4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL February 25, 2015
O PINION
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
From the TEAM
We thank you for publish-
ing information last month
about Cottage Grove’s newest
nonprofi t networking group,
TEAM-Cottage Grove. TEAM
is actually an acronym: “To-
gether Everyone Achieves
More.” We invite representa-
tives from all interested groups
and businesses to join us as we
seek to accomplish goals to im-
prove connections within our
community.
We ask leaders of local or-
ganizations to discuss this new
networking opportunity at an
upcoming meeting. If your
group, organization or business
wants to participate in this effort,
please send the name, email and
phone number of your desig-
nated TEAM-CG representative
and an alternate representative
to this email address: cindy@
knnd.com.
Your email to join TEAM-CG
will automatically subscribe
you to our weekly newsletter,
Around The Grove. It will also
provide you with a copy of our
database of 100-plus local non-
profi t groups, to increase net-
working opportunities and make
Cottage Grove a more well con-
nected community.
If you have questions please
contact our TEAM’s Co-Cap-
tains Don Williams at [541]
942-4752 or Cindy Weeldreyer
at [541] 915-0113.
From humble beginnings
great things can come.
Don Williams
Cindy Weeldreyer
Cottage Grove
A safety concern
Parking of vehicles and pe-
destrians at the corner of Eighth
and Main are at risk!
Turning on Main Street or
crossing for pedestrians is
dangerous coming off Eighth
Street. Going north is the worst
because of the traffi c parked in
front of Buster’s. You have to
commit yourself, causing you
to block the pedestrian cross-
ing and make sure no cars are
coming from the east and west.
Maybe limited parking there for
a handicap driver, but no more
— an accident will happen if the
problem isn’t addressed.
Ike Shepherd
Cottage Grove
Offbeat Oregon History
When the rebel fl ag fl ew over Oregon soil
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
I
t was just another work night for
the engineer and crew of the No.
15 California Express on the night of
Jan. 29, 1897. They’d passed all the
long, lonely stretches where train rob-
bers liked to operate and were now in
settled country, steaming past the little
community of Shady Point; in three
miles they’d be pulling into Roseburg.
So when a man with a lantern started
signaling frantically for their train to
stop, they weren’t particularly suspi-
cious.
But they probably should have
been. A few months previously, Judge
Charles Bellinger had overturned the
conviction of two men who had almost
certainly robbed the same train in Cow
Creek Canyon in 1895 — Jack Case
and James Poole. The two of them had
been seen around Roseburg. And as if
they weren’t trouble enough, another
notorious train robber, Bob Hinman,
was rumored to be hiding out in town
after breaking out of prison in The
Dalles.
The unsuspecting engineer — a man
named Mr. Morris (the newspapers give
no fi rst names for anyone involved in
this story) — promptly reached for the
brake and started the laborious process
of bringing the train to a halt.
A few minutes later, a neighboring
farmer named Mr. Lindsey heard a big
explosion down by the railroad tracks.
The train crew may not have been
thinking of robbers, but Lindsey sure
was. He reached for his Winchester
and started toward the railroad tracks
— then stopped short. In the distance
he could see fl ames starting to brighten
the sky, and that suggested the explo-
sion was an accident — maybe a cata-
strophic one. Lindsey put the rifl e down
and, catching up an ax and a bucket,
ran to help put out the fi re and rescue
the victims.
Alas, upon arriving he realized he’d
brought the wrong tools. It was indeed
a robbery.
It had started off well enough for the
robbers. After the engineer pulled up at
the signal light, the signaler gave him a
good look at the business end of a re-
volver; then another robber stepped up
around the coal tender to join him. This
second robber, apparently looking to
make sure Morris didn’t get any heroic
ideas, sent a couple bullets singing past
his ears — which alerted the fi reman,
Mr. Hendricks, as to what was going
on.
Hendricks found himself on the oth-
er side of the engine from both bandits.
The town of Roseburg was less than
three miles away. So he leaped from the
train and sprinted for his life toward the
cover of a nearby embankment, as the
cursing robbers hustled to get around
the train in time to shoot him down. For
an instant he was exposed to their fi re
as he vaulted over a short wire fence
— if the robbers had been ready, they
could have picked him off easily — but
they weren’t, and after he was over it
he was gone.
There was nothing for it but to work
fast. Hendricks would cover the three
miles to Roseburg in less than a half
hour and a mounted posse would be on
its way minutes after that.
The robbers hurried to collect the
train crew as hostages and, so to speak,
apply for admission to the express car
— where all the good stuff was locat-
ed. The escape of Hendricks probably
meant they wouldn’t have time to crack
the huge express safe, but there would
probably be other things.
Having gathered from all the pistol
shots what was going on, the express
messenger, a Mr. Butler, readied his
shotgun and waited to see what would
develop.
Soon someone thumped on his main
door. “Open up here, or I’ll blow you to
hell,” the robber yelled.
Cautiously leaning out the other
door, Butler cut loose with a charge
of buckshot at the shadow beating on
the side of the car — but he must have
shot high, because the robber whipped
around and fi red at his muzzle fl ash.
The woodwork behind Butler’s head
splintered. Butler pulled the trigger
again, but his second barrel didn’t fi re.
Dodging back into the car, he started
feeling around for his box of shotgun
shells.
“As I was groping around to fi nd it
he suddenly threw a big bomb in the
car, and I knew it was time to get out,”
Butler told the Roseburg Plaindealer
afterward. “I was taking a good many
chances to get out, but I knew that if I
had stayed there I would be blown to
pieces the next minute. I jumped out
on the river side of the car, a jump of
about six feet, and ran, gun in hand,
into the coach behind. The next minute
the bomb blew up with a terrible explo-
sion, splintering the window glass in
the coach I was in and tearing the ex-
press car nearly to pieces.”
This was the explosion farmer Lind-
sey had heard, and it soon started the
fi re he’d seen.
The robbers grabbed what they could,
forced their way into the mail car and
ransacked the registered-mail pouch.
But they made no move to bother the
passengers — either because they were
aware that a posse was probably al-
ready on its way, or because they wor-
ried about being shot or “made” by one
of the passengers.
In any case, “the passengers were not
subjected to the mortifi cation and in-
dignity, to say nothing of the fi nancial
loss, of a ‘stand and deliver’ ordeal,“
the Plaindealer writes. “Nevertheless,
there was a hasty concealment of valu-
ables and those who were traveling
with their wives, knowing the gallantry
of the Western bandit, gave their purses
into the keeping of the weaker half.”
But the robbers merely grabbed what
they could from the wreckage of the ex-
press and mail cars and galloped away.
Behind them, they left the burning ex-
press car in such a shambles that no one
was ever able to fi gure out how much
valuable property was stolen and how
much simply destroyed or burned up.
They never did fi gure out for sure who
the robbers were. The next day, Jack
Case emphatically denied that he’d had
anything to do with the job. And in fact,
he probably hadn’t. It was not Case’s
style to neglect to rob the passengers.
But perhaps aware that he’d be the fi rst
suspect, he quit the town almost imme-
diately, making his way north to Wash-
ington, where he apparently hoped to
fi nd fresher pickings.
He did — and he found something
else, too. About halfway between Ta-
coma and Steillacoom up in Washing-
ton, he threw down on a streetcar full of
passengers and started relieving them
of their valuables. One of his victims
— the superintendent of the streetcar
line, a Mr. Dame — pulled a revolver
on him. The air for a moment was thick
with smoke and lead, and when it all
cleared away, Mr. Dame had been shot
in the arm and one of the passengers
had taken a bullet in his leg.
As for Jack Case, he was lying in the
gravel beside the car, stone dead.
(Sources: Roseburg Plaindealer: 2-
01, 2-04 and 5-24, 1897; The Dalles
Chronicle, 2-03-1897; Sacramento
Union, 2-02-1897 Wilson, R. Michael.
More Frontier Justice in the Wild West.
Helena: Twodot, 2014)
Finn J.D. John teaches at Oregon
State University and writes about odd
tidbits of Oregon history. For details,
see http://fi nnjohn.com. To contact him
or suggest a topic: fi nn2@offbeatore-
gon.com or 541-357-2222.
Green vegetables protect the heart
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
G
reen leafy vegetables are
superior to other foods in
their nutrient density, and un-
surprisingly, greater intake of
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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leafy greens is associated with
reduced risk of cardiovascular
disease. Greater consumption of
cruciferous vegetables (a family
of vegetables known for their
anti-cancer effects, it includes
many leafy greens such as kale,
cabbage and bok choy), are sim-
ilarly associated with lower risk
of death from cardiovascular
disease and from all causes.
Oxidative stress is known to
be a signifi cant contributor to
the development of cardiovascu-
lar disease. Our antioxidant de-
fenses are a combination of di-
etary compounds and the body’s
own antioxidant enzymes, and
there is evidence that when we
eat cruciferous vegetables, their
phytochemicals signal the body
to produce its own protective
antioxidant enzymes, by activat-
ing a protein called Nrf2.
Nrf2 is a transcription factor,
a protein that can increase or
decrease the expression of cer-
tain genes. Nrf2 works by bind-
ing a specifi c sequence present
in genes called the antioxidant
response element (ARE). In the
presence of certain phytochemi-
cals, Nrf2 travels to the nucleus
of the cell to induce that cell
to produce natural antioxidant
enzymes and protect against in-
fl ammation. Essentially, Nrf2 is
a messenger through which ben-
efi cial phytochemicals from the
diet turn on the body’s natural
antioxidant and anti-infl amma-
tory protection mechanisms.
For example, one study on
sulforaphane (a phytochemical
found in broccoli) showed that
once activated, Nrf2 suppresses
the activity of adhesion mol-
ecules on the endothelial cell
surface to prevent binding of in-
fl ammatory cells and therefore
retard atherosclerotic plaque
development. Another study
showed that sulforaphane and
other isothiocyanates (crucifer-
ous vegetable phytochemicals),
by activating Nrf2, blocked in-
fl ammatory gene expression
and oxidative stress in endothe-
lial cells inhibiting aging of the
vascular tree. Sulforaphane also
helps maintain the integrity of
the blood-brain barrier, a vas-
cular system that is crucial for
proper brain tissue function, via
activation of Nrf2. The point is
that cruciferous vegetables are
essential for excellent health
and promotion of maximum
lifespan.
Other phytochemicals that
can activate Nrf2 include an-
thocyanins (found in berries),
EGCG (found in green tea) and
resveratrol (found in grapes and
peanuts). Exercise may also ac-
tivate Nrf2. In contrast, smoking
suppresses the protective actions
of Nrf2; human endothelial cells
exposed to the blood of smok-
ers compared to non-smokers
showed decreased Nrf2 ex-
pression, reducing antioxidant
defenses. Not surprising that
smoking and green vegetables
have opposite effects!
Research on phytochemicals
and the protective effects Nrf2
is still in its early stages, and as
we learn more, we can expect
exciting advances in the under-
standing of how phytochemicals
work to promote health and ex-
tend lifespan.
Dr. Fuhrman is a No. 1 New
York Times best-selling author
and a board certifi ed family
physician specializing in life-
style and nutritional medicine.
Visit his website at DrFuhrman.
com. Submit your questions and
comments about this column
directly to newsquestions@
drfuhrman.com. The full refer-
ence list for this article can be
found at DrFuhrman.com.
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