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Hugo Neighborhood Association & Historical Society

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Briggs, George E.
Browning, Edmond
Croxton, Thomas
Ganiard, Oscar
Harkness, Samuel
Hendershott, James
Hogue, Ebenezer
Hogue, Samuel
Holton, Daniel S.
Howell, Jefferson
Mason, Joseph
Nagle, William
Newman, William
Sexton, David
Smith, John S W
Tolin, Edward N
Tuffs, James P.
Twogood, James H.
Walker, Wesley R. and Augustus L.

 

CROXTON, THOMAS

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Anyone interested in the stage days in Oregon should read the Knights of the Whip.  There were a string of stage stop stations for the purpose of exchanging live stock and some were even food stops for drivers and passengers.  Citizens would contract with the stage company (California and Oregon Stage Company) and be reimbursed yearly based on the services they provided.
In 1864, Thomas Croxton got into this business and his station would be the next stage stop 14 miles north of the Rock Point Station.   The Croxton Stage Station was located on his 400 acre property near 7th Street and Savage in current Grants Pass, Oregon.  His son-in-law, Ebenezer Dimmick, helped with this venture.
Thomas, born in England, arrived here in 1843 with his wife Hannah Box and seven children.  He tried his hand in gold mining and traveling Methodist preacher before opening his stage station.
He was also the first postmaster of Grants Pass.   As the story goes, he first applied for the post office permit under the name of "Grant" but when that name was already being used in Oregon, he reapplied under the name of "Grants Pass".  Some say Grants Pass was named after Ulysses S. Grant or Hiram Ulysses Grant, (Union Civil War General), others say it was named for the newly constructed road over the pass on Merlin Hill.
After his wife died in 1866, Thomas Croxton became a pastor in Coos Bay then known as Marshfield.  Mr. Dimmick continued operating the stage station until the end of the stage days.


(source - Knights of the Whip, Stagecoach Days In Oregon by Gary & Gloria Meier, pages 56-58)

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