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 Herman von Helms arrived in Jacksonville in 1856, three years after immigrating from Holstein, Germany, it was not the Table Rock Saloon—it was the Table Rock Bakery.
At the time the bakery was co-owned by William Hesse, C.H. Miller, and a fellow German, John Wintjen, and known as Hesse’s Table Rock Bakery. Located in a small false-fronted, clapboarded wood structure on the site of the current Table Rock Billiard Saloon building, it was one of Jacksonville’s earliest bakeries. The Table Rock Bakery not only sold baked goods; it also provided space for a butcher shop, groceries, and supplies.
By 1858, Helms had acquired Hesse’s share of the shop and probably Miller’s, becoming co-owner with Wintjen. That marked the beginning of a partnership that lasted for more than four decades.
Business was obviously profitable. In 1860, Helms and Wintjen purchased the cigar and tobacco stand between their bakery and the El Dorado Saloon, razed both buildings, and erected the current arcaded one-story brick structure. Although operating as the Table Rock Bakery, they appear to have run both a bakery and a bar given that in February 1861 they were indicted for selling intoxicating liquors on Sunday. The outcome is unknown, but it does not appear to have impacted their success.
With a thriving business, it was now time for Helms to look for a wife. In 1862, Helms married Augusta Englebrect one day after they first met. He was nearly 30; she was 10 years his junior. Augusta, a native of Hamburg, Germany, had settled with her parents in Yreka the year before. The marriage had been arranged by the Southern Oregon and Northern California German communities.
Helms brought his new bride home to a log cabin at the corner of South Oregon and Pine streets that he was renting from William Hesse, the same Hesse from whom he had purchased his ownership interest in the bakery. Both the business and the marriage apparently prospered, and by 1866 Helms purchased the South Oregon Street lot his growing family was occupying.
A turning point was April 1874 when the dreaded alarm for fire was sounded. The bakery’s neighbor at the corner of Oregon and California streets, the El Dorado Saloon, one of Jacksonville’s earliest and most notorious establishments, “lighted up the town in all directions.” It was not only a total loss, it soon engulfed the neighboring wooden buildings on California Street. Helms’ and Wintjen’s brick structure was instrumental in preventing the fire from spreading to Oregon Street.
Soon after the demise of the El Dorado, Helms and Wintjen appear to have abandoned the bakery portion of their business, focusing on the saloon operation and redesignating their building the Table Rock Saloon. J.W. Byrd reported in the Yreka Union in 1877 that “Our old friend Helms has a fine saloon, the Table Rock, which he keeps in tip-top style. His liquors are good and his cigars No. 1; he has a fine cabinet of curiosities which will well repay an inspection.”
The venture proved lucrative and in 1878 Helms was successful enough to have a large two-story house built on his South Oregon property for what would become a family of nine children. In the fall of that year, a local newspaper reported it as being “one of the most elegant residences in town…Austrian with a strong French influence.” Like many other homes of the time, the family’s original log cabin was incorporated into the new residence, becoming the kitchen and pantry.
Helms did not stint on furnishings. All the household furniture was packed in from Crescent City. Outstanding pieces included an organ, horsehair upholstered parlor furniture, Dresden lamps, and a unique sleigh bed.
That sleigh bed saw the birth of the last of the couples nine children. Unfortunately, only five of the Helms children survived to adulthood. Three daughters died in epidemics; a fourth was murdered by her sister’s estranged husband. The first daughter to die, Minnie, was less than two-years-old. She was supposedly buried on the front lawn in 1868, but when the new house was constructed, her bones were moved to the Jacksonville Cemetery.
In 1880, Wintjen retired. Under Helms’ oversight, the saloon became an informal social and political headquarters, home to business deals, court decisions, and even trials. Perhaps that’s why a quart of whiskey donated by Helms was one of the items placed in the cornerstone of the new 1883 Jackson County Courthouse. Reports also indicate that the saloon offered a superior free-lunch counter.
When Helms added an English-style pool and billiard table, twice the size of those today, the building and business were renamed the Table Rock Billiard Saloon. The billiard table had been shipped around the Horn and packed by mules into Jacksonville from Eureka, California.
However, the highlight of the saloon was Helms’ “Cabinet of Curiosities,” Jacksonville’s first museum, which contained a valuable collection of pioneer relics. Helms advertisements would invite people to visit his museum, then “stay for his fine lager.” An early inventory list included the first piece of gold found in Jackson County, Indian relics including a bow and arrow said to have been used by Captain Jack of the Modocs in his early-day raids, a mastodon tusk found on the Applegate, pioneer firearms, freaks of nature, and an extensive mineral and coin collection.
Although Helms’ time was consumed with business and family obligations, he was also involved in the community. In 1865 he was part of a hunting party that became the third group to “discover” Crater Lake, and one of the two individuals who climbed down to the water’s edge, carving their initials and the date into a rock. They christened it “Great Sunken Lake.”
Helms was at various times the county’s Public Administrator for intestate estates, served on juries, was a road “viewer,” served as precinct election judge, and was a Trustee of the local Odd Fellows fraternal order.
Even though Wintjen had retired 19 years earlier, the two remained partners until Helms’ death in 1899. Management of the saloon was then taken over by Helms’ older son, Ed, who successfully operated it until his own retirement in 1914. No reason was given for its closure that year other than the fact that its license was due to be renewed. Its closing was widely lamented, with the local newspaper noting, “The place is one of the pioneer landmarks of Jackson County, and its four walls shelter a relic history of the days when the Rogue River Valley was young to man, and Jacksonville was at the height of its glory.”
When the saloon closed, that “relic history”—Helms’ “Cabinet of Curiosities”—boasted a collection of artifacts valued at $50,000. It encompassed “every possible manner of relic…mutely telling pages in the early history of Jackson County.” Many of those relics became part of the core of the Southern Oregon Historical Society’s initial collection.
Augusta died in 1911, Ed in 1921. Family members owned the house until 1926. That year, Harry, the youngest child, and the last member of the family to live in Jacksonville, put the house on the market. It appears that he simply packed his suitcases and walked away, leaving the furnishings intact, including rugs, rare dishes and porcelain, and the pictures on the wall. A mirror from the Table Rock Saloon was still hanging in a bedroom.
We have no idea what circumstances prompted Harry to abandon his background and an entire lifetime of memories. But memories are still being made at the “Table Rock Billiard Saloon.” You can see the sign painted on the outside brick wall of Jacksonville’s GoodBean Coffee Shop.
Pioneer Profiles is a project of Historic Jacksonville, Inc., a non-profit whose mission is to preserve Jacksonville’s Historic Landmark District by bringing it to life through programs and activities. Follow us on Facebook (historicjville) and Instagram (historicjacksonville) and visit us at www.historicjacksonville.org for virtual tours, blogs, upcoming events, and more Jacksonville history.