"Oregon Items," Sacramento Daily Union, January 23, 1873, page 6


    According to the census report there were in 1870, in Oregon, 4,427 persons, over ten years old, who were unable to read, 3,003 being natives of the United States and 1,424 foreigners.
    The grand jury of Jackson County declare the jail at Jacksonville "a perfect nuisance--unfit to keep the meanest Chinaman on the coast in. The building is so small and close that all the jailers in America could not keep it in anything like decent order if it contains one prisoner."
"Oregon Items," Sacramento Daily Union, March 4, 1873, page 1


    SHOOTING AFFRAY.--About three o'clock yesterday a serious shooting affray occurred in front of White & Martin's store. James D. Fay shot Horace Ish through the side of the head, and the latter is supposed to be mortally wounded. We abstain from attempting to give any particulars until the facts in the case can be reliably learned.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, March 8, 1873, page 3


    Jim Fay's pocketbook is an eminent life preserver. The Times tells us that an affray occurred in Jacksonville last Friday, between James D. Fay and Wm. K. Ish and Horace Ish, which resulted in the shooting of Horace Ish in the cheek by Fay, and the narrow escape of Fay from a bullet fired by Wm. K. Ish, which lodged in Fay's pocketbook, breaking the force of and diverting the ball, which would probably otherwise have pierced his heart. Ish is seriously, if not mortally, wounded.
Albany Democrat, March 14, 1873, page 2


    W.B.K., Jacksonville: There is a mistake, either with our books or your daughter. If the books are correct, she subscribed through a traveling agent who received the percent as a premium fur his work. Two premiums would more than cover the subscription price. It would be amusing to us if it were not so annoying to see the tenacity with which some people cling to the idea that they must be paid for taking a paper. The only inducement a publisher has for offering premiums is the expectation that people will try to extend their circulation, yet we find that those who are most eager for premiums are those who work least for the paper. Go pay your own subscription one year and then order the paper sent to some other name that you may thereby secure a premium on two subscriptions without benefiting the publisher may be fun for subscribers but it is death to the paper if acquiesced in. We want all women to understand that they are quite as much interested in the New Northwest as we are, and while we can and do pay premiums to canvassers, or those who renew and send one or more new subscribers, we cannot give premiums for the payment of old debts.
The New Northwest, Portland, March 14, 1873, page 2


    SHOOTING SCRAPE IN OREGON.--A shooting affray took place in Jacksonville, Oregon, on March 8th, between James D. Fay, William K. Ish and Horace Ish, resulting in the latter being dangerously wounded. Fay and Horace Ish had some trouble over a lawsuit, and, meeting in the street, the latter spit in the former's face, whereupon Fay drew his pistol and shot Ish twice, one ball taking effect in his head. William K. Ish then shot at Fay, the ball passing through a pocketbook in the latter' pocket, but doing him no injury.
Idaho World, Idaho City, March 20, 1873, page 2


"Oregon Items," Sacramento Daily Union, March 20, 1873, page 1


    The most destructive fire that ever occurred in this place broke out this evening at half-past 5 o'clock, in the United States Hotel, and spread with fearful rapidity towards the eastern portion of the town. In less than fifteen minutes it was completely beyond control. Very fortunately there was little wind blowing, and that in an opposite direction to the main business or center of the place. Having no fire engine, the main reliance was in tearing down buildings, which was done as rapidly as possible. The express and banking house of C. C. Beekman was badly scorched. The fire was got under control at 7 o'clock p.m. Losses, as near as can be ascertained, are as follows: Horne, proprietor of United States Hotel, $10,000; Mrs. Brentano's millinery, $700; Dr. Aiken, books and instruments, $400; Miss Kent, accounts and household furniture, $800; Democratic Times office, $1,500; Kubli & Wilson, livery stable building and hay and grain, $4,000; David Cronemiller & Bro., blacksmith shop, $1,100; Jacob Meyer, wagon shop and tools, $1,000; Pat Donegan, blacksmith, $1,500; James T. Glenn, dwelling occupied by Mrs. T'Vault, $1,000; Mrs. Ganung's dwelling, $800; P. J. Ryan, store and stock, $30,000; James Casey's building, $1,000. There was not a dollar of insurance, and the whole loss is total. Little property was saved from any of the buildings. Very fortunately the wind changed when the first buildings were nearly burned down, and saved the eastern part of town and city buildings.
Marysville Daily Appeal, California, April 4, 1873, page 3


    The men enlisting in the company of mounted militia to be raised by Gen. Ross, of Jackson County, under an order from our State Executive, are requested to furnish their own animals, saddles, etc.
    The proceeds of the concert held at Jacksonville last week for the benefit of those who suffered by the late fire at that place amounted on the first night to $181.50. The programme was for three nights.
    The Jacksonville Sentinel says: "Just now the sound of the hammer is heard in the burnt district, building and repairing. From present appearances it will not be long until most of the burnt district will be covered with houses again."
    A mass meeting of the citizens of Jackson County is called to meet at Jacksonville this Tuesday evening for the purpose, among other things, of adopting some method for the protection of the settlements on the frontier. The Sentinel of the 19th says some action is necessary, as the murderous Modocs have escaped from the Lava Beds and are loose among the settlements.
    George Black, of Jacksonville, does not mince words in dunning his creditors. He claims that something is due him on the Oregon war claims, and sends the following to B. F. Dowell, who has the claim for collection: "Now, see here--I want you to get my money for me. I need it and want it, and you have promised to get it for me time and time again, and yet I do not get the money. This is not fair or honorable in you, or in the Department. I earned this money. It belongs to me, and I must have it. Here I go around like a beggar. My diggings do not pay, and the ball in my hip gives me trouble every winter, and you fine fellows in the city live on the fat of the land and have good, bully times. This won't do. Get me my money. Send the money to the care of P. J. Ryan. Send it to me right off."
"Oregon," Oregonian, Portland, April 22, 1873, page 3


"Oregon Items," Sacramento Daily Union, August 15, 1873, page 3


    The Jackson County Times says: T. O. Lance found a fossil head on Jackson Creek, which is quite a curiosity. It possesses many of the features of a grizzly bear's head, but its prodigious size dispels all doubts of its belonging to this race of animals. The head and teeth are larger than those of a common horse, and doubtless belong to a class of animals that inhabited this country long ago. Although the lower jaw and part of the snout are missing, yet enough remains to indicate that the animal owning this head was of gigantic proportions and great strength.
"Interior Items," Daily Alta California, San Francisco, August 20, 1873, page 1


    The telegraph office is to be removed to Caton's boot and shoe shop.
"Local Brevities," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, September 6, 1873, page 3


"Oregon Items," Sacramento Daily Union, October 17, 1873, page 1




    The proposition of D. H. and Carrie Sexton to submit the facts of the controversy between said parties and Jackson County, in regard to the Rock Point bridge, to the Circuit Court at its next session without suit was rejected.
"County Court Proceedings," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, November 29, 1873, page 3


"Oregon Items," Sacramento Daily Union, December 13, 1873, page 8


    Eighty-one years old and still tapping off messages with the same nimbleness of finger and mind that he did in 1873, when he sent to the Call exclusive news on the Modoc Indian war, J. W. Thompson, manager of the Postal branch in the ferry building, has the distinction of being the oldest operator in the telegraph service in the United States.
    For sixty years this veteran of the wires has received and sent the messages of the busy world, but of all the tide of communications flowing back and forth nothing has left such an impression upon his mind as the exciting days when California was still on civilization's firing line--a frontier state, with all the hazards and varied fortunes that attend the trail blazers.
    "In those days," said Thompson, reverting to the Modoc Indian war, "with no telephones, mighty few railroads and only trunk line telegraph wires, it required a whole lot of brains, resourcefulness and courage to make news travel fast.
    "Take the Modoc Indian war, for instance. I was stationed at Yreka and serving as a kind of ex-officio scout for the Associated Press of California. The Modocs were mighty useful to the farmers and cattlemen of Northern California and the Klamath Lake country. But along in 1872 they grew discontented and left their jobs. The moment they did that they were like a whole lot of other people--into all kinds of mischief.
    "The climax was reached when the Modocs murdered the commissioners sent to treat with them. Then the big story that all the world clamored for, after this massacre, was that of the hanging at Fort Klamath.
    "Under General Jeff C. Davis, the Indians were speedily rounded up, and the leaders captured. The military authorities were about to hang them when the Indian Bureau insisted upon giving them a regular trial. It was in September that they finally stepped off the gallows.
    "Jacksonville was the nearest telegraph station to Fort Klamath and all the big California papers had their reporters there, as well as the New York Herald.
    "There were three routes from Fort Klamath to Jacksonville. One of these was by way of Ashland, 120 miles long, a second by way of the Rogue River wagon road, 135 miles, and a third, 80 miles over an old disused trail through the mountains.
    "The California Associated Press, of which the San Francisco Call was the leading member, asked me to arrange to get the news to the wires ahead of everybody else.
    "I put W. W. Turner, editor of the Oregon Sentinel, on the job, and with his two sons he arranged the details. We found that Fox of the New York Herald had planned a line of couriers over the wagon road along the Rogue River. 'Bill Dad the Scribe' [H. Wallace Atwell], representing papers outside the Associated Press, had arranged to use the route by way of Ashland.
    "We took the old trail across the mountains. Turner went over it with his two sons and a couple of vaqueros and removed the obstructions.
    "On the day of the hanging there was a big crowd at Fort Klamath and several newspaper men. Until Turner's son handed a packet to one of the vaqueros mounted on a fast thoroughbred, the news writers thought we had no representative there. Turner himself was stationed a third of the way on the trail and another son two-thirds of the way, both with fresh, fast horses.
    "The news came through, over that rough trail of 80 miles, in just three hours and forty-five minutes. The New York Herald rider came in two hours later, and 'Bill Dad's' rider lost his way all on account of a bottle of whiskey.
    "And that's how the San Francisco Call scored one of the biggest scoops in newspaper history."
San Francisco Call, August 1, 1922, page 8  "Call" in the headline refers to the San Francisco Call.




Last revised October 22, 2024