125 years ago
Jan., 20, 1893
Washington, D.C., Jan. 16. — John L. Wilson is happy to-night having secured an agreement in the appropriation committee providing for both a lighthouse at Grays Harbor and for allowing the state sixty days in which to select its lands for public institutions. The light will cost $75,000, $45,000 of which will be immediately available for beginning work. The provisions of the state’s selection of land will be worth many millions of dollars to the school funds of Washington.
100 years ago
Jan. 18, 1918
Unless one visits one of the larger cities of the Pacific Northwest these days he does not fully comprehend the fact that real prosperity has hit the state of Washington. In a city like Seattle for instance the payroll which in 1914 was something like $10,000,000 annually is now close to $60,000,000. The city cannot house its people; there are no vacant houses, offices cannot be rented, apartments are in such demand that there is a long waiting list; one thing, however, that shows real conditions more than any other is the fact that the city finds it utterly impossible to solve the transportation problem for the thousands of men who are engaged in the shipyards, and it is likely the government will have to step in and work out some solution that will enable men to get back and forth. It has been announced that probably 10,000 more shipyard employees are to be put to work and where or how they can be housed is to date a mystery.
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Company G boys will be the most popular fellows in the expeditionary army in France, when the shipment of cigarettes arrive that are to be sent to them at once from Montesano. More than 2000 packages of cigarettes, or their equivalent in money, were derived from the “cigarette dance” given Tuesday evening by the Montesano Eagles and Faucher’s Concert Jazz Band and this means that every man in the company will have enough smokes from the good old U.S.A. to supply his needs for some time and be able to pass an occasional one along to some less fortunate comrade not in Co. G.
75 years ago
Jan. 21, 1943
Here’s the latest dope about the weather … on this Friday morning the thermometer registered 10 degrees above zero. And in any language that means COLD in the Montesano and east Grays Harbor area. And it’s been that way, more or less, ever since last Saturday morning when daylight revealed a blanket of snow all over everything. It was cold last Sunday and it grew colder Monday morning, some 8 degrees above zero, according to Joe Schlegel, local weather recorder.
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Nineteen people lost their homes, clothes and household belongings in fires here within a short period Monday. The first fire was on Church st. North Monday afternoon in the house occupied by Mrs. McCleary and her five children, Don Burtch and his two children and J. H. Wheeler. Mr. Wheeler had only a few days previously returned from a seven months’ trip east and was sitting with his back to the heater reading to a youngster when suddenly he realized the wall back of him was ablaze.
The loss was complete and estimated at $1,750, partially covered by insurance. The people are living temporarily on River St. North.
50 years ago
Jan. 18, 1968
‘Sno use kids, you just can’t snow your school officials!
That’s the word from Simpson School, Wheeler, and the high school superintendent. Those hoping that classes might be halted during the current attendance drop, have been disappointed.
The flu bug, and the mumps wump are responsible in great part for the number of students currently staying home. Attendance had been dropping steadily for the past week due to illness of students, but Tuesday, January 16, a total of 181 students were absent from classes which was the highest number reached. Wednesday morning, School Superintendent Carl Snyder reported that 139 students were absent.
Average daily attendance in the Monte school system is about 95.5 percent, according to Supt. Snyder. Total school enrollment in the Montesano system is 1335, including kindergarten pupils.
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Tensions and dealing with adolescents will be the topics for discussion at a meeting sponsored by the Grays Harbor County Homemakers’ Council Thursday, January 18 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the Aberdeen Federal Savings & Loan courtesy room.
Mr. Ernest Timpani and Mr. Tom Pappas from the Washington State Correctional Institute in Shelton will be guest speakers.
25 years ago
Jan. 21, 1993
The south jetty at Westport has been badly damaged by winter storms and according to one veteran marine pilot, “If something isn’t done about it, and soon, the navigation of shipping on Grays Harbor, as we have known it in the past, will be just that, a thing of the past,” Mike Hoyne told the Port commissioners Tuesday afternoon during a regular session of the commission.
“There won’t be any sea-going ships, tugs or even large fishing boats that will be able to get in or out of the harbor if the jetty isn’t repaired,” he added.
Earlier in the day, representatives of the Corps of Engineers had visited the Port to discuss the Westport problems that apparently also included the erosion concerns of the area.
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Port of Grays Harbor Executive Director Cliff Muller this week announced that Weyerhaeuser Co. and Pacific Veneer, Grays Harbor’s major wood products producers, will move their export lumber and veneer products through the Port in 1993, a move that will more than double the Port’s 1992 lumber volumes.
Pacific Commerce Line, the international shipping company which has called twice-monthly at the Port of Grays Harbor since the fall of 1990, will ship Weyerhaeuser’s export lumber from its Aberdeen, Snoqualmie Falls, Raymond and Longview sawmills, as well as sawmills in Idaho, to the Pacific Rim in 1993.
10 years ago
Jan. 17, 2007
Though the storms were awful, they did highlight the ways Grays Harbor residents and agencies can prepare for a future disaster, which could be far worse.
About 75 people … gathered to discuss that and more Jan. 10 at Montesano City Hall. It wasn’t meant to be a time of pointing fingers and bewailing things gone wrong, emphasized Anne Sullivan, Emergency and Risk manager, who organized the debriefing. Many good things happened. But now it’s time to see how things can go better should there be a next time.
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Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna recently announced that MySpace has agreed to take steps to better protect children on its Web site. McKenna joined attorneys general nationwide in signing an agreement with MySpace that creates an industry-wide task force to develop technology to verify the age and identify of users.
“This agreement establishes that MySpace shares our interest in creating a safe online environment for children and is committed to make improvements to its Web site that help protect children from sex predators and exposure to pornography,” McKenna said.
