Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/18



8 ALICE APPLEGATE SARGENT

A woolen mill was built in Ashland in 1867-8 at a cost of $32,000. This mill was destroyed by fire some years ago.

When I was a child there were eight large flouring mills in the valley, and hundreds of pounds of flour were carried out of the valley by pack animals and wagons, besides what was con- sumed in the valley. From the old Barron farm at the foot of the Siskiyous to Rogue River the valley was golden with grain, and the yield was from thirty to fifty bushels of wheat to the acre. Almost every farmer in the valley had planted an orchard, many of them very large. I have never seen finer fruit, for in those days the fruit was perfectly free from dis- ease a wormy apple was unheard of. Spraying was not nec- essary and smudging was never resorted to, as there was always an abundance of fruit. When the orchards came into bearing the country east of the Cascades, and the mining towns in California were supplied with fruit from the Rogue River valley. The first apples raised in the valley were Gloria Mundis, raised on the Skinner place on Bear Creek and sold to a wealthy miner from Gold Hill for two dollars and fifty cents each.

CONCLUSION

Jacksonville, besides being the first town founded in the Rogue River Valley, was at one time the richest and most flourishing. It had been settled by people of education and culture who were wide awake and progressive. I marvel now that people so isolated could have kept so abreast of the times.

When this valley was dotted with beautiful farms and Ash- land called Ashland Mills, Phoenix known as Gasburg, and Jacksonville was the hub of the universe (so to speak), my father moved his family from Douglas County where I was born, to southern Oregon, and we lived for two years at the toll house on the Siskiyous.

FREIGHT OVER SISKIYOU TOLL ROAD

Looking back to that time, I realize that it was a wonderful