ASHLAND COMPREHENSIVE PLAN Chapter 1 an Historical Overview
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ASHLAND COMPREHENSIVE PLAN Chapter 1 An Historical Overview Sections: 1.01 Ashland's History and Historical Resources 1.02 The First Twenty Years 1.03 Growth and Incorporation 1.04 The Coming of the Railroad 1.05 Development & Growth 1.06 Chautauqua Chooses Ashland 1.07 Turn of the Century 1.08 Main Street Develops 1.09 Library and Hospital 1.10 Parks for Ashland 1.11 The Lithia Water Era 1.12 Improved Highways 1.13 Troubles for Chautauqua 1.14 Ashland Granite 1.15 World War I 1.16 The 1920s 1.17 Train Robbery 1.18 Campus Moved, School Re-Opens 1.19 Southern Pacific Deals a Blow 1.20 The Depression 1.21 Crime & Violence 1.22 Two Men with Special Talents 1.23 Southern Pacific Reduces Service 1.24 World War II 1.25 Post War Ashland 1.26 Growth & Expansion 1.27 Planning for the Future 1.28 Historic Awareness 1.29 Historic Preservation 1.30 GOAL 1.31 POLICIES Section 1.01 Ashland's History and Historical Resources There were settlements in the Willamette Valley, and gold was being mined in northern California, when, during the winter of 1851-1852 two pack train operators who were passing through this southernmost part of the Oregon Territory discovered gold at Rich Gulch, a tributary of Jackson Creek. News of the strike spread, and soon there was a tent city, the place we know today as Jacksonville, on the banks of Jackson Creek. Up until this time, the Bear Creek Valley, a flat fertile valley protected on the west by the Siskiyou Mountains and on the east by the Cascades had been inhabited only by small, scattered bands of Takelma Indians. They found this a hospitable place, with abundant fish, game and edible vegetation. The Indian bands moved from place to place in the valley gathering food and materials for their livelihood. Their peace was disturbed by the miners who flocked to the Jacksonville/Applegate area, and then by the farmers, who were either newcomers or discouraged miners who found a new wealth in the rich fields and creek valleys. Families from all parts of the country, encouraged by the Donation Land Claim Act of ASHLAND COMPREHENSIVE PLAN 1850, came to make their free claim up to 320 acres, build homes and till the land. Many of Ashland's earliest settlers came for this reason, the Walkers, Dunns, and Hills among them. Jackson County was so designated by the Oregon Territorial Legislature on January 12, 1852. Six days earlier, Robert Hargadine, and his partner, a man named Pease, had taken up a Donation Land Claim and built a log cabin in the narrowing end of the Bear Creek Valley, about where the railroad Station is now in Ashland. They were soon joined by Abel Helman, Eber Emery, Jacob Emery, James Cardwell, Dowd Farley and A.M. Rogers who also decided to stay. Helman filed on a Donation Land Claim adjacent to Hargadine's. There was need for sawed lumber in the valley, so the men built a water-power sawmill on the banks of Ashland Creek. Then they built a flour mill in what is now the entrance Lithia Park. Business grew around the open space in front of the mills and people began to call it the Plaza. Settlers came to the Plaza from neighboring farms to trade their wheat for flour, or to purchase lumber for improved cabins and homes. The California-Oregon Trail route passed through the little community and travelers bumped over ruts in the summer and tracked through mud in the winter pass either direction. Gradually stores and small businesses appeared on the Plaza and some individuals, who made their living by them, built homes nearby. The earliest homes were built on Main Street, then on Granite and Church Streets. Ashland developed gradually during this time, and, perhaps then, got its roots as a solid community where people came to stay, to live their lives. Unlike neighboring Jacksonville, which began as a boomtown, and later Medford, which developed with the coming of the railroad, Ashland grew slowly as people moved into the area or as generations of families grew up. Section 1.02 The First Twenty Years Ashland was named after either Ashland, Ohio, or Ashland, Kentucky, in both of which the early settlers had ties. The Ashland Mills Post Office was established in 1855 - it took six months to get mail from the east - and the town became official. In 1871, the word "Mills" was dropped. Ashland, a growing community of 50 by 1859, was a stopping point on the California-Oregon Stage Company's route. A hotel was built to accommodate travelers, then a school on East Main Street near where Gresham Street now intersects. A sawmill and shop were set up, then a planing mill and cabinet shop. In 1867, the Ashland Woolen Mills were built on the banks of Ashland Creek where B Street now intersects with Water Street. Underwear, hosiery, shawls and blankets were all made from wool produced locally. Nursery stock, brought to Jackson County by Orlando Coolidge and his wife, Mary Jane, and planted on "Knob Hill" is credited by many as stimulating the fruit industry of Southern Oregon. W.C. Myer brought imported stock to his farm just north of town. The barn still stands in a field near the railroad overpass on North Main Street. The Methodist Episcopal Church, organized in 1864, held a conference here in 1869 and it was suggested that Ashland would be a "remarkably fine" place for an institution of higher learning. The Ashland College and Normal School that was housed in a building on the site where Briscoe Elementary School now stands was the forerunner of today's Southern Oregon University. Section 1.03 Growth and Incorporation Ashland grew faster than any other Oregon town south of Portland during the 1870s and 1880s. As the shallower mines in Jackson County were worked out and abandoned, agriculture became the main industry. The production of wheat and oats, corn and hogs, sheep, hay, honey and potatoes made farming profitable and this in turn brought more people. Ashland, population 300, was incorporated on October 13, 1874. ASHLAND COMPREHENSIVE PLAN In the first issue of The Tidings, published June 17, 1876, the editor remarked, "There is no church and no saloon, but whiskey is sold by the bottle and preaching is done in the schoolhouse; and therefore, the people are generally happy." The Methodist Church was built on the corner of North Main and Laurel Streets, then the Presbyterian Church on North Main and Helman Streets. Land for a Catholic Church was purchased, and a First Baptist Church was organized. Fire destroyed many of the wooden business buildings on the Plaza in March 1879. That summer they were replaced by a number of brick structures, including the Masonic Hall and the IOOF building. The Ashland Library and Reading Room Association was established, and in 1880, Alpha Chapter, Order of Eastern Star, was established in Ashland. It was the first Eastern Star chapter in Oregon. There were 854 people living in Ashland on September 28, 1880, when President Rutherford B. Hayes, Mrs. Hayes, General Tecumseh Sherman and their entourage made a brief stop here. They were greeted by a crowd of some 2000. A platform was built on the Plaza and an arch was made of evergreen boughs. Under the greeting "Welcome to Oregon" was Ashland's motto, "Industry, Education, Temperance - Ashland honors those who foster these." There were speakers, and four little girls presented President and Mrs. Hayes with a tray of peaches, pears, apples, plums, grapes, blackberries, almonds and figs, all grown in Ashland. The stagecoaches then rolled on to Jacksonville where the presidential party spent the night in the U.S. Hotel. Section 1.04 The Coming of the Railroad For two decades, Oregon had been relatively isolated from the rest of the world and wanted the opportunity to ship goods in and out. Ashland had bountiful crops, products of mills, and a desire for growth, but no practical way to carry on trade outside of the local area. One of the most important events in the development of Ashland, therefore, was the coming of the railroad. Track was being laid south from Portland north from Sacramento. On May 4, 1884, the first train rolled into the Ashland station from the north pulling a short string of mail, express and passenger cars. Shouting and waving from the windows was a group of people in high spirits who had gone as far north as five miles to ride the train into town. Waiting at the station were the Ashland Brass Band, predecessor of today's Ashland City Band and a number of dignitaries with speeches and congratulations. Ashland was the southern terminus of the railroad for three years. Merchandise and passengers were carried on south over the Siskiyou Mountains by freight wagons and stagecoaches. The Golden Spike that connected the Southern Pacific's San Francisco-Portland line was driven in Ashland on December 17, 1887. This completed the circle of railroad tracks around the United States. Ashland was a railroad division point. Already twenty-one employees lived here, and more were to come to build homes, rear families and participate in the development of the community. Section 1.05 Development & Growth The coming of the railroad meant fruit could be exported. Apple, pear and peach orchards were well established. Thou- sands of fruit trees had been planted and a number of five- and ten-acre tracts near town had been cleared of brush and turned into fruit farms.