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The
Orchard Home The first item below is a transcription of an 1889 real estate brochure, published to promote the Orchard Home district, located between Medford and Jacksonville.
ISSUED
BY THE
T
H E IT IS A LAND FOR THE HOMESEEKERS, A SMILING VALLEY OF ORCHARDS, OF PROLIFIC, BOUNTEOUS HARVESTS AND CLOUDLESS SKIES. SAN
FRANCISCO: 1889.
YOUR
CITY HOME probably covers twenty-five feet front. Over eight times that
distance each way would be but one acre. Is not an acre larger than
your imagination depicted? We would have you realize that an acre of
ground in this land of bounteous harvests and unclouded skies will make
a beautiful and profitable home for any family of modest wants. It is
impossible to present to you, with even the aid of the searching
camera, a picture of the broad domain of the valley of the Rogue River.
For many miles its fertile and gentle undulating plain stretches to the
compass points. We present to you, however, a picture of a small
portion of this valley of orchards. In the right background, just
beyond the grove of oaks whose shadowy outline alone is depicted, is
the site of our ORCHARD HOME. We cannot pass unnoticed the lofty beauty
of these oaks. They are just on the eastern border of the Orchard Home.
You can look down their aisles and into their deep shadows, where the
photographic light and the fingers of science have lastingly engraved
them. Verily, they are the first-born of the valley.
In the valley all the fruits known to the Temperate zone grow in unchecked and riotous profusion. Apples, apricots, almonds, cherries, peaches, plums, pears, prunes, nectarines, grapes, figs, olives and walnuts grow equally well to the industrious orchardist. We desire to convince you that cultivated orchard ground is a safer and better paying investment than any savings bank. A small orchard of peach trees near the Orchard Home yielded, in 1887, six hundred pounds per tree, which were sold at three cents a pound, or eighteen dollars for the fruit of each tree, bringing in at the rate of $1,800 an acre. The fruit from three hundred early Crawford and Muir peach trees, when three years old, sold for an average of three dollars a tree. This orchard is planted sixteen and one-half feet between the rows, making one hundred and sixty trees to the acre, and thus yielding over $450 an acre. It is not uncommon for peach trees to bear considerably the second year after transplanting. A White Winter Pearmain apple tree produced, in 1886, fifty-seven bushels of merchantable apples, and, in 1887, sixty-four bushels. Quite often here, a box holding a bushel is packed full with sixty apples. There are no better flavored or more crisp or juicy apples raised than here in this valley. Pears mature exquisitely fine flavored and often weighing from two to two and one-half pounds. In this vicinity there were picked from seventy-two peach trees (much less than an acre), which are from four to seven years old, 370 boxes of peaches, which sold for $350. This is at the rate of over six hundred dollars an acre. Prune trees five years old bear eighty pounds per tree. The prune is a little later bearing than the peach, and does not do so much until about four years old; but the prune is a standard fruit, easily dried and handled, will keep for years, and can be shipped to the markets of the world. Estimating the minimum number of trees to the acre at one hundred, the net value of the product, after the trees are five years old, will be from three hundred to five hundred dollars an acre per year. The average yield per tree in value will easily exceed three dollars per year; and it is a certain computation that after the trees are three years old they will produce more than enough fruit in one year to pay for the land. You can sell the fruit on the trees every year, through agents here, without coming. Your land will pay for itself in less than five years. You simply lend the money for its purchase in such easy payments as will not in the least inconvenience you. If you earn sixty dollars per month, live on fifty dollars and devote the balance to paying for a beautiful place which will serve you as a home, or which will earn you an income, or which you can sell in four years for at least $1,000 an acre [sic].  "Here
will I build me a Home."
Last
revised April 20, 2012IN
ALMOST the geographical center of this valley is situated the tract of
land upon which we have founded the Orchard Home. It is not virgin
soil. It is thoroughly cleared, and is now bearing a harvest for its
owner. It is located a little over a mile from the limits of the town
of Medford, Jackson County, Oregon. It may be stated incidentally that
it is within one mile of the railroad track, three miles from
Jacksonville, the county seat, fronts for a half a mile on the county
road, and between Jacksonville and Medford; and less than one-half mile
from the land will pass the electric railroad. [The Rogue
River Valley Railway between Jacksonville and Medford, which was
completed three years later, was never electrified.]
The county has a present population of over eighteen thousand, many
schools, and over 275,000 acres of land under cultivation. It is half
way between Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, on the main traveled
railway line, and just far enough south to miss the rain belt of
Northern Oregon and yet be within those climatic lines which give to
California her cloudless and sunny days and a winter whose warm and
gentle rains are the only climatic vexation. There can be no question
of the value of this location, both for beauty and availability; and
there can be still less question of the fertility of the soil.
We have cut this land up into acre tracts. Affording a way of ingress and egress to and from each acre has of necessity used considerable land in roadways. We propose to plant each acre in the variety, or varieties, of fruit trees which each purchaser may indicate as his or her choice, and this at no additional cost to the purchaser. We guarantee to cultivate the orchard without cost to yourself until we give you a deed. We positively guarantee that when we turn the acre over to you, and give you the deed, that upon it (the acre) will be a thrifty-growing orchard. If the young trees die or fail from any reason during the term of the contract, we will replant them and provide against any failure. Before the conclusion of the second year, the purchaser will have paid all the installments and will have received a deed. It is expected that the acre will bear sufficient fruit the third year to at least pay for its cultivation, and in the fourth year, with any care whatever, it will repay the original cost of the land. The title to the land is perfect, being government patent. We divide the payments into installments, as is hereafter shown. After the first payment is made, we then commence to plant the land with such orchard trees as the purchaser indicates. At all times during the contract, we will cause the ground to be cultivated and cared for, so that the trees may grow rapidly and strong. We will act as agents for the purchaser, when the land is paid for and a deed recorded, in selling at wholesale the fruit product from the trees. You need not come here to reap the harvest from this speculation. Your acre will, in reasonable probability, after the trees are full grown, produce 10,000 pounds, annually, of the choicest fruit. We can cause it to be boxed and shipped to you. If you live in San Francisco, the freight on this magnificent present of fruit will be but fifty dollars, and if in Portland only twenty-eight dollars. In other words, we propose to make this a paying investment for those persons whose small incomes will neither permit them to make large investments, nor to lose what little they possess. With or without houses on these acre lots, they will rent readily at yearly rates and furnish a certain and continuing income. Money invested in land of this character can not be lost; and the land is a savings bank whose solvency and uninterrupted dividends can never be doubted. You must remember that this is not an experiment. Within sight of this ground are hundreds of acres of bearing orchards. If you live at any point west of a line drawn south from the city of Chicago, make inquiry of the railroad officials as to the amount of freight on a carload of fruit from here; and you will be astonished to find that you can cause your fruit to be shipped directly to your home at a large profit. This is true if two persons reside in one place, as the product of their two acres will be just about a carload of fruit.  "This
is a Princely gift."
WE
PROPOSE to sell this land to you for a net rate of two hundred and
fifty dollars an acre. We will improve it for you and pay all the
taxes, and when you have paid for it, which will be in two years, we
will give you a deed for it. The land will be fully improved and
cultivated, and with a prosperous, thrifty, profitable orchard of
choice fruit trees, without any further cost to you for all time. We
give you two years to pay for it. You are to pay us the trifling sum of
twenty dollars, when we will give you a contract all signed for the
piece of ground you pick out, and you are to pay us ten dollars a month
until it is paid for. This will take twenty-three equal
payments,
one month apart. This is not a wildcat investment. We will give you any
number of substantial references as to the value of this property.
Homeseekers all over the country are making inquiries. Improved orchard
land, with bearing orchard of fruit trees, has an actual cash market
value of five hundred dollars an acre anywhere in this country; and
that is what you can sell your acre for when your last payment, in two
years, is made.
Examine the contract we enclose you. That is the form of contract we make. Mark upon the plat of ground we enclose you the particular acre you think you would like. There is no advantage. The soil is equally fertile and the spot equally accessible. Send back the contract with your name and address, with your acre spot marked upon the plat (if we cannot sell you that one, we will sell you one close by); indicate the character of trees you want planted; send a bank draft, post office or express order for twenty dollars, payable to the Orchard Home Association, or Henry Klippel, President. We will then return to you the contract, all properly filled out, and executed under the corporate seal, which you will keep. Every month thereafter we will notify you when your monthly payment comes due. If, at any time, you desire to pay it all, we will make a dedication or discount for interest, at the rate of six per cent per annum. We will have a few lots of two and four acres each. These will cost just twice and four times the amount of an acre lot. Do not throw this aside and think no more of it. You can well afford to give this money out of your salary. Then, if sickness come over you, you have a beautiful place to go to, or an investment which you can turn into cash in an hour's notice. No more congenial community, and no more delightful spot, could be well devised for a home. The railroad fare is very cheap; and you will certainly be convinced, if you come, that, aside from the financial advantages, this place possesses all the life-healing and life-giving gifts which any enthusiast may demand.  "I
will sing you a
song, melodied with Nature's music."
UPON
THE SLOPE which leads to the tireless waters of the Pacific, there is
no valley more beautiful than this of Rogue River. The waters of the
river, softly gliding over their gravelly bed, never clouded except
when they break in snowy spray, find their way to the sea through a
principality of alluvial soil. Along the river the wild
grapevine
and cherry, planted by Nature, are bending in tangled confusion with
their burdens of purple and scarlet fruit. The tawny gold of the
ripening and far-reaching grain fields is relieved by the bright green
of the tasseled and waving corn. The glossy and deepening green of the
orchards is brightened by the gleams of purple and yellow and red,
which come from their weight of juicy fruit. The whole landscape, with
its sheen of white and flowing water, is a panorama of color which
seems to change and move in the sunlight and gentle breeze, and is
bordered by the melting haze of the far-reaching forest on the
foothills and mountains. To Nature's lenses is conveyed a gentle
impression of dark, cool green growing into the purple distance, and
lighted by the bright blue of the crested sky.
" 'Mid Nature's tangled drapery" shows a scene close to the Orchard Home. It evidences how marvelously fertile is this land, even when untouched by the plow. To those who delight in the wonders and beauties with which Nature has endowed this border line of the Occident, the foothills and mountains and trackless forest, which enclose this jewel of a valley as a setting, are a storehouse of grand and magic scenes and wonders. The lofty firs and pines, with their fantastic garb of yellow Spanish moss; the thicket fastnesses of the red manzanita and the yellow madrone; the deep ravines, into whose shadows the sunlight never peers; the mighty peaks, crowned with volcanic basins and mantled with garbs of perpetual white,--all shrouded in a lasting silence, broken only by an occasional woodman's axe, the snapping of twigs, the music of the wind in the topmost branches of the pines, the rushing of waters on their way to the sea, and sentient with Indian legends of the occult world,--all repulse the timorous, and convince the boldest that they are in Wonderland. Here is Crater Lake, the deepest body of fresh water in the world. The lead has gone down in its icy, clear depths three thousand feet; and yet its mysteries are unfathomed. Here breaks from a mountain side, from some subterranean lake, a vast volume of rushing water, the source of a mighty river. Here, on the crest, is the spot called Cinnabar, a great, undeveloped mine of quicksilver. No night falls and finds an Indian there; for they aver that there a devil abides, who punishes those who remain by leaving them toothless and bald. Springs of sparkling soda water, and others with strange taste of minerals, some hot and some the temperature almost of ice, break out with a rush from the mountain sides. And as the observer wonders, he yet gazes with entranced eye upon the picture. In autumn, the artist fingers of King Frost have touched the mountain sides with the paints of Nature; and long lines of maples and alders and quaking asp and box-elders are clothed in scarlet and yellow and russet and the tints of the opal; and, as we climb to the serrated crest of the mountains, we look upon the grandest picture of all,--the valley of the Rogue River, dotted with homes.  As satiate with the boundless play Of sunshine in its green array." You can not afford to neglect this opportunity. Around and about this land is growing a necklace of young cities. Ashland, Medford, Jacksonville, Central Point and Gold Hill, all within the county, each almost within cannon-shot of the Orchard Home. Here, midway between San Francisco and Portland, is being built a "booming" young city. Mechanics and laborers, skilled and unskilled, the wage-earners and the homeseekers, may here build their homes, and find labor for their willing hands, and a peaceful prosperity for their families.  ORCHARD HOME ASSOCIATION, Office C Street, near Bank Building, Henry Klippel, President. This Association sells orchard tracts in one-acre lots for $250 per acre on the installment plan. The land will be fully improved and cultivated and planted with any variety of fruit tree selected by purchaser. Two years is given in which to pay for the tract, twenty dollars down and ten dollars per month afterwards. The "Orchard Home" is situated about a mile from the town in the richest land in the valley. The gentlemen connected with this association are among the leading men of this section. P. W. Croake, The Rogue River Valley, "The Italy of Oregon," Glass & Prudhomme, Portland, Oregon. Undated, written March 1891. Orchard Home Association to Wm. Ellison, lot 15, blk 4, Orchard Home Tract . . . 250 "Legal Transactions," Medford Mail, February 24, 1893, page 2
THE ORCHARD HOME
Since coming to
Medford we have heard the Orchard Home fruit farm spoken of many times
and by many different people. Upon questioning them further as to this
great farm we were invariably met with this question from them:
"Haven't you seen the Orchard Home farm?" and upon being told that we
had not they would follow with this: "You have missed seeing the best,
and what will, in the near future, be the most wonderful adjunct to the
fast-developing fruit and home building industry in this great Rogue
River Valley, and in fact this entire portion of Southern Oregon." The
thought occurred to us that while we plead ignorance as to this beauty
spot of our Italy land it might be possible that others were as
ignorant of the facts as ourselves, and to the end that we might
present to our readers a synopsis of the Orchard Home Association we
have endeavored to gather a few of the leading points and they are here
presented:One of the Most Promising Adjuncts to Home Building and Fruit Culture in Southern Oregon. Medford's Suburban Villa Tract Planted to Choice Fruit for Anxious Home Seekers. Three years ago the Orchard Home Association, comprised of Portland and Medford gentlemen, of which our esteemed townsman Hon. Henry Klippel is president, bought a tract known as the Nickell Farm, which is situated one mile west of Medford and on the county road leading from Medford to Jacksonville. This tract contained 214 acres of land. The plat was subdivided into 190 [one-]acre tracts, thirty-four acres being set aside for streets [sic]. These streets are laid out through the entire farm, the main street being one hundred feet wide and all others eighty feet. Each lot faces one of these streets, and in front of each has been set out, for shade and ornament, a row of almond trees, three or four trees in front of each lot. There are now 149 acres planted to fruit trees, sixty-five acres of the trees being two years old, thirty-five acres one year old and forty acres just planted over the past few months. Over one hundred acres of this land upon which the trees are planted has been sold, mostly to railroad men, many of them being old friends of the manager of the Association, Mr. Geo. S. Batly, who is himself an old railroad man. The purchasers reside in Chicago, St. Paul, New York City, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, Manitoba and many more distant points. Mr. Hall, now residing in Manitoba, and a farmer and fruit raisers, bought ten acres of this land in this spring of '92. In August last he visited the farm and has since purchased eight acres more. Henry Pholman, who is pronounced competent and energetic by Hon. J. D. Whitman of the State Board of Horticulture, is a man who spent five or six years in California trying to get a start in the fruit business, but gave it up and came to Oregon two years ago. After working in the Orchard home two months, he bought five acres and has since bought four acres more. He was recently married and will make his home on the orchard. The Association is regularly incorporated, with a capital of $50,000, and its business methods will bear the closest scrutiny. It is doing a great work for this valley and will bring many people and much capital to this section. The first fruit from this orchard will be gathered this year. The trees have done remarkably well and the peach and almond trees promise to bear well, while there will be a good showing of prunes on the trees planted two years ago. Almonds do so well in this valley that several acres of these trees have been planted by the Association this year. The rest of the orchard is chiefly in prunes and apples. When the proper time comes, the Association will arrange for the erection of evaporators and a cannery of ample capacity to handle the fruit, which will be carefully graded, and packed in fancy packages under a special "Orchard Home" brand--the idea being to get fancy prices and thus make the investment profitable to purchasers. Every detail of the work thus far has been given so much attention that it is safe to predict a great future for the orchard. The plowing, cultivating and planting was done on the most approved methods and regardless of expense. The best trees of the leading nurseries of the state were used in planting, and the orchard is one of which our people may well feel proud. Medford Mail, March 31, 1893, page 1 MORE ORCHARDS.
Further Work by the Orchard Home Association-- Planning To Plant from 100 to 150 Acres More. What Has Been Done and What Is Going To Be Done-- An Interview with Manager Batty.
The
property of the Orchard Home Association is undoubtedly the finest of
its character in Oregon, as it now stands. It is located about a mile
west of Medford, on land formerly owned by the editor of the Democratic Times, Mr.
Chas. Nickell, and on the line of the Medford-Jacksonville motor line.
It comprises 370 acres, laid out in acre tracts, of which about 150
acres have been planted to choice prunes, apples, peaches, pears,
cherries, plums and soft-shell almonds, experience having shown that
these nuts can be profitably grown in this valley. From the few peach
trees planted on the tract in 1891, nearly two tons of most delicious
fruit was gathered last fall, and the writer can testify as to its
juiciness and high favor. This year there will be quite a crop of fruit
of all the varieties named. The rest of the tract will be planted this
season and next.
INSIDE
WORKINGS.
For some
days past Mr. Geo. S.
Batty, who is the largest stockholder in the corporation and who has
been its secretary and manager from the outset, has been circulating
between Medford and the orchard. He has great faith in southern Oregon
and, being questioned on the subject of the enterprise and its
prospects, said:"In answer to your questions, it is perhaps proper to give something of the history and workings of the Orchard Home Association, for the benefit of your readers. The enterprise was inaugurated in the summer of 1890 by your townsmen Messrs. Francis Fitch and Henry Klippel, who, together with myself, organized the stock company, devised and adopted a system for planting and caring for the land and the selling thereof, and since that time the work in all departments has progressed steadily, notwithstanding the prevailing stringent times. It has now gone so far that its future is assured, and it takes rank as one of the most unique and prosperous enterprises of the coast. So far there has been upwards of $25,000 expended in improvements, advertising, planting, cultivation, etc., and to complete the Association's present plans from $10,000 to $15,000 more will be expended upon the property during the next two or three years. THIS
YEAR'S WORK.
Involves considerable planting, a large
amount of new
fencing, work on roads, erection of buildings for employees, and
preparations for storehouses, driers, canneries, etc., a part of which
will be necessary for this year's fruit crop. The Association expects
to handle the entire product under its own brands and trademarks,
either green, dried or canned, in such manner as to touch the most
favorable interior and eastern markets, and in this way the full merit
of the vast resources of this section of Oregon will be brought out. It
is not to be expected that this will be brought about at once, and I
have not the slightest idea that the Association will ever realize even
the minimum prices obtained by fruit growers during the past season for
its products. It is expected, though, that by rigid economy, by
employing only experienced and reliable help, by inducing the railways
to afford proper shipping facilities at satisfactory rates and by
generally cutting every corner is a vigorous and businesslike way,
handsome results will be obtained by the promoters and their customers."It will be observed that there has been built up in our midst, without blowing of trumpets or sounding of cymbals, an enterprise and industry which is bound to make its influence felt through the county and state. The people connected with it are all men of affairs and of broad experience. The principal stockholders and the present officers and board of directors are Henry Klippel, president; A. E. Borthwick, vice president; Geo. S. Batty, secretary and general manager; Geo. P. Wallihan, treasurer; and Messrs. R. L. Durham and F. A. Carle, Mr. Durham being vice president of the Commercial National Bank and Mr. Carle managing editor of the Oregonian. Medford Mail, January 26, 1894, page 2 G. P. Wallihan, one of the Orchard Home proprietors, came up from Portland last Friday and has since been engaged in making plans for planting the remaining fifty acres of the original Orchard Home. This company will plant this amount to fruit trees, as per directions of purchasers, and will also do some considerable fence building at various parts of the Home. The Orchard Home is fast becoming one of the marked institutions of prosperity in this locality, and that their good work may move successfully on is the wish of every resident hereabouts. "Purely Personal," Medford Mail, March 9, 1894, page 3 A BIG LAND DEAL.
The Orchard Home Association Buy Another One Hundred and Sixty-Acre Farm. The Home for Twenty-Three Years of J. H. Wilson Now To Be Made a Fruit Farm.
Last
week a deal was closed between Mr. J. H. Wilson and the Orchard Home
Association whereby the former sells to the latter his one hundred and
sixty-acre homestead, joining Medford, the price paid being $10,500.
For several months past this deal has been pending, but not until a few
days ago could the parties come to terms of agreement. The land is
located to the south and west of Medford, and to its nearest corner is
a distance of one and a quarter miles from the post office in this
city. The land is in a square body, being one-fourth of a section. It
lies east of the original Orchard Home and is more valuable for orchard
use because of it being near to the city. The soil is a mixture of
black loam, gravel and clay and is considered first-class orchard land.
For twenty-three years it has been the home of Mr. Wilson. It is all
under cultivation, but of course the cultivation which it has had is
very slight compared to that which it will now undergo--successful
orchard culture requiring much higher cultivation than that ordinarily
given to land cultivated for cereals.
This recent purchase, we learn, will be surveyed into tracts of a little over twenty-acres each. One of these tracts will then be subdivided into acre tracts and placed upon the market. When this tract has been entirely disposed of another one will be subdivided and handled in like manner. This method will be followed until the entire 160 acres are sold. Much has been said in this paper regarding the methods adopted and carried out by this company, and there is little need to repeat as all are quite familiar with them. We understand twenty acres of the recent purchase have already been resold to Portland parties. The Orchard Home now embraces 360 acres, nearly all of which, aside from the last purchase, has been resold and is now planted to fruit trees of various kinds, and a goodly portion of them bore a fine crop of most excellent fruit last season. This institution is deserving of the most kind wishes of every resident of this part of the valley, and while they are doing much toward advertising the wonderful and varied resources of the great Rogue River Valley, they are doing still more for their patrons in building for them a pleasant home which must of necessity increase in value as the orchards, which the association plant and cultivate, become older and more productive of fruit. While all this is being accomplished for the country and the association's patrons it must not be presumed that the promoters of the institution are not making a few dollars for a "wet day" emergency. They make money for themselves by pushing their project and conducting their business on a line of business methods--and who can say them nay, when their patrons are well cared for and given an opportunity to invest a few dollars in an institution that pays them a good revenue. Medford Mail, March 23, 1894, page 2 The Orchard Home Tract.
Affairs at the Orchard Home tract seems to be in as flourishing a
condition as they have always been. Last week Mr. Batty, manager of the
orchards, was here and remained several days on the ranch. He was
accompanied by Mr. R. L. Durham, the vice president and manager of the
Commercial National Bank of Portland, who spent Sunday at the orchards
and in Medford.
Prior to his departure Mr. Batty was pressed for a news item or something interesting concerning his orchard interests. He said: "I know of nothing interesting that has not already appeared in the columns of The Mail in some form or other. We are progressing as usual in making sales and generally inducing people to consider the merits of our plan and buy some of the land. Our season's planting has been completed. There are now upwards of two hundred acres in trees, and we are engaged in cultivating and otherwise caring for them. Last month there was a very busy one in our orchard, caused by the extreme wet and backward weather of March followed by the dry and hot spell which taxed our energy and resource considerably. Our payroll for April, covering labor and team hire alone, and the goods and implements purchased from your merchants and the trees bought in the neighborhood, amounted to half as much more. We are dealing with neighbors and intelligent people, who, notwithstanding the prevailing hard times, are keeping up their ends with remarkable promptness. The moment evidence is shown of returning confidence in western enterprises and securities, there will be great demand for all kinds of property. Southern Oregon is a fruit country and is just as safe and reliable as they make them. If there are doubts in the minds of any of your readers, suggest to them that they take a trip through California--the greatest fruit state in the Union--and note the conditions there. I think we should all be contented and talk and work Southern Oregon as the best section on earth. I know of none better." Medford Mail, May 18, 1894, page 3  G. Elksnat, the well-known surveyor, accompanied by his wife, left Monday evening for Waldport, Lincoln County, where they will permanently locate. They have been residents of Jacksonville for a number of years, and made many friends, who wish them success in their new home. "Local Notes," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 30, 1899, page 3 |
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