Pioneer Profiles – October 2020
Life is what happens while you are making other plans. In her long life, Artenicia Riddle Merriman did not anticipate being either a pioneer or a movie actress, yet she became both. Nor did Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery (FOJHC) anticipate the cancellation of their annual October “Meet the Pioneers.” This would have been its 14th year. I’ve portrayed a cemetery “resident” every year since the Pioneers’ inception—which was not my original plan either. I stepped in at the last minute that first year and have been part of it ever since.
This month, as a tribute to “Meet the Pioneers,” Dirk Siedlecki, President of FOJHC, and all the wonderful and dedicated interpreters through the years, some of whom have since joined the early Jacksonville residents who “live” again for the public each October, I’m revisiting Artenicia, my 2012 “incarnation.” And I’ve decided to let “Artenicia” share the story I told. Picture her reading a letter as she joins you.
Gracious goodness! My granddaughter writes here that I’m a moving picture star! She’s down in San Francisco at that 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. She says she walked into the Oregon Pavilion and there I was, bigger than life, up on a moving picture screen! Imagine that—and me an 85-year-old woman!
Oh, I better introduce myself. My name is Artenecia Riddle Merriman, but most folks call me “Artie.” You may know Merriman Road and the Merriman Ranch over in Central Point.
You know, I hadn’t given much thought to being in that film—although I did buy myself a new bonnet for the occasion. It was called “Grace’s Visit to the Rogue River Valley.” Grace Andrews was this pretty, young Broadway actress who married a local orchardist, Conro Fiero. The moving picture had her visiting a friend in Medford, and while they were touring around, they visited some of us pioneers.
It was funny that I turned out to be a pioneer—I certainly didn’t plan to be. My parents were more the adventuring type. Papa came west from Connecticut to homestead in Ohio where I was born in 1830. Then Papa and Mama moved on to Illinois, which is where I grew up. In 1851, they were planning to move again—this time to Oregon!
Well, I was happily settled in Springfield, Illinois. Three years earlier I had married John Chapman, and we now had a baby boy. But not five days before my parents left, John died. So here I was—a 21-year-old widow with a year-old baby. There was nothing for me to do but to come along with my folks, so I scrambled to get as many provisions together as I could before we had to leave.
There were 40 in our party—mostly men. We came across the Missouri River and then followed the southern route to Oregon. That way we had good pasture for our stock, but there were many days when there was not even the suggestion of a trail. And there were quite a few skirmishes with Indians. In fact, the first night this side of the Missouri, we were attacked by a band of Indians who came down over a hill before we knew what was happening. They got away with one of our biggest oxen and wounded one of our men. After that, we were constantly on the lookout.
We arrived in Southern Oregon in just under four months and settled in what is now Douglas County. In fact, Riddle, Oregon, is named for my father, William Riddle.
Indians were also a problem in Oregon, and we went through some terrible Indian wars. Fortunately, none of my immediate family were killed. But many homes were burnt and the government even sent soldiers down from Fort Vancouver to help protect the white people.
But I did learn to speak Chinook—that was the trading language used by the Indians, the French, and the English-speaking settlers. That came in handy later. I was able to act as an interpreter between the Indians and whites when the Rogue River Indian Wars took place.
I moved to the Rogue Valley with my husband, William Merriman, in 1857 after hearing about all the famous mines in the Jacksonville area. I had married William in 1854—he was a widower at the time. His wife had died while crossing the Oregon Tail two years earlier. William and I had known each other as children, then met again on that wagon train.
William was a blacksmith, a wagon maker, and an agriculturalist. He figured all of those trades would be in demand in the new mining district, and they were. We settled two miles north of Jacksonville on 120 acres of land that William purchased.
William and I had 15 children before the Lord took him in 1877 when he was only 52. Our baby daughter Winnifred had died two years before; our youngest son was only five-years-old at the time. But with the help of the older children, we made do. We ran the ranch for almost 20 more years raising pigs, chickens, and cows.
Now, I live most of the time with my different children—I try not to stay so long with any one of them as not to wear out my welcome. I enjoy their company, but it’s been a long 38 years without William…and I look forward to joining him here in the Jacksonville Cemetery before too long….
Still I’ve been fortunate that eleven of my children have survived and I’ve lived long enough to enjoy the better life that has come from those earlier privations. My goodness—gas cook stoves, electric lights, and automobiles are a far cry from the Dutch ovens, tallow candles, and wagons of the pioneer times I talk about in that moving picture.
Artenicia joined William in the Jacksonville Cemetery after she passed-away on January 10, 1917, at the age of 87.
Pioneer Profiles is a project of Historic Jacksonville, Inc. Given the need to cancel all events this year, we’re providing online learning opportunities at www.historicjacksonville.org. Join us for three virtual tours—”Walk through History” with weekly stops at sites in Jacksonville’s National Historic Landmark District; “Beekman Bank Nuggets,” artifacts and stories from the 1863 Beekman Bank Museum; and “Mrs. Beekman Invites You to Call…,” an opportunity to tour the 1873 Beekman House Museum, home to Jacksonville’s wealthiest and most prominent pioneer family, with Mrs. Julia Beekman as your tour guide.