Pioneer Profiles
Epidemics – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – November 2021 – Published online-only
It’s November and flu season is upon us! We’re fortunate that our annual flu shots help protect us against such virulent strains as the “Spanish Influenza” that beset […]
Kaspar Kubli – Businessman, Rancher, Politician – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – October 2021
Born August 1, 1830, in Netsall, Canton Glaurus, Switzerland, Kaspar Kubli, was the first of his Swiss family to immigrate to America. He laid a foundation upon which later generations built […]
Herman Helms – Saloon Keeper – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – September 2021
For over 50 years the name Helms was synonymous with the Table Rock Billiard Saloon, first that of Herman Helms, then that of his son Ed. However, when a 24-year-old Johann […]
John (Johannes) Bilger – Astute Businessman – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – August 2021
One of the more impressive monuments in Jacksonville’s Pioneer Cemetery—a towering obelisk engraved with Masonic ruler and compass, Odd Fellows linked circles, and a hand pointing upwards to indicate a heavenly […]
Robertson E. “Robbie” Collins: “Mr. Historic Preservation” – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – July 2021
Did you know that Jacksonville was the first West Coast group of buildings added to the National Historic Register? In 1967 it was one of eight initial towns designated as a […]
Love and a Wad of Chewing Gum – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – June 2021
Our March Pioneer Profile focused on “Hired Girls,” described by Helen Colvig Cook as an institution of the “by-gone era” when she was growing up in Jacksonville’s Colvig household in the […]
“Hired Girls” – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – April 2021
I recently came across a March 1862 letter that Cornelius Beekman wrote to his parents in New York. After talking about how tough the winter had been locally, he wrote, “I […]
Patrick J. Ryan – Investor in “Fire-Proof” Brick Buildings – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – March 2021
Jacksonville is “celebrating the Shamrock” this month so Historic Jacksonville, Inc. is going Irish by highlighting one of our early settlers, Patrick J. Ryan.
In the 1840s, over half of the immigrants […]
Max Müller—A True Citizen of Jacksonville – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – February 2021
Many of Jacksonville’s early merchants were Jewish, fleeing wars and persecution in their homelands by immigrating to the United States. Most of the town’s Jewish merchants moved on to Medford, San […]
Abigail Scott Duniway – Oregon Suffragette – By Sharon Bywater
Pioneer Profiles – November 2020 – Published Online-Only
2020 is not only a seminal election year, it also marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which gave women […]