A stagecoach driver who eventually settled in the Applegate Valley routinely drove between Roseburg and Jacksonville for two years in the early 1880s.
The driver, J. Logan Woolridge, sometimes made a run over the Siskiyous to Colestin and special payroll trips for construction workers on the Oregon and California Railroad.
Every second week, Woolridge transported the railroad’s payroll in gold and silver to the railway laborers. A timekeeper, paymaster and 16 guards on horseback accompanied the stage. The four strongboxes weighed up to 200 pounds each, requiring four men to life a single box onto the stage.
When the Jacksonville Courthouse was dedicated in 1883, Woolridge arrived, driving one of the payroll stages. The crowd that gathered for the ceremony must have been impressed by the guards and 28 horses that accompanied the stagecoach.
When the entourage spent the night in Medford, the innkeeper had to send to neighboring ranches for hay to feed all the horses.
Heavily guarded, Woolridge never faced a robbery attempt during his two years driving the stage.
Source: "Pioneer Tells of Early Day Life in Rogue Valley." Central Point American, 23 Sept. 1937, p. 1.
