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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, JANuARy 13, 2022
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
‘I CAN STILL DREAM’
LULU AND BUTTONS
R
I
ecently the Ear heard from Tim Dixon, whose
great-great-grandfather was John Corse Trullinger
(1828-1901), owner of West Shore Mills and one of Asto-
ria’s most creative inventors, entrepreneurs and business-
men. They are both pictured.
“I have tried in my life to be creative,” Tim said, “to
innovate and to invent things and have just recently filed
(I think) my 58th patent. My work is a little different than
JCT’s as it revolves around health care, but I hope that the
inventive spirit of JCT resides within me.
“His first patent was issued in 1868, No. 74,455, and
my first patent issued was No. 9,682,047 — we have
come a very long way since 1868.” His work is at bit.ly/
DixonPatents
“You might find this a curiosity: My company owns
some land in northern Idaho on the American River. If I
put in the water at our property, and float for 860 miles, I
could step out on the wharf in Astoria.
“I thought maybe in 2024, as a fundraiser for cancer
research, or some other medical condition I work in, that
my writing partner and I would float the river, write a new
patent on the trip, and step out on the Astoria wharf and
hand the patent to my patent attorney … At 63, I can still
dream.”
t is so worrisome when a pet gets lost and
you can’t find them, and “Lulu” (left) and
“Buttons” (right) are both still missing.
“On Dec. 31, my dad and his girlfriend, and
their dog, Lulu, were traveling on U.S. High-
way 30, heading towards Astoria,” Megan
Brown said, “when my dad, Cliff McClel-
land, hit a patch of ice and lost control of his
truck, causing it to roll.” The accident hap-
pened just below the Bradley Hill viewpoint.
Cliff said Lulu jumped over a guardrail and
ran down the hill, heading west. She was last
seen Monday night on Clifton Road, but they
were unable to catch her.
Lulu is an 8-year-old brown and white
doxie mix, chipped and wearing a collar with
tags and a bell on it. If you find her, please call
Megan at 360-904-2125 or Cliff at 360-798-
4167. There is a reward for her return.
Niki Ratana’s Chihuahua, Buttons, went
missing on Jan. 3. Niki and her two dogs went
down to the parking area at the Columbia
River beach in Fort Stevens State Park, where
they went for a walk to the wildlife viewing
bunker.
Dogs loaded back up in the truck (did But-
tons jump back out?), Niki headed for Wash-
ington, where she made one quick stop at Chi-
nook Park, and another one near the entrance
to the Astoria Bridge. She got out of the car
both times.
When she got home, she realized Buttons
was missing. The dog must have hopped out at
one of those three locations. “She’s never just
jumped out of my truck unless we’re pulling
up to our house,” Niki said.
Buttons is black, with brown lower legs and
a white spot on her chest, and was wearing a
collar with an ID tag. If you find her, please
call 907-830-6496 or 907-764-1857. There is
a reward for Buttons’ safe return.
“She is loved beyond measure,” Niki said,
“and our family has been beside itself with-
out her.”
A HERCULEAN EFFORT
A
round Christmas time there was a story in this col-
umn about businessman J. C. Trullinger keeping
his promise to have an electric light shining in front of
The Daily Morning Astorian’s office on Christmas Eve,
1885.
The Spring 1989 issue of Cumtux offers some insights
into his first foray into the electricity business. The city
originally contracted for 10 street lamps, but four of them
wound up being sold to C. H. Cooper, and the rest went
to some of the many saloons and dance halls around town
— probably because it cost $16 per lamp per month to run
them, the equivalent of a whopping $470 each now.
It fell on Trullinger’s six sons, putting in 16-hour days,
to keep the business going and “readjust (dynamo) engine
throttles to maintain voltage, maintain the lines strung
rooftop to rooftop that were whipped by winter winds,
adjust the carbon arcs and clean the soot from the globes.”
Pictured, courtesy of the Clatsop County Historical
Society, Trullinger’s West Shore Mill, box factory, and
the first electrical plant; inset, four of his sons and the first
dynamos.
Despite their herculean efforts, the dynamos failed in a
year, and were sold at a loss. Trullinger, unbowed, built a
bigger building, and ordered bigger dynamos. He finally
decided to concentrate his considerable energies on more
successful enterprises, and sold the West Shore Electric
Light Co. in 1893.
LOCAL BREVITIES
T
idbits from The Daily Morning Astorian, Jan. 13, 1887:
• Gov. Pennoyer in. Ex-Gov. Moody out.
Note: Gov. Sylvester Pennoyer‘s cantankerous claim to
fame came with an 1893 debacle. To spite President Gro-
ver Cleveland — who had declared the fifth Thursday in
November as the national day to give thanks — Pennoyer
declared the fourth Thursday as a state “day of thanksgiving.”
It must have been a very bad year for turkeys.
• The “Non-Swearing Knights” is the title of a new organi-
zation in Chicago. In Astoria, the non-swearing nights are the
nights that the loose (sidewalk) planks don’t trip up the folks
that are splashing home.
THIS LITTLE PIGGY
THE REAL DEAL
T
he Haarlems Dagblad, generally accepted
as the oldest continuously published newspaper
in the world, celebrated its 366th anniversary on
Saturday.
First published by Abraham Casteleyn and his
wife, Margaretha van Bancken on Jan. 8, 1656, in
Haarlem, Netherlands, as the Weeckelycke Courante
van Europa, it was renamed De Oprechte Haerlemse
Courant in 1664.
During the World War II German occupation of
the Netherlands, the publication went through an
involuntary merger with Haarlems Dagblad, a regional
newspaper first issued in 1883 (younger than The Asto-
rian). If you want to get technical about it, Haarlems
Dagblad only became the oldest paper by absorbing the
real deal.
By the way, the oldest continuously published paper
in the U.S. is The Hartford Courant, formerly known
as The Connecticut Courant. The first edition was pub-
lished on Oct. 29, 1764, by Thomas Green, from the
Heart and Crown Tavern in Hartford. It was just four
pages, printed on 8.5 by 14.5 inch paper, and became the
most widely circulated newspaper in the colonies. (bit.
ly/haarldag, bit.ly/thcourant)
HELMET HEADS?
N
ew research indicates that Vikings were not the orig-
inators of the metal horned helmets they are noted
for, according to SmithsonianMag.com. The ceremonial
helmet pictured, courtesy of the National Museum of
Denmark, was found in Viksø, Denmark, in 1942, but
new radiocarbon dating makes it much older than orig-
inally thought.
“For many years in popular culture, people associ-
ated the Viksø helmets with the Vikings,” said archaeol-
ogist Helle Vandkilde. “But actually, it’s nonsense. The
horned theme is from the Bronze Age, and is traceable
back to the ancient Near East,” i.e. back to 900 B.C.E.,
about 2,000 years before the Vikings.
Some scientists posit that the Vikings traded for met-
als with southern Europe, traveling down the Atlantic
coast, and could have adapted the headgear from inter-
acting with cultures already exposed to the Near East
via trade. Other scientists don’t buy the new research,
or the Atlantic route theory. Let the erudite squabbling
commence.
‘I
was talking with Joseph Stevenson about
the weird wood pig statue thing he has on his
floor,” Astorian Hope Harris wrote. “Hopefully,” she
added, “someone can fill us in on the birth of these
objects.”
Mary Weir said they were made by W. Martin Bais-
ley (1899-1993), who is buried at Greenwood Cemetery
in Astoria; he lived in Taylorville (Westport). She sug-
gested contacting Terry Culbertson, who had been a
neighbor.
“He turned (the pigs) on his old lathe,” Terry wrote.
“Used marbles for eyes, and cotton braided rope for a
tail.
“He built a conveyor to use while digging out a base-
ment, and used an old adding machine motor to power it
… He made his own pulleys, gears, or pretty much any-
thing he needed, out of wood.
“As far as wooden pigs, I think (he made them) at
least partially because they were easy and strong. We
had one of his pigs, but I’m not sure of its whereabouts
now.
“He was retired when I knew him, from sawmill
work. He had lost all of his fingers on one hand to an
accident with a saw in the mill, I’m guessing in the big
mill in Westport … ”
Yes, there was a big mill in Westport. “They cut one
timber 6 feet by 6 feet by 120 feet long. It was used for
the keel timber in the reconstruction of the USS Consti-
tution. It took three rail cars to haul it.
“… At one time, Westport was a booming place. They
had one of the very first salmon canneries on the Colum-
bia River. There was a full-sized ship yard, too.”
And now, for the rest of the story, as Paul
Harvey used to say: “I was told (Mr. Baisley) lost
his fingers years before I was born, and I was born in
1960. He made the pigs long after losing his fingers.
He figured out how to do many things well into his late
life.”
CRAB POT SURPRISE
F
un rerun: Mark O’Neil caught an 8-inch “albino”
Dungeness crab Jan. 28 while working on the fish-
ing vessel Norska out of Newport. Josh Osborn is pic-
tured with him.
“This is a first for me,” Mark said. Several crab fisher-
men responded to Mark’s Facebook post, saying they had
caught white crabs over the years, as well.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife proclaims
that white Dungeness crabs are not “true albinos,” and a
“couple” of them are found in the fishery each year. Even
so, the Oregon Coast Aquarium puts the odds of finding
one at one in a million.
Many thought Mark ought to have the crab stuffed —
not for dinner, but by a taxidermist. Nope. Luckily for the
crab, the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport was happy
to give him a home.
“It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever caught in a pot,”
Mark declared. (In One Ear, 2/3/2017)