Hugo Neighborhood Association & Historical Society
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Hugo Neighborhood Association & Historical Society |
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PVC: PLEASANT VALLEY CEMETERY: 1870s? Brochure 62 in Hugo's Pioneers
Brochure Series Oregon & California (O&C) Railroad: 1866 - 1883 1866 Railroad Grant In 1866 Congress authorized granting the O&C Railroad about 4 million acres to help finance construction of a railroad from Portland, Oregon to the California border.1 - 3 1896 Railroad Patents For a variety of reasons the final patents to the railroad for railroad construction were issued much later than the work was completed. On March 17, 1896 the O & C Railroad Company was issued a railroad grant Patent No. 38 for 109,827.83acres.1 - 3 It would sell/grant to the PVCA 40 acres of that patent three years later on July 5, 1899. Hypothesis By 1872 the railroad was completed to Roseburg. Research underway is testing the hypothesis that the O&C Railroad was using the 40 acres as a cemetery during the 1872 - 1883 period when railroad construction was stalled in northern Josephine County.1 - 3 Concepts potentially supporting this theory follow. • O&C Railroad Construction Stalled 1872 - 1883 Pleasant Valley Cemetery (PVC): 1870s? Railroad Construction It is a fact that railroad construction was stalled from Roseburg to Grants Pass, Oregon from 1872 - 1883.1 High Road To Tunnel No. 9 The concept of an early High Road is supported by old-timers Orville Dingler and Mary Ritchie, early maps, present roads, and physical traces, found by the Hugo Emigrant Trails Committee as well as early homesteading and cash entries along the road.3 Railroad Deaths It is a fact that railroad building through rough terrain was especially hazardous and railroad deaths were common. Chinese Laborers provided much of the back breaking toil to make the cuts for the O&C Railroad as it inched southward through the Umpqua Mountains to the Rogue River Valley.4 Most Chinese who came to this country for work on the railroad would be buried in their homeland. Individuals who were buried in temporary graves were regularly disinterred and the remains shipped back to the their native Chinese villages. PVC Association (PVCA) Interim Interment Site For Chinese Local anecdotal information is that the O&C Railroad had first used the land that would become the PVC cemetery as an interim interment site for Chinese railroad workers.3 Early Memories Of Wooden Stakes Old-timers, now passed away, had remembered that in the past the lower, flat, western part of the PVC had many wooden stakes.3 Private Cemeteries Two private platted cemeteries adjacent to the PCV have two tombstone death dates between 1870 - 1877 and six tombstones within the PVC have death dates between 1881 and 1887.5 Death Dates Death dates on four tombstones in the PVC and in adjacent private cemeteries are from 1869 - 1878.3 Vacant Land At Entrance To PVC The Applegate Trail was the main road through northern Josephine County from 1846 - 1895, and possibly as late as ca., 1910. It is logical that the PVC’s land which would have first been used was that which was the most accessible to the trail. Why the large amount of vacant land in the PVC at its western entrance closest to the Applegate Trail? Want more information? Contact an officer of the Hugo Neighborhood on how you can become involved in your community’s history and land use. ______________________________________________________________
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© 2011 Hugo Neighborhood Association & Historical Society |