In this installment of A Look Back in Time, the Wednesday, Aug. 15, 1956, edition of The Chronicle featured a story about fighter pilots doing multiple flyovers over the annual Morton Loggers Jubilee. The pilots asked for trees to be trimmed to give them more room the following year.
Winlock teenager Don Kaiser was recovering after a friend accidentally shot him in the elbow during target practice the previous day, according to the Monday, Aug. 15, 1966, edition of The Chronicle.
And in the Saturday, Aug. 14, 1976, edition of The Chronicle, it was reported Macgregor the dog, star of the children’s book “Meet Macgregor” written by his owner and teacher Virginia Daniels, was set to join students in Daniels’ class starting in September in Boistfort.
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. 14, 1926
• The Twin Cities’ mayors were competing to see who could get more residents in their city registered to vote in the upcoming primary election, but the headline read “registration still at low mark here,” The Chronicle reported. “Mayor George L. Barner of Centralia has challenged Mayor John West of Chehalis to a registration contest in an effort to boost registration in the two cities before the books close on August 24 for the primary election. Last night only 1,504 Centralians had registered out of a normal total of 4,500, while Chehalis reported only 1,096, or less than 50%.”
• Centralia attorney Clifford D. Cunningham filed to run to unseat an incumbent state Supreme Court justice running for re-election, The Chronicle reported. “C.D. Cunningham, prominent Centralia attorney, this morning filed with the secretary of state in Olympia his candidacy for justice of the state supreme court. Mr. Cunningham, who served one full term and part of another as prosecuting attorney of Lewis County, is seeking the seat of Justice Jesse B. Bridges on the supreme bench. Bridges has filed for re-election.” While it appears his state Supreme Court bid was unsuccessful, Cunningham served as the Lewis County prosecuting attorney from 1912 to 1915, and also the special prosecutor in charge of the cases against Industrial Workers of the World members on trial in Montesano “after the so-called Armistice Day Massacre in Centralia in 1919,” according to his obituary in the Monday, April 22, 1963 edition of The Chronicle.
• A six-room “modern house in good condition on West Pine (Street)” in Centralia was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $2,400. A newly decorated “dandy” six-room home in Centralia was listed for rent for $8 a month.
Saturday, Aug. 15, 1936
• Centralia residents could come see how “talkies” were being made, as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “elaborate traveling motion picture studio” was due to stop in the Hub City on Monday during an educational tour, The Chronicle reported. “The traveling motion picture studio, which was designed and constructed to specifications by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Company, world’s largest motion picture producing organization, at a cost of $150,000, will be placed on exhibition from 4:30 p.m. until 7 o’clock at the Fox Theatre, home here of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer pictures, according to an announcement made by (theater) manager Cecil Gwinn. The studio on wheels, he said, combines facilities for both the recording as well as the projection of sound motion pictures, and the sound equipment aboard the studio itself is valued at close to $50,000. It is the regulation Western Electric apparatus used in the Hollywood studios and in principal theatres around the country. During the studio’s brief visit here, this equipment will be open for public inspection by citizens of this city. They will be permitted to enter the studio, and will have an opportunity not only of seeing the equipment which makes the talkies talk, but will be able to see the operations manifested, in both the filming as well as the projection of sound films on the screen.”
• A “lady’s bicycle in good condition” was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $9. A used Birdsell Clover Huller threshing machine was listed for sale for $250.
Thursday, Aug. 15, 1946
• Construction of a new hangar at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport was nearly completed, The Chronicle reported. “The $8,600 hangar being constructed at the Chehalis County-City Airport will be ready to house planes next week, according to C.R. Williams, of the Williams and Burenn, Centralia contractors. The contractor stated the aluminum sides, which are of the sale type as Army portable barracks, will endure indefinitely, but present dimensions will not permit housing of all the ships currently at the airport, and a 200-foot addition is considered. The new hangar is 200 feet long and 40 feet deep, with a clearance height at the entrances of 10 feet, eight inches, and a seven-foot rise on the roof.”
• A five-bedroom with an electric water heater, an irrigation well and outbuildings, “well equipped for chickens, cows,” on 10 acres of land in Fords Prairie was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $12,000. A total of 31 lots of land in Oceanside “four miles north of Long Beach on Long Beach peninsula” were listed for sale for “$50 each.”
Wednesday, Aug. 15, 1956
• Pilots performed flyovers at the annual Morton Loggers’ Jubilee over the weekend, The Chronicle reported. “Two evergreen trees not more than 70 feet in height proved to be obstacles in the path of two jet fighters performing for the Loggers’ Jubilee crowds Sunday, their pilots told Morton Mayor Elmer Jastad. The trees are located about a block behind Jastad’s drug store here. The fighter pilots, in making their low run over the Jubilee Arena, had to come down into the valley west of town and sweep up over the city. When the airmen spotted the Jubilee grounds, the only obstacles in their way were the two trees. ‘If you want us to come back for next year’s Jubilee, you better clip about 20 feet off those trees,’ the airmen said jokingly. The pilots said they were flying at 550 miles per hour when they passed over the arena. Eight pilots who participated in the Saturday and Sunday show were guests of the Jubilee with Ross Dill acting as host. Four flyers who were to fly Sunday were guests Saturday and the Saturday flyers were guests Sunday. Two pilots who flew Sunday also came back to Morton Sunday afternoon with their wives to catch the last part of the Jubilee celebration.”
• Mossyrock Postmaster Gus Tornow raised the U.S. flag above Mossyrock’s mailroom for the “first time in more than 20 years,” The Chronicle reported, along with featuring a photo of Tornow raising the flag on the front page. “Gus Tornow, above, the new Mossyrock postmaster, explained the flag had been displayed inside the building in previous years. One of the first things he did after taking over operation of the post office was to move the building 75 feet east of its former location and install a standard for the flag. Mrs. Harry (Helen) Belcher is clerk at the post office. Tornow added he is undertaking reorganizational changes inside the building to facilitate the speedier handling of mail.”
• A “good, modern” home with a new barn on 21 acres of land with eight acres cleared, “on oiled road, near new highway, South Chehalis,” was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $7,500. A two-bedroom home in Centralia was listed for rent for $40 a month.
Monday, Aug. 15, 1966
• Winlock teenager Don Kaiser, 17, was recovering after a friend accidentally shot him in the elbow during target practice on Sunday, The Chronicle reported. “Lewis County Sheriff Orville R. Amondson said Kaiser and Wayne Gleason, 18, Toledo, were target practicing together with a .22 caliber rifle. Gleason slipped, causing the rifle to discharge accidentally. The bullet struck Kaiser in the right elbow. Kaiser was hospitalized at St. Helen Hospital where attendants Monday morning listed him in good condition. The youth is the son of Mr. (Joe) and Mrs. (Margaret) Kaiser.”
• Despite the ongoing Cold War, a Russian fisherman was receiving medical care at the Grays Harbor Community Hospital after the ship he was on radioed for help at sea, The Chronicle reported. “‘The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming’ is the name of a movie recently released in the United States, but officials at Grays Harbor Community Hospital are probably saying the same thing — and meaning it. Friday, Nokolai Yeremenko was taken off the Soviet fishing vessel Egersheld 18 miles west of Westport and rushed to shore where a waiting ambulance carried him to the hospital. Yeremenko was reportedly suffering from severe abdominal pains.”
• An “all-electric farmhouse” on 26 acres of land “with green pastures for those heavy, hearty, hungry herefords” located two miles from Chehalis was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $14,500. A “newly decorated” three-bedroom home “just outside south city limits Chehalis” was listed for rent for $75 a month.
Saturday, Aug. 14, 1976
• Macgregor the dog, star of a new children’s book“Meet Macgregor,” by his owner Virginia Daniels, also a teacher, was set to join Daniels as a student in her Boistfort class that year, The Chronicle reported. “The Boistfort schools will have a very special pupil when school opens Sept. 1. He is Macgregor, a Welty, or Welsh wire-haired terrier, and the hero of a book ‘Meet Macgregor,’ written by his owner, Virginia (Gini) Daniels, who will be teaching at the school. The book is fast becoming a standard textbook with teachers of reading and special education teachers. It is replete with pictures and the story involves the dog Macgregor in most, if not all, the situations a first grader gets into. Written to be read and understood by children while improving their vocabulary, it has Macgregor do the things to which the children can relate. In fact, Macgregor probably doesn’t realize he is any different from the pupils in the classroom. He has been in the classroom for several years. In Boise and Kent, he even had his own desk and chair, was in the room when the children were and went out to play when they did. ‘If it is cold outside and I tell the children they should put their coats on before they go outside, he won’t go out until I put his coat on,’ Mrs. Daniels said. The author also said that Macgregor had pegs in the closet on which his clothes were hung. ‘Each morning he goes to the closet and picks out what he wants to wear,’ she said. His eating habits are impeccable, too. He will not eat until his front paws have been wiped with a damp rag. When he’s through eating he waits to have his mouth wiped with a napkin. ‘Like a child, he is sometimes hard to get out of his bed,’ Mrs. Daniels said. ‘Once up, like children, he is full of vim and vigor.’ In addition to having a book written about him, Macgregor is also a professional model. His picture is on the package of Milk-Bone dog treats.” Daniels added she wrote the book while teaching in Kent to help first grade students who were below-average readers. “She is now working on a teacher’s manual to go with ‘Meet Macgregor’ and another book involving two dogs. She said she is coming to Boistfort because she wants to get into a small school and away from the hustle and bustle of a big city, where she will have time to work on her writing. Mrs. Daniels has received statewide recognition as author of ‘Meet Macgregor’ and has used Macgregor and the book in special education demonstration classes in colleges. She said that she would have some autograph sessions in bookstores in the Twin Cities later in the year. The book is now available at department stores and in some college and university bookstores, she said.”
• A remodeled two-bedroom home with spring-fed gravity flow water, a new garage, shop building and a “nice insulated fruit house with freezer” on two acres of land near Mossyrock was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $25,000. A three-bedroom home “overlooking downtown Chehalis” was listed for rent for $175 a month.
