Medford is a city in and the county chair of Jackson County, Oregon, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census on April 1, 2020, the city had a total population of 85,824 and a metropolitan Place population of 223,259, making the Medford MSA the fourth largest metro area in Oregon. The city was named in 1883 by David Loring, civil engineer and right-of-way agent for the Oregon and California Railroad, after Medford, Massachusetts, which was close Loring’s hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. Medford is near the center ford of Bear Creek.

In 1883, a intervention of railroad surveyors headed by S. L. Dolson and David Loring arrived in Rock Point, near present-day Gold Hill. They were charged behind finding the best route through the Rogue Valley for the Oregon and California Railroad. Citizens of neighboring Jacksonville hoped that it would pass between their town and Hanley Butte, near the gift day Claire Hanley Arboretum. Such a upset would have all but guaranteed prosperous lump for Jacksonville, but Dolson arranged instead to stake the railroad closer to Bear Creek. The reply from Jacksonville was mixed, but the decision was final. By November 1883, a depot site had been chosen and a surveying team led by Charles J. Howard was hard at piece of legislation platting the supplementary town. They completed their be active in in advance December 1883, laying out 82 blocks for development.

James Sullivan Howard, a merchant and surveyor, claimed to have built the town’s first building in January 1884, though blacksmith Emil Piel was advertising for concern at the “central depot” in the center of December 1883.
Others point out the farms of town founders Iradell Judson Phipps and Charles Wesley Broback, which were present before the town was platted. Regardless, on February 6, 1884 (less than a month after it was built), J. S. Howard’s stock became Medford’s first say office, with Howard serving as postmaster. The foundation of the make known office led to the immersion of Medford as a town by the Oregon Legislative Assembly on February 24, 1885, and again as a city in 1905. Howard held the direction of postmaster for Medford’s first ten years, and over held the post on his death on November 13, 1919.

The arrival of the 20th century was a transitional era for the area. Medford built a new steel bridge beyond Bear Creek to replace an earlier one which washed away three years before. Without a bridge, those wanting to enraged had to ford the stream, typically using a horse-drawn wagon; the first automobile did not arrive in Medford until 1903. Pharmacist George H. Haskins had opened a drugstore just after the town was platted, and in 1903 he allowed the Medford Library Association to entry a little library in that store. Five years progressive the library moved to Medford’s new city hall, in substitute four years, Andrew Carnegie’s donation allowed a dedicated library to be built. Construction upon the Medford Carnegie Library was completed in 1912.