In this installment of A Look Back in Time, the Thursday, March 7, 1946, edition of The Chronicle featured a story about World War II veterans coming home and struggling to find housing, prompting the local office of the state Department of Veterans Affairs to make a public plea for Twin Cities residents with rentals available to come forward.
Centralia College founder Dr. Charles L. Littel died the previous week at the age of 80 after battling a long illness while living in New Jersey, according to the Monday, March 7, 1966, edition of The Chronicle.
And in the Saturday, March 6, 1976, edition of The Chronicle, it was reported that Chronicle reporter Orlo Mohr was preparing to accompany members of the Oakville High School Band and The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation on a trip to Dublin, Ireland, after the band and tribal members were chosen to represent Washington state in Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The Sunday, March 7, 1976, edition of The Chronicle was not in the archives, so the Saturday, March 6, 1976, edition was featured in its place.
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, March 7, 1936
• Progress on three federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects in Centralia was being made, The Chronicle reported. The projects included Fort Borst Park, the Armory Hills Golf Course on Seminary Hill and a “Forest Park.” The WPA was created as a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to provide jobs during the Great Depression, by funding public works, parks and art projects in communities throughout the nation. “Construction of the three major Centralia WPA projects passed the one-third mark this week, with marked progress recorded during the past few days of clear weather. Approximately $43,500 of the allotted $129,397 for the Borst Park, Seminary Hill and Forest Park projects has been spent since the projects were inaugurated, according to T.C. Hendricks, resident engineer in charge.” The three projects had created 182 jobs total. “Observers who have watched the development of the polo field, running track, stables and grandstand being erected at Borst Park, the golf course on Seminary Hill, and the Forest Park on the hill behind the city water reservoir, were agreeably surprised at the amount of work accomplished during the recent mild temperatures and sunny days. At the golf course, eight of the nine greens have progressed to a point where they are ready for a topsoil dressing … All groundwork at Borst Park has been finished, including pouring of cement foundations for the foundations of the 300-foot grandstand and the stables. Construction of the grandstand, which will hold 4,000 people when finished, and the stables is now underway. At the Forest Park, workmen have cleared several acres and built a picnic shelter, which is being used at present as headquarters for the project. Improvement of the road to the park, two bridle paths, and general clearing is being planned by Hendricks for this project.”
• Construction of a new Weyerhaeuser Timber Company railroad starting in West Lewis County stretching north up to Olympia was announced, The Chronicle reported, with the railroad to be transferred to the newly incorporated Chehalis Western Railroad. “The new company will take over short pieces of the railroad from the Milwaukee Railroad and the line serving the Vail logging operation, and complete a line to the vicinity of Ruth, in Lewis County. The northern terminus will be in South Bay, near Olympia, according to Harry E. Heidinger, attorney for the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company, who filed the incorporation papers. The new line was incorporated for $300,000. It will serve as a common carrier of timber and forest products. William L. McCormick and Ralph M. Rogers of Tacoma are other incorporators. Construction of the new line will begin at once, it is stated.”
• An “A-1 shape” bicycle was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $8.
Thursday, March 7, 1946
• The Centralia office of the Washington state Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) made a public appeal to Twin Cities residents to offer housing for rent if they could to returning World War II veterans struggling to find rentals, The Chronicle reported. “The plea followed establishment of a housing service in connection with the department. Residents of the Twin Cities are asked to telephone, write or call personally at the local office in the Masonic building and list any type of housing they have for rent. Furnished or unfurnished houses or apartments are urgently needed in the area, Everett M. Capener, manager of the VA organization, stated … ‘Only with the concerted effort of the communities can such a service be of any value,’ Capener stated. ‘We intend to carefully consider each listing and each application for housing so as to place the family in the type of home desired.’”
• Violent crime in Lewis County was on the rise, according to Lewis County Sheriff John A. Blankenship, County Prosecuting Attorney John Panesko and Washington State Patrol Sergeant Charles F. Kinzel, who issued a joint statement asking for the public’s cooperation in their investigations, The Chronicle reported. “Attention is called to the recent increase in violent deaths in the county and the fact law enforcement officers are handicapped by a lack of interest and assistance from the public in general. Officials, it was pointed out, constantly run into situations where individuals have valuable information that would assist in the investigation of violent deaths, but refuse to give voluntarily any information or disclose what they know. ‘Time after time,’ the statement said, ‘it is heard that various persons had some information about some case, but wanted to keep out of it, and did not say anything. This attitude on the part of the public is a serious handicap to the efficient investigation of every crime. The public owes a duty to its law enforcement agencies and its public officials, after it elects them to office, to assist these officials in the performance of their duties. So often it seems that after an election the public forgets its officials, and leaves them to do the best they can without its support.’”
• A “modern” six-room home with a basement and an “all year creek, orchard, gravity water, large barn, machine shed” on 82 acres of land with 60 acres in cultivation along the state highway in Mossyrock was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $17,500.
Wednesday, March 7, 1956
• Construction of a new gymnasium in Packwood was nearly complete, according to Packwood grade school principal Louis Shores. “The new building measures 80 feet wide, by 84 feet long, and is being built at a cost of about $83,000. Groundbreaking for construction of the building was held last September. The structure is supported by specially-designed laminated trusses, shipped from Portland. There are no pillars or posts to obstruct view of the entire floor.” The floor was to be made of linoleum with the walls having cedar paneling, “giving the building a rustic appearance. A 30-foot wide stage dominates the eastern end of the building … When the building is complete, it will be the most modern structure of its kind in Lewis and Southern Thurston counties.”
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials inspected flood-risk areas on the Cowlitz River, Hall Creek and Johnson Creek near Packwood, but indicated putting riprap in the area wasn’t a possibility at the moment due to funding being needed for other Corps of Engineer projects, The Chronicle reported. “They can offer no help to riprap the area because working funds are allocated to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people per working dollar. Packwood leaders see the possibility of being cut off from the north and east by snow slides during warm spring weather and isolated from a western entrance if high water runoffs should sever the highway route. Residents of the community are seeking state highway assistance or help from the Army Engineers to avert the possibility of being isolated this spring. Old-timers here can’t remember when the community was flooded by high water, but others recall the years of 1916 and 1933 when high water lapped on the edge of town. Rex Olmsted and other community residents accompanied the engineers on their inspection tour.”
• An “exceptionally well built” five-room home in “tip top condition” with a fireplace, full basement and a furnace on a 200x117-foot landscaped lot “just two miles from city center on Bucoda Highway,” was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $12,500. A furnished three-room apartment at the Le Mac Apartments at 106 E. First St. in Centralia was listed for rent for $45 a month.
Monday, March 7, 1966
• Centralia College founder Dr. Charles L. Littel died the previous week on March 3 in New Jersey, The Chronicle reported. “Dr C.L. Littel, the founder of Centralia College — the oldest community college in Washington — died last week at Teaneck, New Jersey, where he was for years a noted junior college leader. Dr. Littel was over 80 years of age at the time of his death. He had been seriously ill for the past year. The educator came to Centralia in the early 1920s, and was instrumental in organizing and establishing what was then known as Centralia Junior College. He was school district superintendent at the time and had the aid and support of almost all Centralia business and civic leaders in the pioneering of the small college. That was in 1925. He later went to Hackensack, New Jersey, to be a high school principal and then established the Bergen County Junior College at Teaneck. He was its administrator for many years, finally retiring with his home remaining on the college campus. Dr. Littel returned to Centralia at various times, always visiting the college to note its growth and building projects. Surviving Dr. Littel is his widow (Elva), at Teaneck.”
• Residents in south Chehalis lost power for around 23 minutes on Saturday after an unknown motorist hit a "utility pole guy wire and caused two high voltage lines to slap together,” The Chronicle reported. “A Lewis County Public Utilities District (PUD) spokesman said the mishap occurred on Grandview Avenue at 6:24 p.m., and that when the lines short-circuited it opened a recloser switch at the Fairview Avenue substation. The power loss covered the entire Snively area and, with some exceptions, most of south Chehalis. PUD crewmen said that if the motorist whose car had hit the utility pole guy had reported the incident, the location of the difficulty could have been quickly found and power restored faster. Monday the driver who caused the outage still had not reported it to police.”
• A “modern” three-bedroom home with “wall to wall carpeting, drapes, fireplace, patio,” in Centralia was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $18,500. An unfurnished two-bedroom home in Chehalis was listed for rent for $85 a month.
Saturday, March 6, 1976
• Chronicle reporter Orlo Mohr was preparing to join members of the Oakville High School Band and The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation on a trip to Dublin, Ireland, after the band and tribal members were chosen to represent Washington state in Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, The Chronicle reported. “There may not be any of your basic leprechauns in Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day parade but for sure there’ll be a tiny band of Chehalis Indians in full ceremonial dress doing its thing with the Oakville band. The Indians and the 34-member Oakville High School band will be there in response to an official invitation from the Lord Mayor of Dublin. It’s a long way from Oakville to Dublin even as a jet flies so how did a school with 110 students in a town with just 503 persons raise the money to fly to Dublin to parade on the Old Sod? It took a little luck, a bit of blarney and plenty of hard work to cash in on the brainstorm of Evelyn Soha, an Oakville Irishwoman. Just last St. Patrick’s Day she was in Dublin watching the parade when the brainstorm blossomed: ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Oakville School Band could march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin?’” When Soha returned to Oakville, she proposed the idea to the school’s music director Don Stroh, who initially didn’t think it would ever happen even after some of his students began to ask about it. “‘They’ve really flipped their lids this time,’ said Stroh. ‘We’d be lucky to get as far as Denver.’” However, the students were persistent and some of their parents got involved, prompting the formation of the Oakville Band Boosters Club with Stroh leading it to begin fundraising efforts for the Ireland trip. “Each band member was to raise $100 on his own to pay for the cost of an Ireland tour following the parade which made the bottom line for the trip $16,576,” on top of multiple other fundraising events including car washes, bake sales, alumni dinners and more. “… Finally, the money was in pocket for the trip. Which is why the Oakville band will leave Seattle-Tacoma Airport March 14 for Copenhagen. From there it will fly to Dublin on March 16, where it will be greeted by an Irish Pipe band. And on St. Patrick’s Day the band, with its five-member Indian drill team, will step out proudly in the 2-½-mile, 100 float parade.”
• A three-bedroom home with a “cozy fireplace” and a large metal storage shed on an “oversize corner lot” in Tenino was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $29,500. A partly-furnished, two-bedroom home in Chehalis was listed for rent for $200 a month.
