Vernonia, Columbia County, Oregon
Volume 23 Number 11 •
Grade Quintet
Takes Second
At Hill Sat.
Loggers meet Medford Today
Construction THOSE WHO
Of New Line ARE IN IT
Now Possible
Overtime Point by
Westport Defeats
Timber Toppers
Scoring on a foul throw during
overtime playoff of a tie defeated
the Washington Timber Toppers
Saturday night at Hill Military
Academy’s grade school basket
ball tournament held March 9th
and 10th. The Topper’s schedule
was such that they played only
one game Friday and three Sat
urday, the last being for the
championship.
Washington led Westport by
two points almost to the final
gun when a high pass accidently
swished the net to tie the teams.
The fowl throw during overtime
won the game for Westport.
An all-star team selected by
referees and coaches listed Bob
by Ray unanimously for guard
position. He was also high-point
man of the tournament.
Box score for the champion
ship game is:
18 Westport
Vernonia 17
4 DeGandi
Bass 0
F
4 Eilertson
Shepard 2
F
3 Martin
Hershey 5
C
6 Twom
Ray 10
G
1 Sutfin
Riggins 0
G
0 Jackson
Roberts 0
S
County
News
MAYOR URGES
WAR HONOR ROLL
ST. HELENS — A war honor
roll and memorial to contain the
names of all St. Helens and trade
area men and women in the
armed services, and all of those
from Columbia county, if pos
sible, has been proposed by May
or R. W. Simeral to the St. Hel
ens city council.
Mayor Simeral’s
suggestions
received favorable comment by
other council members, and if
public support is assured it is ex
pected that the project will get
underway soon.
SOAP FACTORY
CLOSED BY DRAFT
RAINIER — Rainier Soap fac
tory shipped a carload of soap
to the army this week and has
closed down due to probable
drafting of Kenneth Huyke, pro
prietor.
DISTRICT TEAMS
ARE DEFEATED
CLATSKANIE — Coach Geo.
Sindberg took off his overcoat,
the first time this year at a
game and it was a championship
affair too, and the C.H.S. Tigers
went to work on Dayton high
Tuesday night and won the first
leg of the three game series 37-
22.
Dayton had won the “B” title
for Yamhill, Multnomah, Clack
amas, Polk and Marion counties
and Clatskanie had the Colum
bia, Clatsop, Washington and
Tillamook title under its belt.
15 Named to
Roll oi Honor
The compiling of grade records
at the end of the last six-week’s
period at the high school lists
15 students as receiving honor
roll mention. These students are:
Seniors—Delores Bergstrom,
Phyllis Bonislaw, Tommie Lou
Holcomb, Glenn Justice, Shirley
Ray and Marvin Turner; Jun
iors—La Rue
Moon;
Soph
omores—Miriam Corll, Dorothy
De Hart. Cora Dusenberry, Elna
Morris and Mildred Wolff; Fresh
men—Joyce New, Phyllis Scott
and Florence Tisdale.
SIGN ERECTED
A new neon sign was erected
Tuesday for the garage to be
opened in the Early building on
Bridge Street. Greenwood Motors
will be the business name of the
concern.
Thursday, March 15, 1945
ENLISTS IN WACS
When war workers are too busy to go to the clinic, the clinic comes
to them. Mobile chest X-ray units visit Industrial plants tor mass X-
raying of workers. By means of the X-ray tuberculosis can be discovered
In Its early stages when no symptoms are evident However, before
symptoms appear the health of the Individual can be wrecked and the
health of his fellow workers endangered. Christmas Seal funds finance
mass X-ray surveys.
Red Cross Subscriptions
Near $2,000 Point Here
Contributions to the Red Cross
from this area have reached
$1,830.90 as of Tuesday of this
week but solicitatiops are con
tinuing and it is expected that
the amount will exceed this fig
ure before the drive ends. Mrs.
Harry Culbertson, local chairman
of the campaign, identified the
amount as being only that for
Vernonia and the rural area sur
rounding and not for other parts
of the Nehalem Valley.
Not included is the amount of
$223 from Natal Grange auction
and amounts from Mist, Birken-
feld, Wilark and Pittsburg. Mist
residents will enjoy a pie social,
auction sale and program this Sat
urday night, funds from the af
fair to be turned over to the
Red Cross.
Indications are that more care-
Army Reopens
ASTP Program
The secretary of war has an
nounced that enrollments for the
army specialized training reserve
program, which were closed as of
December 31, 1944, will be re
opened.
A qualifying test will be ad
ministered in the Vernonia high
school on April 12. Wallace Mc
Crae, local high school principal,
has accepted the appointment of
the army service forces as super
visor of this qualifying test. Mr.
McCrae announces that young
men whose 17th birthday falls
between October 1, 1944 and
August 31, 1945 are eligible to
take the test provided they meet
the education and citizenship re
quirements.
All eligible young men, either
in or out of school, are urged to
notify the supervisor immediately
if they wish to take the test.
Thp A.S.T.P. program is an
army college training program
and is being reopened by the war
department because it realizes
the importance of a college ed
ucation for our young men, both
in war and in peace, and urges
all eligible young men to avail
themselves of this excellent op
portunity.
ful soliciting is being carried ojt
in some areas than has been
true previously. One lady, when
asked for help, said that this was
the first time her district had
been canvassed for the
Red
Cross since 1918.
Children's Clinic
Planned Friday
A children’s clinic for the ex
amination of speech, hearing and
sight defects is planned for Fri
day, March 16th at the Wash
ington grade school at which
time children from Nehalem Val
ley schools will receive attention
The children to * be examined
have been designated by Miss
Ruth Peffiey, county health
nurse, who has determined these
defects. Three state education de
partment specialists, one for each
type of defect, are to be present
to make thorough examinations
which will require about 30 min
utes for each child.
The educatioal welfare of the
children will be benefited due
to knowledge to be gained from
the examinations which will give
teachers recommendations as to
the methods of aiding handi
capped children with their lessons
and will also make recommenda
tions to parents on proper meth
ods of treatment.
Specialists attending will be:
Dr. Leon Lassers, speech cor
rection; Ethel Neste 11 Fortner,
supervisor of education of the
visually handicapped; and John
E. Taylor, supervisor of educa
tion of the deaf and hard-of-hear
ing.
ELECTED PRESIDENT
Joy Willard, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Michael B. Williard,
was elected president of Sigma
Kappa sorority this week on
the University of Oregon campus.
She will assume her duties at
the spring term.
West Oregon Electric direct
ors met Tuesday evening here to
hear a report that sufficient ani
mal units, as required by the
war production board, are avail
able to make possible electric
line construction between Pitts
burg and Mist. That section does
not now have electric service
but will have as soon as the con
struction can be completed.
The animal unit requirement
has been established by the WPB
to control the construction of
new transmission lines in farm
ing areas. A survey of the Pitts
burg-Mist area has been made
by REA which determined that
sufficient units were in evidence
to receive a WPB okeh for ma
terials for the construction.
R. L. Adams, temporarily
hired several months ago by the
West Oregon directors to con
struct new lines in the district,
has received notice to report for
duty in the armed services Mon
day. The directors agreed at
their Tuesday evening meeting
to retain J. W. Nichols as man
ager of the cooperative.
New Magazine
Started Here
Many people in this area and
other parts of Columbia county
have received the first copy of
a new magazine which is being
started here by C. Collins Gup-
till. The magazine entitled “The
Dual Shorthorn” deals with cattle
raising and will be devoted to
advancement of that industry
in this area.
The first issue, which includes
12 pages of news and advertising
was mailed last week and will
continue to be mailed every two
months. Mr. Guptill is editor and
publisher of the magazine.
Sewing Postponed
Red Cross sewing has been
postponed until the first of April,
Mrs. Harry Culbertson announc
es this week, and will not be held
Friday at the high school as us
ual. Vernonia has completed 75
kit bags, the recent Red Cross
sewing project.
Brother Freed from Jap
Prison Internment
Mrs. Walter Olinger has re
ceived word of the liberation of
her brother, J. R. Blalock, from
Los Banos camp in the Philippine
Islands in a message relayed to
her from her father, R. Y. Bla
Groundwork for the starting lock, Concord, Calif. A personal
of a ladies auxiliary of the Vet letter shows he is at Montinglupa,
erans of Foreign Wars will be Rizal, and is in good physical
started this Sunday, March 18th, condition. He was bom and
when Mrs. Erickson, past dis raised in Oregon and went to
trict president of the auxiliary, China as a missionary in Jan
uary 1937, leaving China for
will be here to speak.
This meeting is called for 3 Manila when the war started. He
p.m. at the V.F.W. hall at Second states in a message which was
Street and Bridge and women dated Feb. 24th:
“God has surely cared for me.
interested in belonging are asked
to be present then. Only qual O how true are His promises. I
ifications are that those wish have spent almost a year at Los
ing to* belong must be 16 years Banos. There I enjoyed health
of age or older, and be related and strength and even during the
to a service man who has par months of starvation and death,
ticipated in foreign service, such by doing work on the wood cut
as being his mother, wife, sis ting crew, received more rations,
ter, etc. Those ladies who join thus keeping more fit than most.
“By now you will long have
at the time the unit is organized
known of our rescue by the U.S.
will become charter members.
V.F.W. Post to
Sponsor Auxiliary
Nichols Hired to
Replace Adams as
REA Coop Manager
forces, an event the like of which
is probably unprecedented in his
tory. Suffice it to say I was
among them. We were really at
wits end, starving, while our soon
massacre was undoubtedly being
planned by the Japanese. Yes
terday morning I felt especially
moved to prayer and before day
light was on my knees, not in
petition, but thanking God that
aid was at hand, though I knew
not how. At daybreak while cook
ing my meager lot of unhusked
rice, out of the sky fell the para
troopers. Bullets sped wildly thru
our flimsy barracks, and amid
spreading flames we were ordered
to pack our valuables and leave.
There at the edge of the camp
the astounding amphibian tanks
met us for women and children.
Among many others I walked to
the Laguna de Bay where we al
so were ferried down the lake
arriving at our present refuge in
the evening.”
Mildred Enneberg, Mist, is the
latest Columbia county resident
to enlist in the woman’s army
corps to serve with the army
medical department, it is an
nounced by WAC recruiting
headquarters, 614 S. W. 11th
Ave., Portland.
Pvt. Enneberg was graduated
from Vernonia high school and
attended La Sierra College be
fore enlisting in the WAC.
She has selected Letterman
General Hospital, San Francisco,
for assignment after she has
completed her basic training and
hospital training, at Fort Ogle
thorpe, Ga.
Pvt. Enneberg enlisted in the
WAC in answer to an appeal for
additional women from Columbia
county to help fill medical pla
toons to serve in army general
hospitals.
MORE LETTERS RECEIVED
The Vernonia Service club is
still receiving letters from those
who are in the service thank
ing the club for its Christmas
gift remembrances. Recent let
ters of "thanks” have been re
ceived from Cpl. Veldon Parker
w<ho is in Italy and who also
sends his regards to Vernonia
people; Ens. Jack Olin;
Pvt.
Ralph McDonald who is driving
a truck in France; and from
Percy Bergerson, merchant mar
ine who was glad to be included
on the club’s list of service meh.
Club members have been re
quested by Mrs. D. E. Ostlund,
chairman of the Columbia county
Camp and Hospital Service com
mittee, for a lamp or game table
for the sun room at Barnes Gen
eral hospital. She also mentions
that carpenter tools are still be
ing requested by hospitalized ser
vice men at Astoria.
ADVANCED
Robert Bodell has received an
advancement in rating his par
ents, Mr. and Mrs. Glen Bodell
learned this week. Bob has been
stepped up from S2c to Sic. His
parents also learned that he is
now in the hospital at Seattle
following injury while stationed
in the Aleutians. Anyone wish
ing to write him should send
their letters to: Sic R. G. Bodell,
U.S. Naval Hospital Ward 25,
Seattle, Wash.
IN TEXAS
T. Sgt. Elmer Michener is
now stationed at Camp Maxey,
Texas, his parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Otto Michener have learned.
AWARDED AIR MEDAL
Staff Sergeant Paul A. Gray,
20, of Clatskanie has been a-
warded the Air Medal “for mer
itorious achievement while par
ticipating in aerial flight”. Waist
gunner on a I Sth air force flying
fortress, he is a member of the
oldest heavy bombardment group
in the Mediterranean theatre of
operations.
Sergeant Gray, a graduate of
Vernonia high school, was em
ployed by Clark and Wilson be
fore he enlisted in the air forces
on July 4, 1942. Later he at
tended the aerial gunnery school
at Laredo, Texas where he won
his gunner’s wings.
The organization to which he
has been assigned
has flown
more than 400 combat missions,
bombing enemy installations in
almost every Axis-dominated sec
tion of Europe, from bases in
England, North Africa, Russia
and Italy.
He flew his first high altitude
bombing mission with the 8th
air force in England on August
4 when the forts attacked
Schwerin, Germany. Since then
he has successfully flown six
combat missions.
More
“Those
Who,”
page
6
Vernonia Team
Makes First
Tourney Visit
Tournament Play
Write« Finis for Six
In School Athletics
Coach Orile Robbins and his
ten-man state tournament squad
leave Vernonia at noon today
for Salem where tonight at 7:30
they meet the highly favored
Medford Pearpickers. This is the
first visit of a Vernonia high
school basketball team to the
state tournament in the 26 years
that' Willamette University has
sponsored this annual state-wide
classic.
Six Play Last Games
The state meet will mark the
final appearance in a Vernonia
uniform for the six senior mem
bers of the squad. They are Jack
Nance and Freddie Larson, the
back court specialists; Dan Rol
lins and Ralph Sturdevant, who
man the front line with Duke
Byers, sophomore star; and Mar
vin Turner and Duane Lane re
serve forward and guard respec
tively. The remaining four mem
bers of the squad who will form
the backbone of next year’s team
are Jack Riley, pinchhitting jun
ior forward, and three soph
omore«, Duke Byers, starting for
ward, and Don Parker and Owen
East, youthful reserves at center
and guard.
The prep classic will be noth
ing new to coach Orile Robbing,
dean of state tournament coaches,
who is making his third visit in
quest of the state’s highest pren
basketball honors. He piloted
Amity high teams to Salem in
1937 and 1938. Manager Bobby
New will accompany the team in
his usual capacity.
Loggers Meet Medford First
First round games pit Washing
ton high of Pcrtland against Eu
gene Axemen at 3:00 o’clock;
Newberg against Baker at 4:00
o’clock; Vernonia against Med
ford’s block tornado at 7:30 and
conclude at 8:45 with the Hills
boro Spartans opposing the Ore
gon City Pioneers. The outconie
of these games will determine the
Friday and Saturday games lead
ing to the championship finals
Saturday night.
In winning the right to repre
sent Districts No. 13 and 14, the
Loggers won the local district by
-defeating the defending champion
St. Helens Lions in a spirited
district race beginning January
5. The Gresham Gophers were
then eliminated from the path
to Salem in a hotly contested
inter-district playoff by winning
two games out of three.
A large following of local fans
is accompanying the team to
Salem despite the warnings from
the tournament management of
housing and ticket shortages.
Lots Purchased
For Building
A new owner for the vacant
lots at Second and Bridge Streets
is announced this week after
the purchase was completed Mon
day at St. Helens by Jewett A.
Bush. The lots have been vacant
for many years following de
struction by fire of the buildings
formerly located there and for
the past year or so have been
used as storage for the collection
of scrap iron.
Present plans are to build a
modern fireproof building on the
location to provide space for a
furniture store and probably two
other smaller businesses.
Mr. Bush, in announcing his
purchase, stated he believed there
was a good future for Vernonia
and that business men should be
more active in furthering their
own interest by the organization
of a commercial club.