News of Their Deaths Take Capt. Nash and Brothers by Surprise

Following years of sailing, gold mining, and real estate ventures, Capt. John Nash retired in Medford, Ore. He bought the Hotel Medford in 1894 at the southeast corner of Main and Front streets, enlarged it and changed the name to the Nash Hotel. In 1900, his wife sent a letter to his relatives on the East Coast, inquiring whether family members of his supposedly long-deceased brothers were still there. The two brothers, still living, were astounded to learn that Capt. Nash was alive and well and living in Medford. They had read a newspaper account 38 years earlier that his ship, the schooner Moses Waring, had been lost in a gale and all hands died, including Capt. Nash. By the time Capt. Nash settled in Medford, he had assumed the news of his brothers’ deaths was valid. When they replied to his wife’s letter that they were still alive, Capt. Nash was a “trifle skeptical,” but he wrote back and sent photographs of himself and his family. He quickly traveled to Massachusetts for a family reunion reported as being “most enjoyable.” After all those years and unusual circumstances, it must have been. Sources: "Capt. Nash is Quite Alive." Medford Mail 2 Mar. 1900: 6. Print. "Purely Personal," Ibid 12 Oct. 1900: 6. Print. Truwe, Ben. "John T.C. Nash and His Hotel." Southern Oregon History Revised. Web. 13 Aug. 2013