It's good to have a tailholt

It's good to have a tailholt

by Bill Miller for the Mail Tribune

Monday, July 29th 2019

Time again to tell the story of the little town of Tailholt, still hiding at the same location, right on the banks of the Rogue River.

Long before ferries and bridges kept traveling boots dry, crossing a fast-moving river meant grabbing on and holding tight. When a pioneer or prospector didn’t have a wagon to cling to, the next best thing was a horse; not all of the horse, of course — just the horse’s tail.

The technique apparently was so popular that our beloved ancestors, with typical Yankee ingenuity, created a word for it — tailholt.

To the settlers who had struggled in the 1800s to build a sod home on the great American prairies, tailholt also became a metaphor for life.

It might be unsafe to cling to something too tightly, a pioneer would say, but it’s a thousand times more unsafe to just let go.

That tough attitude probably influenced the name given to Tailholt, Oklahoma, the only town in the country that still exists with that name.

Prospectors always seemed to like the name best. There were Tailholt mines throughout the West and even Tailholt mining camps in California.

But the biggest influence had to come from poet James Whitcomb Riley. He built a poem around an imaginary Indiana town, “The Little Town O’ Tailholt.”

“You kin boast about yer cities, and their stiddy growth and size,

And brag about yer County-seats, and business enterprise,

And railroads, and factories, and all sich foolery,

But the little Town o’ Tailholt is big enough fer me!”

Southern Oregon legend says that an early miner nearly drowned crossing the turbulent Rogue River about a quarter of a mile upriver from today’s town of Rogue River. Apparently he avoided catastrophe by grabbing hold of — you guessed it — his horse’s tail.

 

Rogue River Rapids

Tailholt, as Rogue River was called in those mining years of the 1850s and ‘60s, wasn’t really much of a town, but because of the nearby river crossing, the name just seemed to fit.

As the population grew and a post office was established in 1876, the town took on its first legal name, Woodville, honoring a popular local resident and the town’s new postmaster, John Wood.

In 1912, not long after Jackson County spent $15,000 to build a bridge across the river, residents decided it would be better to advertise the town under a new name, and the city of Rogue River was born.

When a new bridge replaced the old in October 1950, a Mail Tribune editorial agreed with local residents who wanted to name the bridge Tailholt. “The name will certainly bring the bridge color and pique the interest of tourists.”

It didn’t happen.

In 1961, when the state was building a new park in the area, the Mail Tribune suggested it be named Tailholt. “It has color, an element of humor, a fine flavor, and it’s a name that can be remembered. Tailholt State Park. What a wonderful name!”

Not so wonderful for state officials. Tailholt was out and Valley of the Rogue State Park was in.

Ah, well. As we search for humor in these sometimes troubled days, maybe all we really need is a tailholt attitude. As the old pioneers preached: “A tailholt is better than a no holt at all.”

Rogue River, Oregon Public Library

This coming Saturday, at noon, I’ll be talking Modoc War at the Rogue River library. If nothing’s holding you up, we’d like to see ya there. Bring your tailholt attitude

.

Writer Bill Miller is the author of “History Snoopin’,” a collection of his previous history columns and stories. Reach him at newsmiller@live.com or WilliamMMiller.com.

First Miss Rogue Valley???

The first Miss Rogue Valley?

by Bill Miller for the Mail Tribune.

Monday, July 22nd 2019

After six weeks of voting, she was still in second place by a mere 1,200 votes. Yet when it was all over, Laura Neuber had trounced her competitors by over 400,000 votes.

There wasn’t a crown at the end of a runway for Laura, nor the title

Laura Neuber, 1908

of Miss Rogue Valley, but Laura was the first to do what no other woman in the area had ever done; win the unofficial title as the most popular woman in Southern Oregon and claim first prize by driving away in a showroom fresh, 1908 Reo roadster automobile.

Rather than a beauty contest, this was a newspaper circulation contest to promote subscriptions for two relatively new Medford newspapers, the Medford Daily Tribune and the semi-weekly Southern Oregonian.

George Putman, owner and editor of the two papers, was in heated competition with Medford’s major newspaper of the time, the Medford Mail. To gain an advantage, Putman hired O.J. O’Dell, a promoter of newspaper circulation contests throughout the West.

For six weeks, beginning Jan. 13, 1908, and ending Feb. 22, “the fairest women” of Southern Oregon competed for 17 prizes valued together at $2,500. All the women had to do was convince friends, relatives or even strangers from anywhere in the world to subscribe to Putnam’s newspapers.

“Enter your name and let your friends do the rest,” Putnam said. “You will never know who your real friends are until you have entered a contest of this kind.”

Contestants had two ways to score points. Collect and register the coupons that were printed in the newspapers each day (each worth only one vote), or “the better and quicker way,” getting newspaper subscriptions. The longer the length of the subscription, the more votes awarded; up to 20,000 votes for a 5-year subscription.

After awarding the $1,150 Reo roadster, first prize, the runner-up would claim title to a $350 home site in the newly platted Queen Anne Addition in east Medford. The next five contestants would receive one of five Waltham gold watches, and the next five, scholarships to any business college in the state. The final five women received a $100 gift certificate good toward purchase of a piano from a local dealer.

At 10 in the evening, Feb. 22, the contestants and their supporters gathered in the Medford Opera House at the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue to see the final tally and the awarding of prizes.

Of the 4,174,998 votes recorded, Laura received 1,726,920.

Born in June 1894, Laura Neuber was the daughter of Jacksonville saloon owner and avid sportsman George “Bum” Neuber and his wife, Hattie.

 

Laura Neuber at the wheel of her Reo with friend Frances Kenney

Laura was only 13 years old when she won the car.

Apparently no one interviewed her after she claimed the prize; although, the Southern Oregon Historical Society has a photo of Laura and one of her friends sitting behind the wheel of her Reo.

In March 1914, Laura married Harry Porter, son of a local timber dealer. The couple settled in Portland. After Harry died in 1969, Laura remarried and moved with her daughter to New Hampshire. There she died, Oct. 12, 1983.

Maybe Laura wasn’t officially Miss Rogue Valley, but after rounding up nearly two million votes, she certainly has an interesting claim.

Writer Bill Miller is the author of “History Snoopin’,” a collection of his previous history columns and stories. Reach him at newsmiller@live.com or WilliamMMiller.com.

The crash and death of WASP Pilot Beverly Jean Moses (Womens Airforce Service Pilots)

WASP Beverly Jean Moses

Class 44-W-5

(21 December 1922 - 18 July 1944)

  

(Excerpt from To Live and Die a WASP)

Twenty-year-old Beverly Jean Moses was one of the youngest of all

WASP Beverly Jean Moses, High School Graduation

the WASPs. Born December 21, 1922, in Des Moines, Iowa, she was the daughter of Alex and Sylvia Moses, and the couple’s fourth child. Her father was an automobile mechanic and her mother supplemented the family income with her cooking and catering.

 The crash of Beverly Moses’ AT-11 Kansan on July 18, 1944, in the Spring Mountains west of Las Vegas, is still one of the most mysterious of all the accidents that claimed 38 WASP lives.

 

It was a month when the high temperature never dipped below 100 degrees on the ground, and in the cooler air above, winds occasionally swirled around the mountain slopes.

AT-11 Kansan

 

Beverly (44-W-5) was flying as co-pilot on the twin engine Kansan, used by the Army to train navigators, bombardiers, and gunners. She had drawn straws with her former classmate, Mildred Taylor, to win the right to take the right-hand seat. Lieutenant Frank Smith

WASP Pilot Beverly Jean Moses

was the pilot of this instrument training flight, and onboard with him and Beverly were instrument flight instructors, Staff Sergeant James Reagan and Corporal Kenneth Langston. They left Las Vegas Army Airfield late in the morning, flew their practice missions, and then landed to refuel at Indian Springs Army Airfield, about 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas. At Indian Springs, Sergeants Bernard O’Reilly and Herbert Stretton, both gunnery instructors, climbed aboard and moved toward the rear gun positions. Just before 3:00 o’clock, the AT-11 lifted off with her crew of six and began flying over the Nevada desert. About an hour

later, Lieutenant Smith received orders to fly toward Charleston Mountain and search the area for a parachute that someone believed they had seen falling in the area. It was the last anyone would hear from the AT-11.

 

Ironically, Beverly’s plane crashed just 23 miles northwest of

where, two and a half years earlier, a Transcontinental & Western Air, DC-3 airliner, flew into Potosi Mountain, killing Clark Gable’s movie star wife, Carole Lombard and 21 others.

RIP

Buter-Perozzi Fountain - Ashland, Oregon

A fountain for the crown jewel

by Bill Miller for the Mail Tribune

Monday, July 15th 2019

Here’s a history riddle for you dedicated snoopers: What do an Italian sculptor, a Swiss dairyman, and a native Southern Oregonian real estate investor have in common?

One answer is certainly Ashland’s Lithia Park.

Although he probably never heard of Ashland, Antonio Frilli was a world-famous Florentine sculptor of Italian marble who, for years, exhibited throughout the United States. However, even if he had heard of Oregon and the Granite City, he still wouldn’t have suspected that a piece of his art would permanently find its way into the city’s “crown jewel,” Lithia Park.

No one seems to know when Frilli was born; however, he first opened his studio in about 1860. It’s believed he died in 1902.

Most likely his son, Umberto, brought his father’s work to the International Panama-Pacific Exposition, a sort of world’s fair held in San Francisco from February to December 1915.

 

Butler-Perozzi Fountain, Ashland, Oregon

At the end of October 1915, Gwin Samuel Butler and his wife left Ashland for a “tour through California” and a visit to the San Francisco Exposition. However, his two-week excursion to the Exposition was more than just a tourist visit.

Butler was born in January 1854 on his father’s land claim, just east of the intersection of N. Pacific Highway and Sage Road in Medford. After graduating from the Ashland Normal School (today’s SOU), he turned to ranching and other businesses, eventually amassing more than enough money to invest in property in Jackson County.

By 1914, Ashland residents had approved funding to develop a park and a commission was trying to acquire the necessary land — particularly the land owned by Gwin Butler and Domingo “D.” Perozzi. When the commissioners asked the men for a purchase price, they got a big surprise.

“In replay to your request for a price on that certain tract of land owned by us,” wrote Butler and Perozzi, “we have the following to offer:

“We will donate the said property to the city of Ashland for park purposes, provided that there shall be the sum of $3,000 placed in the hands of a trustee for the erection of a memorial fountain to be built in the park. Very truly, G.S. Butler, D. Perozzi.”

Perozzi was born in Switzerland in February 1871, and emigrated to the U.S. with his parents when still a young child. He arrived in Ashland in 1897 and purchased the Ashland Creamery that he operated for many years. For the rest of his life he remained actively involved in the dairy industry of the valley.

When the park was nearly ready, Butler left for the San Francisco Exposition looking for a fountain. He thought he had found it in a piece of Verona marble carved by Antonio Frilli. He telegraphed Perozzi to come and see it. Perozzi loved it and the two men closed the deal.

Butler-Perozzi Fountain, Lithia Park, Ashland, Oregon

Shipped from San Francisco, the 12,000-pound fountain arrived in Ashland in March 1916. It would take three trucks to carry the disassembled fountain to the construction site. The Italian expert who came to supervise installation seemed quite happy with the progress, although he couldn’t speak English. Perozzi had to translate instructions to Butler with Butler trying to translate the expert’s various and confusing hand and arm gestures.

The Butler-Perozzi Memorial Fountain was unveiled, dedicated and presented to the city on the 4th of July in 1916, with appropriate remarks, band music, and “the young flower girls,” led by Perozzi’s 12-year-old daughter, Lucile.

The fountain has survived vandalism, maintenance issues and required restoration over the past 103 years, and if the city of Ashland can fund another restoration, the first in 32 years, it may remain for another century or more.

Writer Bill Miller is the author of “History Snoopin’,” a collection of his previous history columns and stories. Reach him at newsmiller@live.com or WilliamMMiller.com.

https://mailtribune.com/lifestyle/a-fountain-for-the-crown-jewel