The first person buried in the historic Stearns Cemetery on Anderson Creek Road west of Talent, Ore., was Judge Avery P. Stearns. His nephew, David Stearns, buried the judge in the nephew’s wheat field in 1857.

In 1980, Roseburg, Ore., officials attempted to use enforcement of an ordinance against occult arts to prohibit the opening of a palm-reading shop.

During World War I, men in Klamath Falls, Ore., had to do productive work or risk being arrested for idleness.

Whitewater guide Glen Wooldridge had no equal on the Rogue River, where his witty stories charmed his guests for more than 60 years. His favorite passengers were women.

George Vaughan grew up in North Bend, Ore., in the roaring 1920s. From the stories he would tell his kids, he was a man who knew how to have a good time, but sometimes took it a little too far.

In 1906, stage driver Frank Reid was moving in a downpour toward Lakeview, Ore. Just as he headed downhill into a narrow canyon between steep hills on each side, the Moss Reservoir broke, releasing a torrent of water.

In 1874, Raleigh Scott and his wife, Nettie, came to live on the Southern Oregon Coast, carrying all their possessions on two ponies. They purchased land in a small valley on the south-facing slope of Rocky Prairie Peak.

In 1908, the Medford Daily Tribune came up with a popularity contest to boost its dwindling circulation, and that of the bi-weekly Southern Oregonian .

The year 1912 was an auspicious one for the residents of Woodville, Ore. The town’s original name had been Tailholt, but that changed to Woodville, in honor of pioneer postmaster John Wood, when the railroad came in the early 1880s.

One of Siskiyou County’s early scoundrels, Sailor Jim, whose real name was Danforth Hartson, reportedly shot Indians and was believed to have been involved in a murder for which he was never tried. Townspeople looked upon him with suspicion and disdain.