Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 1975)
Page 2, THE GAZETTE-TIMES, Heppner, OR., Thursday, July 24, 1975 Horse sense ERNEST V. JOINER Betsy Ross I A patriot yes; but he make that fla did g? On a sudden hunch. I turned off Highway 97 to drive into Heppner by way of Antelope, Clarno, Fossil and Spray. It is a beautiful and delightful drive through almost primeval country. On my arrival in Heppner I found a letter from Mike Wells of Spray with w hom I must have been in some kind of telepathy when I suddenly decided to take the cutoff route. Wells as you must know, is one of the most acid, bucolic, belligerent, irascible old curmudgeons ever to take the hide off an editor with his poisonous pen. He accompanied it with a copy of a new book, "Glimpses of Wheeler County's Past," issued by the Wheeler County Historical Society formed in 1974. It reads better than the ponderous tomes routinely issued on such subjects. It even has humor. For example, the passage about the town of Twickenham which once got into a fight with Fossil over location of the county seat. After a spirited election, Fossil won, and Twickenham passed into limbo. A comment on the incident was published in the Fossil Journal in 1900: "A few days ago two wayfaring men crossed Twickenham Ferry. When the would-be county seat site was pointed out to them, they took a long look at Parsons' (the name of the family that platted the town of Twickenham in 1896) undulating bottom; then one remarked after taking a mouthful of water and squirting it out, 'It's a pretty good looking spot for a county seat and only seems to lack two things good society and drinking water.' With a far-away look in his weary eyes, the other wayfarer made his soft reply. "That's all hell lacks." " Every time I turn my back things happen in Heppner. Imagine arriving here to find that Bill and Daisy Collins have sold their building and closed the cleaning business, leaving all of us with the problem of what to do when our clothes get raunchy. I'm sure they hated to do it. The drip-dry and w ash n' wear craze in clothing just made it too tough for them to make a living any more. And how about Gardner's Men s Store? It would do credit to a city of 100,000 people. The new front on the Lebush Shoppe is a stunner. Maybe what Peterson's Jew elers and the Bank of Eastern Oregon started a while back is becoming contagious. If so, Heppner's business district is going to become the most attractive of any city 10 times its size in the state. After all, Heppner should be famous for more than the '03 flood, "Hanging Judge" Charley O'Connor and Mayor Sweeney's proliferat ing mustache! Some of Heppner's oldtimers will remember Dean Goodman, who w as in school here in the early 1930s. Howard Bryant remembers him as a kid who was a little different from the rest because he w asn't boisterous and didn't engage in he-man activ ities that got their pants dirty and torn at the seat and knees. He evidently was different, all right, for he surfaced July 18 in San Francisco as the author -director of a play. "Special Friends." which is causing some interest. Since leaving Heppner he has appeared in about 200 product ions as an actor. Under the pen name, Douglas Dean, he has written a dozen novels. What may be disconcerting to Heppnerites is that the play and the novels are all about homosexuals. He also announced in an interview with Stanley Eichelbaum. drama critic for the San Francisco Examiner, that he is a homosexual himself. Goodman was married in the early 1950s to Maria Riva, daughter of Marlene Dietrich, but the match lasted only briefly. He went to San Francisco from Hollywood in the 1950s and started the Great Players Company with a production of "The Master Builders" in which he acted playing opposite a woman named Dianne Goldman, who later became the Mrs. Dianne Feinstein who is now a supervisor for San Francisco County and who is also a candidate for mayor of that city. Bill Mitchell, a former Heppnerite and a classmate of Goodman here from 1928 to 1933. suggests that he be given a "nice spread in your paper" as being a Heppner boy who made good in the big town! I can rememDer when what we used to call a "queer" would have been run out of any town, especially this one! However, the gay boys have apparently been accepted as "normal" especially by the federal government which makes it illegal to discriminate in employment because of homosexuality. This means, of course, that whether you like it or not the gays who turn up teaching children in school must be retained on their jobs. As the newest and most recently emerged "minority" the gay people are riding high: and. like most minority groups, are enjoying special privileges not granted to those of us who make up the great majority in this country. Actually. I'm not dragging any skeletons out of Heppner's closet. Probably everywhere else Goodman is some kind of hero, like Soviet author Alexander Solzhenytsin. who has emerged from darkness into the light of world acclaim after having been underground so long. On the other side of the coin. I can mention Dr. Francis Nickerson, a former Heppnerite who has made it good, not in just a big city and not in such a sensational manner. He is the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for South Dakota. He is also the former head of the respected OMSI. which wants him to return. He got his schooling in Heppner schools before going to the University of Oregon. He is also a cousin of Harry. O Donnell. which alone is enough to make him famous' Federal legislation to force children to enter public school at 3 years of age, which would result in "tens of thousands of new teaching jobs." has been endorsed by the two strongest teacher unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Assn. meeting in Honalulu last week. There were 178.300 teachers out of work a of last fall. This is one way to put them to work again The 2.000 delegates voted unanimously for the plan. The NEA and AFT represents 2 million teachers It will cost $2 billion just fora model project alone! The Child and Family Service Act of 1975. now under consideration in Congress, would force 3 year-olds into the public schools in order (hat more teachers can be hired. "Unions are at their finest when they find issues representing a good combination of self interest and public interest." Albert Shanker, president, AFT, told the delegates. Note the admission of "self interest." Note that "Self-interest" precedes "public interest." Who decided that the presence of 3 year-olds in the classroom is in the public interest? The teachers! Note that the nation's siblings will be used as tools to beef up the teaching profession. Taxpayers should note (hat 12 billion of their money will go intojhe pilot program alone. Note also that the delegates unanimously endorsed cradle tograve education, thus guaranteeing untold thousands of new teaching jobs and an equal number of bodies paying union dues to NEA and AFT. Is the next move the creation of "Fetal School" in order that teacher involvement may start before the child leaves the womb? I hope no one overlooks the AFT president's reference (o his organization n a "union." Teachers still say their organizations are not unions, only "professional associa tions." Nonsense. Claiming that teachers unions arc anything other than unions makes about as much sense as closing the maternity wards on Labor Day. More flags probably will be displayed in this, the nation's bicentennial year, than ever before in the national history. But the history of the flag itself, its origins, are shadow ed in myth and undocumented tradition. Take the Betsy Ross belief. History had no mention of Betsy Ross until 1870 when her grandson came up with the tale that his grandmother had been waited upon by a delegation of Revolutionary patriots in June of 1776. The patriots were George Washington, Robert Morris (the financier of the Revolu tion) and Betsy's uncle, Geo rge Ross. The grandson's story had it that they asked Betsy to whip up a national banner. But historians have been unable to document the story, as nice as it is. The New Century Cyclo pedia of Names says: "There is documentary evi dence that she was paid in May 1777. for making ships' colors, etc., but no direct documentary evidence has been found to link her with the flag adopted by the Continen tal Congress on June 14, 1777, as the national emblem and most historians now doubt if she made it." The Continental Congress flag was born of this resolu tion: "Resolved, that the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." Congress gave no hint as to the flag's designer, then or later and stalled on the matter of even publishing its resolu tion for II weeks. Washington couldn't requi sition the new official stan dard for his army until 1783 when the Revolution was over. And it is not even certain that the flag he finally managed to get was that ordered by the Congress. Revolutionary troops mar ched or sailed into battle with a variety of banners. Some historians consider the very first to have been the Grand Union or Great Union, a modification of a British flag which had a red Cross of St. George and the white cross of St. Andrew combined in a blue canton. It also had 6 horizontal stripes on a field, making for 13 stripes in all. A canton, by the way. is a square division of a flag or shield, less than a quarter of the whole, in the upper left hand corner. This flag was unfurled for the first time on Jan. 1. 1776 when the Continental Army came into formal existence atop Prospect Hill. Somer ville. Mass. "We hoisted the Union Flag in compliment to the United Colonies." Washington wrote to his Martha in Virginia. In the public library at Easlon. Pa . rests a flag over which historians have disa greed for 150 years. The Easlon flag has the devices of the national flag reversed and some say it was first flown at the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Easlon. July 9. 1776 It had 13 red and w hile stripes and 13 while stars centered The defenders of Fort Srhuvli-r. N Y.. improvised a fl.iK from scraps of clothing in early August of 1777. This one appears to have been a version of the Grand Union banner. The Sons of Liberty those early -day "militants" used a flag of 9 red and white stripes when they demonstrated in New York against 4he Stamp Act. This one had a coiled rattlesnake on it. At the Battle of Concord. April 19. 1775, minute men There is a Bennington Flag display in a museum at Bennington. At the Battle of Cowpens, Jan. 17. 1781, the 3rd Maryland Regiment is thought to have carried a flag of 13 red and white stripes with a blue canton containing 12 stars in a circle around I star. Who designed the official flag? Later, when still more states came into the federal government, Congress cut the stripes back to 13 and ordered that stars be added as states were born. No law, incidentally, pre scribes the arrangement of stars. Since 1912, whenever a new state has been admitted, a presidential executive order from Bedford. Mass . rallied round a flag with silver arm holding a sword on a red field.' Sons of Liberty. Cambridge. Mass.. chapter, used a plain red flag with a green pine tree on it. When Washington took command of his troops, he w as escorted by the Philadelphia Light Horse Troop, riding behind a yellow flag with an elaborate coat of arms, a shield with 13 knots, a motto reading "For Those We Strive" and a canton of 13 blue and silver stripes. In February of 1776. Col. Christopher Gadsen of the South Carolina delegation to the Continental Congress gave his home state's provincial assembly a flag "such as is to be used by the commander-in-chief of the American Navy." It had a yellow field with a rattlesnake and the "Don't Tread On Me" legend on it. Benjamin Franklin is cred iled with the rattlesnake not ion : he had suggested in his Pennsylvania Gazette that a few rattlers be shipped, live, to London for George Ill's ministers to face. At the Battle of Bennington. Vt . Aug 16. 1777. the Ameri cans carried a flag of 7 white and 6 blue stripes with a blue canton extending down 9 stripes and showing an arch of II white stars over the figure 76 and with a star in each upper corner. TrYouldnl It Hivt Been Cheaper For Them To Havt Shook Ham On Earthr We don't really know. But one of the best claims came from Francis Hopkin son, a signer of (he Declara tion of Independence who designed seals for the State Department, the Treasury Board and a naval flag. In 1781. he asked Congress to pay him for his services. Congress never did. Whence came the term "Old Glory V Best guess is that a Salem. Mass.. sea captain, one Wil liam Driver, watched a flag being hoisted over his brig, the Charles Doggett. in 1824. and cried out : "I name thee Old Glory." But his daughter remembered it differently: when she gave the flag some years later to the Smithsonian Institution, she said he uttered the line at his 21st birthday party when his mother presented it to him. There is a persistent slory that the official flag was a version of the Washington family coat -of arms Historians believe this to be based in coincidence, how ever. And they think also it was from the imagination of a British playwright of the 1870s. The flag of 1777 was used until 1795. That year Vermont and Kentucky were admitted to the Union and Congress passed an act providing for IS stripes and 15 stars. quote unquote "I intend to be a pain in the ass. I intend to insist on a budget cut ; I intend to Insist on a tax increase; I'm going to propose changes in the regu latory agencies at the rate of about one a day. When I get through, nobody's going to like me. and Ml havt just one satisfaction: that I've made life easier for the next guy who comes along." WILLIAM E. SIMON. U S Secretary of the Treasury. has announced addition of slars No star Is specifically iden tified with any slate. The current 50 star flag was raised for the first time officially at 12 Ola m . July 4. 10 at Fort Mcllenry Nation al Monument in Baltimore harbor. That, of course, symbolized admission of Alaska and Hawaii, first new states since 1912 when Arizona and New Mexico joined the Union. And Fort Mcllenry is the sue of the 1812 battle which inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star Spangled Banner." But Betsy? Her tale of flag stitchery is kind of like the one about George and the Cherry Tree. Stitched, maybe, out of whole cloth? But Betsy's claim refuses to die In 1941. the Philadelphia City Council took title to her house and declared it an historical monument. And on Jan. 1. 1952. the Postal Office issued a Betsy Ross stamp in honor of that thrice married Quaker lady's 200th birthday. Of her patriotism, there is no historical question. Her second husband died in a British prison after his cap lure at sea Her third husband joined a Quaker sect which allowed war In selfJefense and he. loo, served at sea. Husband No. I. John Ross, died when an ammunition dump he was guarding blew up. I Ml CLAS8 REUNION The Heppner High Class of 1950 will be holding Its 25-year reunion Saturday night, July 26, at the Heppner Elks Cub. Doors will be open to the public at p.m. for those who would like to visit. r MNMNKfMintant1lllNltM THE GAZETTE-TIMES Unit HOW t ot NTY'S NEW SPAPER Box 3.T7, Heppner. Ore. 97836 Subscription rate : 6 per year In Oregon, 17 elsewhere Ernest V. Joiner, Publisher Published every Thursday and entered as a second class matter at the post office at Heppner, Oregon, under the act of March 3, 1879. Second lass postage paid at Heppner, Oregon. wwaiiMMiiHMWKWHHHWWiiiiBlirsriintwjniisrnnrfn- Mayor of Hardman DEAR MISTER EDITOR: Clem Webster got the floor at the start of the session at the country store Saturday night. He stood up and announced that of all the wonders of science and space travel, nothing In this world or out of i Is as amaiing as people, and he allowed that he had the clippings to prove it. . Fer a start. Clem reported where this feller let two people drown after a ship wreck because he wouldn't throw his dog overboard to make room fer them in the raft. Folks can git awful attached to their pets, allowed Clem, but when we put more value on them than we do on each other, we're In trouble. And when their pets die. some folks spend more, pound for pound, to bury em than they do their own kin. Clem had saw this piece In the papers where a pet cemetery reported a 1700 funeral fer a parakeet, and he said he couldn't bring hisself to think how much it would cost to bury a horse at them rates. The fellers was general agreed that pets In this country, dogs particular, are give about the same rank In the social order as sacred cows In India. Zeke Grubb said he would judge from all the dog food advertising that healthy dogs are ahead of healthy people In our order of needs. It ain't no wonder. Zeke allowed, that a lot of people are eating dog food. They probable git more vitamins and minerals from one of them "all meat products" than they could from the stuff they've been eating that's full of cereal, Zeke said, and the next step will be fer some Guvernment health agency to declare that table scraps is unfit fer canine consumption. Ed Gonty said dogs already are healthier than people, according to this piece he saw about treatment of bites. Ed said a doctor at the University of Toronto reported that 47.000 people were treated fer biles at a Toronto hospital last year. Most of em were dog bites, the doctor said, but only 4 per cent of these got infected. In cases of people biting people, the infection rate run up to 30 per cent. In terms of gitting sick from it. you're a heap better off being bit by a dog than a man. Ed reported, which could mean folks ain't taking as good care of their mouths as they are of their dogs. Turning to another problem, Clem offered a clipping that told of what was called a "sexual Identity crisis." Parents that were worried because little boys were give toy guns to play with now are excited on account of tea sets being pushed for boys and girls. Clem said if little boys that play with guns grow up to be gangsters, won't little boys that play keeping house turn Into sissies? This worked Into a big deal. Clem said, until some daddy remembering his military days told his little boy his tea set was a mess kit. Now the little feller Is a he-man again, pertending to be In the Army. Like the man said. Mister Editor, different strokes fer different folks. Yours truly, MAYOR ROY. Clarence Rosewall The loss of a leader B ERVESTV. JOINER Morrow County lost one of its leading citizens, a political leader and civic booster last week in the death of Clarence Rosewall. Mr. Rosewall died suddenly at his home July 15 following his return from the Bicenten nial Wagon Train celebration at Cecil. He w as buried last Friday in Heppner at the age of 76. W W'. Weatherford char acterized Mr. Rosewall as "a businessman, through and through." "He might get angry with a person." Weath erford recalls, "but I never knew him to hold a grudge or to stop trading with another businessman because of a disagreement." He added that Mr. Rosewall was a good thinker and had a "good head on him." Orville Cuts forth recalls Mr. Rosewall as a man about whom he had never heard a harsh word. "Always our business relations were of the very best," Cutsforth said, "although we never were very close socially." Cutsforth likes to recall the time he was a member of the Hells Canyon Assn., an organ ization dedicated to putting a high dam on the Snake River. It was an uphill fight all the way, Cutsforth said, especial ly when President Eisenhower came to office. During this time the son of a real estate man in Baker was elected secretary of the association. His name was Al Ullman. One of the thorns in the side of the Hells Canyon Assn. was Rep. Sam Coon of LaGrande. One day, according to Cuts forth, the group met In Baker and pondered what to do with Rrp. Coon. "Why don't you run, Al?" someone suggested. Ullman protested he had no money for a political cam paign; and right there plans were made for a street auction in Baker to raise Ullmans campaign funds. "Everybody contributed. I took a truckload of 10 steers to Baker to be auctioned for Al. I put In one steer, Paul Jones donated another but Clar ence Rosewall put In two steers. That about tells the story about Clarence-he was always doing twice as much as the rest of us. And that, Cutsforth con cluded, is how Al Ullman got to Congress and how the Congressman and Clarence remained fast friends until the latter s death last week Mr. Rosewall married Vir ginia Key in 1930. The Key family was prominent in Pendleton, and Lloyd Key was a state senator and a support er of Sen. John Kennedy for the presidency. The Rosewalls came to Heppner In 1939 where he operated the Ford automobile agency until he sold it In 1958 He was also a wheat rancher. He was a leader In the political affairs of the city, county and state. He was county chairman for Rep. Ullman for several years and was active in the Democratic party. On the local level he was chairman of the county and city planning commissions. He served on the city council for 16 years, as councilman and mayor. For many years he was chairman of the board of directors for Pioneer Mem- orial Hospital; was a vestry man for All Saints' Episcopal Church; county development chairman for the Heppner Morrow County Chamber of Commerce; proponent of the Willow Creek Dam project which Involved his appear ance in Washington to testify In its behalf; a member of the Heppner Elks Lodge; life member of the Oregon Wheal Growers League; Oregon Washington Farmer's Union; Grande Ronde Valley Masonic Lodge In Union; Ruth chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Heppner; Al Kader Temple, Portland; Royal Arch Masons; Pendleton Commandary, Knights Temp lars; and the Tri-City Shrine Club. Mr. Rosewall'i friends re member him as a suave, sophisticated, highly Intelli gent business and political leader who contributed much to the welfare of his city, county, state and nation. MANKIND Divided Into three cIums: those that are Immovable thoM that are movable, and Uiom that move.
