In this installment of A Look Back in Time, the Saturday, Aug. 7, 1926, edition of The Chronicle featured a story about a group of Chehalis residents talking with the Lewis County commissioners about a proposed site to build a new airfield.
Onalaska resident John Dow successfully recovered his car after it was stolen at gunpoint by Robert Wyback, a state prison escapee, according to the Thursday, Aug. 8, 1946, edition of The Chronicle.
And in the Wednesday, Aug. 8, 1956, edition of The Chronicle, it was reported that Morton youth Junior Nanney, who lost an eye after a glass jar of fermented fish eggs he was holding exploded, was back home and recovering.
Some Sunday and holiday editions were not in the archives, so stories from the previous days’ editions have been featured instead. When The Chronicle was still a daily newspaper, Sunday editions were often reprints of Saturday editions, unless major breaking news needed to be reported.
A Look Back in Time is compiled using microfilm archives at The Chronicle, physical copies stored at the Lewis County Historical Museum — located at 599 NW Front St. in Chehalis — and digital archives on newspapers.com.
Saturday, Aug. 7, 1926
• A group of Chehalis residents met with the Lewis County commissioners to discuss the construction of a new airport in the Mint City, The Chronicle reported. “Yesterday Chehalis Citizens’ Club delegation met with the Lewis County commissioners to confer on a proposition to establish a permanent airplane landing field on the P(aul) I. Donahoe farm northwest of Chehalis on the river road leading to Centralia. A permanent 34-acre field is proposed with an emergency field of 40 acres adjoining. The commissioners took the matter under advisement and a further conference will be held on the subject.” Ultimately, commissioners approved the site for the proposed airfield, which is now the Chehalis-Centralia Airport.
• Roy Johnston was charged with both grand and petit larceny in Lewis County Superior Court after he was accused of stripping and selling parts of cars by Centralia police, The Chronicle reported. “Johnston, arrested last week by the Centralia police and who is now serving a jail sentence for petit larceny, is alleged to have done a wholesale business stripping automobiles in the Independence District. The warrants charge him with taking parts from cars belonging to Russell and John Anderson, Frank Mullen and Warren M. Kendall, the total value running into several hundred dollars.”
• A five-room home on six lots of land with a well on the “corner of Chehalis Ave., and Salzer Valley Road” was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $2,000. A four-room home “in fair condition” at 917 L St. in Centralia was listed for rent for $10 a month.
Saturday, Aug. 8, 1936
• A Centralia man was injured and beer was also lost after his truck was struck by another truck carrying the beer, The Chronicle reported. “Walter Johnson, Centralia, received severe lacerations of his left leg when the truck in front of which he was standing was hit by another truck Thursday afternoon on Fourth Avenue and Fairview Street. Johnson had parked to put water in the radiator of the heavy truck he was driving. Fred Wick, driver of the beer truck that hit the parked machine, escaped injury. Wick was passing the truck when an east-bound pleasure car forced him to cut in against the parked machine to avoid a head-on collision with the pleasure car, according to Patrolman Leonard Royal, investigating officer. The east-bound motorist did not stop after the accident. The shoulder of the beer truck smashed into the rear section of the parked car, and beer flowed freely on the street for several minutes. About a third of the load was lost, Royal said.”
• A 1926 Chevrolet sedan was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $20, while a 1929 Oakland was listed for $160.
Thursday, Aug. 8, 1946
• A prison escapee was caught by an Onalaska man after he stole the man’s car, The Chronicle reported. “Pressing a loaded revolver into the side of John Dow, Onalaska, was a mistake for Robert Wyback, an escapee from the state penitentiary, who relieved Dow of his car, but was shortly apprehended when Dow borrowed a rifle and, with James Atkinson, pursued the convict; caught him, and held him at rifle point until the State Patrol arrived. Wyback stopped Dow near Onalaska late Tuesday afternoon and asked him to take him to Salkum, promising to pay for gas and oil. When approaching state Highway No. 5 at Ethel, Wyback poked a .38 revolver into Dow’s ribs and ordered him out, and to ‘start walking back.’ Instead, Dow hurried to the store at the Onalaska junction and enlisted the aid of Atkinson, who had a storekeeper phone the State Patrol while the pursuit started. State Patrol Officer George Cobb, stationed a short distance from Mary’s Corner when the radio call came, hastened there, where the bandit was being held at gun-point. The loaded revolver, together with the extra cartridges, was found in Wyback’s pockets. Wyback, formerly a trustee at the game farm near Centralia, is being held in the Lewis County Jail.”
• A house with a barn and hen house on 38 acres of land near Rochester was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $4,000.
Wednesday, Aug. 8, 1956
• Morton youth Junior Nanney, who lost an eye after an accident the previous weekend, had finally returned home from the hospital, The Chronicle reported. “Junior Nanney, 13, who lost his right eye Saturday when a glass jar willed with fermented fish eggs exploded in his face, returned to his home here Tuesday from a Tacoma hospital. Nanney is the son of Mr. James H. and Mrs. (Edythe) Nanney. The Nanney home is located next to the Morton hospital and he received emergency treatment at the hospital and then was transferred to a Tacoma hospital for special treatment.”
• The Chronicle’s front page featured a photo of a Washington state National Guard helicopter landing at the Centralia National Guard armory. “A National Guard helicopter made a brief stop in Centralia Wednesday about 10 a.m. to transport Centralia Postmaster Francis Moses and Col. A(rcher) S. Kresky, director of civil defense in this area, to a meeting with Gen. Lilburn H. Stevens, head of the Washington state National Guard unit. The men were to hold an informal meeting with General Stevens at Camp Murray near Tacoma. Colonel Kresky said he would discuss working relationships between civil defence units and the National Guard.”
• A three-bedroom home with 330 chickens, 21 hogs and 4 cows, along with farming equipment and a 1950 Chevrolet pick-up truck on 20 acres of land “near Rochester on Peterson Road” was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $15,000. A three-bedroom home with “automatic washer, dryer, electric range, fridge, etc.” in Centralia was listed for rent for $50 a month.
Monday, Aug. 8, 1966
• Frosty’s Tavern in Napavine had new owners, The Chronicle reported. “Frosty’s Tavern in Napavine has been sold by Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Aust to Alice Jager, according to a contract filed in the Lewis County Auditor’s Office.” Originally built in 1902 and even being a brothel at one point, on top of a bar and restaurant, Frosty’s is still open today despite having changed owners multiple times throughout the past 124 years.
• The owners of Winslow’s Market in Morton were trying to recover after the theft of over $6,000 in cash and checks over the weekend, The Chronicle reported. “A money bag containing $4,500 in cash and $1,700 in checks was taken from Winslow’s Market here Saturday, Sheriff O. R. Amondson said Monday. The sheriff said whoever took the bag went into an office and removed it from an unlocked drawer. The theft was reported to the Morton Police Department, which informed the sheriff’s department at 3 p.m.”
• A three-bedroom home with “paneling, wall-to-wall carpeting” and a two car garage in Napavine was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $8,000. An unfurnished two-bedroom home in Centralia was listed for rent for $85 a month.
Saturday, Aug. 7, 1976
• Founders of the Tenino Depot Museum were preparing to finally unveil the museum, albeit still incomplete, later that month, The Chronicle reported. “A wooden money show, bicentennial exhibit, open house at the old railroad depot and sandstone carving and other demonstrations are planned for Aug. 15 in Tenino. Sponsored by the South Thurston County Historical Society, the event will be in the Quarry House, the deposit which is being converted into a museum, and in the area in between at the Tenino Town Park. Hours will be from noon to 5 p.m. The wooden money show will be in the Quarry House and will include six exhibitors from Seattle, and Earl O’Cathey and his son from Pomona, California. Sandstone carving will be demonstrated by Dean Wilson. Tuss Thompson, Olympia, will display 147 different types of horseshoes, demonstrate the making of horseshoes by hand and will make horseshoe rings for children. There will also be a rock show sponsored by the Tenino Rock Cruisers. Others scheduled to appear include Carol Madore, Rochester, spinning wheel demonstration, Duane Conger, bicentennial exhibit, and Andrew Jackson, composer of the song, ‘Tenino.’ The event is a part of Tenino’s bicentennial observance. Relocation of the old train depot to the park and conversion into a museum was the major bicentennial project. ‘The conversion has not been completed, but visitors will be able to get an idea of how it will look when it is completed,’ Ken Hedden, Mayor of Tenino, said. ‘It’s sort of a progress report.’”
• A “large” two-bedroom home on 50 acres of land with a private road and 25 acres cleared “eight miles south of Chehalis” was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $65,000. A three-bedroom home in Centralia was listed for rent for $200 a month.
