able importance. Then came the railroad, which might have made Jacksonville but which, instead, developed a level bare spot in the valley into Medford, metropolis of southern Oregon. The story is, that a little more cooperative spirit on the part of Jacksonville's leading citizens in encouraging the railroad by a small subsidy and land for right-of-way would have put the town on the Southern Pacific's through line. The die was cast, the line missed Jacksonville, and since then Medford has looked toward the future, while Jacksonville still has its glorious past.
When the railroad put Medford on its map, the forty wooden buildings and the big brick went up in that winter season, and Medford was on the waY.
Medford's first newspaper was the Monitor, founded in 1885 by M. A. McGinnis as a Friday weekly. This paper struggled along for two years, finally folding up in January 1887 when its editorpublisher, A. L. Johnson, got into financial difficulties and left the town. The paper has left no striking memories with the old-timers; but, anyway, it was a beginning, good enough, probably, for its small and struggling, though hopeful, field.
Next came the Southern Oregon Transcript, started in 1886 by C. B. Carlisle. It also appears to have been inconspicuous save for its chronological position.
Then came the Mail, which has come on down through the years. Thomas Harlan founded the Mail in 1888 as an independent paper, issued Thursdays. Next publisher was Newell Harlan, in 1890, then Felix G. Kertson in 1891. Ira Phelps is recalled by oldtimers as one of the editors of the Mail, but the records are incomplete.
Better than the newspaper personnel old-timers recall the flood blockade of the winter of 1889-90 when the young town was cut off from all mail for 42 days. In February of 1890, Charlie Strang recalls, a foot of snow went off with a warm rain and carried out the railroad bridges. The mountain just slid into Cow Creek canyon to the north and put a lake 40 feet deep over the railroad. Meanwhile deep snow in the mountains to the south was keeping trains out from that direction. Supplies of all kinds ran short, and the papers were forced to suspend for a time. One issue of the Jacksonville Times, Charles Nickell's paper, came out printed on the backs of old Fourth of July posters.
A. S. Bliton, a young man from North Dakota, arrived in Medford, Sunday, January 6, 1893, full of enthusiasm for the West. So pleased was he with what he saw that he would have purchased the Mail that day had it been possible to transact business. So, he bought it from Publisher Kertson on Monday and ran it for 16 years. The paper was then known as the Southern Oregon Mail, but that seemed to cover too much territory and Mr. Bliton made it the
