Page 16
The INDEPENDENT, December 6, 2000
Remembering.. .
By Robb Wilson
In my last column, I wrote
about the telephone service
that was established here in
Vernonia at the turn of the cen
tury. One of my readers,
Charles Comstock, who loves
to share historical stuff, wrote
to me soon after that article ap
peared, with the following.
Comstock lived with his fam
ily at Keasey, where his father
managed the power house,
and he remembers that his
family had the convenience of
a telephone in their house from
1931 to 1941. Many homes in
and around Vernonia did not
have telephones. Most of the
phones were at business loca
tions and their use was for
commercial purposes, not so
cial or talking to friends. The
phone line for the power plant
was shared with phones at
Camp McGregor, the railroad
depot at Keasey and, of
course, was connected to
“Central” at the office in Ver
nonia. This line was estab
lished originally as a telegraph
line and was used to secure
track clearance for the log
trains and speeders using the
railroad. According to Com
stock, the phone service was
the ultimate party line, reaching
one’s party by turning the crank
on the side of the phone. Their
signal was a long and a short
ring; camp McGregor was two
long rings; the Depot, three
rings; the operator in Vernonia,
-who could connect them to
the outside world-was reached
with one long ring. How times
have changed.
Comstock also wonders if
the old Vernonia phone prefix
"Hazel 9” might have been in
stituted for Hazel Malmsted,
the daughter of Franklin and
Bessie Malmsten. Franklin was
the gentleman who brought the
first telephone service (Swede
line) to Vernonia.
Another topic I want to touch
on is a few members of the
community who have recently
passed away. The first I’d like
to mention is one of Vernonia’s
“Oldtimers,” Tom Graves. He
first came to Vernonia as a lad
riding on a bicycle. His family
was living in Monmouth, where
his mother was attending Nor
mal School. His father came to
Vernonia in 1922 and secured
a job at the new mill. It was a
summer day when Tom and his
brother decided to visit their
“Pop,” so they left early in the
morning and made their way
north from Monmouth on most
ly dirt roads. There was no
pavement then. Some roads
were gravel, but most threw up
clouds of dust. By night fall,
they had reached the settle
ment of Glenwood, on the Wil
son River south of the railroad
town of Timber, where the
weary bike riders bought some
eats at the store and slept
soundly. They continued the
next morning and arrived in
Vernonia to the whistles and
hustle and bustle of this busy
and exciting new place. The
only road to Vernonia then,
from the south, was the road
Tom loved old time equip
from Forest Grove to Timber
ment. He was partial to steam
and on to Vernonia town.
Tom’s mother, Mabie, soon
powered machinery and boats
came to Vernonia to join the and was involved in establish
ing the park where the Shay
family and teach school. Many
folks in the area remember her engine rests. He and many oth
as their teacher. Tom lived and er old timers created that park
grew up here and spent time in the early 1960s as a memo
during the summers doing var rial for Vernonia and its past.
ious odd jobs at the mill. He He was not comfortable with
graduated from Vernonia High the way the city had recently
School in 1929, then went to removed the small engines,
work, full time, at the mill, oper tractors, mill stones, wood
ating one of the monorail cars wagon, Indian canoe and other
that moved lumber from site to items on display that he and
site in the mill yard. He left Ver other Vernonians had placed
nonia during World War II to there for future generations to
work in Portland at the Kaiser see, learn from and enjoy.
Another fellow I had the
shipyards. After that, he
worked on the Columbia River pleasure of knowing was John
for Willamette Tug & Barge as Ricker, who was a historian in
a captain on a dredge barge for his own right. John was an avid
collector and had a museum of
35 years.
Graves came back to Ver his own, with a collection of
nonia to live in the late 1990s, chainsaws that is unsurpassed.
as he was always fond of his He was an importer and dealer
of Swedish chain saws and re
childhood town.
I got to know Tom and ally knew their history and how
gleaned much historical infor they developed.
Dick Hunteman was a col
mation from him about life in
Vernonia during the 1920s and lector of early radios and elec
30s. He had a good memory of tronics, as well as clocks and
the “old days.” He used to tell anything else he could get his
me on every visit that, when he hands on. I got to know him in
was growing up, Vernonia only the 1970s when CB radios
had one cop and only needed were the craze. His knowledge
one cop! One person at City of early electronics and love of
Hall was all that was needed to things old was really some
do the paper work, send out thing. He was very interesting
the water bills and record the to visit with and his home was
minutes at the courts and City like a museum with many dif
ferent things to learn about.
Council meetings.
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Last, but not least, is my fa
ther, who recently passed on to
a better place. Wilbur, known to
most as “Bill” came to Vernonia
after serving in World War II.
He was raised in small rural
communities in Texas and was
one of the last from the horse
and wagon and steam train
days. He thought Vernonia was
a very modern place with elec
tricity, indoor plumbing and
such.
He told many stories about
growing up in rural Texas,
where horses and wagons out
numbered Model T’s and the
railroad was the lifeblood...and
only link to the outside world.
But the most notable thing he
talked about was how hot
Texas was. During the summer
in Vernonia he would sit out
side every evening and, when
he got cool, would heave a big
sigh and say, “This is wonder
ful. I need to go in now. It’s get
ting cool. This sure isn’t like
Texas, where if it’s 99 degrees
during the day, it’s still 99 de
grees at night.” How he loved
Vernonia and its mild climate.
He never had a desire to go
back to Texas at all, but was
still a Texan, through and
through.
Dad was involved in many
civic activities and was one of
founders of the annual
Friendship Jamboree. He an
nounced many of the parades,
identifying participants to the
crowd and judges through the
1960s.
He came to Vernonia in
1947 as assistant bank manag
er for the newly established
bank. Vernonia had been with
out a bank since the depres
sion! Bill then went to work for
West Oregon Electric Co-op as
office manager in 1953 and
worked there until his retire
ment in 1986. Most people re
member him as Mr. Informa
tion, as that is where the Visi
tors Information Center for our
town was for many years. He
was also projectionist for the
Joy Theatre from 1965 to 1986,
something he had done as a
teenager in Texas.
th e
All these fellows had much
to contribute to history and
keeping memories of the past
alive. They all will surely be
missed.
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