“Tales of the Town Tersely Told” was a feature in the Aberdeen Herald, a page of short, one-paragraph news items, business ads, and the social comings and going of locals. These all date from late August 1907.
Aug. 22, 1907
The ordinance relating to expectorating will hereafter be rigidly enforced on the street cars running between here and Hoquiam. If this community keeps on people will think they are really living in civilization.
Chief of Police Schneider has given notice that he is going to enforce the ordinance affecting the speed of automobiles within the city limits. Now start a sausage machine, and get rid of the dogs that perambulate the business streets, and automobilists will bless the authorities.
Aberdeen patrolmen are carrying stop watches, so as to be able to give accurate evidence in the matter of auto driving.
Patrolman Licht has taken the place of Patrolman Cram as night watch in the business district, while the latter is on vacation.
The infant son of Julia Watson was buried from the Bowes & Randolph undertaking parlors Tuesday afternoon, the Rev. C. McDermoth officiating. The mother was sick and the father in Alaska. Mrs. Geo. W. Cripe made the arrangements for the funeral and with the one exception no one was present to assist.
The first Japanese baby to be born in Aberdeen arrived Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. He arrived a little late for 12 o’clock lunch but was amply provided for later. Mr. and Mrs. Hattori are justly proud of their son.
Captain Dorn went to Hoquiam yesterday to sign the crew of the barkentine John Palmer, bound for Valparaiso.
The American Contracting Co. is moving the Episcopalian parsonage from G street, to Fourth street, between G and H.
A jolly party, consisting of Misses Myrtle Wiggins, Merle Young and Emma Miller, and Messrs. H. Phelps, Edward Kesterson, Cecil Bell and Frank Burrows, with Mrs. J.H. Fuller as chaperone, and Bob Smith as driver, left for Lake Quinault this morning. With Bob as driver, the party are sure of a safe return.
A broken rail caused three cars loaded with logs, to jump the track on the N.P. Bridge across the Wishkah, yesterday at 10 a.m. The heavy cars broke through the ties and it was 5 p.m. before the bridge was cleared. No damage was done to the train or logs.
The city has notified the mills that water can only be provided for running one-half time until the present dry weather ends.
R.J. Hilts gives notice that Sixth Street will be torn up for the next three weeks from Broadway to the bridge.
A warrant is out for Geo. Corwin, ex-proprietor of the Pullman saloon. The Aberdeen Brewing Co. charges him with concealing and making away with mortgaged property. The brewery claim is $2,000.
Yesterday a fire broke out in the woods at Coats’ camp, about four miles up the Wishkah. The bunk houses and engineer’s shed were destroyed, but no other damage was done. Today the camp is running as usual.
Aug. 26, 1907
The gasoline launch Skidoo was chartered by a number of captains of the harbor yesterday, for a picnic up the Chehalis River. They got away from the salt air and drank water out of the brooks, etc.
Quite a number of Hindoo laborers were perambulating the streets, Friday. This is the first time that this people have visited Aberdeen, in any great number, and their appearance attracted considerable attention.
The brass furnace at the plant of Douglas Bros. foundry exploded Friday morning, filling the room with fragments of molten brass and flame. No one was injured, but the crucible is a complete wreck and other attachments to the furnace are shattered. One of the workmen threw what was supposed to be a ball of brass into the retort, when a moment later the explosion occurred, scattering the brass about the room.
The work of remodeling and renovating the city jail was completed Saturday, and Chief Schnieder took advantage of the fact to have a general clean up at police headquarters. In the jail separate apartments for male and female prisoners have been fitted up, and proper arrangements have been made for sanitation. Proper toilets and modes of ventilation have been installed, under the direction of Architect Troutman, and all is now in apple pie order.
Aug. 29, 1907
Harding & Engen are displaying in the window of their real estate office, samples of buckwheat, oats and turnips, raised on logged off lands up the Wishkah River. The quality of the produce and enormous yield — the oats are going 80 bushels to the acre, demonstrates the value of the land that have been considered almost worthless after the timber was removed.
Frank Nugent, a stranger in the city, was reported seriously ill at the Arlington Hotel, Tuesday, and was sent to St. Joseph’s Hospital by the authorities. Nugent is afflicted with inflammatory rheumatism, and his recovery is doubtful.
Four colored women from the red-light district were fined in the police court this morning. The proprietress drew a $25 prize, and the three inmates $10 each.
Ida Johnson, a hilarious denizen of the underworld, with a crooked reputation, was again before the police court yesterday, and was for the second time ordered to leave the city.
F.N. Saunders and Matthew Penner were fined $10 each in the police court Tuesday, for attempting to settle a dispute by an appeal to the manly art on the streets the night before.
A thirteen-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. J.A. Dennis, 1306 East First Street, was thrown from a horse near his home at noon today and severely injured.
Dr. Frary, U.S. Health officer for Grays Harbor, has wired the federal authorities for instructions as to the fumigation of ships arriving from San Francisco, as is done of the Sound, in regard to the bubonic plague.
Rev. and Mrs. Cash McDermoth and family, accompanied by Mrs. C.H. Allburty, went to Cohassett Beach yesterday, to spend a couple of weeks by the seaside.
Roy Vataja is the son of Finnish immigrants and has studied Aberdeen history for over 40 years. He can be reached at billygohl@yahoo.com.
