August 19, 2016 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 5A
A look at life in Seaside after ‘The Great War’
BETWEEN
THE COVERS
ESTHER MOBERG
A
s World War I ended and life
started to return to normal in
Seaside, many changes oc-
curred rapidly. In 1919, The Seaside
Library was housed in the recently
renovated Soldiers and Sailors club
that had been turned back over to
the city for library, public restroom,
and civic meeting use. The city had
added women’s restrooms and made
a nicer meeting place. In 1919 a
collaboration was formed between
the Seaside City Council, Breakwa-
ter Association (men’s civic group),
and the newly formed Women’s
Civic Improvement Club to raise
funds for the restroom and library.
There had already been a ladies
civic group in town but it disbanded
during World War I. Mrs. Hurd, one
of the two vice presidents of the new
Women’s Civic Improvement Club,
was the current mayor’s wife. The
new women’s group began to take
the library in hand and met regularly
to develop the library’s place in the
community. 50 books were donat-
ed to the library from this group
including two boy’s books and a set
of 14 Waverly novels by Sir Walter
Scott. The plan was to continue to
add to this collection throughout the
winter of 1919. Weekly meetings
of the new ladies club, held every
Tuesday at the restrooms and library
or city hall, included everything
from arranging the books in the
library to card parties. In August of
1919 it was mentioned that hundreds
of visitors and locals were visiting
the new restrooms and library and
another place it was mentioned that
5,000 visitors and locals visited in
July alone.
Food socials, bake sales, and
craft fairs were held to raise funds
COURTESY SEASIDE MUSEUM AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Traffi c at the Turnaround by the Prom in the early 1920s.
to keep the library and restrooms
open during the winter time in 1919.
Thanks to a storm during one of the
fundraisers, attendance skyrocketed
and the ladies group had to run to
the grocery store to quickly make
more food. At this particular fund-
raiser they raised $215 dollars. This
doesn’t seem like a lot in today’s
prices until you compare it to a
fundraiser for the fi re department
that same year which raised $150 to
purchase a new fi re truck.
Wild storms in Seaside haven’t
changed much over the past 100
years. High winds in the winter of
1919 took the roofs off buildings and
snapped off trees. One small bridge
was washed away as well, taking
with it 30 feet of the main water pipe
that supplied Seaside with water.
For over 24 hours the city of Seaside
was without water as well as having
their telephone lines down. Logs
that were being held by the Prouty
lumber company on the Necanicum
river (near what is now the current
mill pond park) washed down the
river and nearly out to sea and it was
feared that the Broadway bridge
might be damaged by so many logs in
a jam but the bridge handled the logs
running against it, and lumberman
were able to gather up the majority of
the logs again. In some places water
was four feet deep on the roads. The
winds were estimated to have been
around 80 miles an hour.
During 1919 to 1920 some other
items of signifi cance in Seaside
were proposed that you may have
heard of or remember: The Lewis
and Clark salt cairn was given to the
Oregon Historical Society by Mrs.
Charles Moffi tt. A pier stretching
out into the water from the end of
Broadway was planned. That same
year, Tillamook Head trail was
planned as a driving route starting
in Seaside, going over Tillamook
Head, and ending at Indian Beach. A
road was also created from Thomp-
son Falls Road in Lewis and Clark
to Seaside for the ranchers out in
Lewis and Clark to have access
to the coast. Talks had begun to
build the Young’s Bay Bridge. The
turnaround was also created and the
prom was continually being rebuilt
(the wooden sidewalk would often
need replacing) with more sections
added over time. A ‘competent man’
was hired for the new bureau of
information for visitors during the
three months of summer and this
bureau was located in the library in
addition to the librarian Miss Clara
Gilman who ran the library services
and restrooms. The city and Break-
water club together paid a total of
$150 per month in 1919 for the
Librarian’s salary and maintenance
of the library and restrooms.
On Christmas day 1919, 19
young elk, mostly does, were
brought to the coast from Wallowa
County to add to the native elk in
the area. They arrived by train and
people from Seaside piled on the
train to ride with the elk to their
fi nal destination in Necanicum
valley. At one point prior to 1919,
native elk in Clatsop County had
been driven to near extinction after
the elk were hunted for their horns,
hides, and teeth.
As you can tell, things were
hopping back in 1919 after the
war, and there was much to keep
the good people of Seaside busy,
especially during the summer
months.
LETTERS
Now is time for federal
tsunami funds
With less than 90 days to
go until the planned Seaside
school bond election, it would
seem that Sen. Ron Wyden
should be reporting back
about the amount of funds
the federal government will
provide for relocating Seaside
schools out of the tsunami in-
undation zone.
It was reported that on his
visit several months ago to
Seaside, he was quite vocal
about the federal government
sharing in the funding for this
effort.
It would also seem that if
the federal government po-
nies up a contribution then the
State of Oregon should match
these federal funds. Is this an
input that the voters can ex-
pect to hear from Rep. Deb-
orah Boone and Sen. Betsy
Johnson?
If the feds provide $30
million and the state provides
$30 million in funding, then
local voters might be much
more likely to approve a $40
million bond.
With no information on
federal and state funds that
will be available, it would
seem to be much more dif-
fi cult to secure local voter
bonding approval for the
whole $100 million.
John Dunzer
Seaside
Ferry memories
The Astoria ferry boat
brings back some fond mem-
ories of yesteryear. In 1930
and 1940, my parents would
put my brother Don and I on
a ferry boat in Portland and
send us to Astoria during the
summer (no adult chaperone).
In Astoria, Aunt Wilma,
Uncle Lee and Cousin Carol
Gregory would meet us, and
we would stay with them at
their church, which is now a
bed and breakfast next to the
Masonic Temple.
At least two times each
year (or was it once?), we
were each given 10 cents and
told to walk down to the fer-
ry landing and get on board
and ride over to the Washing-
ton side two times, and then
get off and walk back home.
Seems amazing that children
were allowed to get around
like that, but we even walked
down to the cannery where
my aunt fi lleted fi sh, and she
would give us an eyeball to
play with.
I guess we must have been
a handful, because we were
eventually sent out to the
Schulback farm, where my
grandma was busy raising
a family whose mother had
passed away. We wound up
helping peel chitt em bark and
milking cows.
Mr. Schulback took us to
the steam baths in Uniontown,
and that was a culture shock
for a couple of kids, since no-
body wore clothes.
I can imagine how Joe,
August and Adolph felt about
babysitting two kids, age 6
and 7, but we were put on a
bus and sent back to Reed-
ville, and later on to Vanport.
Bob Cook
Seaside
Trump and Russia
Vladimir Putin gave Don-
ald Trump a nice present when
he released Kremlin-hacked
internal Democratic National
Committee emails, apparently
biased against Bernie Sand-
ers, just at the beginning of the
Democratic convention. The
result was exactly as intend-
ed — disruption and discord
among the Democratic dele-
gates at the convention, ending
in the resignation of the DNC
chairwoman, Debbie Wasser-
man Schultz.
During The Donald’s next
speech he thanked Mr. Putin
profusely for his assistance, as-
serting that this new informa-
tion from Russia will turn the
tide and help him get elected
president of the US. Unfortu-
nately, The Donald’s propen-
sity toward speaking before
thinking took over at that point,
and he then invited his buddy
Putin to hack into U.S. State
Department computers and
locate some other emails that
he thought would help with his
campaign.
Forethought is defi nitely
not one of Mr. Trump’s long
suits, or he would have realized
that inviting a foreign pow-
er, particularly a more or less
unfriendly one, to hack into
our government’s computers
is very close to treason. When
asked early in the primary cam-
paign about Vladimir P., The
Donald said that they “have a
close relationship.” After this
little “error” of judgment in his
speech, in a later interview, he
asserted that he had “never met
the man.” And, he does this
with a straight face.
Would Russia like to see
Trump as president of this
country? You bet. Vladimir is
a product of the Soviet Union,
and he yearns to make Russia
great again (sound familiar?) in
that image, lording the power
of his huge country over his
small neighbors. Trump would
gut NATO, leaving the Baltic
states wide open to Russian
invasion without any real resis-
tance, just like in Ukraine.
If you would like our coun-
try to be a mirror image of
Russia, where there is no free
press, no freedom of speech,
no freedom of assemblage,
no right to address grievances
against the government, where
the working classes live in
extreme poverty and those in
power become extremely rich,
then Donald Trump is your
man.
Rod Dawson
Seaside
BUSINESS
DIRECTORY
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YARD DEBRIS DROP-OFF
(no Scotch Broom)
Registration open now for new Seaside students
Seaside High School an-
nounces registration for stu-
dents who are New-to-Sea-
side School District will take
place Aug. 23-25. Please call
the high school at 503-738-
5586 to schedule an appoint-
ment with the counselors.
New students should bring
a birth certifi cate, immuniza-
tion records, a transcript and
any other documents from
their previous school. Return-
ing students (including incom-
ing freshmen from Broadway
Middle School) register on
Thursday, Aug. 18, seniors,
9-10 a.m.; juniors, 10-11 a.m.;
lunch break; sophomores, noon
to 1 p.m.; freshmen, 1 to 2 p.m.
Registration and enrollment
packets have been mailed.
For additional packets,
stop by the high school of-
fi ce. Students must bring
these completed forms with
them on registration day,
along with the required $25
activities fee. School portraits
will also be taken on registra-
tion day and students should
bring payment for those as
well. All students, includ-
ing seniors, must have their
picture taken, regardless of
whether or not a student is
purchasing a picture pack-
age. New students and fresh-
men begin school on Tuesday,
Sept. 6, for orientation.
Seaside Heights,
Gearhart signup
Seaside Heights Elementary
School registration takes place
Monday, Aug. 22, from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. for students last name
A-L; Tuedsay, Aug. 23, for last
name M-Z. Thursday, Aug. 25,
from 4 to 8 p.m., last names
A-Z may be registered.
Gearhart
Elementary
School registration takes
place Wednesday, Aug. 24,
from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Fri-
day for last name A-L, Aug.
26, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for
students last name M-Z.
Check the school district
website for bus schedules
(one week prior to the start of
school). Wednesday, Sept. 7,
is the fi rst day of school for all
returning students (grades 10-
12). For further information,
503-717-1454
please call the school at 503-
738-5586.
34154 HIGHWAY 26
SEASIDE, OR
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