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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 11, 2019)
B1 THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2019 CONTACT US ewilson@dailyastorian.com (971) 704-1718 COMMUNITY FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorian IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON THE CASE OF THE MISSING MEDICINE LOCAL BREVITIES rom the Thursday, July 11, 1889, edition of The Daily Morning Astorian: • Astoria, L.I. (Long Island, New York), and Astoria, Oregon, have several Chinese gardens. Note: According to Liisa Penner at the Clatsop County Historical Society, there were several gardens providing fresh vegetables to Chinatown and the community in the late 1800s. One was the Astoria Chinese Gardens, at the east end of town, in the Harrison Avenue Loop area. Another was the West Astoria Chinese Gardens, near Smith Point. “There was also one near the foot of 37th Street, and one near the Pipeline Road,” she added. “There may have been more.” (bit.ly/ChiGard) • Andrew Todd left Portland yesterday with a party to survey a tract of public land near Mishawaka. Note: Long-gone Mishawaka was 38 miles southeast of Astoria, and 20 miles south of Olney by water, according to the 1888 Oregon State Gazetteer. It was a farming community, Liisa Penner explained. “J.S. Dellinger’s 1896 Astoria City Directory lists 40 men there, all farmers, except for one carpenter and one black- smith.” The population was actually higher, since women and children weren’t listed. The little town also boasted a water-powered fl our mill and a post offi ce. “Astor Anderson, the constable,” she noted, “later spent time in the penitentiary for embezzling funds from the post offi ce, which proves that not all the interesting people in the county were from Astoria.” • The T. J. Potter arrived from Port Townsend (Wash- ington Territory) yesterday morning, making the trip in 21 hours. Note: According to Mr. Wikipedia (tinyurl.com/tjpotter), the Potter (pictured, from the Matt Winters collection) was launched in Portland in 1888. At 230 feet long, the side- wheeler was considered the “last word in … elegance,” boasting a “grand saloon,” stained glass windows, and even a grand piano. She was as well known for her speed as her luxury. In 1916, she was condemned for passenger use, and her license was revoked in 1920. Abandoned on Youngs Bay, she was burned and salvaged for her metal. What little is left of her former glory still rests on the shore of Youngs Bay. ‘ONE WORD: PLASTICS.’ F ast November, there was a story in this column about the sad fate of the Sylvie (or Sylvia or Silvie) de Grasse, a 140-foot wooden sailing ship. In November 1849, she sailed outbound down the Columbia River and anchored off Astoria to await a pilot. The pilot came aboard, but the ship drifted right into a ledge off Tongue Point and got stuck. Overloaded with half a million feet of lumber, she could not be budged or refl oated. As of 1869, the Sylvie de Grasse was still visible, sport- ing a headless fi gurehead. By 1895, her timbers could only be seen at low tide. Remnants are still there. But what hap- pened to the wooden medicine chest that was still aboard in the 1880s? Aha! Jeff Groth, vice president of the Maritime Archae- ological Society (maritimearchaeological.org) has come up with the answer with a printout and photo (shown) from the Oregon Historical Society (bit.ly/SilvieChest). Apparently, the chest contained “medicinal bottles, tins, and mortar and pestle,” and was given to Astorian James Welch when the ship was dismantled. Welch and his wife, Nancy, were the fi rst married white couple to settle in Astoria, arriving in 1846. He bought half of John Shively‘s claim, and built Astoria’s fi rst wood- framed house in a spot designed to irritate. He was told by the resident Brits of Hudson’s Bay Co. that he was building on foreign soil, but Welch was unim- pressed. He noted that it would take “all the guns in the fort” to stop him. No one did. He built a second house near the fi rst one. When chas- tised, once again, he noted the British couldn’t stop him. And once again, they couldn’t. When Welch died, possibly of sheer orneriness, the chest went to his son, John W. Welch, who gave it to Dr. Oris Burnett Estes (1854-1919), aka “Daddy Estes” for deliver- ing more than 2,500 babies around Astoria. He was “one of Astoria’s leading physicians” from 1885 to 1916, according to his obituary, and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery. And there you have it. The medicine chest is now safely ensconced in the Oregon History Museum collection. (bit. ly/ShiveMcDist, bit.ly/OBEstes, bit.ly/OBEstes2) L hat to do with all those plastic bottles, the mod- ern-day scourge of the earth? JD Composites has come up with a helluva solution: A Nova Scotia, Canada, concept home called Beach House has been built from more than 600,000 plastic bottles, and it’s hurricane-resis- itant to boot, NewAtlas.com reports (bit.ly/Bottlehome). Creating the prefabricated wall panels is a complicated process that involves melting plastic bottles into beads that are then put through “an extensive extruding process.” The panels are durable, keep out dampness, provide insulation, and can be assembled in a few weeks (or days). More than 184 panels were used to build Beach House, which is shown in an illustration courtesy of JD Compos- ites. The place has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, lots of windows, an indoor barbecue and a rooftop terrace. The cost? Including land, about $374,000. The goal isn’t building custom homes, Joel German, co-owner of JD Composites noted, but volume sales of “smaller dwellings, shelters, sheds, offi ces, sleeping bar- racks. Disaster relief shelters are defi nitely on our radar.” So is using up a lot of plastic bottles. W WHO’S THAT? THE BABY KILLER BOVINE GROUPIES n Oregon man, Rick Herrmann, sure has a way with the ladies. Bovine ladies, that is, Fox News reports (bit.ly/cowtunes). “My parents are such goofs they drove out to the backroads so my dad could play the cows the songs he’s been learning on the saxophone,” Herrmann’s daugh- ter, Erin, wrote on her Twitter feed June 25 (twitter.com/ erinmherrmann). She also posted a video of her father, as he stood at the edge of a cow pasture somewhere in rural Oregon, and started playing. He’s a newbie on the instrument, but the cows who were far afi eld to start with, were interested. As he kept on playing his limited repertoire — “Isn’t She Lovely,” “Careless Whisper” and “Tequila” — the cows began ambling right up to hear him play, until he had quite a large audience of entranced listeners. A screen shot from Erin’s video, which has over 12 million views, is shown. “It just seemed to resonate with so many people,” the aspiring musician told Fox 12 Oregon. “So many people said they had a hard day, and they watched it, and it put a smile on their face.” A he latest, and most intriguing, Bigfoot sightings are on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota, where a woman says the critter has been harassing her at night by pounding on the walls of her trailer and grunting, Inforum. com reports (bit.ly/NDbigfoot). The picture shown, of something, was taken with a trail camera. “She says it was 7, 8 feet tall. Probably about 400, 500 pounds,” Tom Biscardi Jr., of Searching for Big- foot, Inc. (searchingforbigfoot.com), said, and it was all black, with a “pudgy nose.” Biscardi, a well-known U.S. sasquatch seeker, turned up to investigate with a fi lm crew — he’s making a doc- umentary about the elusive beastie. Intrigued, WDAY-TV in Fargo, North Dakota, reported on his visit. Traps were set, but the big guy eluded even the very persistent Mr. Biscardi and his cameras. “You may not believe,” he noted. “That’s OK. If you get the opportu- nity to see this creature, it’ll stick with you for the rest of your life.” Meanwhile, Bigfoot or not, the woman and her family are staying put. Stay tuned. T n that same edition of the Astorian, an ad stood out: “Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup should always be used for children teething. It soothes the child, softens the gums, allays all pain, cures wind cholic (fl atulence) and is the best remedy for diarrhoea. Twenty-fi ve cents (about $14 now) a bottle.” Charlotte Winslow was a pediatric nurse who created the syrup, which was produced by her son-in-law and his partner in 1849. It was enormously popular for calming fussy babies; over 1.5 million bottles were sold annually in the 1860s. And here’s why it worked: The syrup contained mor- phine and alcohol. In fact, one teaspoonful contained enough morphine to kill the average child. It’s believed that after being medicated, thousands of babies nodded off and never woke up. Since no one made the connection between the syrup and deaths from over- dose, addiction and withdrawal, or realized how danger- ous morphine can be, the exact mortality rate is unknown. It’s one thing to unleash patent medicine quackery on unsuspecting adults; it was downright deadly for infants. And Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup — aka “the baby killer” — is a prime example. (bit.ly/MzWinslow) I SING A LITTLE SONG FOR ME STRUT YOUR SHANGHAIED STUFF ince this involves quite a few Astorians, here’s a shout- out from Judith Niland: “Hey Shanghaians!” she wrote. “We are seeking all show alumni to come join us in the Astoria Grand Land Regatta Parade Saturday, Aug. 10, to celebrate “Shanghaied in Astoria” turn- ing 35, and to honor the creator of the longest running all-volun- teer cast musical melodrama, Dr. Del Corbett!” “Over 1,000 volunteers have S participated through the years, creating memories that have lasted a lifetime,” she explained. “Come represent your year, and join us as we walk and ride in downtown Astoria on Aug 10.” Want to participate? Contact Judith at jniland@pacifi er.com or info@asocplay.com If you need any further con- vincing, “we can provide cos- tumes,” she noted. “You just gotta come. Spread the word. It will be spectacular!” et’s hope the East Basin sea lions don’t fi gure this one out: Three gray seals at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland have been trained to copy the sound of human speech, and song, by researchers there. The end result is seals “singing” the melodies to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and the “Star Wars” theme, which can be seen in a video the researchers created. Zola particularly shines with her rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle.” A still shot is shown, courtesy of the University of St. Andrews. “Copies were not perfect, but given that these are not typical seal sounds it is pretty impressive,” lead researcher Amanda Stansbury said. “Our study really demonstrates how fl exible seal vocalizations are.” (AP, bit.ly/sealwars) L
