County under quarantine 100 years ago this week

A local judge preferred to call it an “enza” epidemic, rather than flu.

125 years ago

October 27, 1893

The saw dust at Stetson’s mill has been burning ever since the mill burned. Several times the past week it was feared that the fire would get beyond control and do considerable damage, but by hard work it was kept in check.

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Mrs. E.A. Elfbrandt will have charge of the poor house this winter, and has removed her family to the poor farm. T.L. Knause gave up the position, and is now at work in the Auditor’s Office.

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The Cowlitz River Flour Mill Co.’s plant at Toledo is kept running day and night, turning out 150 barrels every 24 hours, and still can’t keep up with its custom work.

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Unlawful fishing has been indulged in to a considerable extent on the Cowlitz River. A band of Italians near the mouth of the river have been the most aggressive. They have at last come to grief, having been arrested while in the act of violating the Sunday fish law, and are now in jail at Kalama, having failed to pay a fine of $50 each.

100 years ago

October 25, 1918

The Air Currents — a monthly, devoted to airplane news — for October, has the following interesting article about a Montesano citizen:

“Reuben H. Fleet, Major, J.M.A.A.S.M.A., is one of the biggest of the big figures who through their persevering efforts have succeeded in making American flying schools what they are today — institutions which are turning out skilled flyers with the greatest efficiency and dispatch with a minimum of serious accidents. He was born in Montesano, Washington in 1887 and received a great part of his education at Culver Military Academy, but the most important part he acquired in the school of experience and through the study and research prompted by his inquisitive mind and his desire to know about things.”

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The whole county is still in quarantine, and there in no indication of when the quarantine will be lifted. The “flu,” or as Judge Ben Sheeks says a better name for it would be the “enza,” seems about as much in evidence as it has any time since the quarantine was put into effect. In Aberdeen, there has been one or two deaths charged to the epidemic and there was one in Oakville.

75 years ago

October 28, 1943

Montesano folks are doing a fine job of helping to keep overseas fighters supplied with cigarettes, according to Bruce Hood, adjutant quartermaster of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post. Over $275 has been donated in the form of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and an occasional half-dollar dropped into the milk bottles places in various public places about town. By this means, 5,500 packages, containing 110,000 cigarettes have been sent overseas within the past two months.

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After serving the people of Montesano and vicinity for 18 years as a wholesale buyer and retail distributor of milk, Oscar Klasell, proprietor of Klasell’s Dairy and Ice house, announced the complete discontinuance of the milk business as of Nov. 1. The Wynooche Farm dairy, Robert Taylor, manager, is to take over the service route hitherto handled by Klasell’s. Lack of help has caused the change, it was explained.

50 years ago

October 24, 1968

The Montesano Chamber of Commerce, Wednesday, went on record as strongly favoring the closure of all business houses on Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 11. According to chamber president Art Furnia, “In past years some of the townspeople have voluntarily closed their doors for most of the day, if only to attend the annual football game. However, this year several of the businessmen have indicated that the various business houses in town should be closed for the entire day in respect to all veterans.”

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The Montesano Bulldogs won a hard-fought and costly ball game last Friday when they defeated the South Bend Indians, 12 to 7.

It was a tough game for Montesano and costly, as the all-conference candidate fullback Bob Stewart suffered a broken ankle. Bob played not only fullback, but a defensive linebacker. He carried the ball 21 times for a net gain of 123 yard and one TD.

Jerry Ambrose again injured his knee and may be out for the rest of the season.

25 years ago

October 28, 1993

For the past two or three years people have been saying that there is a shortage of logs for use by the domestic lumber mills in the United States. But that apparently isn’t true on the local scene, according to Montesano Forester Ron Schillinger, who told the City Council on Tuesday evening, “The logs that were cut by NDC Timber recently in the city’s watershed were refused by Mayr Brothers. We could have sold them to another timber company, but they dropped the price they would pay by $200 a thousand.

“From what I have seen recently, he added, there doesn’t appear to be any shortage as far as logs at the domestic level is concerned. I believe the city would be smart if the logs were left in a cold deck where they are located and NDC Timber has agreed to sort the various species in the decks.”

10 years ago

October 23, 2008

For several years now, Stan Blunt of Aberdeen has regularly harangued the Grays Harbor County commissioners at their Monday meetings about its policy to allow a private business to harvest salal from county forest lands.

Blunt is outraged in his conviction that the county’s contractor pays illegal immigrants cash to harvest the greens, and he wants the commissioners to require the contractor to prove that all those harvesting salal are in this country legally.

He says he can “tell just by looking” that the workers coming in from the forest are in this country illegally. “These people pose a threat to women and children,” he says. Like many, he also opposes any policy that allows nonresidents to access health care at taxpayer expense.

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The Montesano High School Homecoming court was presented to the crowd at Monte’s football game with Forks on Friday at Rottle Field. The 2008 homecoming king is Curt McConnell and the queen is Lacey Goble.

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In a battle of state-ranked teams, it was Montesano’s multi-faceted attack that over-shadowed Forks’ one-man show, as the Bulldogs went on to shut out the Spartans, 19-0, in a 1A Evergreen League football showdown on Monte’s homecoming night, Friday at Rottle Field.

From the start it was obvious that the Spartans’ game plan was to put the ball into the hands of their stand-out workhorse running back, Lucas Dixon, who has already rushed for more than 1,000-yards this season. However, Montesano’s defense was keying on Dixon, and never allowed him to break free for a big run — let alone a scoring run.

“The defensive line played outstanding,” Bulldog coach Terry Jensen said. “Ira Alefteras, Derek Jensen and Alex McNealley controlled the line of scrimmage. We limited Dixon to only two carries of over 8 yards, that was a big key.”

Compiled from the archives of The Vidette by Karen Barkstrom. She can be reached at kbarkstrom@thedailyworld.com or 360-537-3925