November 12, 2019
Although the structure at 210 North 4th Street in Jacksonville is known as the Catholic Rectory, it was not purchased for that purpose until 1875. The house had been built around 1868, probably for Nathaniel Langell whose brother had acquired the property in 1859. For many years Langell ran a boot and shoe store and repair shop at various locations on California Street. He served as President (Mayor) of the Jacksonville Board of Trustees; he was elected in 1872 and again in 1896 as a Jackson County representative to the State Legislature; and for a period he was Master of the local Masonic lodge. Later in life he was appointed U.S. Forester of the Cascade Rogue Forest Reserve, i.e. Forest Supervisor of the Rogue River National Forest.
May 28, 2019
The building that is now the Blue Door Garden Store at 130 West California Street in Jacksonville was built around 1862 by German-born John Neuber to house his jewelry store. Neuber was Jacksonville’s first goldsmith and silversmith. He specialized in solid gold buckles for women’s belts. While running to fight one of the periodic fires that broke out in the town’s early wooden structures, Neuber incurred severe head injuries. In 1874 he was declared insane by the Jackson County commissioners and ordered to the state insane asylum where he died a year later.
May 21, 2019
Jacksonville’s Warren Lodge No. 10 of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, founded in 1855, was the first Masonic order south of Salem to construct a meeting hall. The original 1858 lodge building stood on the block now occupied by new City Hall (the historic County Courthouse), and for a number of years leased space to Jackson County for offices and courtroom before selling them the building. The current Masonic temple at the corner of California and Oregon streets was constructed between 1874 and 1877 by brick mason, George Holt. Completed in 1877, it’s the oldest temple structure in Oregon in continuous use as a Masonic meeting hall. The lodge had acquired the property after an 1874 fire at that corner destroyed the “almost unimaginable conglomeration of frame shops, sheds, and outbuildings”— “many of the ancient landmarks” of early Jacksonville—including the notorious El Dorado Saloon. The saloon had stood on that corner from as early as spring of 1852, attracting “gamblers, courtesans, sharpers of every kind, the class that struck prosperous mining camps like a blight.” [We should note that even after the El Dorado was destroyed, there were plenty of other saloons remaining!]
May 14, 2019
The Rogue River Valley Railway’s first engine—Engine No. 1—was put into service in May of 1891 to haul gravel, bricks, timber, crops, livestock, mail and passengers over the 5-mile, single track spur line that connected Jacksonville with Medford. Nicknamed Dinky, the Peanut Roaster, the Tea Kettle, and the Jacksonville Cannon Ball because of its small size, Engine No. 1 soon proved too underpowered to haul the heavier freight loads up the 3% grade from Medford and was relegated to passenger service, pulling a single Pullman car. In 1895, the little 12-ton Porter engine was sold. It changed hands a number of times over the years until it was badly burned in a logging camp fire. In 1946, Helen O’Connor spotted the abandoned engine in Cottage Grove, OR, and bought it for her husband Chadwell, a steam engine enthusiast, inventor, and a Sci-Tech award and Oscar recipient from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The couple had Engine No. 1 rebuilt from the original Porter blueprints. Over the next 6 decades, the little engine saw new life as a private plaything, a Cottage Grove tourist promotion, transportation for families wanting to cut their own Christmas trees, and a “prop” in commercials and motion pictures until Mel and Brooke Ashland arranged for its purchase and restoration in 2014. Engine No. 1 now sits on original track on the Bigham Knoll Campus at the end of East E Street in Jacksonville.
May 7, 2019
According to “old timers,” this 5-mile spur not only served as a railroad; it also became a “school bus.” Dates are unclear—it may have been around 1903 when the 2nd Jacksonville school burned; or around 1906 when the 3rd Jacksonville school burned; or it may have been because the Medford schools offered curriculum not available in Jacksonville; or it may have been during World War 1. Pick your time frame! Regardless of the date, we know the spur railroad ran a block away from Medford’s Washington School, constructed in 1896 on the site of the current Jackson County Courthouse. Kids could ride the train for 5 cents. And naturally kids would be kids. They would periodically put lard and grease on the train rails, causing the train wheels to spin. The conductor soon realized he had to carry a bucket of sand. When the train rails spun, he would jump off and sand the track.
April 30, 2019
From 1893 to 1915, the Jacksonville-to-Medford 5-mile spur Rogue River Valley Railroad was a “family affair.” In 1893, William S. Barnum leased the railroad from the RRV Railway Company, running the trains with the help of his 2 sons. His 14-year-old younger son, John Barnum, became the youngest train conductor in the nation! In the 1890s, you might have seen John, resplendent in his uniform, standing at the Jacksonville train depot at the Corner of N. Oregon and “C” streets. In 1899, William Barnum bought the railroad for about $12,000. Nine years later he added a gasoline motor car and 3 freight cars. In 1915, the family sold the RRVRR to the Southern Oregon Traction Company for $125,000—part cash, part mortgage.
April 23, 2019
When the Oregon & California railroad bypassed Jacksonville in 1884 in favor of the flat valley floor, the town struggled to retain its role as the hub of Southern Oregon commerce, government, and social life. Residents funded a spur line to connect the city to the main railroad in Medford, and in May of 1891, the Rogue River Valley Railway’s small steam locomotive, Engine No. 1, pulled into the Jacksonville depot. The railroad survived until 1925, but after a year, the undersized engine was relegated to hauling a single pullman car, and in 1895 it was replaced by 20-ton Engine No. 2. However, the depot, also completed in 1891 still stands at the corner of N. Oregon and C streets, although it has been turned 180 degrees. You know it as the Jacksonville Visitors Center and Chamber of Commerce. We’ll be sharing more RRVR history in the next few weeks.
April 16, 2019
The dwelling at 145 W. Pine Street is probably the oldest structure in Jacksonville known to have been built and used as a shed. It was most likely constructed around 1875 after the Kaspar Kubli family purchased the property and the adjacent “Kubli House” in 1872. Photographs of Jacksonville do not include this portion of town until the early 1880s. The building clearly appears on an 1883 map of the town, and in the 1890s the original small rectangular structure is positively identified on Jacksonville maps as a “shed.” Sometime between 1898 and 1907 the “shed” was converted to a dwelling with a small rear addition and porch. The Kublis undoubtedly used it as a rental.
April 9, 2019
The 1 ½ story wood frame structure at 305 S. Oregon Street in Jacksonville was acquired by Kaspar Kubli in 1872. Although built 10 years earlier, it’s known as the Kubli House since the family occupied the home for 25 years. Kubli had immigrated to the U.S. from Switzerland in 1852, arriving in Jacksonville a year later. After mining for 2 winters, he found greater success packing supplies from Crescent City in partnership with fellow Swiss immigrants, Peter Britt and Viet Shutz. With his capital he acquired extensive land holdings in the Applegate where he engaged in farming and ranching. Moving back into Jacksonville in 1872, Kubli purchased a tinsmith and hardware business. Its success led to his erecting the 2-story brick commercial building on California Street which still bears the Kubli name. Kubli was also an active public and civic servant, twice elected Jackson County Treasurer, elected Grand Patriarch of the International Order of Odd Fellows grand lodge of Oregon, and involved in the Presbyterian Church management.
April 2, 2019
Cornelius C. Beekman erected his second bank building in 1863 at the corner of California and North 3rd streets in Jacksonville. Begun as a gold dust office in 1856, Beekman saw over $40 million in gold cross his counters during Jacksonville’s heyday in the 1800s—equivalent to over $1 billion in today’s currency! Beekman’s Bank is the oldest financial institution in the Pacific Northwest and remains furnished exactly as it was when Beekman closed and locked the doors for the last time in 1915. Explore the “Secrets & Mysteries of the Beekman Bank” during 45-minute candlelight tours beginning at 6, 7, and 8 p.m. on April 5 and 6. Admission, $5. Reservations required!
March 26, 2019
The 2-story Orth building, located at 150 S. Oregon Street in Jacksonville, was erected in 1872 by German born butcher, John Orth. Prior to the building’s construction, Orth’s butcher shop had occupied a wooden frame building on the same site, sharing the block with the Palmetto Bowling Saloon, the Beard House and Eagle Brewery (later the Old City Brewery), and “an old hospital building.” When Orth razed the older buildings to make way for his new edifice, the Democratic Times newspaper noted that the site had been “devoted to almost every purpose except printing a newspaper and serving God.” The Democratic Times rectified one omission, taking office space in Orth’s new brick building.
March 19, 2019
The building at 155-165 S. Oregon Street in Jacksonville that now houses Good Bean Coffee was built in 1860 by German immigrants Herman von Helms and John Wintjen, partners in the “Table Rock Bakery.” This Italianate brick structure replaced their earlier wood frame bakery that also provided space for a butcher shop, groceries, and supplies. Helms and Wintjen may have operated their bakery into the mid-1870s. As entrepreneurs, it’s quite likely they became saloonkeepers after the 1874 fire destroyed all the adjacent wooden buildings, including the notorious El Dorado saloon, a Jacksonville “institution” as early as 1852. The “Table Rock Billiard Saloon” sign was painted on the building in the early 1880s by which time Wintjen had retired. The saloon became an informal social and political headquarters, home to business deals, court decisions, and even trials. It was also Jacksonville’s first museum, “The Cabinet” – a collection of pioneer relics, fossils and oddities designed to attract a clientele that stayed for the saloon’s lager. Herman von Helms ran the saloon until his death in 1899. His son Ed operated it until his retirement in 1914.
March 12, 2019
The “Lilac House” at 401 N. Oregon Street just outside the Jacksonville city limits was constructed in 2005 based on the 1909 plans of brothers Greene & Greene, influential early 20th Century architects whose Craftsman “bungalows” are prime examples of the American Arts & Crafts movement. Equally notable, the house stands on the site of an earlier landmark, the J.N.T. Miller house. James Napper Tandy Miller had arrived in Jacksonville in 1854 and taken out a land claim adjoining James Clugage’s claim encompassing the town’s historic core. By 1855 Miller had constructed a 1 ½ story wood frame Classical Revival style home for his family. Miller became a well-known figure in State politics, rising to the rank of Colonel in the Indian wars, elected a State Representative in 1862, and elected State Senator in 1866. He chaired the county’s Democratic Central Committee and began publishing the town’s Democratic Times newspaper. Miller was also a farmer, grazing cattle, planting 10+ acres in orchards, and establishing one of the earliest and largest vineyards in the county known for “the superiority of its fruit” that produced several thousand gallons of wine annually.
March 5, 2019
The Italianate style home at 475 N. 5th Street was built for Benjamin Franklin Dowell, named for his grandmother’s uncle, Benjamin Franklin. Dowell served as prosecuting attorney for Oregon’s 1st Judicial District and as U.S. District Attorney. For 14 years he owned the Oregon Sentinel newspaper, the first newspaper in the Pacific Northwest to support the abolition of slavery and the first to nominate Ulysses S. Grant for president. The is one of the earliest Italianate style homes built in Oregon. Constructed in 1861, it may also have been the first home in Jacksonville to be built of brick. Most homes of the period had wood burning stoves for heat, but this distinctive home has 4 fireplaces—one of black onyx and 3 of marble. The marble probably came from Dowell’s own marble quarry on Williams Creek. That same marble was also used for the porch steps and all the window sills.
February 26, 2019
The vernacular farmhouse at 675 E. California Street was built in 1878 for prominent local physician, Dr. Martin Vrooman. Born in New York in 1818, Vrooman apparently did have formal medical training since an Oregon Sentinel article described him as a “regular graduate” and not one of the “guessing school of physicians.” But like many others, Vrooman heard the call of gold and headed west. In 1850 he was mining in California on the Middle Fork of the American River. He apparently alternated between mining and medicine, pursuing one or both in California and the Nevada Territory. Vrooman settled on medicine, arriving in Jacksonville in the early 1870s where he opened a practice. At some point he married divorcee Christina Strang—one source says early 1870s; a marriage certificate in the SOHS archives gives the date as 1878, around the same time his house was constructed. (The latter date would have been cause for scandal since their son Francis was born in 1876!) By 1881 Vrooman had added a drug store, the Jacksonville Dispensary. But when the Oregon and California Railroad bypassed Jacksonville in 1883, Vrooman moved his practice and his drugstore to the new town of Medford and sold his Jacksonville home. Unfortunately, his son Francis died that same year, 1884, 1 day short of his 8th birthday. Vrooman himself died 7 months later in 1885 from “bronchial consumption,” i.e., tuberculosis.
February 19, 2019
The original 1-story, wood-frame farmhouse portion of the home located at 380 North 4th was built around 1866 for Addison Helms, probably soon after his marriage to Ann Ross. Helms had acquired the northern half of the entire block from James Clugage, the original donation land claim owner of most of the Jacksonville townsite. Although Helms was a resident of Jacksonville for over 30 years, little is known about him. He and his wife had no children. He was twice elected Marshall of Jacksonville but does not appear to have been employed at any single occupation for an extended period of time. He is listed in the 1860 census as a “trader”; the 1870 census as a “horse jockey”; and the 1880 census as “unemployed.” At the time of his death in 1886, the Oregon Sentinel wrote: “A fortune passed through his hands since he came to Jacksonville but with unselfish generosity that was the ruling characteristic of his life, his only appreciation of fortune’s golden favors was measured by his unstinted liberality to all.”
February 12, 2019
The wood frame 1880s farmhouse at 820 North 5th Street that currently houses Pioneer Financial Planning was originally built for Peter N. Fick (known as “Nicholas”) and his wife Henrietta Richtor. Both were born in Germany, meeting and marrying in Jacksonville in 1875. Nicholas first worked as a butcher with John Orth before acquiring land in the “east end of town.” By 1910 he was raising grains and livestock on some 150 acres that extended to Shafer Lane and had constructed a large family home on the current site of Wine Country Inn. Nicholas died in 1913. Henrietta outlived him by 29 years and by 1922 had reduced the family’s active holdings to 40 acres, renting out the remainder. The Fick’s younger son, Peter J. Fick born in 1883, apparently managed the property, operating a small-scale dairy. Peter J. also served on the Jacksonville City Council for 14 years and captained the town’s Volunteer Fire Department. Over the years, most of the original Fick holdings were divided and sold by the family’s heirs, however, Peter J. and his wife Zola retained ownership of the existing 820 North 5th Street parcel until their deaths. The Nicholas Fick farmhouse was demolished in the late 1880s, but the office of the Wine Country Inn is supposedly a replica. The Peter and Zola Fick house remains the only original property associated with the Fick family farm.
February 5, 2019
Frederick “Fred” Fick, born in 1878, was the oldest son of Jacksonville’s German butcher Nicholas Fick. At age 19, Fred left home to go into the “building business” and by 1906 is listed in local directories as a “building contractor.” He participated in many Rogue Valley construction projects including the 1908 Jacksonville school, now Bigham Knoll. Around 1909 he built the Fick House at 810 South 3rd Street in Jacksonville. For 25 years he owned and operated a hardware store at 125 W. California Street, now home to the Jville Tavern. He also served on the City Council and various standing committees. In 1920 Fred was a member of the temporarily successful committee charged with keeping the Jackson County Courthouse in Jacksonville; in 1926 he spearheaded a tree planting project on the “Jacksonville Highway” (North 5th); and in 1928 he petitioned the County Court to establish a museum in the U.S. Hotel. But in 1935 Fred saw the “handwriting on the wall” and moved his hardware business to Medford where “Fick’s Hardware was for many years located on West Main Street.”
