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In this installment of A Look Back in Time, the Saturday, April 4, 1936, edition of The Chronicle featured a story about two teenagers being held in custody after admitting to breaking into a Winlock home to steal a guitar and radio, among other items.
Onalaska High School junior Joan Wilkins became the Loggers’ first female student body president in the school’s history, according to the Wednesday, April 4, 1956, edition of The Chronicle.
And in the Monday, April 4, 1966, edition of The Chronicle, it was reported that Centralia resident Ardis Longabaught and her children witnessed a mysterious light display moving in unexplained ways and changing colors in the skies above Galvin the previous Saturday.
The Sunday, April 4, 1976, edition of The Chronicle was not in the archives, so stories from the Saturday, April 3, 1976, edition have been featured instead.
A Look Back in Time is compiled using Chronicle archives stored at the Lewis County Historical Museum — located at 599 NW Front St. in Chehalis — along with digital archives on newspapers.com.
Saturday, April 4, 1936
• A pair of teenagers were in custody after they admitted to breaking into a Winlock home the previous night and stealing a guitar, among other items, The Chronicle reported. “Two 15-year-old boys were being held by (Lewis) County Probation Officer Floyd Green today after they are alleged to have confessed to the burglary of a house belonging to a man by the name of Doakey at Winlock last night. The boys are said to have taken $100 worth of household goods including (a) guitar, a radio and other goods.”
• Business was predicted to be booming in Centralia according to local real estate agents with the construction of both a new U.S. Post Office building and improvements to the Montgomery Ward retail store, along with new business coming to downtown, The Chronicle reported. “With the expenditure of many thousands of dollars in building and repair work contemplated here within the next few weeks, and a sudden influx of business men and home builders, Centralia real estate men today foresaw a busy summer season. Bids on the city’s new $100,000 Post Office will be opened April 22. Chief among other new building programs is that of Montgomery Ward, where alterations and installation of new equipment amounting to $15,000 will be completed soon. The additions will include extending the mezzanine floor to double its size, complete alteration of lighting fixtures to double the lighting capacity, and a new freight elevator … Three new stores have been started on Tower Avenue in the past month, with building expenditures of several thousand dollars in the last few days, according to a compilation of building permits. A fourth store in the Hackett Building is being made ready for occupancy by the Ahern Jewelry Company, while the Hackett Drug Store, in the same building, is being remodeled. Extensive improvements are planned at the National Bank of Commerce. The Troth Building and Apartments, vacant for the past five years, is now being occupied, and have been remodeled and redecorated.”
• An eight-room home with a “nice fireplace,” full basement and “considerable furniture,” in a “close-in corner lot” on Pearl Street in Centralia was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $1,600. A “modern,” five-room, furnished home at 310 E. Magnolia St. in downtown Centralia was listed for rent for $18 a month.
Thursday, April 4, 1946
• Littell resident Jim Spillman luckily escaped with his life and was being treated for burns after his home caught fire the previous night, The Chronicle reported. “Spillman was sleeping when the blaze started from an overheated stove. He broke out the door and in a state of confusion had started down the railroad tracks toward Adna, when his cries for help were heard by neighbors. The building in which Spillman lived was the old night-watchman’s house used when the Littell Mill was operating. T.E. Cole, the owner, gave Spillman gratis the place to live in Sunday, its first occupancy in many years. The clothes Spillman was sleeping in saved his life, doctors said. He was burned on the left hand, legs and the back of his neck.”
• Rochester High School drama students were preparing to perform a comedy play called “Ask Me Another” inside the school’s auditorium on Friday, The Chronicle reported. “The cast, which represents all classes in the high school, includes Ray Isaacson, Bud Rouch, Alberta McChesney, Violet Box, Evelyn Fagerness, Mary Hilton, Robbie Nencini, Rex Crase, Harry Pietens, Anna Ulery, Helen Iverson and Verner Johnson. ‘Ask Me Another’ is concerned with the interesting events of newspaper life, fortune telling, jewel robberies, crooks and lawsuits. The newspaper office of the Herald is the center for all these activities. The play is cleverly written, and offers good entertainment.”
• A “fairly good” five-room home with a barn, hen house and spring-water access on 120 acres of land on the state Highway 508 between Morton and Cinebar was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $4,700. Another six-room home with a small barn, wood shed and fruit trees on half an acre of land at 1331 Logan St. in Centralia was listed for sale at $2,700.
Wednesday, April 4, 1956
• Onalaska High School junior Joan Wilkins became the Loggers’ first female student body president, The Chronicle reported. “For apparently the first time in the history of the Onalaska High School a girl has been elected student body president. She is charming Joan Wilkins, above, a junior and daughter of Mr. Guy Wilkins and Mrs. Marge Wilkins. Joan is shown above with the gavel she will wield during the 1956-57 school year.”
• New telephone lines and poles were being put up in the Salkum and Cinebar areas by local workers, The Chronicle reported. “Crews first clear the line right-of-way, dig the post holes and then other crews set the poles, ‘frame them,’ that is, set up the cross bars to hold wire and linemen follow to string the wires. Above, G.B. Reed of Salkum, foreman of the setting crew, directs traffic and the operation while Bob Workman, extreme right, Mossyrock, and Bob Adams, Salkum, set the poles. Al Steffen of Centralia is the truck driver.”
• The Harbor Plywood Company of Aberdeen had the highest bid of a sale of nearly 400,000 board-feet of state timber near Mineral, according to Lewis County Auditor Roy Fletcher, The Chronicle reported. “The Harbor firm bid 15% for pulpwood and 40% for the logs. The state had specified minimum bids of 15% on the selling price of pulpwood and 25% on the selling price of logs.”
• A three-bedroom home with a barn, hen house, two-car carport with a “good tractor” and other farming equipment on 20 acres of land was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $7,750. A three-room furnished apartment at the Stickler Apartments at 733 Washington Ave. in Chehalis was listed for rent for $37.50 a month.
Monday, April 4, 1966
• Centralia resident Ardis Longabaught and her four children were left “puzzled” after they witnessed a mysterious light displaying unexplained maneuverability and the ability to change color in the skies above Galvin on Saturday, The Chronicle reported. “Mrs. Ardis Longabaught and her children were returning from Lincoln Creek Saturday about 8:45 p.m. when they spotted the bright red light in the sky near Galvin. Mrs. Longabaught said they drove slowly and watched it for over five minutes. She explained it suddenly turned sideways and turned to green. The mystery object shot straight up, she added, came down again, and disappeared. The mother said it appeared too big and too bright for a star and did not move like an airplane. Mrs. Longabaught said she did not report the sighting because she didn't think it important enough.”
• The Chronicle featured an Associated Press story about mysterious lights also being observed hovering for the fourth night in a row over the Olympic Peninsula around Forks. “More than a dozen persons, many of them with telescopes, watched the two objects Sunday night. One of the objects appeared bright reddish in color when flying vertically and greenish when in a horizontal position. It moved from west to east, then took off in an easterly direction. Observers 16 miles north of Forks said the object suddenly changed course and headed north. The other object seemed more the color of a star. It was described as saucer shaped. Smaller lights seemed to separate from the object, hover around it for a short time, then merge with it again. (Forks) Town Marshal Phil Riebe said the objects appeared very unusual to him.”
• A two-bedroom, partially furnished home with a basement and “nice yard for children,” at 826 SE Adams Ave. in Chehalis was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $7,200. Furnished apartments at the McDonald Motel in Chehalis were listed for rent starting at $40 a month.
Saturday, April 3, 1976
• The Oakville High School Band, members of The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and Chronicle reporter Orlo Mohr returned from a trip to Dublin, Ireland, at the end of March after the band and tribal members were selected to represent Washington state in Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, The Chronicle reported. “The idea for the trip was hatched last year in the mind of Mrs. Evelyn Soha, Oakville, who had visited Ireland before. Following an invitation from the Lord Mayor of Dublin himself, the Oakville band — and many members of the community — got behind the idea and launched a fund drive … For many, it was the first trip overseas. For more, it was their first trip on a commercial airliner. It certainly was the first time any had marched in the grandest St. Patrick’s Day parade of them all. The band brought up the rear of the parade and following the 2 ½-mile trek, played a concert in a park and stopped in the street to provide music for an Irish wedding, playing while the newlyweds danced.” Aside from marching in the parade, they spent a total of 12 days touring the region, visiting various historic sites like the Blarney Castle in Cork and meeting local leaders. “Almost as thrilling for the Oakville residents as the parade were the visits with Irish dignitaries. Four times they were honored by Irish officials — Mayor A.H. Healy in Cork; Michael Morham, chairman of the Urban District in Killarney, Trady Coughlan, Mayor of Limerick, and Patrick Dunne, Lord Mayor of Dublin. Each time, the Oakville contingent presented gifts to their Irish hosts. The Dublin reception, held in the Governor’s House, included refreshments and entertainment provided by a young Irish dance troupe. The youngsters were served Coke, while the adults had their choice of Guinness Stout beer, Coke or tea. Healy, the Cork Mayor, is the one most Oakville residents will remember best. Dressed in a long, red, royally decorated robe, he wore a chain around his neck, from which dangled his badge of office. ‘That’s what I thought an Irish mayor would look like,’ someone said, almost too loudly. Cork is on the Lee River and its harbor is said to be the best natural harbor in Europe. Most Oakville residents who made the tour named Cork as the town they would most like to visit again. ‘It’s different, it gives the impression of being a bustling city,’ said Bernard Meile.” While the group spent most of the 12 day trip in Ireland, they also spent some time in Copenhagen, Denmark, both on the way to Ireland and on the way home. “The visitors found Copenhagen much more cosmopolitan than the cities in Ireland. They also found out that the government in Denmark takes 50% of each person’s gross income in taxes, leaving them with half their earnings to purchase the highly priced commodities in that country. This reporter priced a tie there. It was $13. As far as I know, the tie is still in Copenhagen. A woman from Oakville said she found a tie for $30. That tie also remained in Copenhagen.”
• A pair of homes, one two-bedroom and the other three, “both in early American style with fireplaces,” on 10 acres of “picturesque river frontage” land with pastures and an orchard near Dryad was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $58,000. A one-bedroom mobile home near Onalaska was listed for rent for $135 a month.
