Pages of the Past, Nov. 9

A weekly collection of stories from The Vidette’s archives

125 years ago

Nov. 11, 1892

From the Elma Chronicle:

A good attorney could establish a lucrative practice in Elma.

F. L. Heltrich and John Parsons have leased the Opera house for six months.

David McKeon, well known in this county, died recently of small-pox, in Coquille City, Oregon.

Ed King reports the seasons work of Andrew Smith’s steam threshing outfit at 21,000 bushels of oats, 5,000 bushels of wheat and 1,000 bushels of barley, rye and peas.

An eight-year-old son John Kennedy, of Kamilchie, was seriously injured one day this week by being thrown from a horse.

100 years ago

Nov. 9, 1917

C. W. Turner, section foreman for the Northern Pacific at Montesano, sustained a broken leg, severe bruises and internal injuries, Wednesday, when his hand car was struck by a freight train on a curve just west of this city and he was hurled 40 feet from the track. The injured man was picked up by the train crew and rushed to Montesano, where his injuries were given attention by Drs. Carr and Marcy. He was later taken to Tacoma on a special train and placed in the railway company’s hospital in the Sound city. Mr. Turner was accompanied to Tacoma by his wife.

Mr. Turner and two workmen were on the car going west, when they were surprised on the curve by the train. The foreman was attempting to remove the car from the track when it was struck by the train, and car and man were hurled from the embankment. That he was not more seriously injured is providential, as the train struck full force and the shock was great.

75 years ago

Nov. 12, 1942

The highlight event in eastern Grays Harbor for most people was the scoreless tie football game between the Montesano Bulldogs and the Elma Eagles at the Elma high school stadium. It was the final game of the season.

The first half was a kicking duel between Augustine and Jaspher with both teams getting in some nice kicks.

In the second half both teams started drives with Elma first getting down to Monte’s 18 yard line when the ball was lost on a down. The Elma tea made its biggest gain on a pass to Shelton for 25 yards.

Monte started their drive late in the third which Elma intercepted at the 10 yard line. During the fourth quarter Brownlee and Winningham made long gains in a run-off left of the line which brought the Monte Bulldogs to Elma’s 1-yard line when the final whistle ended the game.

Both teams showed excellent sportsmanship in spite of many penalties.

50 years ago

Nov. 9, 1967

Three miles of the Ocean Freeway, Highway 410 in Grays Harbor County, will be opened by the Washington State Department of Highways early next month. This will leave approximately four miles to complete between Olympia and Aberdeen.

Charles G. Prahl, director of highways, said the new section will extend the four lane freeway between Schouweiler Road, east of Elma, and the community of Brady. West of that point, traffic will be diverted over two lanes for an additional two miles to an exit road leading back to the old highway. This is approximately a mile east of Montesano.

The only remaining structure on the Ocean Freeway which is not under construction is the Montesano Interchange, and a contract for that is expected to be awarded in January. When in service, this facility will provide complete freedom of mobility between the freeway, Montesano and State Highway 107 entering from the south.

The Ocean Freeway is designed to provide motorists with a limited-access highway between the Capitol Lake Interchange on Interstate 5, near Olympia, and the point just west of Montesano. Between that point and Aberdeen, a distance of 10 miles, Highway 410 is being widened to four lanes and is expected to be fully opened to traffic about the middle of this month.

25 years ago

Nov. 5, 1992

While their parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts trekked to the polls Tuesday in Montesano and throughout the country, the students at Simpson Avenue school carried on their own election for the very first time as they cast their votes for president and governor of the state. With a joint effort by Anita Davis, Joel Tyndall, Lind Cole and spearheaded by Shirley McQuaid, the whole affair was termed a great success as 356 students cast their votes.

The ‘polling place’ was set up in Room 6 of the school and each student, before voting in a regular booth, had to sign up. The final count found 149 votes for George Bush, 119 ballots for Ross Perot and 88 votes for Bill Clinton. In the race for governor the students cast 208 votes for Ken Eikenberry and 150 votes for Mike Lowry.

10 years ago

Nov. 8, 2007

Do you remember when President Roosevelt’s voice broke into radio broadcasts announcing Pearl Harbor had been bombed?

Do you remember victory gardens, rationing, sacrificing anything necessary for the war effort and “the boys” overseas? How about scrap drives, lane spotters and blackout curtains?

Almost three dozen people with still vivid memories of World War II packed the Activities Room Oct. 25 at McCleary’s Beehive Assisted Living Community. They’d been invited by the Beehive, McCleary Timberland Library and McCleary Historical Society to begin sharing those memories in a program, “Remembering the Home Front.” After viewing a DVD on the war years, one by one, the stories began:

Art Burgman, 90, stood. He said when he heard about the bombing he was too young to join the military. But he recalls that he was in his family’s driveway in College Place, near Walla Walla, when the news came.

“My neighbor friends’ young fellow was just about the same age I was … we were sitting there and all of a sudden we heard over the radio that we had been attacked, and we really didn’t know what to do …. It was such a shock…”

From another part of the room, a woman told the group she was riding on a streetcar in Des Moines, Iowa, to meet some friends. “And someone got on the streetcar and said, ‘They’ve bombed Pearl Harbor.’ And almost 90 percent of us said, ‘Where’s Pearl Harbor?’”

Another lady related that the day Roosevelt said would “live in infamy,” had been her wedding day.