All of those 1852 gold miners had to eat, and, according to A.G. Walling, Jacksonville’s first butcher shop had opened within the year. Described as “one of the finest” (although we can’t imagine there was that much competition), it was owned by Henry Blecher, a native of Prussia. Born in 1822, he had immigrated to the U.S. in 1848. Undoubtedly, like many others, he followed the promise of riches to the West Coast. By the beginning of 1854, he was carrying “a heavy stock.” That undoubtedly included venison, chicken, pork, rabbit, beef, and probably sausage—common staples of the time.
The shop appears to have been located on South Oregon between California and Main streets, probably where the Orth building now stands. In fact, he may have joined or sold out to John Orth in the butcher business. We do know that he regularly provisioned the Jackson County jail, and in December 1875, he delivered 70,000 pounds of beef at $4.49 per hundred pounds to the Indian agent at Yainax, Oregon. He was regularly listed as one of Jackson County’s heaviest taxpayers.
We’re not sure who his suppliers were, but Blecher did own 1283 acres of land on Poorman’s Creek, 3 miles south of Jacksonville on the road to Sterling. We don’t know if he farmed or ranched the property, but 90 acres housed a dwelling, barn, and orchard. A fair amount of the acreage appears to have been forested since in 1891 he was hauling wood for the Rogue River Valley Railway between Jacksonville and Medford. Blecher passed away in 1900 at the age of 77. His property was inherited by his half brother and sister and by 1902 the Jacksonville Lumber Company had established a sawmill on the “old Blecher place.”
A few hard facts and a lot of “probablies and maybes.” Keep in mind there was no newspaper in Jacksonville until 1854 and earlier accounts rely on personal diaries, hearsay published in Portland or Yreka papers, and memoirs from much later years. Such are the basis of much of our early history….