The Elder Statesman

Roseburg
By Diane L. Goeres-Gardner
And the Douglas County Museum
Arcadia Publishers
Images of America
Paperback $21.99

By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review

As a reporter in Douglas County, I have used the fabulous photo archives of the Douglas County Museum on many occasions but always looking for a specific photograph from its more than 25,000 photos dating from the 1850s through the mid-20^th century. Author Diane L. Goeres-Gardner meticulously sorted through those thousands of historic images to put together a 127-page book of Roseburg and Douglas County.

“I looked for photographs with a story behind them,” she said in an interview. “I had hard choices to make in the selections, but I considered photos with people in them were the ones that could tell a story.”

She said she chose several for the cover and submitted them without telling the publisher which one was her choice. The publisher, however, also chose her favorite — children at a maypole dance on the lawn in front of the Douglas County courthouse circa 1900.

Diane L. Goeres-Gardner of Oakland, working with Douglas County Museum personnel, volunteers and residents has produced a historic study of Roseburg through these old photos beginning in the 1800s and ending with the photo of Robert Kennedy campaigning for president on the lawn of the Douglas County courthouse in 1968, his last campaign stop before he went on to Los Angeles and was gunned down on June 5, 1968.

Gardener is the author of two previous Oregon histories, “Necktie Parties: Legal Executions in Oregon, 1881 to 1905” published in 2005 and “Murder, Morality and Madness: Women Criminals in Early Oregon,” published in 2009. In her introduction of her latest work, Gardner recites the early history and founding of Roseburg as the county seat and ends appropriately with a section called “Famous Faces: The Notorious and the Illustrious.” The notorious aside, the illustrious are those pioneers whose names you will see on streets, towns and places in Douglas County.

The section called “Disasters,” contains many photos of the destruction done in the infamous August 7, 1959 blast, but also includes fires and floods that have happened in years past.

There is very little text in the book, except for the captions detailing each photo she used.

This in itself represents a time consuming task and a finely finished historic research.

“My hardest task was tracking down facts about the photos, particularly to identify the people in the pictures,” she said. “I used every resource at hand — old newspapers, diaries, journals, marriage licenses and obituaries. For four months I all but lived at the museum.

The short chapters include the building of a city; commerce; plays, parades and clubs in the city; wheels illustrating the means of transportation; disasters and finally famous faces.

Some of the famous faces  are notorious characters like bank robbers and murderers. Among those notorious characters is Dr. R. M. Brumfield, a dentist who murdered a Myrtle Creek man, and the stories of rival newspaper editors shooting it out on a Roseburg street. But more important are the faces of the pioneers who literally carved Roseburg and Douglas County out of the wilderness.

There is a photo of the Umpqua Dairy crew 1934 in which includes a young Lloyd Nelson before he joined a construction company building an airstrip on Wake Island before the outbreak of World War II. Nelson was taken prisoner by the Japanese and was a POW in Japan for the entire war.

As a journalist with a career dating back to the hot type era of newspapers, I have long been intrigued with the print shop picture that hangs in The News-Review. I was delighted to see it reprinted in this book with an explanation of the photo and the printers in the shop, listed by name. The photo, I learned was taken in January 1903. It shows the print shop at the Ensign Review, the early newspaper that eventually became The News-Review.

There are many illustrations of the early retail stores in Roseburg, as well as buildings and homes of years ago. Surprisingly, many of these structures still stand as historic monuments to the town’s forefathers.

Royalties from the book sales go to Gardner, as the author, and the museum as a contributor of the historic photos from its archives. The Douglas County Museum has been collecting, preserving and exhibiting natural and cultural history items for 40 years. The museum provides public access to research materials. Through the Lavola Bakken Research Library, public access is granted for a wide variety of printed materials, including photos such as those included in Gardner’s book.

The Roseburg book will be released for sale on Monday, March 15. The museum will host a reception and book signing on Thursday, March 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the museum, 123 Museum Drive, Roseburg located on the county fairgrounds. The book will be available for sale at bookstores as well.

For more information contact the museum at 541-957-7007.

(Bill Duncan can be reached at bduncan@nrtoday.com or by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470.)

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