ON JUNE 8, more than 100 friends gathered in the Jacksonville Cemetery at the Sexton’s tool shed for a marker dedication ceremony to honor Dirk Siedlecki, who passed away in 2023. The ceremony was officiated by Eric Rogers, current president of the Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery. As Eric noted, in […]
ON A RAINY MORNING IN APRIL, Cemetery Sexton Rick Shields, together with members of the Friends board and the Jacksonville Public Works Department staff, placed a monument in the cemetery commemorating the life and work of Dirk Siedlecki, late founder of the Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery and long-time President of […]
On January 31, Jacksonville lost an icon when the mainstay of the Jacksonville Historic Cemetery, Dirk Siedlecki, passed away after a short illness. How this Long Island, New York man ended up in Jacksonville and developed a passion for and commitment to our historic Cemetery is an inspiring story and worthy of celebration.
Dirk was born […]
Cemetery Work to Continue—As you may have read elsewhere in this edition of the Jacksonville Review, Dirk Siedlecki, your usual columnist in this space, and the long-time President of the Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery (FOJHC), passed away on January 31st after a brief illness.
Dirk, with his wife Mary, founded the FOJHC in 2009 and, […]
Long ago and far away, as we cheerfully informed friends that we’d purchased a home in distant Jacksonville, Oregon, a few surprised us by responding with a curious familiarity. “I once spent a whole day exploring the Jacksonville Cemetery,” recalled a dear friend in New Mexico. And from our tax […]
The year 2022 did not end well for our friends and fellow volunteers with the Central Point Cemetery. Sometime on or around Tuesday, December 13, vandals entered the cemetery grounds and proceeded to topple more than two dozen headstones and family monuments. Unfortunately, this was the second act of major vandalism that has occurred in […]
Sincere appreciation and gratitude to all our dedicated volunteers and many supporters for making 2022 another successful year for the Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery. Our History Saturday in the Cemetery programs, May through September, were very well received and were enjoyed by all attending. Several […]
Well, it’s fall in Jacksonville with the return of Meet the Pioneers on the hill overlooking Jacksonville where many of the stories we have featured over the years took place. The program which was first presented in 2006 has shared the rich history of Jacksonville, the Rogue Valley and Southern Oregon in approximately one-hundred and […]
Thank you and much appreciation to our volunteers who cleaned headstones in the Jewish section of our cemetery during the months of May and June. On May 21 volunteers cleaned thirty-seven headstones and on June 18, another twenty-nine were cleaned. In total sixty-six headstones were cleaned with volunteers contributing seventy-seven hours in volunteer labor.
On June […]
My sincere appreciation to all our volunteers who put in so many hours of work in helping to prepare the cemetery grounds for the Memorial Day holiday. Thank you to our city employees who went all-out to help us in this endeavor. While we were unable to get to all areas of the cemetery, we […]
A big thank you to the over sixty volunteers who turned out on Saturday, March 26 for our spring Community Clean-up of the cemetery grounds. The very large city-owned trailer was filled to the brim in an hour followed by approximately 250 bags of other debris. It was a great day with so much accomplished […]
On behalf of our Board Members and volunteers, we sincerely thank the Jacksonville Boosters Club for their continued support and recent donation of $3,500. The generous gift allowed us to purchase an 8’ x 12’ storage shed which was placed down by the Cemetery Maintenance Shop. We also want to thank the City of Jacksonville […]
Spring Programs in the Cemetery—Following the snow and cold temperatures in December, it was a quick jump into spring in January which continues into early February as I write this. We did lose some trees and large limbs within the cemetery grounds as a result of wet and heavy snow. Fortunately, only one headstone was […]
As the New Year begins, our organization and its dedicated volunteers look forward to continuing the work of caring for, restoring and protecting one of Jacksonville’s and Oregon’s treasures, our Pioneer Cemetery. Before going into some of what we have planned for 2022, I would like to take a moment and reflect on all the […]
I would like to begin by thanking the Cubs and Scouts from JV Troop 17, JV Pack 3017, their parents and siblings for helping clean-up the cemetery grounds on October 23, 2021. After a fair amount of rain and wind, the ground was covered with downed branches and limbs and this group of volunteers wasted […]
My write-up in the October 2021 issue featured a photograph of the Chavner block in the Catholic section prior to the start of restoration work. This month, I would like to share this photo of that same block after the project was completed and I think you’ll agree it is quite the transformation.
Thank you—I would […]
UPDATE, OCTOBER 15, 2021 – Slightly over $3,200 was raised for the Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery at the October 9, auction held at Belita Space during Jacksonville’s Art Walk. Our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Chris Anderson for creating his beautiful and artistic bowls and for supporting our organization. Thank […]
Despite the heat, including a week’s worth of triple-digit temperatures, along with smoke from the wildfires, our volunteers managed to contribute 153 hours of volunteer labor during the month of August 2021. These hours were dedicated to grounds maintenance, cleaning of headstones and monuments, and restoration work. Not included is the time that our Adopt-A-Block […]
UPDATE 08/13/21 – August 14 History Saturday in the Cemetery is CANCELED due to smoke and heat.
A total of 150:30 hours of volunteer labor was contributed in June, which included grounds clean-up, marker cleaning, restoration work and other general maintenance items.
This does not include all the hours that our Adopt-A-Block volunteers put in caring for […]
I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all our volunteers who did so much in preparing the cemetery grounds for the Memorial Day holiday. The grounds looked neat and tidy with flowers and flags marking this special day of remembrance for the 410 known Veterans who rest in our cemetery. Our new […]
Well, the month of April proved to be just as successful and busy as March, with volunteers contributing 170 hours in labor, caring for the cemetery grounds, doing restoration work and cleaning markers. These hours do not reflect the time that our Adopt-A-Block volunteers spent caring for their adopted block/s. An update on the month […]
While spring time normally signals the start of a busy time for our cemetery volunteers, this spring turned out to be far busier with much more activity and like no other spring in recent memory. Our March 27 Community Clean-up saw thirty-six volunteers contributing close to 100 hundred hours and filling one large trailer, 67 […]
Adopt-A-Block Kick-Off March 2021—This new program being co-sponsored by the Jacksonville Boosters Club and the Friends of Jacksonville Historic Cemetery, has had an amazing response from residents of Jacksonville, Ashland, Medford and Central Point. Needless to say, with a cemetery the size of Jacksonville’s, we still have blocks available to be adopted and cared for. […]
During the pandemic, the cemetery grounds not only provided plenty of space for people to get out and safely enjoy the fresh air and get some exercise, it also allowed our volunteers to continue important work.
A breakdown of volunteer hours for 2020 is as follows—Volunteers contributed 211:30 hours cleaning head stones and monuments in the […]
The amazing fall weather that we so enjoyed, along with everyone’s desire to get out and do something positive, resulted in a very productive month of volunteer work. A total of 190:30 hours of volunteer time was contributed to cemetery projects during October.
A breakdown is as follows:
Just when we thought things couldn’t get worse… bam, they did with the terrible wildfires in early September. Our hearts and prayers go out to our neighbors and friends who lost so much. I am currently trying to determine what cemeteries may have been damaged by the fires to see if any help is needed.
We […]
Our August 15th Marker Cleaning Workshop was a wonderful success with 48 headstones and monuments being cleaned in the Independent Order of Red Men and Catholic Section. Much appreciation to volunteers Mary Siedlecki, Beverly Helvie, Kathy Waltz, Peggy Jennings, Lorry Davis, Pam Smith, Michael Sneary, Teresa Hopkins, Sherry Kramer, Beverly Smith, Ken […]
July 2020, proved to be another productive month for our volunteers with ninety hours of labor being contributed towards marker restoration and cleaning efforts, as well as caring for the grounds.
On Saturday, July 18, volunteers Beverly Helvie, Teresa Lilleboe, Beverly Smith, Don and Peggy Jennings, Lisa Cogswell, David Grant, Lorry Davis, Teresa Hopkins, Cathy Kromer, […]
So Much to be Grateful For!
Cemetery Clean-Up—While the coronavirus certainly changed how we go about our daily lives, it hasn’t changed our spirit and attitude toward volunteering and helping our community. On Friday, May 22 we held our first-ever “Social Distancing Community Clean-up Day” of the cemetery grounds. We had a group of 24 hard-working […]
Meet the Pioneers 2020—The Board of Directors has chosen to cancel this year’s Meet the Pioneers program that was scheduled for October 2 and 3, 2020. Given the current virus situation, we believe this is the proper and responsible action to take. This was a difficult decision to reach, but going forward and taking unnecessary […]
The daffodils, snowdrops and other spring flowers made an even earlier appearance this year by showing up and starting to bloom in mid-February. This is always a welcome sight as it marks the beginning of another year of programs, marker cleaning workshops, restoration work and cleaning up the grounds from winter.
Our replacement Interpretive Panels have […]
Before I go into our year-end report, I want to thank all of the volunteers who helped make 2019 such a successful and rewarding year. All that was accomplished in 2019 would not have been possible without the support of our volunteers and the generous donations supporting our work […]
I was invited to speak at the fall Conference of the Cemetery Association of Oregon in Hood River on October 17 and 18, 2019. The organization is made up of cemetery owners and operators and representatives from all avenues of the funeral industry. The title of my talk “Our Historic Cemeteries, Much More Than Just […]
My sincerest congratulations to our cast of sixteen players who delivered an outstanding performance, twenty-two times, during this year’s Meet the Pioneers on October 4 and 5. Backing them up and making everything run smoothly was a staff of some forty-five volunteers who greeted guests in the Ticket and Boarding area, directed traffic, boarded the […]
UPDATE: This event for 2019 is now SOLD OUT!
I hope by the time you are reading this October edition of the Jacksonville Review you have already purchased your tickets for this year’s show. If not, visit our website at friendsjvillecemetery.org and look under Meet the Pioneers—Tickets and Reservations or call 541-826-9939, and we will do […]
I would like to start by sincerely thanking our wonderful docents for the great talks and tours they gave this summer for our History Saturday in the Cemetery, and our Tuesday Evening Cemetery Stroll programs. The time they put into research, preparing and presenting their programs was very much appreciated by all who attended. My gratitude to […]
As I write this article, it is Memorial Day and we are remembering and honoring all those who served our country, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers who set aside time to help clean-up the grounds, place the 400+ American flags that mark the […]
As the weather warms up, so does the list of events, activities and projects for the FOJHC and our volunteers. As of this writing, the concrete slab for our new Cemetery Kiosk pavilion has been poured with construction on the pavilion itself expected to be completed in late April or early May. Please look for more details […]
I am pleased to report that plans for our Cemetery Kiosk project continue to move forward. A contract has been signed to have a concrete slab poured which will serve as a foundation for the new pavilion. This work should be completed in April at which time construction of the pavilion can begin. We are […]
A Busy Year Ahead—We have a pretty full schedule lined up for 2019 which includes our History Saturday in the Cemetery program, our Tuesday Evening Cemetery Strolls and our Memorial Day programs, along with our Meet the Pioneers Living History Tours. Each of these programs provides an opportunity to share the rich history of the […]
Happy New Year and thank you to all who volunteered, attended our events, or made a monetary donation in 2018. We could not do what we do without our volunteers and your support, so thank you and please know we sincerely appreciate each and every one of you.
Despite a summer of smoke that not only […]
My sincere appreciation and gratitude to our amazing eighteen-member cast of the 2018 “Meet the Pioneers” for the wonderful and interesting program on October 5 and 6. Helping to make this year’s show so successful was a equally amazing group of volunteers who processed tickets, directed traffic, gathered the tour groups, got them on the […]
Thank You and Sincere Appreciation from the Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery To: The teachers and students from Central Medford High School who paid it forward and spent two mornings, September 26 and 27, cleaning up the grounds in the Masonic Section and cleaning headstones in the Catholic Section of the cemetery. Our docents, Anne […]
This will be our 12th year of offering these very special, guided Living History tours in Jacksonville’s Pioneer Cemetery. The approximately one-hour tours will depart from the D Street parking lot every 15 minutes starting at 3:30pm and […]
On behalf of the Board of Directors for the Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery, I would like to thank our wonderful docents for presenting such interesting and informative programs at this year’s History Saturdays and our Tuesday Evening Cemetery Strolls. The time each puts into researching and preparing was sincerely appreciated by all who attended. […]
History Saturday in the Cemetery, August 11, 10:00-11:30am—This month we present, “The History of Orchards and Vineyards in Southern Oregon,” presented by Gail Nicholson and Pam Smith. The lecture will be followed by a short walking tour of gravesites related to the topic.
Tuesday Evening Cemetery Stroll, August 14, […]
Recently-Restored Headstone of George P. Funck—The beautiful tablet-style headstone of George P. Funck, who died on January 22, 1869 of smallpox, has been restored. He was one of the last victims of the smallpox epidemic that struck Jacksonville in the fall of 1868. George died in his cabin just outside of Jacksonville. Due to the […]
In my column a couple months back, I mentioned that volunteer John McGlothlin and I came across some small headstones and decorative pieces while cleaning out the storage cabinets in the Sexton’s Tool House. One of those headstones, along with its base, belonged to little Beatrice Breitbarth, who died on January 12, 1869 at the […]
Before telling you about what the Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery has planned this spring, I would like to thank the volunteers who were able to help with our Community Clean-up of the Cemetery grounds on March 31. Fifteen volunteers filled 82 large trash bags with leaves and made a number of piles of branches […]
Cemetery Restoration and Preservation Work—In my March 2018 column, I shared the story of cleaning-out the cabinets in the Sexton’s Tool House and finding various pieces of damaged headstones and monuments, along with a few small headstones. One of the pieces of Margaret Zumwalt’s headstone was happily returned to the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery where it […]