World gone by
Published 1:30 am Friday, June 19, 2026
85 YEARS AGO
June 21, 1941
A new business block to fill the last gap in the Wishkah street business section between I street and Broadway was announced today by Andrew Gudaz.
The building will fill the 50-foot, 116 East Wishkah street space between the Dudley-Carbery Building and the new Brennan structure. The westerly half of the building will be two stories with the easterly a 25-foot one story.
Lease has been signed by Gudaz with Stieglitz Jewelers, who will occupy the ground floor, especially designed for them, while the Ripley cafe will occupy the one story section. Gudaz himself will take the second floor for his tailor shop.
June 23, 1941
In the Aberdeen Elks temple today — queerly quiet after the bustle and noise of last week’s state convention — a tired Aberdeen conclave committee counted the three-day meeting the most successful in state Elks history.
Saturday saw a huge crowd lining Aberdeen streets for the convention parade, and another one crowding the temple for the conclave climax, the annual Purple Bubble Ball.
• When Private Howard T. Amend, Raymond soldier-artist, sent a cartoon to Judy Garland showing his cartoon creation Private Beansy O’Brien sadly reading the headlines, “Judy Garland to Wed” little did he suspect the surprise in store for him.
In appreciation, Judy sent him one of her most recent large portraits with the personal inscription “To Private Howard T. Amend. I hope this picture will compensate for the wonderful drawing you sent me. Thanks a lot. It was most flattering.”
The adventures of Private Beansy O’Brien are a regular feature of The Salvo, the weekly post newspaper at Fort Worden.
June 24, 1941
Fate of the proposed Puget Sound-Columbia River ship canal, huge intercoastal waterway which would connect four of the Pacific Northwest’s greatest harbors, will be weighed at a public hearing tomorrow morning in Olympia.
A large delegation from this area is expected to be on hand at the capital city to present Grays Harbor’s argument for immediate construction of the proposed waterway as a move necessary for national defense.
Canal committees from Aberdeen and Hoquiam chambers of commerce have been at work for weeks compiling data on the proposed $30,000,000 waterway.
June 25, 1941
Remember that old aluminum coffee pot you almost threw away but didn’t, because you thought it might come in handy some time?
Well, that time has come.
Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, of New York, national civilian defense coordinator, says the goal is to collect 20,000,000 pounds of aluminum, vitally needed in the nation’s preparedness program.
That sounds like a lot of aluminum and it is — enough in fact to provide parts for 2,000 American fighting planes.
Household items which can be used include old pots and pans, double boilers, jar caps, wire and screens, brackets, kettles, shakers, measuring cups, ash trays and percolators.
Housewives will be asked to pile their old aluminum on their front porches,” said Martell W. Brown, head of the Aberdeen commission. “We will ask Aberdeen’s Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and other such groups to act as collectors in the drive.”
June 26, 1941
The Grays Harbor Shipbuilding company within 10 days will begin construction of a four-way yard on Grays Harbor, and expected this summer to begin work on at least four large wooden ships. The exact site will not be known until later this week, because a lease has not been signed. E.W. Lutz, treasurer of the company, said today four locations are under consideration.
The first ship to slide down Harbor ways since World War 1 will hit the water early in 1942, firm officials estimate.
When all the ways are in operation, the yard will employ about 300 men.
60 YEARS AGO
June 20, 1966
Four bedroom Aberdeen home for sale by Jones and Jones: One block to grade school and market. Large living room, fireplace, furnace, family room, utility and second bath. Kitchen has lots of cupboard and counter space. 1 bedroom down and three up. Fenced yard and garage. Owner being transferred out of town. $15,000.
Ellison Pontiac at 4th and Park in Aberdeen is advertising a brand new Toyota Corona. 90 h.p. hi-torque engine, owners report 30 miles per gallon, optional automatic transmission. $1,760.
June 21, 1966
Few tourists — and many Westport citizens — who enjoy the woods and grass of the Westport City Park two blocks off State Highway 105 realize that its existence is the culmination of a decade-long community effort.
Shortly after World War II, the idea that Westport should have a city park began to grow in the community. Mrs. Eberhard Nyhus, the late Mrs. Ed Bowers and Harry Harms were appointed to a city park board and they got the idea of serving dinners to raise money for the land.
Preparing for one of the seafood dinners for which the Westport women became noted, women of the community cleaned and canned 540 quarts of clams for chowder. The men did their part by digging the clams in one day under a special dispensation from the state fish and game department.
In 1949, most of what now constitutes the park was bought from the county for delinquent taxes.
June 22, 1966
Some 70 students employed by two Hoquiam industrial plants will earn upwards of $1,000 each this summer to finance everything from cars to clothes to college.
Rayonier Inc. and Grays Harbor Paper Co. have just added 67 college students and recent high school graduates to the payrolls to help fill the gaps left by regular employees who will be vacationing this summer. The figure is expected to reach 75 by next week.
The students are paid a base rate of just under $2.75 an hour. However most average more than that due to overtime pay, night differentials and the like, Rayonier Personnel Manager George McKay explained.
June 23, 1966
Appointed last night by Mayor Walt Failor and confirmed by the City Council, Zane Mitchell took over his duties this morning as Aberdeen’s new fire chief.
Mitchell replaces Louie Larson who applied for temporary disability, which was grated effective last midnight.
The new chief has been serving the department as a lieutenant. He has 17 years as a fireman, 14 in Aberdeen and three in Hoquiam.
June 24, 1966
The Grays Harbor ship channel is looking like a California expressway as a sudden influx of ships has flooded the Washington coast, jamming dock facilities and causing a shortage of loading gangs.
The Yamaoki Maru, loading logs at the Weyerhaeuser dock, needs four gangs and can only get two, and one of those is imported. The Calmur was short three gangs last night while taking on lumber at the Anderson & Middleton dock while the Taga Maru was short two gangs as she took on pulp at Rayonier. The Shuhu Maru is short two gangs today as it loads logs at the Port Dock.
David Harland, Washington Coast manager of Rothschild’s Stevedoring, said he does not know how extensive the shortage is, but that no gangs could be acquired from the Columbia River area either.
June 25, 1966
A young Aberdeen man, Lt. (j.g.) Lawrence Frederick Nyman, 25, was killed Wednesday in a Navy aircraft accident off Vietnam.
According to information received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Nyman of W. Scott Street in Aberdeen, the 4-B Phantom jet, piloted by Lt. Nyman, crashed into the water during a night carrier control approach to the USS Constellation.
An intensive search by the Navy failed to locate the aircraft.
Lt. Nyman was a 1959 graduate of Weatherwax High School where he was one of the top 10 in the class and vice president of the senior class. He was an Eagle Scout.
His mother said she was comforted in the fact that he was doing what he wanted to do. “He wanted to be a Navy flyer and he was bound to go to Vietnam. I’m sorry he couldn’t have been here longer and accomplished more of what he wanted.”
35 YEARS AGO
June 21, 1991
Gifted students aren’t the only kids who deserve to feel smart in school. A creative curriculum ought to be an option for all students.
So says a committee of parents and teachers in the Hoquiam School District. They are recommending that the “Challenge” program be expanded at Hoquiam Middle School.
The Gifted Committee wants to give all 7th and 8th graders the option of supplementing their daily learning with new class sessions that could include everything from origami decorative paper-folding to marine navigation. The session would last about 45 minutes a day for one or two weeks at a stretch. They would be led by middle school teachers or experts in many fields from the community at large.
June 22, 1991
Bill Bramstedt, President of Bramstedt Sales in Cosmopolis, was honored recently as “Boss of the Year” at a luncheon held by the Credit Professionals International.
Bramstedt was selected from the many nominations by CPI members based on a written essay by one of his employees, Diane LaRoque.
She highly praised “the comfortable working atmosphere,” as well as Bramstedt’s “considerable management skills.”
Bramstedt lives in Cosmopolis with his wife, Jeannine and two sons. He is active in the Elks Lodge, is Chief of the Cosi volunteer fire department and manages the jazz festival.
June 23, 1991
It had the aura of a county fair. Jean-clad families toting free hot dogs and soda pop picked up brochures and free baseball-style caps promoting nuclear power.
Retired couples loitered around the booths, questioning company representatives and discussing the good ole days with friends.
The mood was relaxed, almost festive at the Satsop Power Plant Open House Saturday as more than 1,000 people turned out to tour the nuclear site, winding through cement tunnels and around miles of pipes and color-coded cables.
They also examined a model of the plant that was mothballed in 1983 and talked with representatives from WPPSS, the BPA, Westinghouse and several nuclear power companies.
Whether the plant will ever be pulled out of mothballs is a running debate.
Meanwhile, millions of dollars each year are poured into the upkeep of the site.
June 24, 1991
“Land of the Quinault” a handsome book tracing the history of the tribe and its territory, has received a national award.
The National Federation of Press Women on Sunday awarded the Quinault Indian Nation a first place certificate for the book.
Larry J. Workman, natural resource interpreter for the tribe; Pauline K. Capoeman, director of the Quinault Department of Natural Resources and Jacqueline M. Storm, a technical writer who did much of the research, each received a certificate.
June 25, 1991
Name the sport and Aberdeen’s Hank Murphy could play it brilliantly.
The 1928 AHS graduate died, at 83, earlier this month in Watsonville, Calif., the possessor of 13 varsity letters in four sports and the reputation as one of the greatest all-around athletes in school history.
“I think Hank Murphy was probably the most gifted athlete Aberdeen High School ever had, with the exception of Mel Ingram (the legendary Bobcat great of the early 1920s),” said Merle Atkinson of Cosmopolis, the quarterback on the unbeaten 1927 Aberdeen football team on which Murphy starred as a halfback.
He earned four letters in basketball, two in track and two in baseball but it was football where he earned much of his reputation.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom, Editorial Assistant at The Daily World. You can contact her at karen.barkstrom@thedailyworld.com or call her at 360-537-3925.
