William Axberg, a 27-year-old from Centralia, returned to his hometown from military service in the Pacific to see his friends and family for the first time in four years, The Chronicle reported on Thursday, Feb. 25, 1943. 

“With three campaign bars, more than 600 hours of flight time in the South Pacific war zone and memories of birdseye views of seven major engagements on the Pacific front, Chief Naval Aviation Pilot William Axberg had returned to Centralia today to visit his parents and friends,” The Chronicle reported. 

Axberg was reported as saying not all Japanese pilots were “suicide” flyers. He also said the Japanese were hesitant to engage in combat unless they had a high degree of certainty they could win. 

“He said many times his patrol ship contacted enemy aircraft, but generally, ‘the Japs got close enough for one good look at us and then beat it for home,’” The Chronicle reported. 

According to Axberg, American pilots were not better than their Japanese pilots, “for they have both good and poor pilots, just as we have,” Axberg said. But Axberg did believe that the marksmanship of the American pilots was superior. 

“(The Japanese) always seem to be shooting at the place we were a moment before,” Axberg said. 

Axberg said the hardest part of working on flight patrols was the “long, hum-drum” trips they would take across the ocean looking for the Japanese. 

The most “impressive” sight Axberg reported seeing during his time as a pilot was the sinking of a ship named after former president Calvin Coolidge in a harbor in the South Pacific. 

“He said his plane was on the water in the harbor for minor repairs, and as he sat on the wing he saw the President Coolidge, loaded with 4,000 troops and much heavy equipment, hit two mines and sink in an astonishingly short time,” The Chronicle reported. 

Axberg, who graduated from Centralia High School in 1934 and enlisted in the Navy in 1938, expected to be shipped back to the Solomon Islands after he left Centralia. 

Saturday, Feb. 25, 1933

• Norma Cade, a 10-year-old from Dryden, died in a Centralia hospital on the night of Friday, Feb. 24. Cade was returning from a trip to San Diego with her mother when she became “violently ill” and was removed from a bus on Thursday, Feb. 23, and hospitalized. She was survived by her mother, a brother and four sisters. 

• Polly Angelo, 86, died in Morton on Tuesday, Feb. 21 after experiencing poor health for over a year. Angelo was born in Virginia. According to The Chronicle, her birth records were lost and many who knew her believed she was older than 90. She was survived by her husband, five sons, three daughters, “more than a score of grandchildren” and several great-grandchildren.

• John Wonderly was re-elected president of the Centralia YMCA Board on Friday, Feb. 24, The Chronicle reported. Also elected to the local YMCA Board were V.D. Timmerman as vice president, W.F. Kelling as secretary and John Benedict as Treasurer. According to the story, the activities of the Centralia branch at the time were limited volunteer work with younger boys. 

• A logging camp had officially opened and begun shipments of logs in the Pe Ell area. “The familiar whistle of the logging railroad locomotive Wednesday morning sounded like old times to residents of Pe Ell, in western Lewis County,” The Chronicle reported. The camp employed around 100 men.

• Two “attractive signs” had been erected at the town limits of Pe Ell, The Chronicle reported. The signs consisted of upright logs nine feet high with a log across the top from which a sign reading “PE ELL” was suspended. 

• The Chronicle reported three people had undergone surgery at St. Helens Hospital in Chehalis recently. The story included the patients’ names and where they lived. 

• M.R. Monahan and Donald Smith were sentenced to the state reformatory in Monroe after pleading guilty to stealing tools from the Twin City Sand and Gravel Company. The two were sentenced by Judge C.A. Studebaker of the Lewis County Superior Court. Monahan was sentenced to two to five years while Smith’s sentence was “indeterminate.”

Thursday, Feb. 25, 1943

• Almost 100 Centralia residents gathered at the Hotel Centralia for a farewell event held for men drafted into service in the military. Centralia Mayor Ray Sprague chaired the event and Chamber of Commerce president Paul Furgeson was the main speaker. Copies of the New Testament were given to each of the drafted men except for two. James Moran was instead given a copy of the Bible his father had carried in France during World War I while Harry Blair said he would also be using a Bible his father had used during World War I. 

• A fire of undetermined origin caused about $2,500 in damage to the S.A. Agnew Lumber Company shingle mill north of Centralia early on the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 24. Firefighters spent almost three hours fighting the fire before they finished, The Chronicle reported. Fire apparently caused damage primarily to the mill’s equipment rather than the building itself. According to Sam Agnew, the mill’s operator, the mill was expected to be closed for at least a week. 

• A U.S. Army Air Force bomber financed by $300,000 in bonds Lewis County residents had was to bear the county’s name, The Chronicle reported. “The Lewis County Highclimber” was named after the county at the request of Karl Richards, Washington state’s deputy administrator for war savings, after the county surpassed both its official and self-imposed quotas for bond sales the previous September. In a letter to Ray Sprague, who served as Centralia Mayor and the Lewis County War Savings Chair, Richards said the recognition was “indeed due the people of Lewis County for their outstanding effort.”

• Carrie Anderson, 71, died in Chehalis following a lingering illness. The Rochester resident was born on Jan. 1, 1872 in Canada and had lived in Rochester for 12 years. She was survived by her husband Andrew. 

• The Chehalis Senior High School Boys’ Club was expected to present “What a Night” at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 26. The  cast of the play, described as a “three-act mystery thriller,” was expected to include Tom Venard, Don Lawler, John Coffman, Buck Wisner, Winchell Epperson, Kelley Hamilton, Craign McMicken, Bob Quick, Gordon Flint, John Borseth and Bill Hagerman. “The play will be one of the finest ever presented in Chehalis and a tribute to the boys and Chehalis High School,” said Frank Junkin, president of the Boys’ Club. 

• A six room “modern” house in Chehalis was listed for $3,500 in The Chronicle. The house was described as having hardwood floors, a “nice” yard, a garden space and a location close to schools. 

• A four room house in Centralia was listed for $2,100 in The Chronicle. The house included two bedrooms, a combination living and dining room, and a built-in kitchen “with a nook.”

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 1953

• Louis Pemerl, a Chehalis city commissioner, was expected to give an address explaining the commission form of municipal government in Richland during a town meeting on the night of Thursday, Feb. 26. At the time, Richland was a “government owned-government controlled village,” and was to be “turned over to the citizens living there.” The meeting was one of many being held to help put together a town government. 

• In an Associated Press story featured in The Chronicle, it was speculated there may be a special session of the Legislature to finish addressing issues such as the budget and energy. According to the AP, only two weeks were left of the legislative session and Gov. Arthur Langlie had stated at a news conference no major bills had reached his desk. “With time running out, the chief executive hinted that a special session would be more desirable than the old practice of stopping the clock to prolong the regular 60-day meeting of the legislators,” the AP reported. Today, legislative sessions held in odd-numbered years are 105 days rather than 60 days, while even-numbered year sessions are 60 days. 

• Thirty Mossyrock students were uninjured after their bus collided with a logging truck and was badly damaged early on the morning of Feb. 25. According to Mossyrock superintendent Ralph Morris, the accident occurred at 8:30 a.m. at the intersection of Sethe Road and the highway. The bus was “slammed into a ditch.” The crash occurred when the bus started to turn off the highway and the logging truck attempted to pass it. Morris estimated the cost of damage to the bus to be over $500 while the damage to the truck was “considerably heavier.”

• Centralia High School students elected the third female student as student body president in its history on Feb. 25. Dolores Breckel, the daughter of “Mr. and Mrs. Adam Breckel,” was elected to succeed Sheldon Larabee as president for the 1953-1954 school year. Breckel was currently serving as student body secretary at the time of her election as president. The last female student to hold the office was Nancy Lyon, who served in the office in 1948. 

• A 61-year-old Toledo man was sentenced to 90 days in jail on charges of “being drunk and assault after he threatened violence to his family.” The sentence was handed down by Judge Percy Ferrier of the Toledo Justice Court on the night of Tuesday, Feb. 24. 

• Andrew Bark, 78, died in his Chehalis home on the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 24. Bark was born on Jan. 4, 1875 in Sweden and immigrated to the United State 57 years before his death. He was survived by a daughter, five grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and two brothers who were still in Sweden.

• A meeting of Lewis County school administrators was held in Mossyrock on Feb. 18. The meeting was attended by 70 superintendents, principals and coaches. The program consisted of a dinner served by the wives of the Mossyrock faculty, a musical performance and a discussion of school issues.

Monday, Feb. 25, 1963

• Willard Helm, a Chehalis resident, was injured when he received an ankle fracture at 7,500 feet while climbing Mount St. Helens on the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 23. Helm, a radio and TV store owner, was in a party that included Wayne Smith and his 15-year-old son Craig Smith as well as Bill Steffon. Craig Smith was a W.F. West High School freshman and Steffon was a Chehalis resident who had summited the Matterhorn in the Alps the previous summer. According to The Chronicle, Helm and Wayne Smith had both slept in the crater of Mount St. Helens the previous Easter. 

• Arnold Miller, the Tenino superintendent, said the school district had hit a “muddy spot” in its plans for completing the replacement of the high school after it had burned down on March 26, 1962. The trouble came after construction cost estimates came in higher than expected. The lowest estimates put the cost of the project at about $57,000 above the amount of money the district had available for the project, The Chronicle reported. According to Miller, he planned to ask the state Department of Education for funding but wasn’t expecting to receive any additional money. “I would like to hope for the additional funds but I’m afraid that is being optimistic,” Miller said. The state was already providing $88,000 compared to $60,000 Tenino intended to provide through levies for a total of $148,000. The construction was expected to cost about $205,000. 

• Sixty-three drivers were arrested for traffic violations by State Patrol officers in Lewis County over the weekend of Feb. 23 and 24. Of those, 44 of the arrests were made for speeding. Arrests were also made for negligent driving, drunk driving, failure to stop at a stop sign and following too closely. 

• A meeting of members of the Lewis County Women’s Club was expected to be held in Randle on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 1 p.m. The women, who were from Chehalis and Centralia, were to be the guests of the Eastern Lewis County Republican Club. 

• About 400 dairy farmers met for the 44th annual meeting of the Lewis-Pacific Dairymen's Association. The meeting was held in the R.E. Bennet auditorium and included the distribution of about $500,000 in dividend checks, The Chronicle reported. Ernie Sorensen, who had served as the association’s manager for the previous 42 years presented his final report before he was expected to step down on April 1. The association had 687 members at the time, The Chronicle reported. 

• In an Associated Press story featured in The Chronicle, the only Black member of the state Legislature accused the Republican-majority in the state House of burying in committee a bill to ban racial discrimination in housing. State Rep. Samuel Smith, a Democrat from Seattle, attempted to suspend the House rules, but his motion was defeated and the bill was sent back to the Rules Committee. According to Smith, state House Republicans, “put themselves on record back home as favoring an anti-discriminatory law. But when the chips were down they retreated and buried the bill in committee.”

• Matt Hekkanen, 70, died suddenly in his Winlock home on Sunday, Feb. 24. Hakkanen was born on Jan. 24, 1893 in Lohtaja, Finland. He moved to Winlock in 1930 and was survived by his wife, a son, a daughter, eight grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, a brother and a sister who still lived in Finland.