In this installment of A Look Back in Time, the Friday, May 31, 1935, edition of The Chronicle featured a story about a pair of Centralia men being caught after committing 25 home robberies in Centralia, Chehalis and Tacoma over the four months prior to their arrest.
“Virtually all” of the staff working for the City of Centralia had submitted their resignations ahead of a new city commission being sworn in and taking over according to the Tuesday, May 31, 1955, edition of The Chronicle.
And in the Saturday, May 31, 1975, edition of The Chronicle, Chronicle staff writer Chuck Wilfong detailed his recent canoeing trip down the Newaukum River.
The Thursday, May 31, 1945, edition of The Chronicle was missing from the archives, so select stories from the issue on the day prior on May 30 have been included.
A Look Back in Time is compiled using Chronicle archives at the Lewis County Historical Museum along with digital archives on newspapers.com.
Friday, May 31, 1935
• Centralians Perry Long and Earl Norris were arrested and accused of a string of robberies in the Twin Cities and Tacoma beginning four months earlier, The Chronicle reported. Long, 18, and Norris, 20, both resided in Centralia’s Logan District and were implicated in 25 robberies in Centralia, Chehalis and Tacoma. The duo was stopped and questioned by the Chehalis Police Department and when taken to the police station for further questioning, Norris made a run for it. While Norris escaped, Long remained and confessed to all 25 robberies according to Chehalis Police Chief Milton Jastram. “Jastram said Long confessed that he and Norris robbed 15 Centralia homes, eight in Chehalis and two in Tacoma during the past four months. A big share of the loot was recovered today.” Some of the stolen items recovered included portable sewing machines, radios, vacuum cleaners, watches, revolvers, and “pencils and pens of many makes … Jastram credited Officers (Joe) Bena and (Tom) Murray for their timely capture.” Though Norris escaped initially, he would be apprehended on June 21 after being shot three times by a detective in Seattle.
• The Chronicle featured an Associated Press story about 3,200 sawmill and lumber industry workers returning to work at the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company and the Long-Bell Lumber Sales Corporation in Longview. “Long-Bell logging crews waited until this morning before returning to work in the woods. Although employees of the planing mill, shipping and factory departments also returned to work today, the two head mills will not resume operations until Monday, it was announced. A portion of the planing mill and loading crews will be back at work at the Weyerhaeuser mill tomorrow morning.” Terms of the agreement Long-Bell and Weyerhaeuser signed with the labor unions representing the workers included a blanket five-cent per hour raise for all employees, a 50-cent per hour minimum wage and a 40-hour work week.
• Local farmers were looking to hire berry pickers for the upcoming harvest, The Chronicle reported. “The chamber of commerce office again has become a corner where pickers and growers meet. With strawberry season rapidly coming on, an ‘order’ for several hundred berry pickers has been placed with the chamber.” Chamber staff were registering both farmers and pickers, and allowing berry pickers to go job shopping and pick the farm they wanted to work at. “The service is free to both parties. Growers anticipate an ample supply of workers this year in contrast to last season, when a premature season found berries ripe on the vine several weeks before schools released their hordes of potential pickers.”
• A piano was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $85.
Wednesday, May 30, 1945
• Plans for 100 new houses in the Twin Cities area were being pushed forward with support from both the Chehalis and Centralia Chambers of Commerce, The Chronicle reported. On Wednesday, both chambers adopted resolutions “urging granting of the building authorizations … The Chehalis chamber’s resolution was jointly signed by the city commission and pointed out ‘the lack of adequate housing for employees of our industries engaged in war work and in food production is seriously interfering with the output that should accompany that increased demand.’”
• Pe Ell Marshal George Martin Workman passed away in his home at the age of 55, The Chronicle reported. Workman had been battling an illness for three months and was a former Chehalis resident. “He had been marshal at Pe Ell for a number of years. He was born Feb. 28, 1890, in West Virginia.”
• The Chronicle featured an Associated Press story about the continued bombing campaign being carried out by U.S. military forces in World War II against Imperial Japan, with a recent bombing raid setting a new record. “Approximately 500 fighter-escorted (Boeing B-29) Superforts scorched Yokohama Tuesday with 3,200 tons of fire bombs in their greatest daylight raid, made 24 hours after Japanese suicide planes wound up their most damaging attacking on U.S. shipping around Okinawa.” One American “light ship” was sunk and 12 others damaged, but the enemy attack “didn’t stop American divisions from making sweeping advances on both flanks of the sodden Okinawa front, giving them control of two-thirds of Naha and half-encircling Shuri, keystone fortress.”
• A three-bedroom home with a barn and family orchard on 98 acres near Centralia was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $6,500.
Tuesday, May 31, 1955
• “Virtually all” of the staff working for the City of Centralia had submitted their resignations effective the following Monday, The Chronicle reported. This included Centralia City Clerk Frances Laurila, who had been in the position for 12 years. “The action came in a joint resignation by the six regular employees to the city commission, asking that the resignations be effective when the incumbent commission retires Monday. The resignation of Laurila was separate, but it specified the same reason and also expressed appreciation and pleasure of city employment under the administration … The resigning employees said their actions are ‘personal and political.’” The only city staff who remained were two employees in the city’s collection department, and the new incoming city commission was now faced with the task of quickly hiring new staff.
• Pe Ell High School students who were members of their local Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter received awards for their year’s work in agriculture, The Chronicle reported. The local FFA chapter held several contests for the students including a savings contest and rodent catching contest. In the savings contest, Leo Giroski took first place followed by Melvin Mustoe and Robert Ross. Collectively, the FFA chapter saved up $66.29. For rodent catching, Mustoe took first place, followed by Larry Tiemeyer and Ross. “The pests caught and brought in for counting were one crow, 40 rats, 95 mice, three skunks, one mountain beaver, three bluejays and one coon.”
• The Chronicle featured an Associated Press story about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to end racial segregation in public schools “as soon as feasible,” but left the enforcement of desegregation up to local courts. “The decision said to the lower courts ‘may properly take into account local problems’ in sitting as courts of equity.’ The broad nature of the order was far closer to what had been asked by Southern states than it was to the demand by attorneys for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for a firm deadline for ending segregation.” With “local problems” being taken into account, NAACP attorneys were worried about future attempts to desegregate schools in the south being bogged down with bulk litigation.
• A new three-bedroom home with an attached garage and washer and dryer hookups in Fords Prairie was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $8,750. An unfurnished one-bedroom home in Centralia was listed for rent for $30 a month.
Monday, May 31, 1965
• Centralia Mayor Ray Davis and Chehalis Mayor Oscar Mills were planning a joint birthday celebration for the Twin Cities which were celebrating their 75th incorporation anniversaries that year, The Chronicle reported. Centralia was officially incorporated on May 29, 1890, with Chehalis being incorporated the same year on Sept. 22. “Mills … and Davis said there are other dates shown at other sources but mostly they pertain to filings and petitions.” An anniversary celebration planning meeting was scheduled for the upcoming Wednesday at the Lewis and Clark Hotel in Centralia. “Mills said he has discussed observance plans with Chehalis Chamber of Commerce leaders and some activity is expected shortly.”
• The Chronicle featured an Associated Press story about the cost of cigarettes going up on Tuesday by a nickel as the state tax on cigarettes was going to rise from seven cents a pack to 11 cents a pack. “Take a long farewell look at the empty cigarette pack you crumple up and throw into the wastebasket Monday night, Tuesday’s full pack is going to cost you a nickel more than that one did. That will mark the beginning of your contributions to the state’s efforts to add an extra $59 million to its treasury in the next two years to balance the budget.” A tax increase on alcohol was also going into effect on Tuesday, raising the price of a bottle of liquor by about 25 cents.
• Twenty Lewis County residents were among the 1,700 undergraduate and graduate students receiving diplomas at the Washington State University commencement ceremony in Pullman, The Chronicle reported. They included Karl Ostheller of Adna; Susan Hayertz, J. Larry Rosander, Jean E. Schuli and Marilyn Watterson of Centralia; Richard Donahue Jr., John Mitten, David Tramm and Douglas West of Chehalis; Charles Lambson of Kosmos; Shirley Radeckf and Sandra Sparkman of Morton; Bonnie Austin, Holly Horton, Kenneth Miller and Arlyn Harris of Oakville; Dwight Rose of Pe Ell; Johnny Mackovich of Randle and Stephen Porter and Dale Wilson of Winlock.
• A four-bedroom farmhouse with a barn and several other buildings on 80 acres of land north of Napavine was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $18,000. A “clean” three-bedroom home in Chehalis was listed for rent for $70 a month.
Saturday, May 31, 1975
• Chronicle staff writer Chuck Wilfong detailed his recent personal canoeing trip down the Newaukum River. “Most larger rivers are well-traveled and well-known. Mostly by sportsmen seeking that elusive big one. There are others that are not utilized as much by man, either because they are inaccessible or because no one gives great thought to them as sources of recreation. The Newaukum River is one of these.” Wilfong embarked on a seven-hour canoe trip with “Wildlife Agent Mike Bireley,” and conducted a field survey on the fish and wildlife they encountered. During the day trip, they observed over 50 steelhead salmon spawning beds and also “nailed an appreciable number of good-sized cutthroat trout, sometimes from pools of water that didn’t look big enough to support a thirsty microbe.”Wilfong and Bireley also observed wild ducks, muskrats, skunks and a myriad of bird species. They did encounter some electric fencing strung across the river by local ranchers to keep livestock from wandering off. “This in itself may be illegal, since it is against the law to put fencing across a navigable waterway. It would be an interesting court test, since there are many who do not consider the Newaukum navigable. But we navigated it, or at least walk-floated it on a striking summer afternoon under a dazzling blue sky.”
• Alexander Park in Chehalis was officially reopened by the Chehalis Park Board for the summer season, The Chronicle reported. “The board also adopted a swimming pool schedule for Recreation Park … established the fee schedule for pool admission and swimming lessons, discussed park repairs and maintenance and approved a long list of recreational activities sponsored by the Chehalis Recreation Department.” The community pool at Recreation Park was set to officially open on June 7, and fees to use the pool were 25 cents for children and 50 cents for adults, with a swimming lesson registration fee of $2.75. “Ray Muyskens, parks superintendent, said some of the fireplaces that had been vandalized at Alexander Park had been repaired and the restoring of others would be worked into the regular park maintenance schedule.”
• A three-bedroom home with a fireplace, cedar deck and large entertainment room in Rochester was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $35,500. Two-bedroom townhouse apartments in Winlock were listed for rent for $145 a month.
