B1
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARcH 8, 2019
CONTACT US
ewilson@dailyastorian.com
(503) 325-3211 ext. 257
COMMUNITY
FOLLOW US
facebook.com/
DailyAstorian
IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
BEST FRIENDS, BEST SELLERS
‘M
eet Josie Reeves of Astoria (left) and Ella
Bankston of Seaside (right) of Girl Scout
Troop 12175,” Kimberley Chaput, Josie’s
mother, wrote. “They’re best friends, and this year, they
set a goal to sell 2,000 boxes each.” And they did.
“These girls set a goal, made a plan and followed
through,” she explained. “They agreed that they would
cheer each other on and help each other every step of the
way. … They really focused on asking customers to donate
cookies to the military and to Meals on Wheels. … Their
work paid off — Troop 12175 will be giving away more
than 300 boxes!”
“The rest of the troop has also done a fantastic job,”
Kimberley noted. “Most of them are on track to sell 400
boxes each.”
“These girls, (Josie and Ella) … are pretty amazing and
pretty awesome. … They really are best friends and best
sellers!”
‘GREAT FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES’
‘M
y husband, former Clatsop County District
Attorney Josh Marquis, was feted at the Elks
last Saturday,” Cindy Price wrote, “with dis-
tinguished author Buzz Bissinger (‘Friday Night Lights,’
‘A Prayer for the City,’ ‘Three Nights in August,’ ‘Father’s
Day’) as emcee, music by guitarist David Crabtree, and
dinner by Carruthers Restaurant and friends of Josh.
“Josh and I both are on to new endeavors: Josh as direc-
tor of legal affairs at Animal Wellness Action, and I as a
member of the Astoria Planning Commission — while
continuing to head the restoration of the Astoria Ferry.”
“Great friends and colleagues,” she added, “make it
easier for your husband to retire from a job he loved for
decades.”
‘HOSS SENSE & NONSENSE’
U
nder “Hoss Sense & Nonsense” in the March 8,
1900 edition of The Morning Astorian: If the
Elkins-Widener syndicates keep on at the pres-
ent gait, they will own the earth before long and be ready
to take option on the other planets. There should be good
times ahead for the inventors of flying-machines.
Note 1: Flying-machines in 1900? The Wright brothers
didn’t take flight until 1903. But Frenchman Jules Henri
Giffard (center) made the first powered flight in the full-
sized airship he built (a 143-foot dirigible, pictured), pow-
ered by a 3-horsepower steam engine, and flew it 17 miles
at 6 mph, from Paris to Elancourt, on Sept. 24, 1852.
Note 2: William Elkins (top right) and Peter Widener
(bottom right), both canny and highly successful Philadel-
phia businessmen on their own, got together and formed a
powerful syndicate in 1873.
They wound up controlling the biggest share of trolley
lines in the country, and wisely invested in electric light-
ing and power companies all over the U.S — a wise move,
since electricity would be in half of American homes by
1925. Widener was already worth almost $3 billion (in
today’s money) by 1900.
Amazingly enough, the men also became good friends,
and Elkins’ daughter, Eleanor, married Widener’s son,
George. George and Eleanor and their son, Harry, set off
on a European tour in 1912, after Harry graduated from
college. They decided to return to the U.S. by sea — on the
ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic.
George and Harry managed to get Eleanor safely into
a lifeboat, and she was saved, but the father and son went
down with the ship … along with John Jacob Astor IV
(bottom left), great-grandson of Astoria’s namesake, who
was on deck, and presumed to have been killed by a fall-
ing smokestack when the ship’s bow plunged downward.
Incidentally, Astor’s pregnant wife, Madeleine, also
survived, giving birth to John Jacob Astor VI (V was
already taken) in August. (bit.ly/jgiffard, bit.ly/ElkWide,
bit.ly/newlght, bit.ly/jjaiv)
TALES OF THE TOWN
AN ACT OF KINDNESS
F
‘I
’m a former U.S. Marine suffering from post trau-
matic stress disorder. PTSD, for short,” North
Coaster Temon Haynes wrote. “I had been search-
ing high and low for a service dog since 2009. I had all
but given up until my friend had said, ‘No, we’re getting
you a dog.’”
“We searched, and came up with a few leads, but still
a dead end,” Temon explained, “until on Facebook, Jes-
sica Dyer came in like a shining star. She said they would
like to donate a dog to me, that they had seen our post, and
reached out to me. It just so happens that I went to War-
renton High School with her husband, Stephen — he was
a grade above me.”
“When we heard his story we knew right away we had
to thank him for his service,” the Dyers, who now live in
Burns, wrote on Facebook, “and what better way than to
help him on his journey by donating a pup to be trained as
his service dog! … These are the moments we cherish the
most! Being able to pay it forward!”
Temon picked up the German shepherd puppy, Mera,
on Saturday. She will be trained at the Arnicadia Dog
Training Center in Seaside.
“These kind individuals, I can’t thank them enough,”
Temon added, “(for going) out of their way to do this for
me. I am a proud resident of Warrenton and I still, to this
day, am blown away by acts like this in our community. To
have a service dog has been a blessing for me, and for their
act, I can’t begin to repay them and express my gratitude.”
rom The Daily Morning Astorian, Saturday,
March 1, 1890:
• The house of C.W. Durr at Grays River nar-
rowly escaped destruction by fire yesterday morning. A
fortunate accident delayed the steamer Rival, and her
passengers saw the fire and put it out after the roof and
some of the furniture had been burned.
• Work began yesterday on the motor line to Smith’s
Point (currently Port of Astoria Pier 3), an important
enterprise. This is a sure thing; no talk, but work. A tele-
gram yesterday says 150 tons of iron are on the way.
This will lay 3 miles of road. The work will be pushed to
successful completion.
Note: A cable railway deal fell through, but in June
1890, Judge Frank Taylor’s Bay Railway Co. started
running a steam dummy (a locomotive disguised as a
passenger car) that went 3 miles from around Smith’s
Point to new housing tracts on Youngs Bay. (bit.ly/
smithcar)
• Lots in Tract 3 of the beautiful suburb of Chelsea,
only five minutes’ walk from the steamer landing at Ski-
panon and terminus of A&SCR (Astoria & South Coast
Railway). … Prices from $60 ($1,650 now).
Note: Chelsea is lost to the ages. By 1891, the A&SCR
had expanded, and operated from Skipanon (across from
Astoria, on Youngs Bay) all the way to Seaside. (bit.ly/
ascrailway)
• The wrecker Whiteclaw is doing some work around
the Astoria docks. Yesterday with her divers and appara-
tus a safe was raised off the Telephone’s wharf, belong-
ing to Foard & Stokes, and part of a stove in front of the
U.P. dock.
Note: Diving? Yes, believe it or not, the equipment
was already in existence. In 1842, when he was 22,
James Buchanan Eads (pictured, inset) invented a sal-
vage boat he called a submarine, but it was really a sur-
face vessel he used to descend from in a diving bell,
that he also created, to do salvage work while walking
around on the Mississippi River bottom. He recovered
enough valuable lost cargo to become a very wealthy
man. (bit.ly/eadsdive)
COME SAIL AWAY
T
hinking about the anniversary of the 2011 Japanese
earthquake and tsunami brings to mind the various
tiny bubble-shaped buoyant tsunami evacuation
devices that are good for one or two people to ride out the
waves.
But what if you’re very claustrophobic, and/or have a
big family? Tajima Motor Corp. has the answer: A drop-
tested, self-righting, up-to-20-seat floating bus-shaped
container, the Safe+ 600 (bit.ly/safe600). You can store
water, food, etc. under the seats, which are equipped with
four-point restraints. It is pictured, courtesy of Tajima.
And, for those in-between times, it has a flat bottom,
so you can turn it into a guest house in your driveway. All
this, and more, for about $58,000 — not including cus-
tomizing, taxes, shipping or delivery. So start saving your
pennies …
A FEW ALARMING FACTS
M
onday is the eighth anniversary of the devas-
tating March 11, 2011 Japanese earthquake
and tsunami, caused by an undersea subduction
zone very similar to the nearby Cascadia, where the Pacific
and Juan de Fuca plates meet.
Here are a few alarming facts to contemplate from
LiveScience.com (bit.ly/2011tsu):
The shaking from the 9.0 magnitude earthquake —
which shifted the earth on its axis, and shortened the
length of a day by about a microsecond — lasted nearly
six minutes.
In the year following the event, there were more than
5,000 aftershocks, the biggest being magnitude 7.9.
Honshu, Japan’s main island, moved 8 feet eastward;
the island’s north coast dropped two feet.
The Pacific Plate slid 79 feet westward near the epicen-
ter of the earthquake.
The tsunami wave reached a height of almost 128 feet
at Miyako City in Iwate Prefecture, and flooded inland for
6 miles in Sendai, a city on Honshu. In all, approximately
217 square miles were flooded. A Hokusai wave drawing
is shown.
An estimated 5 million tons of debris was swept out to
sea in the tsunami’s aftermath.
And, one last note: The earthquake’s infrasound (low
frequency rumble) was actually picked up by a satellite
orbiting in space.
Is your “go bag” ready?
IN ‘JEOPARDY’
J
ohn Bruijn submitted the photo shown of a ques-
tion from the ABC Network quiz show “Jeopardy”
Wednesday night. The correct response would seem
to be “Astoria,” but the “what is” part is wrong on two
points.
The first, and most obvious thing to note is that Asto-
ria is not on the Pacific Ocean. At least it wasn’t this week.
Someone in the research department at the show appar-
ently hasn’t been checking Google maps very closely. But
maybe they’re counting brackish water as ocean water.
Who knows.
And then there’s a problem with the date mentioned.
Astoria was not founded in 1810 at all, it was founded in
1811. John Jacob Astor founded the Pacific Fur Company
in New York in 1810. The company’s ship, the Tonquin,
didn’t arrive at the Columbia River until March 1811, and
the city of Astoria’s predecessor, Fort Astoria, was built
over several months thereafter. (bit.ly/astanswer)
Shame on you, “Jeopardy.”
COMMUNITY NOTES
SATURDAY
Lower Columbia R/C
Society — 8:30 a.m., Buoy
9 Restaurant & Lounge, 996
Pacific Drive, Hammond. Local
Academy of Model Aeronau-
tics (AMA) chartered radio
control model aircraft club
meets for breakfast and busi-
ness. All model aircraft enthu-
siasts are welcome. For infor-
mation, call 503-458-5196 or
503-325-0608.
Chinook Indian Nation
Council — 11 a.m., Scarbor-
ough House at Point Chinook
in Fort Columbia Historical
State Park in Chinook, Wash-
ington. Abbreviated monthly
meeting, open to all tribal
members, followed by a pot-
luck lunch and storytelling.
Bring a prepared item for the
potluck, and arrive on time.
For questions, contact the
Tribal Office at 360-875-6670.
Sit & Stitch — 11 a.m. to
1 p.m., Homespun Quilts &
Yarn, 108 10th St. Bring knit-
ting, crochet or other nee-
dlework projects to this com-
munity stitching time. All skill
levels welcome.
Columbia Northwestern
See Notes, B4