Pioneer Profiles
Gin Lin – Prominent Mine Boss, Contract Labor Broker, and Businessman – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – February 2022
Editor’s Note—In February, Jacksonville traditionally celebrates Chinese New Year, although there are no planned activities this year due to changes brought on by the pandemic. The following article pays tribute to […]
Father Francis Xavier Blanchet: Servant of the Church – by Carolyn Kingsnorth
Pioneer Profiles – December 2021/January 2022
On November 23, 1863, the newly ordained Father Francis Xavier Blanchet arrived in Jacksonville to take charge of the Catholic Church’s southernmost mission in Oregon. Fresh out of his Quebec […]
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 […]