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Where many states seem to be making voting as difficult as possible, Oregon keeps making it easier. Residents who are U.S. citizens can register to vote by mail or online. If they are not registered voters, they are automatically registered when they obtain or renew an Oregon driver’s license. And then registered voters have a three week window to return their ballots by mail or in a drop box—no standing in line on a weekday, possibly before or after work, to have a say in th

Jacksonville is “celebrating the Shamrock” this month so Historic Jacksonville, Inc. is going Irish by highlighting one of our early settlers, Patrick J. Ryan. In the 1840s, over half of the immigrants coming to America were Irish. Patrick J. Ryan, a 13-year-old native of County Tipperary, Ireland, was one of them. He arrived in the U.S. in 1842. Ten years later, he joined the westward immigration, crossing the plains and reaching Southern Oregon in the fall of 1852. Ryan

Most of Jacksonville’s original wooden buildings were destroyed in multiple fires, but a few remain. At least two of these landmarks were the work of master builder David Linn. One, the 1854 St. Andrews Methodist-Episcopal Church, was a product of his early Jacksonville career. The other, the 1881 Presbyterian Church, came towards career end. In between he built a fort, public and commercial buildings, houses, staircases, furniture, mining equipment, and coffins. Linn was b