A Deeper Look: Jackson County

Rogue River 
Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3

Jackson County was established in 1852. Medford, the county seat, has a population of 85,824 and is one of the larger cities in Oregon.

Jackson shares the current crisis with Josephine County around illegal marijuana growers coming into the area, depleting the water by draining creeks and siphoning off groundwater and bringing a variety of problems including human trafficking. In October of 2021 the Commissioners declared a state of emergency over this issue.

The earliest churches – Presbyterian and Christian - in Medford started as a “Union Sunday School.” The American Sunday School Union started in 1817 on the east coast, a copy of a similar organization in Britain that began in the mid-18th century. This organization was not like we think of modern Sunday School. It was designed to reach rural and poor children and educate them as well as attend to their moral training. The members of a Union Sunday School could establish a church of a denomination of their choosing when they had enough members. The system worked well. In the U.S. it spread from the east coast to the frontier regions, making basic education as well as Bible and moral training available to those who were too isolated to receive it. They began to decline when public schools became more universally available.  

Jackson County, Oregon


On a personal note: In more recent times my uncle, a Baptist minister, worked for the American Sunday School Union.

In 1884 a Union Sunday School was established in Medford and eventually spun off into Christian and Presbyterian congregations. The Sunday School met in a hall above Charley Walter’s Grocery Store until the churches got started. At first the new congregations met at a variety of locations (private homes, stores, etc.) After a few years the Oregon-California Railroad donated land to each church in Medford and more permanent structures were built.

Jackson County has over 2802 square miles of area and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office enforces the law in the unincorporated portions of the county. They are also responsible for law enforcement in White City, Shady Cove, and Gold Hill. The current Sheriff is Nathan Sickler.

How do we pray for Jackson County?

Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. Isaiah 60:18

Pray for the ongoing issue with illegal marijuana growers. Pray for protection for all law enforcement in Jackson County, including the Sheriff’s Office and the city and town police. 

Pray for Sheriff Nathan Sickler.

Pray for the churches of Jackson County.

Pray for the County Commissioners: Dave Dotterrer; Colleen Roberts, Rick Dyer.

Pray for the May 17th primary. Positions on the ballot for the primary include two County Commissioner seats and a Justice of the Peace.

 

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