125 years ago
Dec. 28, 1894
Misses Nellie McDougall, of Bay City, Mich., Alice McDougall, of Seattle, and Anna Stephenson, of Hoquiam, have been visiting the family of J.E. McDougall this week.
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J.S. Haye and family and B. Zeebuyth and family started Wednesday morning for Ogden, Utah, where they will remain for the present. They will probably embark in business in that place or Salt Lake City. It is to be regretted that these families have gone from the community, but the health of Mr. Zeebuyth made a change absolutely necessary. They were good citizens, made a success of their business, and such people are a help to a community.
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H.C. Cooper was in Portland several days this past week. The holiday trade was very good in that city, and the many stores presented a most attractive appearance — some of the larger establishments having displays that attracted much attention.
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C.H. Rychard and wife, gave a whist party to a number of friends last evening.
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Mrs. J.W. Divibiss, accompanied by the children, are visiting her parents in Portland for a few days.
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Miss Etta Medcalf, who is attending a young ladies seminary in Portland, came home a few days since for a vacation of two weeks.
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George A. Robinson, late populist candidate for sheriff, was down from Sharon this week. He is preparing to remove to Covallis, Oregon.
100 years ago
Dec. 19, 1919
Elma Gibson, chief deputy sheriff, was in the east end of the county Monday, serving summons on the jurors called for the I.W.W. cases.
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Will Beardsley, formerly a resident of Montesano for some years, but now a resident of Montana, was visiting friends and relatives here this week.
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Gus Stratton, who was over from Westport this week, says that the coldest it got there was 10 degrees above zero. The winds and cold made some discomfort nevertheless.
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An automobile, reported to be that owned by C.R. Moss, struck Charlie Honea Wednesday afternoon about 4:30 o’clock, and ran clear over him, knocking him down and cutting the back of his head and breaking off two teeth.
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No words in rhyme, no thoughts in reason, will tell our views of the season. Half the water pipers in Montesano, it seemed, were froze up. To add to the discomfort word came a week ago Thursday that fuel shortage would compel the shut down of the power plant except for a few hours morning and evening.
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Mrs. E.R. Brady told the editor this week that the Vidette didn’t pay as much attention to the news that she was seriously ill as it would have to the purchase by some farmer of a full blood heifer. The fact that Mrs. Brady was able to make so characteristic a remark is proof, we are thankful to say, that she is getting better. She has been suffering with a really serious attack of pneumonia, but with the care of the best nurses and physicians, she is now believed to be on the road to recovery.
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75 years ago
Dec. 28, 1944
Appointment of Waldemar G. Krekow of Hoquiam as Grays Harbor county director for the 1945 “Fight Infantile Paralysis” (polio) campaign was announced yesterday by E.G. Sick, Seattle industrialist and civic leader who is state chairman of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis drive.
“Grays Harbor county showed a gratifying and substantial increase in the amount of funds raised in the 1944 campaign, and I am confident that under the leadership of Mr. Krekow, the people of Grays Harbor county will contribute generously to this cause,” Sick said. “The excellent response of the people of your county to this project in 1944 helped make possible the very high per capita figure set by this state, one of the highest in the nation.”
Mr. Sick pointed out statistics showing that this year has been one of the most serious in history as the severity and number of infantile paralysis cases reported nationally.
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Post-war plans of one Grays Harbor firm, the Whitney Oldsmobile company, were revealed yesterday with announcement of the company’s purchase of the two-story M.M. Stewart building in the 400 block of East Market street, and its conversion into a large truck repair and rebuilding plant.
The plans were revealed by V.I. Whitney of Montesano, head of the company and a veteran of 24 years in the automobile business in Grays Harbor.
The 50 by 130 foot concrete structure will be devoted chiefly to the rebuilding of used cars, Whitney said, but it will also be used for the company’s General Motors truck repairs.
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The eyes of the nation are turned this week again to our Northwest following the publishing in this week’s December 30th, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, a novel article on Major Roy Craft of McCleary, and one describing modern forestry practices followed by the big Washington and Oregon lumber companies, and showing pictures of a stand of Weyerhaeuser timber and others, including a forest fire on Puget Sound.
The Reader’s Digest is currently carrying an article on the famed “Elma Survey,” a survey and model of community planning made several years ago in cooperation with the Washington State Planning Council, which is now working on McCleary blueprints in conjunction with the Booster club.
50 years ago
Dec. 25, 1969
Eleven and one half million “60-year” Christmas trees will be shipped for planting this winter by West Coast Tree Farmers in Western Washington and Oregon, announced W.D. Hagenstein, executive vice president, Industrial Forestry Association.
The forestry executive said these trees are being planted for growing timber to be harvested for Northwest jobs, payrolls and homes, paper and furniture for the American people in the early part of the next century and are part of the continuing annual planting of seedlings from IFA tree nurseries at Nisqually, Washington, and Canby, Oregon. This year’s crop, which is shipped between November and April, will bring the total production to 214 million trees since the first trees were shipped from the IFA nurseries in November 1942.
Hagenstein said that the trees which have been planted from the IFA nurseries in the past 28 years are now “growing homes” at a rate of 40,000 per year. The first of them will be harvested in about 15 years.
He also announced that the IFA is in the process of retiring its Col. W.B. Greeley Nursery at Nisqually, Wash., by replacing it with a new nursery in Thurston County, three times larger than the Greeley Nursery. The first crop in the new nursery was sown in the spring of 1969 and together with the IFA Canby Nursery, will have capacity to grow 20 million trees per year.
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Sale of the 80-acre tract of timber located in the Elk River country was awarded at public auction last Friday morning, to the Doyle Brothers Logging Co. of Melbourne.
The brothers, who were lone bidders for the parcel of land, bid the minimum of $23 per thousand for the merchantable timber and $3.75 per cord for pulp wood. The contract also calls for the timber to be logged within one year.
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“The 60-foot span over Garrard Creek on Brillhart Road, leading into Lewis County, has been completed and is now ready for public use,” according to County Engineer Charles Kirkwood.
The engineer also indicated that work on three other bridges in the Garrard Creek area is continuing and will be completed as soon as possible.
As plans now stand, county road crews intend to complete the reballasting of Newskah Road as quickly as possible, due to the fact that it receives continually heavy use by both trucks and automobiles.
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Simpson Timber Company on Tuesday, announced that all operations at Camps Govey and Grisdale, as well as the company railroad, have been shut down due to heavy snow conditions.
Tentative re-opening date, provided the weather will permit, was scheduled for Monday, December 29.
