In this installment of A Look Back in Time, the Friday, Aug. 2, 1935, edition of The Chronicle featured a story about an unidentified man who was “blown to pieces” in a Morton tool shed filled with gasoline and dynamite after apparently lighting a match.
Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Robert Walker was recovering from minor injuries which required stitches after he was hit in the head with a beer bottle by Chehalis resident Kenneth Dodge when he tried arresting Dodge for underage drinking, according to the Monday, Aug. 2, 1965, edition of The Chronicle.
And in the Saturday, Aug. 2, 1975, edition of The Chronicle, it was reported that seven of the 20 candidates on the upcoming primary election ballot vying for various Chehalis City Council positions were women, and the three who ended up winning would be the first women ever elected to the Chehalis City Council.
A Look Back in Time is compiled using Chronicle archives at the Lewis County Historical Museum along with digital archives on newspapers.com.
Friday, Aug. 2, 1935
• Morton residents suspected at least one unidentified man had died following an explosion where he was “blown to pieces” in a tool shed housing explosive items, The Chronicle reported. “The tool shed of the Peterman Manufacturing Company, containing gasoline and dynamite, went up in a terrific blast. The roof was hurled 200 feet. It is believed that a man trying to steal gasoline struck a match in the shed and set off the blast.”
• A group of 52 “hoboes were rounded up” in Kelso by Cowlitz County Sheriff Harry O’Brien, his deputies and the Kelso Police Department after the windows of the Vader Railway Depot were broken as a midnight train which the transients were riding passed through the South Lewis County community, The Chronicle reported. “Several windows in the Vader depot were broken by a hail of coal as the train passed through there in the night, the sheriff was informed. Persons in the depot ducked away from the missiles and none were injured … Only three out of the group were held, the transients declaring that the men responsible for breaking the depot windows had dropped off the train in the vicinity of Ostrander.”
• After his capture in a transient camp near Rushville, Missouri, at the beginning of July of 1935, Bob Brandon — one of two men accused of the Dec. 17, 1934, murder of Pe Ell gas station attendant William Walker — was refusing to talk about Walker’s death with investigators, The Chronicle reported. “He admits that he was in this district during that time and that he was in Centralia the night of the murder. That is all he will say. (Lewis County) Sheriff J.A. Blankenship and prosecuting attorney J.E. Sareault, who brought Brandon back from Missouri, say that Brandon is exceedingly close mouthed and that he refused to discuss the subject any further than to maintain his innocence … At the present time Brandon is being kept in solitary confinement in the Lewis County Jail.” His accomplice in Walker’s murder, Joe Bryan, had already been convicted and sentenced to life in prison. As for how the shooting occurred, Brandon and Bryan had stolen a car from a Raymond resident on Dec. 17, then stopped at Walker’s gas station about a mile north of Pe Ell. The men got into an argument, and eventually gunfire was exchanged. After fatally shooting Walker, Brandon fled in the stolen vehicle and left Bryan behind, who was wounded in the shooting. Brandon would eventually plead guilty to a second-degree murder charge and was sentenced to 25 to 35 years in prison.
• The Chronicle featured a legal notice from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office concerning the upcoming sale of 6.2 acres of land in Centralia seized from the Burrows family for $561.05. The land was seized from the Burrows and sold to pay Rose Galvin, who had won a case against the family in Lewis County Superior Court with the judge ruling the Burrows family had to pay $475.40 plus attorney’s fees, court fees and interest.
Thursday, Aug. 2, 1945
• Members of the White Pass-White Bluffs-Cross-State Highway Association were preparing to hold their annual picnic at the La Wis Wis Campground near Packwood, The Chronicle reported. The picnic that year was focusing on maintaining interest in the early completion of the White Pass Highway. “The event will open at 11 a.m. with an inspection of the road as far as it has been completed.” Lunch was scheduled to start at noon with attendees asked to bring their own food. “Those who can are asked to bring something extra for those having no lunches. Coffee will be served by residents of Eastern Lewis County. Scheduled to give short talks at 1 p.m. are Gov. Mon Wallgren, if he is able to attend; Charles Savage, Third District congressman; James Davis, acting state highway director, and Don Abel, president of the Highway Association.”
• Four local area women had been nominated to serve as the queen mother of the 1945 Southwest Washington Pioneer Picnic, The Chronicle reported. They included Waunch Prairie resident Amelia Mauermann, 89, Grand Mound resident Etta Masterson, 75, Centralia resident Melinda Bishop Peters, 86, and Chehalis resident Mary Manning Large, 85. Nominations were still open until Aug. 4. “The new queen mother will succeed Mrs. Eva Borst McElfresh, of Centralia, who died last September.”
• The Chronicle featured an Associated Press story about the death of Joseph Fountain, who was the 14th and final fatality reported after a U.S. Army Air Force North American B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City on July 28, 1945. Though he had survived the initial crash, Fountain sustained third-degree burns attempting to help coworkers get out of their burning office space. “Fountain survived 96 hours, during which he received 25 blood plasma injections. More than 500 persons responded to a plea for donations for him. Fountain’s wife, Mary, who had kept a three-day vigil at his bedside, collapsed last night and was admitted to the hospital as a patient.” The B-25 bomber, piloted by Army Air Force Lieutenant Colonel William Smith Jr., crashed into the Empire State Building after Smith got disoriented in heavy fog conditions attempting to land at LaGuardia Airport.
• A five-bedroom home on 20 acres of land with a large hen house, “barn for four cows” and its own well four and a half miles outside of Centralia was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $2,500.
Tuesday, Aug. 2, 1955
• Riffe resident and Kosmos Timber Company employee Philip F. Eyle, 48, was “instantly killed” after being struck by a log during logging operations near Cispus, The Chronicle reported. “The logger, a life-long resident of Riffe, was born Oct. 24, 1906, at Agate. Surviving are his wife, Joyce, Randle; two daughters, Marie, Wenatchee, and Jeanne, Randle; five sons, Ramond and Reuben, Puyallup; Norman, Riffe; Roger, Randle, and Alfred, Yakima, and two brothers, Johnny Eyle, Riffe, and Sam Eyle, Toppenish.”
• Two Fort Lewis soldiers and one Winlock resident were injured in separate crashes in South and West Lewis County, The Chronicle reported. The two soldiers were U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Howard Jones and Specialist First Class John McReynolds, while the Winlock man was John Gibbs. “Gibbs was injured when his auto went off the Winlock-Napavine road about two miles from Winlock … The soldiers were injured when an auto driven by Jones went out of control, crashed through a guard rail and into a canyon at Walville, three miles west of Pe Ell.”
• The 42nd annual Southwest Washington Pioneer Association Picnic had been postponed “probably until late August or early September” according to Pioneer Association President Henry Mize of Bucoda, The Chronicle reported. “Association leaders said preparations for the 1955 event show a number of conflicts in activities and arrangements and it is deemed wise to postpone it until after the Southwest Washington Fair, due Aug. 24 through 28.”
• A three-bedroom “well-built” home with a two-car garage on 16th Street in Chehalis was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $9,700. Two- and three-bedroom apartments in the “newly decorated” Centralia Apartment Hotel on Main and Iron streets in Centralia were listed for rent starting at $20 a month.
Monday, Aug. 2, 1965
• Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputy Robert Walker was recovering from minor injuries which required stitches after he was hit in the head with a beer bottle by Chehalis resident Kenneth Dodge, The Chronicle reported. Dodge, 19, was arrested and charged with being drunk and disorderly, illegal consumption of alcohol and assaulting an officer. Dodge was attending a dance in Chehalis when Walker attempted to arrest Dodge after seeing a broken beer bottle in his belt. Initially, Dodge attempted to flee. “A flying tackle by deputy Robert Walker stopped the escape, but Dodge struck him on the head with another bottle.”
• Forty-two fire fighters from Ford’s Prairie, Bucoda and the Washington state Department of Natural Resources were all called to battle a fire at the Dressel-Stickney Farm near Lincoln Creek, The Chronicle reported. Destroyed by the blaze was a barn, 20 tons of hay and three acres of grassland. “The fire started while hay was being put in the barn. Exhaust from a truck was blamed with starting the fire, Jerry Grill, Ford’s Prairie fire chief, said … One of the biggest problems in fighting the fire was auto traffic … Onlookers blocked the entrances to the fire and made it difficult for firemen to work.”
• Onalaska resident Kenneth Elkin was blaming a nearby Lewis County development for causing his private well to run dry, The Chronicle reported. “Late last week Elkin told County Commissioners Tom Hampson and Clarence Birley he had discovered his well almost dry and unable to deliver water for garden irrigation or to his home. He said this has never happened before. He added that even in dry summers when he pumped steadily from the well its water level had never receded.” Elkin’s well had been originally drilled in the early 1920s. “The well development that Elkin blames is a 145-foot drilled well completed last week at the county’s road shop just west of Onalaska.”
• A three-bedroom home near Recreation Park in Chehalis was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $13,000. An unfurnished one-bedroom home in Centralia was listed for rent for $30 a month.
Saturday, Aug. 2, 1975
• The headline “Is 1975 the year of the women in Chehalis?” lined The Chronicle’s front page as seven women were among the total 20 candidates vying for Chehalis City Council positions in the upcoming primary election. “Chehalis — which has never, in its history, had a woman on its elected governmental board — could have seven women at the helm, depending on the decisions of the city’s voters. Four of the women are running for the district posts while the remaining trio is seeking the three at-large positions.” Running for District 1 in Chehalis were Joyce Venemon and Brian Baker. District 2 had H.F. Petrie, Bill Brunswig and Vivian Roewe running for the position, District 3 had F.P. Austin, Richard Bieker and Pat Cate, and District 4 had Samuel Norbeck, Larry Tornow, Don Knoechel and Susanne Devoe. Running for the three at-large positions were Paul McBride, Dick Bindara, Ted Rambo, Harry Orr, Frank Pakar, Aliz Nelson, Virginia Barton and Mardell Graham. Ultimately, three of the seven women running — Venemon, Roewe and Graham — went on to win seats on the Chehalis City Council that year.
• Morton residents Reg and Ester Lester had just returned from Washington, D.C., where they attended a National League of Families of POW/MIA meeting, The Chronicle reported. “The couple’s son, Roderick Lester, a Grumman A-6 Intruder pilot, has been missing in action in Southeast Asia since his plane went down in 1972. According to Ester, flight data recovered from computers in Roderick’s crashed A-6 showed at his speed and altitude he would have had at least two minutes to eject from the doomed plane, and that prisoners of war who had been returned already said other prisoners still remained. “She also said, ‘President Ford met with our national board before and after the meeting and seems interested in our cause. But then, so did Nixon, so I’m a little skeptical.’”
• East Lewis County residents were preparing for Packwood’s 23rd annual Sunday Beef Barbecue, The Chronicle reported. “The Packwood Fire Department and fire auxiliary prepare and cook the 550 pounds of beef. They start the fire in the barbecue pit at 4 p.m., Saturday, with alderwood — so the coals will be just right for dropping the beef in at 6 a.m. Sunday. The chefs for the event are Dale Rapscott, Bob Mustain, Harold Haynes, Al Tumlison and Ray Blankenship. Savory items on the menu include fresh corn on the cob, green beans cooked with bacon and seasonings, potatoes, coleslaw and bread and butter. Packwood women bake cakes which are served for dessert.” The annual barbeque served as a fundraiser for the Packwood Improvement Club and fire department, raising around $1,000 every year.
• A three-bedroom home with fruit trees, a large garden, a small barn, attached garage and a fenced pasture on five acres of land in Newaukum was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $34,900. A four-bedroom home in Centralia was listed for rent for $240 a month.
