--"Kitty, Kitty, Kitty." The cat looked about for the person calling her. Again the parrot called "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty." The cat again whirled about, looked around, sat down and commenced washing her face, with one eye on the parrot, sitting on its perch. The parrot another time called "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty," and just at this junction the cat landed atop of the parrot and pulled all her tail feathers out. The scrimmage was brief, the cat sat down nearby and re-engaged in laundering herself. The parrot pulled herself together, jerked her head to one side, looking at the [cat] and said: "I know what's the matter with me. I talked too much." Fortunately you can't hurl a "shooting stick" three thousand miles. I was in a vineyard Saturday where the owner has tons of large, luscious Tokay and other varieties of grapes, some bunches weighing two pounds or more. I bought any kind I wanted at three cents a pound. I presume Tokays in Martinsville are about ten cents a pound. These are raised without irrigation. The apples I saw--for the most part--are raised without irrigation, and they are much better keeping qualities and flavor. I ate an apple---a yellow Newtown Pippin, of the 1909 crop, kept in cold storage--a few days ago and it was delicious and had kept perfectly. The fruit association here have several boxes of the 1908 crop in cold storage, and I am reliably informed that they are also in perfect condition. I saw second-crop strawberries, fine ones, too, likewise beans, cabbage, beets, etc., growing in the gardens. R. E. Wilson, with whom Paul Blank, a brother of our Clem., works on a ranch, will turn his pigs on his cull apples which our people back home would like to have for winter. Paul Blank has been a resident here in this valley since June 1909; and his brother, Carl, is now a resident of Medford, though he is in charge of a gang of workmen at Ashland, a few miles south. Both of the Blank boys are looking well. I have seen more of Paul than of Carl. Paul is teaming now for a company of ranchmen and certainly looks the part of health and says this country is good enough for him. He was in Dr. George Cook's hands, who operated on him a few years ago, at St. Vincent's, for appendicitis. Dr. Cook told him to come out here. He took his word for it and is glad he came. Many of us know how Carl Blank came to Denver last winter, accompanying poor Charley Pettit, a brother-in-law, who died there. Carl then came on here and joined Paul, and I think he is also glad he came. These boys are as popular here as their brother, Clem, is in Martinsville, which is saying a great deal. Our families were yesterday guests of Paul Blank for a trip to Lower Table Rock, and we had a delightful time of sightseeing and experiences. We saw our first jackrabbit, killed it and took its ears, since it had no further use for them. O. P. Ellis came upon a mountain rattler. He struck it with a stone as it lay coiled and sounding its tocsin of war. It was soon dispatched by a man with a revolver, and he pinched off its nine rattles for the baby to play with. He wasn't as large as some Jake Thacker brings in, but it was a rattler just the same. We had all been up on Table Rock except Father, who could not stand it to go all the way up. Think of Mrs. Fuselman going entirely up on the mountain--a climb and a stiff one at that, of more than a mile. We were well repaid for the effort. From this eminence we had a most beautiful view of Mount Pitt, fifty miles away, as well as all other mountains of the Cascade Range, on the east, and the Coast Range on the west, to say nothing of the beauties of the Rogue River in its crooked meanderings for miles, and the prolific orchards and grain farms on either side of it for miles distant in all directions. One not accustomed to such view power cannot conceive how one can see in the western country. Mount Pitt is a very high peak, perhaps seven thousand feet, and is more clearly visible to the naked eye at fifty miles distance than a large wheat rick on Henry Shireman, Jr.'s hill to one standing on the courthouse tower. ----
Say, boys, this is the next day and the hemorrhage of my think-shop
that I had
yesterday in writing the foregoing twenty-two pages, has
apparently
caused no unpleasant effect after a good night's rest, and here I
am making
a few remarks by way of bringing this effusion to a close.
My wife thinks
I am out at our new house washing windows, but I am not.
It makes
my head ache to wash windows and, as I never had a
genuine headache,
it's too late in life for me to try to get up one of any
consequence
by beginning to wash windows now.It's raining here today, which is the third day of rain since our arrival in Medford--almost three weeks ago--having been one day each week. Just about right; don't you think so? Well, the way it rains here is peculiar and reminds me of our little Elizabeth in her art of crying. The weather man began yesterday to think he had to give us some rain and began getting ready by causing some fleecy clouds to appear from time to time, and last night not a star was to be seen, and rain began to gently trickle down his old weatherbeaten face, without one of those effulgent overflows as we experience so often in Martinsville. He tries to compose himself, and a smile of sunshine breaks forth for a time, then again remembers that his feelings were hurt, or he imagines they had been, and the tears of rain begin to slowly roll down his cheeks again. The rain does not come in torrents as it does back home--the former home. Many people do not carry an umbrella, but wear a cravenette and trust to luck to keep dry farther than that. I have not seen a residence with a foot of gutter or a downspout. Our city water is melted snow and a cistern is not heard of. We have not heard a rumble of thunder of seen a blink of lightning and I understand they are both rare in the valley. Paul Blank has been working in the mountains, but snow six inches deep has fallen and will increase in depth, and he has come down into the valley to remain until spring. We saw our first bear while in Portland. It was a ponderous dead black bear with its fur coat on, but dressed and hanging on the hooks in a meat market. It was killed about twenty miles out of Portland. Our next bear was a six-months-old cub, owned by a confectioner here, and is seen in front of the store daily. You should have seen Mrs. Fuselman and Elizabeth leading it on the street by its chain. Citizens here frequently indulge in bear hunts and deer hunts. I might here say to my many admirers that I want a Stevens repeating rifle, a binocular field glass, a pair of elkskin hunting boots and a few other etceteras for my Christmas. Talk it over at a mass meeting so not to duplicate on presents, and don't go to sending money to me, for that is the last thing I would possibly need. I write you in plenty of time so that you can have a number of mass meetings if necessary, in order to make out your list of presents without duplicating. You can't afford to let the campaign or other minor matters interfere with these mass meetings. I may take to the pencil-pushing trail occasionally, if your readers will stand for it. Wire me if your subscription list shows a decided slump. Medford has ten thousand population. The Rogue River Valley has the finest of climates to be found. The air here on this day of rain is lighter and more delightful than Martinsville can muster when she has her Sunday clothes on, and I am not "knocking" on the home of my nativity, either. By the way, that word "knocking" reminds me that Bobby Burns and Dave Watson told me, or else I read it somewhere, something to the effect that "all the world's akin," or that the world is not so large but that you will meet with someone or something that you have known, even though you travel throughout its borders. I was talking to the primary Sunday school teacher here a few days ago and she said--"Well, wouldn't that jar you." Why, I tell you fellows, it was just like a letter from home. What could have been said that would have reminded one more of our teachers at home, more, especially, in the weekday schools. Don't forget the mass meeting, girls, and let me hear from you. I feel the cat on my back now. May I see if I can "come back" another time? Sorrowfully yours,
J. E. FUSELMAN. TERRELL RECALLS HAPPY DAYS HERE IN HORSE TROUGH
Irvin Terrell, former well-known Medford young man and graduate of the
Medford high school, who gave great promise in his youth of filling the
President's chair years later--but who, on leaving Medford in 1920,
rapidly deteriorated until he became a full-fledged San Francisco
newspaperman, an occupation, or diversion rather, which he has followed
for the past eight years, arrived here Sunday with his wife and child
for a week's visit with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Terrell, and
many friends.He is a reporter on the San Francisco Daily News, and handles the east side bay news for that publication, taking in Richmond, Berkeley, etc., with his domicile, at which he is frequently seen hoeing the potatoes in the back yard, at Berkeley. Mr. Terrell, and he is designated as "mister" with certain limitations, sees a greatly changed Medford from the one he used to know--bigger, better, more beautiful and some other things, but admits that he has a fondness for the city, and notes with sadness some of the changes. For instance, he misses the old watering trough at the public market front where, when he was a kid, he spent many happy hours drinking water with the horses and stray dogs, following romps inside the market with the pumpkins and rutabagas. His chief other diversion in those days was dodging the Medford-Jacksonville street car, the noise of which in its swift coursing on Main Street was sweet music to him. He also misses Oliver Davidson's former cigar stand and news joint, now Cleo's place, in front of which he was wont to spend much time, watching the busy feminine pedestrian traffic at Fir and Main streets. His vacations from the high school were spent in employment at Crater national park when Alex Sparrow was superintendent of the park, and the latter was nearly worried to distraction in consequence thereof until the vacation season was over. Our naive rural ways are such a delight to Irvin that he is hugely enjoying his vacation and wishes that it was several weeks longer. Medford Mail Tribune, August 19, 1931, page 8
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