12
in other words
august15
2019
The Good Ol ’ Days
By Tobie Finzel
Vernonia Park Names
As we noted last month, the
Dewey Pool in Nehalia Park (now
Hawkins Park) was named for Les
Dewey, the general manager of Miller’s
Mercantile who championed the sea-
sonal damming of Rock Creek in the
1930s. From the 1930s until the 1960s,
the park was simply known as City Park.
Upstream from the pool, the park served
as the high school’s football and baseball
field complete with bleachers. With the
construction of Greenman Stadium in
the 1950s, the park remained as a picnic
site, playground, and home to the an-
nual Vernonia Jamboree Logging Show
and the Salmon Festival. The original
cabin in the park, built for the Camp Fire
Girls in the 1920s, had become the Scout
Cabin used by the Boy Scouts and other
youth groups. Having fallen into disre-
pair and damaged by the 1996 flood, it
was replaced in 2000 with a community
rental hall now officially called the Cab-
in in Vernonia but is still known as the
Scout Cabin by long-time Vernonians.
We have been unable to find the
date City Park became Hawkins Park,
but we presume it was so named soon af-
ter Glen Hawkins moved to Tillamook to
continue his career with Crown Zeller-
bach (CZ). During his many years in
Vernonia, Hawkins had been part of the
Clark and Wilson Company’s manage-
ment and later joined CZ. He became
Superintendent of its Stamm Tree Farm
Division in the early 1950s and was in
that capacity when their new office in
Pittsburg opened in 1959. Hawkins also
served as chairman of the county com-
mittee charged with school redistrict-
ing and consolidation and oversaw the
merging of the former Birkenfeld and
Mist School Districts into Vernonia’s
School District 47 in 1959. Glen was a
member of the Masonic Lodge and Ver-
nonia Lions Club and was appointed by
Governor Mark Hatfield to be the Co-
lumbia County’s conservation chairman
in 1958, part of a statewide conservation
effort. Hawkins died at age 90 and is
buried with his wife, Marie, in the Ver-
nonia Memorial Cemetery.
Known for his high school and
semi-professional baseball skill as a
pitcher in Kansas City, Judd Greenman
was recruited by a Colorado lumber mill
to work there and, not coincidentally,
Don’t Sell it!
Pawn it!
pitch for the mill’s team. For the next
five decades, he rose in the ranks of lum-
bermen and became general manager of
the Oregon-American Lumber Mill in
1925, and later its president. He retired
in 1955, a well-known leader in the lum-
ber industry and highly respected by all.
He suffered a fatal heart attack and died
in August 1957 just days after the last
O-A log was cut. Greenman Stadium
was named in his honor.
The land now occupied by An-
derson Park was part of the extensive
Oregon-American holdings that com-
prised the O-A lumber mill, mill pond,
and residences for mill workers. At one
time, the Japanese employees of O-A
lived in what is now an RV and group
picnic park and home to the Vernonia
Ridge Riders Saddle Club activities. It
was named for Conrad “Connie” Ander-
son, Vice President and General Manag-
er of O-A/Long-Bell Lumber Company/
International Paper. Following Judd
Greenman’s retirement, he became Pres-
ident until the mill closed in 1958. The
park acreage was donated to the City
of Vernonia by International Paper and
was dedicated as the Conrad J. Anderson
Park in August 1960.
The original Spencer Park was
located at the end of Missouri Avenue
on part of Israel Spencer’s former home-
stead. Spencer was one of the very early
settlers in Vernonia and in the 1910s al-
lowed a few acres of his land to be used
as a trap shooting and gun club locale.
It also was the site of a few rodeos, but
when the former baseball park on the
east side of Rock Creek was appropri-
ated for a city water plant in 1923, the
Baseball Association bought four acres
from the Spencers and set up games
there. The field had fences and a grand-
stand and was used by the high school
baseball team until the City Park field
was built in the mid-1930s. Eventually
Oregon-American bought the parcel.
The ball field was refurbished
in the 1970s and named Spencer Park
in honor of the pioneer family. It was
primarily used by the Little League who
rebuilt the dugouts and put up a fence.
It remained in active use until the con-
struction of the new K-12 school began
in 2009. With the demolition of the
schools on Bridge Street, the historic
name was moved to the new park site on
the former school grounds where soft-
ball and soccer fields now reside. The
new school site at the end of Missouri
now has its own baseball, softball, track,
and football fields on the former Spencer
homestead acreage.
Shay Park was established in
1958 as the final resting place of O-A/
Long-Bell Engine 102, a Shay-type lo-
comotive. Brought there under steam on
temporary rails, the locomotive was do-
nated to the City by International Paper.
The small Vernonia park that
runs along Louisiana Avenue on O-A
Hill was named for Ora Bolmeier, a for-
mer teacher and city clerk. She came to
Vernonia in the 1940s with her husband,
Wesley, and taught at the high school
from 1949 to 1973. From 1973 to 1989,
she served the City of Vernonia as a
clerk. On her retirement, the long-un-
named park was dedicated in her honor.
From Virgil Powell’s Diary
Virgil Powell was a long-time resident
who had a farm in the Upper Nehalem
Valley between Natal and Pittsburg.
Each year from 1906 until 1955, he kept
a regular diary of his activities. As a fire
warden, he noted and responded to the
various forest fires in the area while con-
tinuing to maintain his farm and social
life.
Friday, August 13, 1909: Went
up to Clarks the first thing in
the morning. Went down the
river after dinner and found
some fire at Big Eddy. Stayed
around the fire about all
afternoon.
Went back after
supper and stayed till about
9:30. Very hot day.
Saturday, August 14: Done a
little work around home in the
forenoon. Went up to Verno-
nia about 1 and did not get
back till 11:30 P.M. Took in the
Grange lecture at the Grange
Hall. Rained quite a little in
the afternoon.
Monday, August 16: Did not
do much of anything in the
morning. Went down the road
in the afternoon and Kenith
Cliff and I hitched up to the
buggy and went down as far
as Natal. Alma Messing came
over. Pretty hot day.
Thursday, August 19:
Will
Deeds came up and commenced
Summer
is here!
For fast cash!
Green Mountain Grills & Pellets in stock!
Water Toys • Lawn Chairs
Camping Supplies • Coolers
Batteries • Sporting Goods
Baseline
Pawn, Inc.
2245 Baseline St., Cornelius
(Across from Fred Meyer)
503-530-8119
State Licensed PB-0388
Open
everyday
at 10 a.m.
Family owned & operated for 50 years
834 Bridge St., Vernonia (503) 429-6364
cutting grain about 3:30.
Almost finished next to river.
Very hot all day.
Saturday, August 21: Did not
do much of anything in the
morning. Started up to Clarks
at 2 P.M. for the party. The
crowd came at 8:15. There was
about 50 present. Had a fine
time. Crowd left at 3:30 A.M.
Sunday, August 22: Started from
Clarks with Alma about 8 A.M.
to take her out to Clatskanie.
Went out horse-back and got to
Clatskanie at 5 P.M. Got back
home at 10:30 P.M. Rained a
little in the afternoon. We met
the Berg girls coming up this
way for a buggy ride.
Monday, August 23: Did not
do much of anything in the
morning. Cut some second crop
of clover along the river in the
afternoon. Cloudy all day and
looks very much like rain.
Tuesday, August 24:
Albert
Parker came down and we went
up to the big burn after berries.
Got about 2 ½ gallons. Discov-
ered a fire on our way back.
Cloudy most all day. Got home
at 6:30.
Wednesday, August 25: Went
up on Sec. 12 with the Western
Timber Co. fire warden to put
out some fire. Came back to the
road about 10 a.m. and rode
down the road a ways with
Clarence Reed and a pretty
girl. Got down to the Hazelett
place and found some fire
burning along the road. Got
back home at 1 p.m. Cut a little
clover along the river in the
afternoon. Cloudy and looks
very much like rain.
Thursday, August 26: Went
down to Rays about 10 a.m.
and stayed till 2 p.m. Came
home a shucked up the clover
hay along the river. Bert Mills
came down and cut the bee tree
below here. Cloudy and cool
most all day.
Saturday, August 28: Went
down the river horse-back as
far as Fishhawk. Started down
at 10 a.m. and got back at 5:30.
Did not see anybody to speak of.
Big fire burning one mile this
side of Mist. Received a postal
from Alma and a letter from
Easy Bruges. Awful hot all day.
The Vernonia Pioneer Museum is located
at 511 E. Bridge Street and is open from
1 to 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays (ex-
cluding holidays) all year. There is no
charge for admission but donations are
always welcome. Become a member of
the museum for an annual $5 fee to re-
ceive the periodic newsletter. You will
also find information on the museum on
Facebook and the Vernonia Hands on
Art web page. The board members are
always pleased to enlist additional vol-
unteers to help hold the museum open
and assist in other ways. Please stop by
and let one of them know of your inter-
est.