On October 27, 1883, C. Mingus, C.W. Broback, I.J. Phipps, and C.C. Beekman deeded more than two hundred acres for a townsite and twenty acres for a railroad depot to the Oregon and California Railroad Company. Charles Howard and his father, J.S. Howard, surveyed the new townsite for the railroad in a place where only two families lived, the I.J. Phipps family and the C.W. Broback family. Proposed names for the new town included East Jacksonville, Middleford, Medford, Grand Central, and Phippstown. On December 20, 1883, David Loring of the O. and C. R.R. named the town Medford after his home town of Medford, Massachusetts. The depot was originally located in the middle of Main Street.