OCK ~ENTIN '-/* the Applegate Grange Store Was Photographed by Natalie Brown As It Made Its Move from Its Site I~ the Pioneer Village to Its New Home on Daisy Creek
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OCK ~ENTIN '-/* The Applegate Grange Store was photographed by Natalie Brown as it made its move from its site i~ the Pioneer Village to its new home on Daisy Creek. Larry Sander, Housemover, was in charge of the risky operation, and the primitive structure, which required careful handling, made the trip successfully. ((i fYIJIJi This covered bridge spanned the Rogue River about one-half mile southwest of Prospect. It was demolished in the early 1920s and was replaced by a "modern" structure, which is now one of the two surviving examples of early arched-span bridge engineering. Although Oregon once had more than 450 covered bridges, by 1977 only 56 remained. From 1910 to the beginning of World War II, they were being destroyed at the rate of about eight a year. Jackson County has four of the remaining covered bridges: McKee Bridge, Wimer Bridge, Lost Creek Bridge and Antelope Creek Bridge. All of these Jackson County bridges have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. 'THE SOUTHERN OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Donald D. McLaughlin ............................................ President Coordinator of Exhibits .................................... Jime Matoush Isabel Sickels ...................................... , ..... 1st Vice President Curator of Interpretation ................................... Dawn a Curler James M. Ragland ................................... 2nd Vice President Coordinator of Photographic Services .............. Natalie Brown Laure! Prairie-Kuntz ................................................ Secretary Curator of Preservation and Maintenance .......... Byron Ferrell William R. Bagley ................................................... Treasurer Coordinator of Chappell-Sweden burg House Leslie Egger-Gould Financial Manager ......................................... Maureen Smith STAFF Librarian/Archivist ........................................ Paul Richardson Acting Executive Director .......................... Samuel J. Wegner Membership/Administrative Assistant .................... Susan Cox Children's Museum Coordinator .................... Stacey Williams Newsletter Editor .......................................... Raymond Lewis Curator of Collections ......................................... Marc Pence Oral Historian ................................................ Marjorie Edens Gift Shop Manager ..................................... Sharon Lumsden Coordinator of Volunteers ............................... Marge Herman 2 THE TABLE ROCK SENTINEL THlNaS TH·Ar GO BUM~" BAftBAftA H!GN~ Barbara Hegne of Nevada, who has family connections in southern Oregon, has a photographic memory and an un erring nose for research. She has made a thorough study of the Eagle Point area and is our volunteer expert in that field. We're grateful to have her on our string. A previous newsletter featured her story of the Wood House which now sits abandoned on Highway 62. Her nar ration and the photographs make a permanent record of a landmark which will one day be no more. For this issue Ms. Hegne has written a recapitulation of some criminal episodes which stirred considerable in terest when they occurred. Some of these tales have been featured in earlier issues, but Ms. Hegne fits them to gether here in chronological order. The rascals in these misdeeds get what's coming to them and none of them is awarded a good conduct button nor a parole. It's not always unpleasant to see the das tard get his comeuppance, and these ugly customers were unrepentant hoodlums who earned their hisses. ome unexplained bizarre happenings bate was Lewis O'Neil who had been rot- and strange eerie sounds had the be- ting in jail since November 1884. He wildered guards dreading the night was accused and found guilty by a jury watch at the old Jacksonville jail- of his peers of the cold-blooded murder Shouse during the long winter nights of of Lewis McDaniel over a love triangle 1886. There were not only supernatural with McDaniel's seductive wife Amanda. sounds, but objects were moved around, This became the longest and most sensa- pushed out of place and turned over and tional trial in the county. upside down. It was as if someone or Lewis O'Neil tried desperately to save something was playing pranks or getting his worthless hide. He wrote an appal- revenge. Finally after several suspense- ling letter to his older brother beseech- ful nights the ghost put in a shadowy ing him to confess to the crime, on the appearance. And as the unwelcome mani- grounds that his brother was getting on festation took shape,the guards recog- in years, didn't have much time left, nized it. The apparition was a dis- and should be eager to make a noble sacri- tinctly dead Chinese man who had been in fice for his younger brother. He wrote that very jail and had strung himself up to his sister pleading with her to in a cell several years before. testify that she had seen him sell his The old stone jailhouse had not been gun to someone else before the crime idle since the man's demise. The cell was committed. He even wrote to Amanda blocks had held some of the most cunning, McDaniel, his alleged light of love, and viciou~ heartless criminals ever to set begged her to confess to the crime. He foot in Jackson County. One such repro- explained in great detail that she had OCTOBER 1986 3 already been acquitted, and the State brother. That kind of a situation isn't couldn't try her again for the same easily explained to a couple of hooligans crime. After her confession, he would who are looking for revenge to begin with, sue the State for false arrest, be and, in a torrent of words, angry threats awarded a big settlement and he and and heated tempers, the Brown brothers Amanda would go into the golden sunset shot Hurt in the vitals, left him lying hand-in-hand. on the trail and rode off carelessly The lady fair was not about to acqui leaving Prine as a witness to the inci esce. She had languished in the Jack dent. sonville jail for some months and she After their murderous deed, the Browns recognized a false-hearted lover even went into hiding. The law made every before O'Neil began his intricate effort to track them down and a search scheming. When she was released she was made from the Willamette Valley to the moved to Talent, opened a neat little old Brown homestead at Sprague River in eatery, and kept out of trouble. Lake County, but the illusive Browns Lewis O'Neil's schemes, although bril seemed to have disappeard into thin air. liant to an insane degree, went nowhere. The sheriff finally prevailed upon three The law was inexorable and the gallows well-known Indian scouts from the Yainax were erected in the yard alongside the Reservation to smoke out the Browns' jail. The construction crew banged whereabouts. It wasn't long before the around with their hammers and saws even Indians found the trail and tracked down as poor Lewis O'Neil combed his brains the killers. They found them asleep in with unsuccessful plans to escape the a haystack. The sheriff and the deputies rope. Tickets were sold for five dol closed in and made a grand arrest. The lars each and a lot of people wanted a mean and ornery Browns were like babes in close-up of the action. A capacity arms when they awoke from slumber and crowd filled the streets on Friday, found themselves facing three double March 12, 1886. barreled shotguns at full cock. By two o'clock the prisoner gave up They were put into the Jacksonville hope. He was led center stage, mounted jail next to another ruthless criminal, the thirteen steps and stood on the Chester Barden. trap door. After a brief prayer, the sheriff placed the twisted rope noose A STUBBORN MAN lightly around O'Neil's neck, stepped hester Barden was sentenced to be back, released the stick, and the mur hanged for killing a highly respected derer pitched into eternity. He may sheepherder, Daniel McMahon, of Reese have passed the shadow of the Chinese Creek, and for stealing his herd of ghost along the way. sheep. While under sentence, Barden began to starve himself to escape the THE BAD AND THE UGLY noose, and gained the sympathy of a nother couple of roughnecks became group of soul-saving ladies who bombarded used to the inside of the jail in him with homemade meals in an effort to January 1875. These two were the keep him alive and fatten him up for his notorious Brown brothers who, exit. The Brown brothers, lodged in the people claimed, feared neither God, man next cell, had to endure the aroma of nor the devil. The Browns had a third the delicious feasts the well-meaning brother George who was killed in Klamath ladies brought to the starving man. County by a man named Hurt. On one occasion as Barden pushed his Hurt was brought to Jacksonville, hunger strike to the hilt and stubbornly given a preliminary trial and released refused the food, one of the Brown on bail. After he anted-up his warranty brothers stuck his nose through the cell to the county, he joined up with a fel and yelled, "Try him on a mutton chop; low named Prine, and the two of them he's got a taste for sheep." Although started back to George's home base. this remark brought an uncontrollable As they were riding along the trail roar of laughter from the other brother, over the Greensprings, the Brown brothers the ladies left in tears and Barden, suddenly appeared out of nowhere and virtually starved to death, was too weak confronted Hurt about the death of little to comment. 4 THE TABLE ROCK SENTINEL He finally made good his threats and question and settle it once and for all. died on December 11, 1875. The Brown They examined the cell he frequented and brothers did considerably better. They found it free of other· haunts, and they were tried and acquitted on the grounds initiated a plan to keep the cell ghost~ of justifiable homicide.