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Thursday, March 1,2018 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page A-17
HISTORY AT.4 GLANCE
The following is from a
memoir written by Chester
Rosenberg, who was born in
February 1895 in Shelton. He
grew up in the Agate area,
near Chapman's Cove, also
known as Swindal" s Cove -
a channel about a mile long
extending eastward from Oak-
land Bay.
In earlier days, we drove
to town with horses and
buggies or wagons, taking
produce to sell and bringing
home needed things and the
mail until a rural route was
established. We usually went
no more than once a week,
because it took a whole day to
make the round trip of 9 miles
each way. There were hitching
posts and feeding mangers at
Lumbermen's, for people to
tie up their horses while shop-
ping.
W'hen cars first came into
use, the horses would just
about panic when meeting
one. If there were two people
in the wagon, one would get
out and take the horse by
the bridle to calm it. It was
really scary if you met a car
where the bank was high,
just beyond the city dock. The
road was new, no trees on
the lower side, so you looked
right down to the water. If
mother was along, she usu-
ally got out and walked until
the excitement was over.
In later years we started go-
ing by boat -- it was about 4
miles to town by water. If you
were down bay and wanted
to go to Shelton, you started
on the incoming tide to get
to town before it turned,
then tied up at the dock and
walked up the boardwalk to
town and did your shopping.
If you bought just a few light
items, you carried them back
to the dock. If your items were
too heavy to carry, both the
stores (Thomas O'Neill and
Lumbermen's Mercantile)
delivered to the dock a couple
Thomas O'Neill Store, on the
did its shopping.
of times in the afternoon. If
you had brought any produce
to sell, you put it on the dock
and the delivery man took it
back on his return trip.
The trick was to get your
supplies to the dock and make
it back to your destination on
the outgoing tide. If you didn't,
you were in for some hard
work bucking the tide, as you
had no motor, only oars. Some-
times in the fall and winter
the fog got thick on the wa-
ter. When you got away from
shore, every way you looked
seemed the same. To know
where you were, you paid
strict attention to sounds. To
the right you might hear a dog
northeast corner of First Street
Courtesy of the Mason County Historical Museum
and Railroad Avenue, is where Chester Rosenberg's family
bark, farther on to the left a asked the folks to go for a ride going anywhere in particu-
cow moo or a rooster crow, etc. to Harstine Island. On the lar. Mr. Daniels was really
There weren't many places on agreed to Sunday, we were up frustrated by then, and he
the inlet back then, and you early and away. Everything could cuss pretty good, so he
knew who owned them, and went fine till the motor died. answered, "No, %%@*, no,
the sounds would help guide The tide was going out, so just going with the tide."
you in the right direction. In we drifted merrily with the
the summer if I missed the current till we got to Skoo- Chester Rosenberg served
tide I had to wait two or three kum Point and drifted into in World War I and was a
hours before I could get into a whirlpool, where we went charter member of the Agate
the cove, so I would run the round and round. We had a Grange. He, his wife, Clara,
boat ashore and anchor till the rowboat along, so we got into and their two children lived in
tide came in. While waiting, I it and towed the launch outSkokomish Valley, where they
would pick up small Olympia of the whirlpool, then kept on raised Christmas trees. Ches-
oysters, open them and slurp drifting until the tide turned ter died in April 1985.
them down. and we drifted toward home.
I remember my first ride in Along the way someone came Jan Parker is a researcher
a Naphtha Launch, so called out in a row boat, to see if with the Mason County His-
because they used naphtha- they could be of help, and torical Museum. She can be
lenefor fuel. Mr. Daniels had asked Mr. Daniels if he wasreached at parkerj@hctc.com.
THAT'S OLD NEWS
March 1, 1920
Flu Ban Ended
After Twent,
After existing as a closed town for
the past twenty days, the flu ban was
this week raised by Dr. N. Roberts,
local health officer, and the various
businesses and activities which were
abandoned at that time will be again
taken up. The local schools, which
have been closed for three weeks, will
open Monday morning and churches
will hold services on Sunday. The
health officer reports the epidemic
well on the decline with very few new
cases. Locally the cases are all well
in hand but there are several rather
serious ones in some of the country
districts where the disease hit much
harder than it did in town. To date the
influenza has been the cause of only
four deaths within the county.
March 2, 1939
Transfusion Bank
Scheme of Red
As a life-saving measure for emer-
gency accident cases, the Mason
County Red Cross chapter may at-
tempt to establish a blood transfusion
"bank" to serve Shelton and Mason
County. The general plan would be
to list under the various blood types
there are, those people willing to do-
nate blood to accident victims need-
ing transfusions to save life or speed
recoveries. All individuals willing to
aid such a plan would undergo tests
to determine what type of blood they
possess. Then the names would be
catalogued under the various blood
types so that physicians could have at
their fingertips sources of any type of
blood needed by an accident victim.
In emergency cases where time is a
highly important element in saving of
life, such a "bank" would be of great
assistance.
March 3, 1949
Hoodsport Library
To Open
The Hoodsport Public Library, a
branch of the Regional Public Library
serving Thurston and Mason coun-
ties, opens Saturday in the Hood-
sport Mercantile. This new branch
library will be open every day from
8 to 8. A constantly-changing col-
lection of some 600 books will be on
the shelves. There will be books to
read for pleasure, novels, mysteries,
Westerns and love stories; books to
help you in your work and with per-
sonal problems; books about hobbies
and books for all ages and for varied
tastes. Additional books will be avail-
able upon request. Once a week, a
trained librarian from the headquar-
ters in Olympia will fill requests
and bring other new books to change
the collection. Residents of Mason
County may get library cards without
charge. The same library card may
be used in the Hoodsport Branch
Library and on the bookmobile when
it starts running on its regular sched-
ule beginning March 21.
March 2, 1959
Miss Mason
County Contest
Called Off
The contest to pick a Miss Mason
County, which was planned for this
Saturday night, has been cancelled.
The event had to be called off because
of a lack of entries and sponsors.
Compiled from the Journal archive
by Linda Frizzell