Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-12-23
JACKSONVILLE LETTER
o. II. BaTnhiIl, Who Is Serving on
the Judy at the County
Seat, Writes.

business bent, turns from the busy
court room, where the air is be-
! logged with tobacco smoke and legal
technicalities, to a quiet contempla-
tion of the surrounding city. Jack
sonville resembles an old-fashioned
New England village, some of the
houses having fireplace chimneys
and small-paned windows, the roofs
greened over with the moss of many
years. 1t is said that some of the
Oldest inhabitants have moss on
their north sides, but this is only
hearsay. These old-timers love to
sit in sunny places and slowly con-
sumo plugs of eating tobacco, while
they recall the stirring days of sixty
| years ago, when Jacksonville was a
wild and woolly western mining
camp, the chief city of southern Ore
gon. 1t was only couple of years
after the forty-niners made their
memorable rushe for the California
diggings that gold was discovered
near Jacksonville, since which time
ten million dollars worth of the yell
low metal has been taken from the
bosom of mother earth in southern
Oregon. That is the estimate of
c, c. Beekman, Jacksonvilles vener-
able banker and most notable figure.
Coming to this place ten years be-
fore the Civil War began, he carried
the mail from Yreka, travelling by
night to avoid the Indians. While
engaged in this and various other
enterprises young Beekman lived a
clean and frugal life, saving his
money until enabled to start a bank,
which he is still operating, although
now in his S5th year. The Beck
man bank is the Oldest business
house between Yreka and Salem and
is worthy of being preserved by the
State Historical Society as an inter-
esting relic of pioneer days. The
first object to catch the visitors eye
is huge brass balance scales which
cost $1,000 and is so nicely adjusted
on its jeweled bearings that it will
turn at quarter of a grain, yet is
large enough to weigh several
pounds. Hanging on the wall are
framed signs which seem strangely
out of date in this day and AXE
"Golddust shipped to the Atlantic
states and insured" There is a
large steel engraving, appropriately
inscribed, advertising stagecoach
line. The Wells-Fargo Express
Company has had an agency here for
more than forty years. There is an
old wooden bench that has been in
continuous use by patrons of the
bank since 1855. There is no metal
screen above the counter and it was
with difficulty that the writer con-
vinced one of Ashland's leading bus
iness men that this quaint little shop
was really a bank. AS a matter of
fact it is one of the safest and solid
est financial institutions of Oregon.
Panics come and panics go, but
Beekman's Bank remains undis-
turbed.
The present discounting of county
warrants reminds Mr.. Beekman of
Civil War times, when greenbacks
were bought at 40 to 80 cents on
the dollar, From the cavernous re-
cesses of the ancient, stone walled
vault a number of golden nuggets
were produced, some of them curl
ously shaped and worth $500 each.
AS the aged banker slowly per-
Formed his self-allotted tasks, talk
ing Interestingly of pioneer days,
asked the good old man why he did
not retire from active business.
i've tried to-" he replied, but
they won't let me, these old-timers.
They know nothing about checks,
passbooks and the new way of doing
business. They insist that | stay
here and hand them their money
whenever they want it, as I've al
ways done"
Jacksonville has four saloons;
which means that it is far more plen-
tifully supplied with these hell-holes
than is Medford, population consid-
cred. Much of the poverty and des-
titution here is doubtless directly
due to these booze joints, which give
nothing of value in return for the
many thousands of dollars which
they take from the people every
year.
There is an old brewery, which
now stands idle, the local red-noses
preferring to drink Schlitz, the beer
that made Milwaukee infamous, or
some other outside brew. This is a
good place to controvert that old
chestnut about there being no more
drinking and drunkenness in sa-
loon town than in a prohibition
place. The writer hasn't seen
drunken man during tho thraa vaorS