2 Winter 2014 Applegater
Applegate Food Pantry
under new management
by ARLENE AND CLAuDE ARON
We have been volunteering at the
Applegate Food Pantry for about the last
eight years—the first three years as helpers
and the last five years as managers. It has
been challenging at times, but we have
met many wonderful, generous people and
have been privileged to be able to provide a
vital service to members of our community.
For personal reasons, we recently
decided to move from the beautiful
Applegate Valley into town. But before
doing that, we wanted to find someone
who would be willing to take over the
management of the pantry.
We were very fortunate to find
a lovely woman willing to step up
and keep the pantry going. Charlotte
Knott, who has been volunteering with us
for a while, is easing into the management
position. We are sure she will do a great
job. We will, of course, be available to her
for as long as she needs.
Many of our current volunteers will
stay on and we thank them for that. We
want to give a special thanks to Richard
Mikula, our driver, who drives into
Medford every week to pick up our food.
Food pantry days will continue
to be on Mondays (except for the last
Monday of each month when the pantry
is closed). Fall, winter and spring hours
are 11:30 am to 1:00 pm, and summer
hours (July, August and September) are
9:00 to 10:30 am. The location will also
remain the same: behind Ruch School on
the loading dock.
Any future donations to the
pantry should be sent to Charlotte with
checks made payable to “Applegate Pantry.”
We hope this community will continue to
be as generous as you have been in the past.
Sadly, the number of clients we
service each month has doubled, while the
supply of food we receive from ACCESS
has been reduced. As a result, we have had
to dip into our cash reserves more than in
the past.
We would love to see a day when no
Historic Logtown Cemetery
seeks sexton
Claude and Arlene Aron (left) are handing over the management of
the Applegate Food Pantry to Charlotte Knott (right).
one in our community needs help feeding
their families and the Applegate Food
Pantry becomes obsolete. In these tough
economic times, however, that doesn’t seem
like a very likely possibility.
It has been our pleasure to
contribute our time and energy to
helping our community, and we thank
everyone who has generously contributed
their time, financial assistance, food and
any other form of aid to the pantry over
the years.
Arlene and Claude Aron • 541-951-6707
New Pantry Manager
Contact Information
Charlotte Knott
P.O. Box 1826
Jacksonville, OR 97530
541-899-8381
BACK IN TIME: Joseph and Almira McKee
by jANEEN SATHRE
Some of us drive by
the Logtown Cemetery
every day, some once a
week, and some just once in
a great while. Very few of us
give this historic Applegate
landmark much thought
at all, even if we live right
next door. And yet, there are
people who come from near
and far to spend a few quiet
moments there, to leave
flowers or tokens beside a loved one’s grave.
The Logtown Cemetery has
a long history and is a who’s who of
pioneer names on tombstones scattered
throughout the grounds. The first recorded
burial was in 1862, a Reverend James
Dunlap; however, many burials took
place without much in the way of record
keeping. In fact, the land now called
Logtown Cemetery didn’t become an
official entity until May 23, 1939, when
a few families, with ancestors buried in
what was called Laurel Grove, wanted the
land preserved as a cemetery for future
generations. After filing for incorporation
and receiving a certificate under the name
Logtown Cemetery Association, the new
association board was delighted when
landowners Paul E. and Mildred Pearce,
along with Walter W. and Edith Bell,
donated separate parcels to make one piece
of property.
Some things you may not know
about the cemetery:
• It is managed by a nonprofit organization.
• It is an Oregon Historical
Cemetery.
• It has an Oregon State
Centennial marker near the
front gate and an anodized
aluminum marker installed
in 1976 by the Applegate
Bicentennial Committee
and the Southern Oregon
Historical Society. This
aluminum marker is one of
four in the Applegate. The
others are at Sterling Cemetery, McKee
Bridge, and in Ruch near the Ramsay
Realty building.
O ve r t h e ye a r s , t h e a l l -
volunteer board of directors and
the Applegate community have kept
the cemetery a hallowed ground for the
final resting place of our loved ones. In
1949 a railroad iron arch with a Logtown
Cemetery sign was erected; in 1950 a well
was drilled and a hand pump put in place;
in 1958 Logtown yellow rose slips were
planted along the front fence; and in 2009
a beautiful new wrought-iron gate replaced
an old and bent wire gate. Looking down
the road another 150 years, Logtown
Cemetery will require more wonderful
volunteers and more community energy
to keep this historic landmark an active
presence in the Applegate.
The Logtown Cemetery Board
is looking for someone to help us
keep our records up-to-date by becoming
the cemetery’s sexton. This person would
keep the records for burials, assist with the
selling of burial plots, be
the contact person when
a burial is needed, and
send the appropriate
forms to the State of
Oregon. A small money
compensation for these
services is available.
If interested, please
contact Janeen Sathre at
541-899-1443 or Patty
Eaton at 541-899-7693.
Janeen Sathre
541-899-1443
Buried at Logtown Cemetery, Joseph McKee
was one of the first white settlers in southern
Oregon. Along with his wife Almira and children,
Joseph arrived in the Applegate in 1860 among a
second wave of McKees. His son John M. McKee
and family had already arrived in 1853. Joseph
was receiving a pension from Frederick County,
Virginia, for his service in the war of 1812. He
was born in 1793 and died on April 19, 1870. Also
buried at Logtown is Almira McKee, who was born
around 1809 and died in 1882.
Photos courtesy of the Evelyn Byrne Williams collection.
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Board of Directors
Applegate Valley Community Newspaper, Inc.