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Nine Requisites For Contentment

"Nine requisites for contented living:
Health enough to make work a pleasure.
Wealth enough to support your needs.
Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them.
Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them.
Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished.
Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor.
Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others.
Faith enough to make real the things of God.
Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future."

--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and "Renaissance Man."  His works cover drama, literature, poetry, philosophy, and science.

New Gold Discovery!

One hundred years ago today, April 22, 1911 the Rogue River Courier (now known as the Grants Pass Daily Courier) reported the discovery of one of the richest and largest finds in the history of gold mining in western America.

It was found on property owned by L.B. Higgins in the Kerby area. The Courier stated, "It is declared by conservative men that $2 million or more in free gold is actually in sight."

A.E. Voorhies, owner of the Courier and F.D. Tower took a trip to the site of the gold discovery and confirmed that Mr. Higgins "has much gold."

The "Gold Standard" at that time was $20.67 per ounce, and the current price of gold is approximately $1,460 per ounce.  You do the math!

A Day In A Fur Trapper's Life

"Sunday [March] 28th Cold and clair. we traveled to day 6 miles N W over high river cliffs. The country was such as to prevent me from continuing my course W The principal branch of the river bg S W & N E distant from this camp about 5 miles The country generally - is becoming very much cut to pieces by ravines or dry hollers some of the vallies are verry fertile but their driness renders them unfit for cultivation - Snow is so common that I have omitted to note its falling at least two days out of Three"


This comes from the 1825 diary of William H. Ashley during a fur trapping expedition.  Mr. Ashley was an entrepreneur, fur trader and politician.  Although the major Oregon Trail migration did not take place until 1843, Mr. Ashley followed the route of what would later become the Oregon Trail.

Do You Kindle?

How do you read a book?  Do you use an ebook-reading device, or do you prefer a printed book?

I do a lot of reading, so my husband has been encouraging me to start using an electronic reading device.  I know that you can store thousands of books on one, and the battery can last for up to a month.  If I were a college student saddled down with many heavy textbooks, perhaps I would find it convenient, but...

I love walking into a bookstore and anticipating what I'm going to find.  The act of browsing through the aisles and shelves, physically holding a book, reading the synopsis, looking at the typeset, and even the smell of the paper is a pleasure. 

I can't think of a better way to spend a cold or rainy afternoon than curled up in front of a fire with a good book.  I love holding a book and can't wait to turn to the next page.  

As Marcus Aurelius Cicero once said:  “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

I'm not ready to Kindle, are you? 

The Josephine County Historical Society's bookshop has a wonderful selection of books available for purchase inside the Research Library.  

Please come browse through these publications and get the feel and sense of Josephine County history!  The Society's Research Library is located at 512 SW 5th Street on the corner of 5th and K Streets in Grants Pass, and is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  You can also see what else they have to offer by visiting the Josephine County Historical Society website.

The Legend of Indian Mary and Umpqua Joe - by Percy T. Booth

It's hard to visit Indian Mary Park in the Hells Gate Canyon area along the Rogue River without wondering what life must have been like for Umpqua Joe, Indian Mary's father, and the rest of his family.

Percy T. Booth's book, "The Legend of Indian Mary and Umpqua Joe" does a great job of answering these questions.  Mr. Booth weaves the sometimes hearbreaking story of Umpqua Joe, a simple man, who just wanted to raise his family in the best way he knew how.

It was Umpqua Joe who warned the white settlers and miners in this portion of the Rogue Valley about an organized attack by the Rogue Indians. 
So was Umpqua Joe a traitor to his people for warning the whites, or was he a peace-loving man who got caught up in circumstances beyond his control?


And what about Joe's daughter Mary?  What did she do after her father, Umpqua Joe, and her husband, Albert Peco, murdered each other over a dog?


This thoroughly engrossing, 60 page book will provide the answers to these questions and may give rise to even more questions!

This book plus many others are available at the Josephine County Historical Society.  Please come browse the great selection we have in our bookshop, or email us at josephine@historicalsociety.us.

 

The Village Blacksmith

Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands. 

His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man. 

Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low. 

And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And bear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor. 

This is from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow first published in 1841.  Longfellow said that the poem was inspired by his ancestor Stephen Longfellow, who had been a blacksmith.

A livery stable on 6th Street in Grants Pass next to the Golden Rule building.

Blacksmithing is one of Josephine County's oldest professions.

There is no conclusive evidence, but there may have been blacksmiths as early as 6000 BC.  Surprisingly, it was not an occupation held only by men.  During the Middle Ages there were many women blacksmiths.

Many people think a blacksmith is one who shoes horses, but that is just one small part of the trade.  When European settlers were first establishing themselves in America, blacksmiths were indispensable.  They made farm implements, weapons, nails, and cookware, etc.

In the 1900's blacksmiths were being replaced by machinists, because of the need to make products in greater number and more quickly.

In order to supplement their income, they began shoeing horses.  Later, when automobiles became commonplace, many blacksmiths became auto mechanics.

 

Today, blacksmiths are true artisans.  You can see creations by modern-day blacksmiths everywhere you go.  Fencing around schools and cemeteries, the lampposts downtown, chandeliers, sconces, decorative wall-art in our homes, are but a few of the items they are crafting today.

The blacksmithing profession has been forced to reinvent itself, but those historic skills are still being used today.