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As It Was: Max Muller Becomes Important Jacksonville Figure

Max Muller was a merchant, postmaster and politician who was instrumental in the development of Jacksonville, Ore., during the late 1800s.  Although not as well-known as banker C.C. Beekman, or photographer Peter Britt, Muller became an important figure in the growing town.
A Bavarian Jew, Muller arrived in Jacksonville at the age of 19 and became a clerk, later operating his own dry goods store and saloon.  In 1870, he became the postmaster of Jacksonville, a post he held for 18 years.  From its beginning in 1854 as little more than a Pony Express stop, the Jacksonville Post Office has become the oldest continually operating post office in Jackson County.  It operated out of his Muller’s dry goods store. 

The post office store, as it was called, burned twice during Muller’s tenure, forcing him to move to two different buildings.  Undaunted, Muller’s business thrived.

A popular and civic-minded citizen, Muller served three terms as the county clerk and was elected county treasurer three times. He and his wife, Louisa Hesse, had five children and lived in a two-story Italian villa-style house built in 1887. It is part of the Jacksonville Historic District.
 

Source: Works cited: "Jacksonville Post Office." Historic Jacksonville, Inc., Historic Jacksonville, Inc., historicjacksonville.org/postoffice. Accessed 18 July 2019; “Max Muller...A Citizen Nonpareil." The Table Rock Sentinel, Dec. 1982, pp. 6-11.   

Sharon Bywater of Ashland, Oregon grew up in Southern California. She taught English literature and writing at Syracuse University in New York, where she also wrote and edited adult literacy books and published freelance articles in local media. Later, she lived in Washington, D.C., where she worked as an international telecommunications policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce. She has Master’s degrees in English and Communications Management.