years. One of those who has received the largest measure of notice is Arthur Perry, city editor and columnist on the Mail Tribune. His "Smudge Pot" column received the highest praise in Alfred Powers' History of Oregon Literature, and Edson Marshall, novelist, former Medford resident, is quoted as saying that Perry, popular though he is at Medford, where he has done newspaper work for more than twenty years, is much greater than his home folks have any idea.
S. Sumpter Smith, former business manager of the Mail Tribune, died November 5, 1935, at the age of 65 after a long and honorable career in newspaper work. E. R. Gilstrap, formerly of Eugene, is the present manager of the paper.
Jacksonville.—This little town was the metropolis of southern Oregon when statehood came, and it held its position for a good many years. We have noted39 the beginning of the Table Rock Sentinel in 1855, when W. G. T'Vault, Oregon's first editor, whose grandson, Thomas G. Kenney, is a resident of Medford, added another first to his list by becoming the first editor in Jackson county. Just before statehood the name of the Sentinel was changed to Oregon Sentinel, which it retained to the last days, when the rise of Medford and the decline of Jacksonville brought about the death of the historic old paper.
In October 1859 the paper passed into the hands of O'Meara and Treanor. Treanor retired in less than a year, and O'Meara abandoned the paper in May 1861.40 The paper had been consistently Democratic, intensely so, up to this point, resulting in boycott by the loyal Unionists.
Just before abandoning the Sentinel O'Meara had published an editorial deprecating the possibility of the extension of the war to the Pacific Coast.
Let us not so shape events (he wrote Saturday, May 4) that the emigrant shall but escape war at the East and find it in their new sought homes in the farthest West. We should all forget our past political and other differences; for get that we ever disputed or quarreled, sink the past and prepare ourselves, no matter how the issue Eastward may result, to be in fact a compact, united, harmonious people forevermore.
This was not exactly calculated to stimulate support for the Union forces who were rushing to the colors just about then.
Nearly three columns of his first page in the same issue was devoted to full quotation of a speech made April 2, 1861, by John C. Breckenridge in the Kentucky house of representatives suggesting secession.
