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Medford
in 1936 We Visit Medford
This
column had the pleasure this week of a visit to Medford, the pear
center of the world. The occasion for the trip was an invitation from
the Lincoln Club of Jackson County, to deliver the Lincoln Day address
Wednesday evening. The meeting was very largely attended, the big
dining room in the Medford Hotel being packed to capacity. We were
surprised to see so many former Corvallis people there. The retiring
president of the Lincoln Club is Earl Newbry, who married the daughter
of Prof. B. A. Johnston of this city. She too was present. Kenneth
Denman, son of George Denman of this city, is practicing law there and
doing very well. He too was at the head table, having just been elected
vice-president of the club. As they have a habit of promoting the
vice-presidents to the presidency, Ken, who was one of the best
halfbacks the O.S.C. team ever had, will automatically go over for a
touchdown with the presidency one of these days. Kenneth is taking the
right course politically too, in our estimation. He had it in his
bonnet a year ago to make the race for district attorney, but has
decided not to tackle it this year on account of the Townsend business.
"I made up my mind when I started practicing law," Kenneth told us,
"not to climb onto any bandwagon just to get an office. If a movement
cannot merit my approval, I am not going to join up with it just to get
a few votes." If Kenneth keeps up that attitude, he will at least have
the respect of the sound-thinking people of Medford and such regard
will, in the long run, win him more laurels than will switching around
after all the isms that afflict this unfortunate country.By C. E. INGALLS, Editor Corvallis Gazette Times ----
Among other former Corvallis people were A. A.
Schramm, and O. H. Barnhill. Mr. Barnhill came from Ashland to attend
the meeting. He is engaged in his old trade--doing publicity work, and
is coming north for some writing this spring. He hasn't changed any
worth mentioning since he left here for California some dozen or 15
years ago. Mr. Schramm was formerly cashier of the Corvallis State Bank
and was appointed by Gov. Patterson to the position of state bank
commissioner. He made a fine record in this place during one of the
severest banking strains in our history. When politics forced him out,
the First National Bank of Portland made him manager of its Medford
branch, formerly the First National Bank of Medford. The change of
ownership should be a good thing for Medford, especially in the fruit
picking and packing season, as it will enable growers and packers to
get all the money needed right at home for carrying on this important
enterprise. Mr. Schramm knows the banking business in all its various
angles. We visited the bank Thursday forenoon, and it was a busy place.
As one important business man after another came into the bank, Schramm
would draw him into the compartment where we were sitting and introduce
them. From these various men in all walks of life, we elicited many
opinions on "the state of the nation." Among them were some Democrats.
We also reached the conclusion that Medford probably has more high
grade, substantial and independently wealthy citizens than any other
community in the state.----
Among other people we met in this way was Alfred S.
V. Carpenter--born in Colorado and educated in Harvard. He is president
of the Southern Oregon Sales, Inc., a substantial concern engaged in
the business of growing, packing and shipping fruit. He drove us out to
the company's packing plant. It is an eye opener to one who has never
visited one of these concerns. There we met the manager, S. M. Tuttle,
and a former Corvallis man, Lyle Wilcox. Lyle went from here ten years
ago to act as county agent of Jackson County and made good. A year or
so ago the S.O.S. took him into its organization, and he likes the work
very much. The plant has five acres of land with 1100 feet of trackage,
and is of course modern in every respect. Much of the work is done
automatically, such as making the boxes. The box-making machines are
self-feeding. A man lays the lumber on a platform and it comes out at
the other end, a complete pear box. During the packing season, hundreds
of girls are engaged in sorting and wrapping--the pears being sorted as
to size by machinery and carried to the girls by endless belts. The
process is too complicated to describe here. A mechanical conveyor
takes the boxes of fruit to a machine which nails the lids on at one
stroke and a mechanical conveyor then takes the boxes to a cold storage
department. There are 40 of these cold storage rooms in this one plant,
and each has a capacity of eight carloads of 720 boxes to the car, or a
total of 240,000 boxes. There is also a separate line of mechanical
conveyors which carry the boxes to the refrigerator cars, where they
may load as many as eight cars at a time. Medford pears bring the
highest prices both in New York and Europe. They raise five different
varieties, and the soil and climate combine to make them the finest
fruit in the world. The S.O.S. company officials gave high praise to
the college, especially Professors Hartman and Robinson, for valuable
assistance they had given the pear industry. Of course, they raise lots
of apples and peaches in the Medford district, but it is for its
wonderful pears that it is chiefly noted industrially.----
The Medford district has about half the annual rainfall
we have in Corvallis. The weather Thursday was delightfully warm and
the air was invigorating, the altitude being approximately 1,000 feet
higher than Corvallis. Much of the land is irrigated, the total as we
remember being about 26,000 acres. There are 12,000 acres of pear
trees, from which are shipped annually 2,500 carloads. There are 3,000
counties in the United States, and Jackson is one of the first 20 in
the production of fruits and nuts, the annual production there being
around $4,000,000. Fruit raising is, of course, not the only industry
in this prosperous section. The dairy industry is very important. This
makes a market for hay crops which yield abundantly on the irrigated
lands. Medford itself, a city of 12,000, has a number of factories,
creameries, a flour mill, lumber yards, and so forth--sufficient to
produce a payroll of $5,000,000 annually. It advertises its ice-cold
water, brought down from the mountains with a summer temperature of 52
degrees at the faucet. The pipe lines were installed by Swartley Bros.
of Corvallis.----
All these things help make Medford territory nature's
most favored valley. The city is beautifully located, being completely
surrounded by mountains. Here flows the Rogue, a world-renowned fishing
stream which has attracted tourists from all over the world. Wealthy
Californians own sumptuous "cottages" on the river banks. From here
too, one goes to Crater Lake, which reminds us that Wednesday
afternoon, there came a somewhat familiar voice over the telephone. It
was Oscar G. Gibson, former pastor of the Madison Street Methodist
church in Corvallis. He came to our room and stayed for half an hour,
chatting about his new field. He likes it down there very much.
Apparently he likes the country around Medford too, for he became
inspired about the beauties of Crater Lake to the extent of writing a
"pome" about it. He had it printed on a card beneath a two-color cut of
the lake, the picture of which is familiar to most Oregonians.Medford Mail Tribune, February 20, 1936, page 2 Last revised December 15, 2025 |
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