Lumber baron started anew in Green Springs
Starting out at age 17 as a horse trader, James Everett Henry spent a lifetime building a lumber empire, buying forests in his native New Hampshire, building lumber and paper mills and power stations...
View ArticleAs It Was: Mrs. Wah Chung's life in Ashland
The everyday lives of Chinese residents in the State of Jefferson in the late 19th century is not well known. But Mabel Roach Dunlop's remembrance of Mrs. Wah Chung's life in Ashland gives some clues....
View ArticleEarly initiatives advocate favored self-government
As Oregonians vote in this year’s presidential elections, they might ponder the work of William Simon U’Ren, an early advocate of Oregon election reform. U’Ren, born in Wisconsin, settled in Milwaukie,...
View ArticleAs It Was: First Southern Oregon elections were in Ashland
As November voters drop their ballots into mailboxes, they are exercising a civic duty dating back to 1853 in Southern Oregon. White settlers first arrived in the Upper Bear Creek Valley in 1851. By...
View ArticleAs It Was: Southern Oregonians favored pro-slavery presidential candidate
Presidential elections in Oregon date back to 1860, when Abraham Lincoln’s victory foreshadowed the Civil War. A year earlier Oregonians had rejected slavery and entered the Union as a free state, but...
View ArticleAs It Was: Plants filled the J'ville Post Office
Imagine a picture of the Jacksonville Post Office in 1903, with varnished and polished woodwork, oil paintings, engravings, deer antlers on the walls, and spotless linoleum floors. Envision many...
View ArticleSouthern Oregon women joined the Navy
On April 16, 1917, the Home Telephone Company in Medford, Ore., printed a notice asking patrons to be patient as “one half of the operating force is gone to Naval Reserve duty at the Puget Sound navy...
View ArticleAs It Was: Willow Springs School went from one room to two
The two-room Willow Springs School, situated a little northwest of Central Point, Oregon, has been the focus of this farming community since 1911, when it replaced the one-room school that had been...
View ArticleAs It Was: Griffin Creek school history
School District 2 in Southern Oregon was established in 1854 in the Griffin Creek area. Its first school was the Van Dorn School, which had 12 students who attended for three months in a log warehouse...
View ArticleEmmitt M. Tucker invents the Sno-Cat tracked vehicle
One of 13 children, Emmitt M.Tucker Sr. was born in 1892 in a log cabin on Jumpoff Joe Creek near Grants Pass, Ore. He spent his early childhood near Trail in a stone house built by his father. As a...
View ArticleAshland Mills celebrates a peaceful Christmas in 1859
When Oregon became a state in 1859, Ashland Mills — today’s Ashland, Ore. — had a lumber mill and a flour mill and only a scattering of homes on donated land claims.There was no church, but the town...
View ArticleEnd of life issues not easily solved
You might have recently read about a very difficult situation affecting a person with dementia. She had made her wishes known that she did not want to be fed when the dementia progressed. When the time...
View ArticleAging Happens: Adult Protective Services plays a vital role
(Part 1 of 2)Many years ago, I had gotten a call from Adult Protective Services (APS) regarding an older man who was in really bad shape. His family member was supposedly taking care of him in his own...
View ArticleAging Happens: Making use of Adult Protective Services, Part 2
In my last column (Nov. 9, "Adult Protective Services plays a vital role"), you read about the important role that Adult Protective Services (APS) plays in our community. Here are the remaining set...
View ArticleChris Honoré: Commentary
Part OneOf late I’ve been thinking of Elie Wiesel, who passed away this summer. He was 87.He spent his life bearing witness to an experience so horrific that it defies understanding and ultimately...
View ArticleChris Honoré: Is it possible Trump could win?
Someone asked me this morning, “You don’t think Trump will win, do you?” I found myself hesitating, not immediately responding with, “Absolutely not!” Finally, I said, “I just can’t imagine — not if...
View ArticleChris Honoré: ‘History doesn’t repeat itself’
Mark Twain once said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Which led me to think of Donald Trump. We’ve seen his like before, an individual standing stage center practicing the art...
View ArticleChris Honoré: The Ralph Nader syndrome
The millennials are those 18- to 35-year-olds who are now the largest age group in our country. There are some 75.4 million millennials in the U.S., surpassing in number the 74.9 million baby boomers,...
View ArticleChris Honore: Mike Pence — defending the indefensible
Mike Pence, former governor of Indiana (he withdrew to join Donald Trump on the Republican ticket), was raised in a Catholic family and served as an altar boy. He became a born-again Christian in...
View ArticleChris Honore: Donald Trump: Once again unshackled
Last Thursday I listened to a speech delivered in West Palm Beach, Florida, by Donald Trump at one of his political rallies. He was furious and spoke without restraint. If he had taken off a shoe and...
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