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 successes in politics, business, and ranching in Oregon.
Kubli, initially deemed by his family as a “prodigal son,” arrived in the United States in 1852, landing at the port of New Orleans then moving on briefly to Illinois. The following year he joined a wagon train crossing the plains. Reaching Jacksonville at the beginning of October, he was soon engaged in mining for gold on Jackson Creek.
Two winters of gold mining apparently provided a sufficient “grubstake” for Kubli to invest with fellow countrymen, Peter Britt and Viet Shutz, in running pack mule trains over the Siskiyou Mountains between Crescent City, California, and Jacksonville, hauling supplies to the area mining camps. Although the journey was both hazardous and uncertain, by 1857 it had proven profitable enough for him to purchase a flour mill on the Applegate River as well as a farm.
On December 17th of that same year, Kubli married Eleanor Jan Newcomb, the daughter of Mexican War veteran Daniel Newcomb who had captained the wagon train Kubli had joined to cross the Oregon Trail. Kubli and Eleanor had met on the months-long trip.
After his marriage, Kubli opened a “trading post and stage house” that was also licensed to sell liquor. Located about two miles from present day Applegate, it became a night stop on the stage line from Crescent City to Jacksonville. The stage house was the couple’s first home and where their first five children were born.
During this period Kubli also opened a store in Applegate with a J. Bolt. It later became the site of the Applegate post office. First known as Kubli and Bolt, it later became Kubli and Son, and then finally Kubli. Most business was done by barter inasmuch as cash was in short supply. Records show that a note for $10 to be paid “in produce or money” was eventually paid in potatoes.
Per the Southern Oregon Pioneer Society, Kubli’s “first $1,000.00 earned by honest toil in Jackson County was sent back to his parents in Switzerland to help raise the younger children at home.” Once settled and increasingly prosperous, Kubli also sent money for his brothers Jacob and Heinrich Kubli to come from Switzerland to the United States.
Heinrich arrived in 1860 and worked for a while on pack trains. He apparently never married, and little more is known about him. Jacob arrived in 1868 with his wife and four children, and settled just north of Missouri Flats, purchasing a donation land claim a few hundred feet from the Josephine County border and becoming a respected part of the community.
Then in 1871, tragedy struck. Two of the Kublis’ daughters died in the same week during a diphtheria epidemic. Kubli moved his family back to Jacksonville, purchasing the home and the adjacent property at 305 S. Oregon Street where Kaspar and Eleanor’s last two children were born.
Kubli briefly invested in C.H. Miller and Company, a firm engaged in a variety of businesses, including the production of meats, bread, and other edibles. However, he soon sold his interest in the company to the other partners. Kubli then bought the Union Livery Stable from Thomas Reames, a business he continued in partnership with a man named Wilson for a decade or more. According to County records, although listed as a “livery and feed stable,” at least a portion of the business seems to have been supplying hearses for funerals. The running of the business may have been left to Wilson since during this period Kubli also made his mark as a printer and telegraph operator.
In 1873 Kubli bought out William Hoffman and Henry Klippel’s hardware business and became a successful hardware merchant, advertising his “superior assortment of hardware and tinware.” The business was housed on the ground floor of the International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) building on Oregon Street until 1884 when Kubli built his own two-story brick commercial building on California Street. Kubli remained a prominent Jacksonville merchant, running his hardware business until his death.
Kubli was also active in public and civic affairs. He served as juror and as a road district supervisor. He served on six of Jacksonville’s City Councils between 1874 and 1882. He was twice elected Jackson County Treasurer by the Democratic Party and was always an active party member.
He was a member of Jacksonville’s IOOF Lodge No. 10, as well as a charter member of the IOOF’s Table Rock Encampment and of the Ruth Rebekah Lodge. In 1893, he was elected Grand Patriarch of the IOOF grand lodge of Oregon. He was active in the Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW). He took an active part in the management of the affairs of the Presbyterian Church, and his wife served for many years as one of its trustees.
Kubli died May 16, 1897 and is buried in the Odd Fellows section of Jacksonville’s pioneer cemetery. In his memoriam, Peter Britt and David Linn praised Kubli as “earnest, brave, and forceful…a citizen of unimpeachable integrity, fearless in his convictions and courageous in maintaining them…a friend true and unwavering.”
The Kubli’s youngest son, Kaspar K. Kubli, initially took over the running of the family businesses following his father’s death. He had graduated from the University of Oregon and Harvard Law School although he never practiced law. However, in the early 1900s he moved to Portland and became active in Republican politics. He served as a Portland City Councilor then served four terms in the Oregon House of Representatives, eventually becoming Speaker of the House.
Kaspar K. Kubli was an unabashed populist and became caught up in the post-World War I tide of nativism and its anti-immigration stance. He supported or authored bills prohibiting non-citizens from owning land or teaching in schools, excluding women from juries, and severely limiting labor union activities and political dissidence. His distinctive initials also proved prophetic. He was a natural fit for the rising Ku Klux Klan of the time, and, as a politician, energetically promoted Klan legislation, much of it targeting the Catholic Church.
Kaspar K., or Kap as he was called, was described as a “red-blooded protagonist” of conservative politics. One can’t help but wonder what his immigrant father would have felt about his son’s nativist stance….
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