Applegater Fall 2023
Gater Tale
The Elmores of Applegate
21
ASK THE GATER
BY LISA BALDWIN
With roots in the lower and
middle Applegate, the Elmore
family has long been foundational
in our community. Their history
here goes back to the 1880s when
the Robinsons, including Winfield
Scott Robinson, acquired land on
both sides of the Applegate River
in Wilderville and Jerome Prairie.
Scott Robinson’s family home was
on the south side of the Applegate,
near the mouth of Bull Creek, off
what is now known as Fish Hatchery
Road. Bessie Robinson was born at
home in Wilderville in 1889.
In 1900, Charles Herbert (C.H.)
Elmore of Neligh, Nebraska, moved
his family (wife Pauline and five
children—Joseph, Charles Herbert
II, Grace, Elizabeth, and Dorothy)
to Jackson County, and in 1903
bought 160 acres on Steamboat
Road, now called Thompson Creek
Road. Later in 1903, he bought an
adjoining 40-acre parcel. C.H. died
in February 1908, and in September
Charles Herbert Elmore II and Bessie Robinson
1908 his youngest child, daughter
Elmore wedding day, April 1910, at the Robinson
Jennie, was born. C. Herbert II was
home in Wilderville. Photo courtesy of
named administrator of his father’s
Barbara Elmore Niedermeyer.
200-acre estate.
In 1910, C. Herbert II married Bessie
Berteena Robinson at Bessie’s childhood
home in Wilderville. How these two met
is something of a family mystery since
the Elmore dairy in Applegate and the
Robinson dairy in Wilderville were about
40 miles apart. Granddaughter Barbara
Elmore Niedermeyer recalls stories of the
day-long trip to see each other and stories
of meeting halfway between; it was a
long-distance courtship and a marriage
that lasted their lifetimes. They had two
children, Charles Herbert Elmore III
(C.H. III), in 1911, and Bessie Berteena
Elmore, in 1915.
In the early 1920s, Pauline and her
five youngest children moved to Douglas
Charles Herbert Elmore III and
County, near Yoncalla. Over the next
Beryl Brockway Elmore at home
several years, C. Herbert II bought the
in Applegate, around 1965. Photo courtesy
shares of the family ranch that belonged
of Barbara Elmore Niedermeyer.
to his mother and siblings, and by
acquisition of other parcels that bordered
The Elmores are a true root-stock
the ranch, the Elmore estate totaled 295
acres in 1937. In 1938, C.H. III married family, proud of their heritage and full of
Beryl Brockway, and they moved to good humor. Barbara Elmore Niedermeyer
the Applegate ranch in 1939. In 1941, told a story about her father and some
they bought a five-acre strip of land that fellow Applegate Grangers, who all
expanded the family’s holdings to an even grew beards to commemorate Oregon’s
300 acres. In 1957 they bought another Centennial in 1959. C.H. III liked his so
320 acres, an adjacent farm known as the much he kept it. Beryl asked him how long
Kubli Place, bringing the Elmore property he would stay bearded, and he said “until
he got an elk in hunting season.” But he
to 620 acres.
The two generations continued to never did shave, and Barbara never saw
work the dairy and raise pigs and sheep as him without a beard. Many years later,
the next generation began to arrive. looking through some old family photos,
Between 1939 and 1958, C.H. III Barbara didn’t recognize her clean-shaven
and Beryl had seven children: Charles father. There was a good deal of teasing
Herbert IV, Truman, Russell, Michael, over that one!
In 2003, the Elmore Ranch was
Alicia, Joseph, and Barbara. All grew
up on the Thompson Creek ranch and recognized by the Oregon Historical
all graduated from Applegate School. Society as an Oregon Century Ranch,
For 57 years—from 1945, when C.H. an honor reserved for farms and ranches
IV started school, until 2002 when that have been continually worked and
the last Elmore descendant living in occupied by the same family for 100
the area graduated—an Elmore attended years or more.
In Grandma Bessie’s later years,
Applegate School. In 1988-89, there
were nine Elmore grandchildren in Barbara would visit her, and, though
attendance. It is no surprise that C.H. Bessie sometimes didn’t recognize her
III and Beryl were very involved with granddaughter, she would always ask, “Did
the school and the children’s activities. you have to travel all day to get here?”
Beryl started the Applegate PTA. C.H. perhaps remembering the long journeys
III started the 4-H club. Beryl also set she took to see her future husband—from
up a community canning kitchen in the Wilderville to Applegate—and meeting
school’s basement, and the pears, peaches, halfway between.
Lisa Baldwin
and tomatoes they canned were used for
lisa@applegater.org
school lunches.
Buncom Post Office, built in 1910. Photo: Oregon Secretary of State Archives.
What is the history of Buncom?
BY LISA BALDWIN
Applegater reader Doranne Long
wrote us a note wanting to know
“a little more about the history of
Buncom.” Good question, Doranne,
as it’s probably a safe bet that most
folks know little about the last
remaining ghost town in southern
Oregon. Only the name may be
familiar because a weather spotter
reports for local TV forecasters
from Buncom (etymology uknown,
though perhaps slang for “not worth
much”). Here’s what we know.
In 1851, Chinese miners found
gold on Sterling Creek. It didn’t take
long for the news to spread and for
thousands of miners to find their
way to the Little Applegate Valley.
As was often the case, the Chinese
miners were overwhelmed and
pushed out by the rush of miners
from California and other parts
of Oregon. Most accounts of the
origins of Buncom cite the gold
strike made in 1854 by two white
miners, James Sterling (for whom the
creek is named) and Aaron Davis. Their
mining claim was more than four miles
from Buncom, though. A boom town
sprang up there too—Sterlingville, a town
with 1,200 residents at its peak—but when
the gold petered out, so did Sterlingville.
There is nothing left of it but the cemetery.
Buncom thrived for about 60 years,
growing from a mining camp to a
full-fledged town well-positioned at
the crossroads of Little Applegate and
Sterling Creek roads. When the gold rush
ended, Buncom served as the supply hub
for farmers and ranchers in the Little
Applegate Valley. The stagecoach route
ran right through Buncom, and there was
a US Post Office there for 20 years, from
1896-1916. It was a full day’s wagon ride
from Buncom into Jacksonville, which
made Buncom an important community
center, providing services and goods to
the people living in the Little Applegate.
It was the arrival and popularity of
automobiles in the Rogue Valley that led
to the demise of Buncom. Once a trip
Back of the post office and bunkhouse
(general store) buildings in Buncom.
Photo: Oregon Secretary of State Archives.
to Jacksonville was shortened by more
modern transportation, Buncom quickly
died out. The post office closed. Stage
travel was a thing of the past. By 1918,
Buncom was abandoned. Soon after, most
of the town’s buildings were destroyed
by a wildfire. The three buildings that
survived the fire—the bunkhouse, the
cookhouse, and the post office built in
1910—are still standing, having been
preserved and maintained by the Buncom
Historical Society.
For those who are interested in
learning more, check out a book, Buncom:
Crossroads Station, by local authors Connie
Fowler and J.B. Roberts. It was published
in 1995 by the Buncom Historical
Society. The book, now in its second
printing, is available from the Society
for $18, including shipping (the book
itself is $15.95). To order, call 541-899-
7656 or write to the Buncom Historical
Society, 3232 Little Applegate Road,
Jacksonville, OR 97530.
Lisa Baldwin
lisa@applegater.org
Now serving burgers!