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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 1952)
"EIGHT MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Sunday, Augusi 3, 1932 Valley Ire els ISO to North-South Lines Joined in Ashland In December, 188 J Local People Recall Great Celebration BY JACK JACKSON Mail Tribune Staff Writer It was July, 1863. A few days earlier Robert E. Lee had been "defeated in the bloody battle of Gettysburg and short months earlier, on the first day of the year, President Abraham Lin coln had issued an emancipation proclamation which had freed 3,000,000 slaves in the South. But that month in Jackson ville, 89 years ago, every conver satipn centered around two sub jects not connected with the battle between the states sur vey and railroad. The town's two newspapers, the pro-Union Sentinal and the Democratic Times, then edited by the fiery pro-southern Col. W. G. T'Vault, entered into the discussion. Cause of the furor was the ar rival in town of two parties of surveyors, one from California and the other from Salem, for the purpose of surveying a route for a railroad to connect Jackson ville with the major cities of the Pacific coast. This was news of the first mag nitude. Jacksonville had every thing else schools, churches, business, mining and farming. "With a railroad, there was no limit to what the town, and all of southern Oregon, could do. Dispute Arises Things looked rosy. But not for long. The two parties, one headed by George H. Gelden, chief clerk in the office of the surveyor general of Oregon, and the other by Simon G. Elliott", who had brought his surveyors north from Marysville, Calif., reached a complete disagree ment as to the party which would direct the survey northward. But, southern Oregon was not to be stalled by a disagreement among surveyors. Joseph Gaston of Jacksonville raised funds to keep the surveyors in the city through the winter months. The resDonse was good. The pay ments were partly in cash, but for the greater part they were in wheat and oats and in room and board for the surveyors Those contributing included such well known families as the Han leys, the Applegates, the Cole Bians and the Van Dykes. In the spring of 1864, the sur vey, headed by a Colonel Barry, was carried northward through Canyonville to the Willamette valley.' To carry on the business end of the undertaking, and to pre sent the railroad proposition to Congress, the California and Columbia River Railroad com pany was incorporated at Jack sonville in 1863. The line went out of existence in 1865 without laying a mile of track. Jacksonville Headquarters The California and Oregon was formally incorporated in 1865 with headquarters in Jack sonville and in 1866 it was desig nated to build the California por tion of a line connecting .the Central Pacific in California with the city of Portland. The contemporary Centennial His tory of Oregon called formation of the C and O "a carefully planned scheme gotten up in California with not a single Ore gonian connected with it." -In the same year, 1866, Joseph Gaston's Oregon Central Rail road company was designated by the Oregon legislature to build the Oregon portion of the line. On April 15, 1868, in Port land, with Col. W. W. Chapman, one of the founders of Portland in the audience, Gaston's line broke ground, only to lose fed eral aid when a line headed by Ben Holladay was first to build 20 miles of road, thereby quali fying for land grant aid. In 1870, Holladay reorganized his rail road under the name of "Oregon and California Railroad company-" , The O and C reached. Rose burg on Dec. 3, 1872 and there construction halted for nine years and Holladay went broke He was forced out by the line's German investors, who installed Henrv Villard to look after their interests. Villard drove the line south from Roseburg, and it was under his guidance that Jackson ville, scene of the strongest ef forts to back the railroad through southern Oregon, was bypassed in favor of Medford. Line Reaches Ashland The O and C reached Ashland on May 4, 1884 and then Villard fell heir to the lot of so many other railroad builders and failed financially. The line was taken over by the newly formed South ern Pacific. As the railroad inched its way south from Roseburg, southern Oregonians came into their first contact with the "big railroad interests." R, V. Beall, Central Point, for whose family Beall lane was: MAIN AND FRONT STREETS Pictured above is the inter section of Main and Front streets in Medford during the 1880's. At left is the first Southern Pacific railroad station and at right is the Riddle house, then owned by an uncle of R. V. Beall, FIRST TRAIN TO ASHLAND Shown above is the first regular passenger train of the Oregon and California railroad to reach Ashland from Portland in May, 1884. D. McCarthy, the engineer of the locomotive, is shown with an oil can standing beside the engine. Directly above him, sitting on the running named, remembers Rosue valley reactions to these contacts. A small boy at the time, Beall re calls that Holladay was consid ered to be "an unscrupulous speculator," while Villard was almost universally admired as "a very able man." As the construction crews ad vanced into the Rogue valley Beall was in a position to watch their every move. The new line ran about a quarter of a mile east of his home, even as it does today, and the mules and horses used on the construction job fed in the two large barns built of hand cut timbers, which still stand back of the BealJ home. One of Beall's most vivid mem ories of those early railroad days is of the Chinese construction crews which camped near his home. "They were large men, probably Manchurians," Beall says, and he adds tnat tney were scruDulouslv honest. The Chinese,-whose games of fan tan and dominoes brought something new to an area that had seen almost everything in the way of gambling, spoke little or no English, Beall recalls. They received their orders from trans lators. Highwaymen Active The advent of the railroad, well as elsewhere, hrousht an end to the profitable profession of the highwaymen who preyed on stage coacnes traversing the sparsely settled region. But they were not to be put out of business until the rail road was completed, as a letter received recently by Beall tes tifies. The leter. from Herbert G McCarthv. son of one of the first O&C engineers, quotes a portion of his mothers aiary, written while thev were en route here from the midwest to join his father. One of the iinai en tries of the trip came in Janu ary, 1884. It tells how, as their stage made one of the last laps of the from Grants Pass to Rock Point, it was held up by armed robbers. The robbers escaped ana iur TUrParthv and her son made the rest of the trip without fur ther excitement, stopping tor a while with the Bealls before con tinuing on to Ashland. The rails advanced from Cen tral Point : south, not toward Jacksonville as originally planned but toward the tiny town of Medford, then on to Phnsniv and on May 4, 1884, it reached Ashland. Beall was one of the first passengers on me first train to make the trip from Central Point to Phoenix. Railroad regulations ana time tahlps were a great deal more lax in those days than they are at present., - Beau rememoers nmornnt occasions on which Engineer McCarthy stopped his locomotive at isean crossing im a few minutes and went over to tv,c -Reaii home for a glass of buttermilk or ice tea before con tinuing his run., WhilP the railroad reached Ashland and started the labor ious climb up the steep slopes.of ho siskivnus. the crew working north from Redding, Calif., was also making' progress. L.ate m 1887 it became apparent that the rails from the north and those from the south would be joined that year. . Ashland Chosen Ashland was chosen to be the scene of the great event some- FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN The first passenger train of the Oregon and California railroad into the Rogue ' valley after the rail road was opened for operation early in 1884 is time in December. The ceremony was tentatively slated to begm at 2:30 on the afternoon of Fri day, December 16. Then, as plans were nearing completion, they were delayed by the weather. The situation was explained in an editorial in the Dec. 16, 1887 issue of the Jacksonville Demo cratic Times, which said: "General Supt. Fillmore of the Southern Pacific Co. recently said that rains had so loosened the earth in the newly laid road bed of the California Oregon Ry. that it was impossible to lay the track. Operations will be sus pended for several days on that account. A soaking rain d& scended four or five days mak ing the roadbed very "mushy." It was not raining in northern California the fore part of the week and if the . weather con tinues good the roadbed may be sufficiently dry to permit of the laying of track to close the gap between the two lines. It may be necessary to postpone the cele bration of driving the last spike until after the holidays. This will be done if the track is not laid today." ' As it happened, the track was laid that day. And thus it was that on Dec. 17, 1887, just 65 years ago this coming winter, flamboyant old Charlie Crocker, one of the Pacific Coast's origi-nal-J'Big Four" of railroading, stood in the gathering gloom of the south end of the Ashland railroad yard and hammered home a golden spike. The Pacir ic Coast's first north-south rail road was complete. Unlike many places and oc casions when history silently slips by unnoticed, only to be discovered by the searching eye of later -generations, Ashland, on that chill, foggy day, was well aware that, momentarily at least, the eyes of the nation were on it. Town Gaily Decorated The streets were gaily decor ated with flags and evergreen boughs and by early in the day evervbodv in the area who could find the time was on the way to town, by wagon, buggy, horse back or bv foot. Some of the luckier ones waited along the recently completed Oregon and California railroad line to board the train for Ashland. Residents of the valley gathered at points along the line, probably includ ing Beall crossing, to take what for most of them was their first railroad trip. Among the southern Oregon ians who were' at the ceremony and who remember some of the happenings are Miss Mollie Britt, Jacksonville, and Lydia McCall, Clarence Lane and George Dunn, all of Ashland. The official repre sentative of Medford at the cere Beall lane. Riddle house was later remodeled as the Nash hotel. The railroad was opened for traffic through Medford Feb. 25, 1884. board of the engine is his son, H. G. McCarthy, who in 1930 was trainmaster at Dunsmuir. James Porter, fireman, is at the front of the engine and the man in the cab is thought to be Joe Marshall, whq was then engine wiper at Ashland and later was an engineer at Sacramento. mony was J. D.. Whitman, and Jacksonville was represented by Judge P. P. Prim and Charles Nickell, editor of the Jackson ville Democratic Times. Jacksonville could have been expected to be bitter over having been bypassed by the railroad some three years earlier. But in the Dec. 16, 1887 issue of the Democratic Times, under the special heading "Invitation Re ceived," was an article which said: "Although Jacksonville was left on the outside by the rail road co., that corporation fully recognizes the commercial im portance of the pioneer town and is always inclined to show it the same courtesy . that is extended to any of the others. A cordial invitation to participate in the driving of the last spike has been issued by Manager Koehler of the Oregon and California Ry Co. to our neonle. Mar. Koehler also sent the following dispatch on Tuesday: 'Inviting the may or to attend the celebration. The following is the answer: 'Mayor Nunan being unable to be present, the editor of the Demo cratic Times, who is also a member of the city council will represent Jacksonville at the ceremonies'." Thus, with Jacksonville mak ing it unanimous, the entire val ley, as well as most of the lead ing cities of the coast, was repre sented at the spike driving cere mony. Weather Looked Bad While the day was auspicious at the scene of the ceremony, the weather definitely was not. Those who arrived early shiv ered under fog laden skies, which hid the tops of Wagner butte, Mount Ashland and the Green springs to the east. It was not until 10:30 a.m., that the train arrived from the north, bearing Gov. Sylvester Pen noyer, a representative of the Seattle Board of Trade, numer ous Oregon state officials and the mayors of most of the cities served by the railroad between Portland and Ashland. As the train chugged into the Ashland depot, the fog lifted to show tne white ridges of the mountains, gleaming under a heavy fresh snow. But heavy clouds still threatened rain. The ' train carrying Crocker, other Southern Pacific officials and representatives of San Fran cisco civic groups, was not due : until 3 p.m. so after brief wel coming ceremonies, the delega tion from the north sat back in their plush train to take it easy. On the far side of the Siski yous, the San Francisco delega tion was starting to rim into one trouble after another. Things had gone fine until the train pictured above. The picture was taken on the site on which the town of Phoenix now stands. The railroad was opened to that point on Feb. 25, 1884. reached Hornbrook. From that point on, soft track and bad weather made the going slow, and near the south entrance to the fabulous 3,070-foot Siskiyou tunnel the special came to a com plete halt when a construction train was derailed, blocking the tracks. Despite feverish efforts by the SP gangs under the urging of work train Foreman Jack O'Neill and his assistant Gus Leow, it took two hours to get the con struction - train back . on the tracks. Meanwhile,, in Ashland, it got colder and the wind which had blown down some of the decora tions increased in velocity. Many prospective spectators, chilled to the limit of their endurance, re fused to await history at the risk of pneumonia, and went home. The rest foraged for wood and built large fires in an effort to battle off the cold. To many that day, the arch over the tracks bearing the motto "Welcome Oregon & Cali fornia Linked at Last," only added irony to what was already becoming a frustrating wait. Special Arrives Darkness was well on its way when the headlight of the pilot engine, running ahead of the spe cial to test the track finally flashed info the yard. At 4:35 p. m. the special, with Engineer Jack Clark at the controls, rolled to a stop just north of the speak ers' stand. Dignitaries conferred and it was decided to go ahead with the ceremonies, despite the approaching darkness. Telegraphers made final ad justments, seeing to it that wires were fastened to the spike and the maul so that, as each blow fell, the circuit would close and, at stations up and down the line, telegraph sounders would click out the driving of the spike, blow by blow. Speakers stood on a table on the speakers' platform, 20 feet above the ground, to read their prepared talks by lantern light. The blessing was invoked by the Rev. F. F. Strong and Governor Pennoyer mounted the table por tentiously to expound on the' glo ries of the day. Malice aforethought is not re corded by history, but it was at OPEN EVENINGS o o o Bush Home Furnishings Co. Southern Oregon's Furniture Showplace that moment that Crocker, an avowed enemy of the Oregon governor, chose to start driving the spike. Pennoyer was mo mentarily forgotten in the rush to witness the spike driving cere mony. . The colorful Crocker, an old hand at driving golden spikes, having gained the audience, played his advantage to the hilt. The Oakland Tribune's story of the event, published Dec. 19, 1887, two days after the cere mony, stated, in part: ". . . (the spike) . . . was driven at 5:10 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. At the time mentioned Charles Crocker held up the same gold en spike that united the Union (Pacific) and Central Pacific roads, and with the same silver hammer in his hand, he said: "I hold in my hand the last spike. (Cries of 'Hold it up!') With this golden spike I propose now to unite the rails between California and Oregon, and I hope it will be the means of ce menting the friendship of the two states, and make them as one people. (Applause.)" Spike Finally Driven Crocker set the spike into the hole prepared for it, picked up the maul, set himself and swung three , times, neatly setting the spike in the tie. Each time the maul hit the spike, telegraph in struments in Portland, Chico, San Francisco and Eugene clanged three timesin all. Fire bells in Portland and Sacramen to sounded three times and steam whistles chorused in San Fran cisco. In Ashland the crowd cheered and screamed. Meanwhile, Governor Pen noyer was still teetering on top the table, 20 feet in the air, in almost pitch dark, still waiting to make his speech. Probably unnerved by the experience, he didn't have a great deal to say when he regained the attention of the crowd. There were other speeches, a poem, the Rev. Mr. Strong gave the benediction and the crowd broke up." The whole thing was over by 6 p. m. As the spectators left the ceremonies, many of them dipped into a barrell of spikes standing by the tracks and took one home for a souve nir. Most of these spikes were gilded and hung on the walls of Rogue valley homes as mement os of the great day. Of all the glowing platitudes passed out by speakers that day, the one which seemed destined to be handed down to posterity was that by Crocker, who said: "Fel low citizens, I feel proud that I am able to get upon as high a table as I could 40 years ago. I am 65 years old and it is pretty hard climbing on top of a table." 'Dangerous' Speaking later at a celebra tion in Portland, Crocker pro duced the golden spike he had driven at Ashland and stated: "It is dangerous to leave it where it was driven." The spike is now on display in the Wells Fargo Bank and Trust company in San Francisco. Of the spike driving ceremo ny, Harvey Scott's Portland Ore gonian, in part had this to say in its first story of .the event, published six days later, just two days before Christmas: "The train from Portland ar rived in Ashland Saturday, Dec. 17, 1887, at 10:30. It consisted of Pullman cars 'Roseburg' and 'Triumph,' Villard's private car which had been four years in building, and a kitchen car. It was greeted by music by the Ashland band, under the leader ship of B. R. Willits. The crowd numbered 2,000 or more." Paper's Editorial Policies Divided Purcelville, Va. (U.R) There will be no one-sided ed itorial opinion in the weekly Blue Ridge ' Herald during this presidential campaign. John Eisenhard and his wife are co-editors. One . thinks Dwight D. Eisenhower would make the best president. The other favors Gov. Adlai Stev enson. In editorials of equal prom inence and space, the paper has endorsed both candidates. No one seems to know which editor is in favor of what can didate. And the editors are not telling. THAT WAS A DRUG Buffalo, N. Y. (U.R) The Nestor ians of the fifth century probably created the most elabo rate drug prescription of all time, says Roy Y. Sanders, Jr., vice president of the Arner Co., drug firm. Sanders reports the formu la was known as the "gold anti dote." It. contained 40 ingredi ents, including .gold and silver. Lucky You T5t Traveler Safety Serric Lucky you you got away wittf reckless driving Stevenson Picks Manager For Presidential Battle By UNITED PRESS Latest developments in the presidential race: DEMOCRATS Stevenson Gov. Adlai Stev enson picked Wilson Wyatt, for mer mayor of Louisville, Ky., and one-time federal housing ex pediter, as his "personal cam paign manager" with headquar ters in Illinois. The Illinois gov ernor was reported considering jumping off to an early cam paign start so voters will have a chance, to know him. Sparkman Sen. John J. Sparkman pledged to "work wholeheartedly for the Demo cratic program" but refused to give "blanket assurance in ad vance" on every controversial measure that may arise. The vice presidential nominee made the statement in answering quest Window Kept Unlocked To Assist Burglars St. Louis, Mo. (U.R) Harry Duncan has what he claims is a sure-fire way to keep burglars away. After, burglars had ran sacked his house four times, breaking windows to get in, Duncan put a sign on one of them i which read: "Open for your convenience." Duncan keeps the windows unlocked and hasn't been bothered by in truders since. Today only 1.7 per cent of U.S. national income is spent on education, compared with 2.5. per cent in 1940. TAKE A LOOK AT What does the future hold for your family financial dif ficulty or freedom from worry? We have a savings plan for your needs -SAVINGS INSURED f I UP TO $10,000 JI f by the Federal Savings & Q i.oan ins. worp., wasning- ton, D.C. Invest by August 11th Funds invested here by Augu.it 1 1th will earn dividends from August 1st Jackson County Federal SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION 126 EAST MAIN MEDFORD, ORE. v Growing with Jackson County Since 1909 by Dick Shaw ions from Negro Congressman Adam 1 Clayton Powell (D-NY). whether he would campaign foi a compulsory FEPC or an anti filibuster rule for the senate. REPUBLICANS Eisenhower Dwight D. Eis enhower emphasized he would be his own "boss" in his presi dential campaign in which he expects the "great issue" to be a sound program for world peace. Sen. Everett M. Dirksen o Illinois, a preconvention support er of Sen. Robert A. Taft, pledg ed he would work "with vigor" for Eisenhower's election. PLAN RAIN-MAKING Hartford, Conn. (U.R) A committee of farmers hoped to get a rain-making project under way over the drought-stricken Connecticut Valley late Satur day. The bluebottle fly completes its life cycle in little more than a week. SPECTACULAR Giant Flowering Hardy HIBISCUS NOW IN BLOOM Choice Large Varieties of New Large Clematis READY TO PLANT LEWIS NURSERY Old Stage Road North of City Limits of Jacksonville j i Cu,Bt Dividend Rate
