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Pages of the Past

120 Years Ago

Jan. 12, 1894

Monday was the day that taxes became due and payable, and the quickness to which people responded is remarkable. More taxes were paid into the treasury the first three days than occurs in prosperous times. Usually the people wait until the last day of grace before settling taxes, but this does not seem to be the idea this year. The first day, twenty-six receipts were made out by the treasurer. The total collections the first three days were as follows: Monday, $500; Tuesday, $747; Wednesday, $989.69.

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Last Monday, the county treasurer remitted to O.A. Bowen, state treasurer, the state taxes collected in this county during the third quarter ending Dec. 31, 1893: State general fund, $68.96; military fund, $6.05; interest fund, $2.67 — total $77.68.

100 Years Ago

Jan. 9, 1914

DAMAGE BY FLOODS

Five Days of Rainfall puts Rivers on Rampage

Not since the big flood the last week in November, 1909, has the Chehalis River at this city reached such a high mark as it did Wednesday, when at high tide the water lacked but two feet of being on the level with the Northern Pacific depot platform. The rainfall, which began Saturday evening and continued with scarcely a minute’s pause for five days, yesterday morning totaled 9 ½ inches and has been general all over the North Pacific coast. The rainstorm was accompanied by a wind storm that at a number of points, and particularly along the beach, has worked great havoc.

The chief sufferers from the storm have been ranchers of the lowlands and the railroads. All of the residents of the Chehalis bottoms have been forced to move out their stock and families, and railroad companies have been busy trying to keep uninterrupted train service to the Harbor. The Oregon-Washington line from Centralia to Aberdeen has suffered the greatest damage and their trains on Wednesday were detoured over the Northern Pacific. Slides at Preachers Slough and Balch and a washout near Independence caused the trouble. The Northern Pacific has had trouble at Sherlock with slides and the fore part of the week was routing the Harbor trains from the Sound via Centralia. Wednesday noon two hundred feet of their track near the Chehalis boom was washed out and no trains came up or went down to Aberdeen until about 8 p.m., when the break was repaired. The railroad bridges on the Satsop and Wynooche were threatened for a time but prompt work saved them from going out.

The severe storm on the coast has wrecked the old Moclips Hotel and done some other damages to the summer resort. The waves ran mountain high and swept over the beach with destructive force. All was cut off the first of the week and not until Tuesday evening did a train attempt to go down over the beach line. Early rumors reported Moclips entirely destroyed, but the storm was not so severe as the one of last November.

75 Years Ago

Jan. 12, 1939

Dr. Kent W. Berry, Olympia and former Montesano physician; William K. McAloon, former Montesano night marshal; James Reddick, Olympia taxi driver, and Robert H. Smith, Brady farmer, were sentenced by Superior Judge John M. Wilson of Olympia on Monday to serve life terms in the state penitentiary for kidnapping Irving Baker August 19 last. In addition, Berry, McAloon and Reddick were sentence to 20 years and Smith to 10 years for second degree assault in connection with the same crime.

The four were convicted of abducting Baker, then an Olympia automobile dealer, from his home. Berry beat him and tortured him with pliers. He asserted in justification that Baker had attacked Mrs. Elizabeth Berry, 27 year old wife of the more than 50-year-old physician.

Judge Wilson denied requests for suspended sentence in the assault case for Smith. He also refused requests to have Smith and McAloon removed to the county jail here; Smith so that he might be separated from Berry, with whom, it was stated his relations are strained, and McAloon to be near his home.

Smith and Reddick protested their convictions and urged the calling of a grand jury to investigate alleged official activity in the case.

• • •

More Butter Use Urged

An appeal to housewives for the use of more butter in the family diet during the week of January 12 to 18 was issued this week by E.W. Van Tassell, chairman of the state dairymen association’s committee on marketing.

“If every family would use an extra pound of butter during the coming week, a substantial decrease in surplus butter stocks would result.” Van Tassell declared. “Since butter prices control the price of whole milk, and the farmer is dependent on this price for his profit, increased consumption of butter will remove the threatening surplus and increase the income of the Washington dairyman.”

The dairymen’s committee has called on all hotels, soda fountains and restaurants to feature butter-using recipes this week. Van Tassell pointed out that the cooperation of bakeries in featuring cakes and other bakery products using butter was solicited. Bakeries use over 13,000,000 pounds of butter a year,” he stated.

50 Years Ago

Jan. 9, 1964

Mike Svinth, driving a small truck, slid off Sylvia Lake Road Saturday evening, rolled over several times down the bank of a ravine, and walked away virtually unhurt.

It took a wrecker several hours to haul the badly damaged truck back to the road.

• • •

A bull calf was born to Suzan, the $10,000 Jersey owned by Ernest Mock of Satsop, last weekend. The new arrival was delivered by Dr. Duby of Centralia.

Both mother and son are doing fine.

25 Years Ago

Jan. 12, 1989

As was expected and predicted early last month, total log exports from Grays Harbor in 1988 reached a record year, as a total of 787,319,730 board feet wound up being shipped from all five terminals.

In a report to port commissioners Tuesday, Karl Wallin, operations director, told the board, “Of that total, 276.9 million board feet went over Port-owned docks. That was 36 percent more than the 203.6 million feet of 1987.”

As has been the case five of the past eight years, the majority of logs exported, 43.3 percent, went to the peoples Republic of China last year, followed by Japan with 31 percent and Korea with 24 percent. The remaining 1.7 percent was shipped to Taiwan and Turkey, according to Wallin.

10 Years Ago

Jan. 8, 2004

SAN DIEGO — Kyle Basler, former Elma Eagle football player and now Washington State University’s sophomore punter, did something Dec. 30 that no one in history has ever done.

In front of the seventh-largest crowd in Holiday Bowl history — 61,102 — Basler became the first punter to win Defensive Player of the Game award.

Basler’s punts pinned the University of Texas Longhorns inside their own five-yard line on four of his first five punts and the fifth punt rolled out of bounds on the 13-yard line. Texas had trouble getting its offense going after beginning so deep in their own territory.

Texas coach Mack Brown was impressed: “This guy is so good. He just kept pinning us inside the five and we couldn’t go 95 yards.

Basler came to WSU as a walk-on, then he earned a scholarship and the punting job at the end of the 2002-03 fall camp. He averaged 43.9 yards per punt this season, which was tops in the Pac-10. The Cougars went 10-3 for the school’s third 10-win season in a row. WSU finished the season ranked No. 9 in the country, moving up six spots, finishing in the top 10 for the third consecutive year.