the sou`wester - Pacific County Historical Society

the sou'wester
Published Quarterly By
The Pacific County Historical Society
State of Washington
Salmon Trap in Columbia
Sidewheeler T .J . Potter in Background
AUTUMN
1971
Volume V I
Number 3
THE SOU'WESTER
A Quarterly Publication of the Pacific County Historical Society, Inc .
Non-profit Organization
A
Subscription Rates $2 .00 Annually - Payable in Advance
Address : P.O . Box 384, Raymond, Washington 98577
Entered as second class matter at the Post Office
of Raymond, Washington 98577
Mrs . Harold C . Dixon, Editor
Mini and Earl Murphy, Make-up Advisors
Raymond Herald Print
MEMBERSHIP SOLICITED
"Any person interested in the history of the Pacific County may be enrolled
as a member of the Society upon receipt by the secreatry of the first payment
of dues ." (1 .00 per calendar year .")
MEMBERS : dues are due if you do not have a 1971 card
OUR AUTUMN MEETING : AN INVITATION
Please save the afternoon of Sunday, October 24, for the Society's Annual
Meeting, to be held on the Long Beach Peninsula . The 1 :30 dinner (optional by reservation) will be followed by election of 1972 officers and reports of the
past year's acrivities . At approximately 2 :30, the program will start, during
which Charles A . Nelson, who was born in Oysterville on August 5, 1883, will
tell of his pioneer experiences . Then a tour of the Peninsula's historic sites is
planned . Watch the newspapers for details .
COMING IN THE NEXT ISSUE
The reminiscences of Dewey DeLong, born in Long Beach May 22, 1898, as
told to his daughter, Frances De Long Muffenbier, includes chapters entitled
"The Baker Family", "Boyhood on Willapa Bay", "The Railroad and
Peninsula Hotels", "Shipwrecks and Salvage", "South Bend", "Early Day
Roads and Cars" --- and many more.
OUR COVER PHOTOGRAPH
This picture, from J. F . Ford's famous collection of photos entitled
"Columbia River Salmon Fishing", and published in Portland in 1902, is the
gift of Miss Siri M . Nelson, who was born in Frankfort, now lives in Raymond .
SPECIAL THANKS
We are grateful to John Feagans (just turned 18, a 1971 graduate of
Bremerton High School and now a Freshman at UW) for reproducing the
photos used with his story "Twin Steamers", this issue . He also furnished us
with reproductions from the Rogers collection which appear in the Gibsons'
Ilwaco Mill history .
42
Twin Steamers
Photo Courtesy of Lucille Wilson, Nahcotta
nstrumental to the development of the Willapa Bay region were the small
passenger craft once common to its waters . In years gone by few roads
penetrated the tall timber, so it was only natural that water transport
would flourish . The steamers and launches were constantly busy with the
commerce of the area, carrying mail on regular routes, delivering farmers'
goods to market, and serving to unite bay communities . There were the
NASELLE, LASSIE, ARTHUR, EDGAR, and many others, but the most
remembered are the twin steamers SHAMROCK and RELIABLE .
The RELIABLE was built during the summer of 1902 and launched on
August 27th of that year by Richard Leathers and the Astoria Iron Works for
Captain A.W . Reed. Reed, a veteran of fifteen years with steamers on Grays
Harbor, saw great opportunities in the adjoining bay, and organized the
Willapa Transportation Company .
A regular schedule was soon instituted, the RELIABLE leaving the city
dock at South Bend about 8 :00 a .m. directly across the bay for Nahcotta,
there making a connection with the narrow-gauge railroad that ran down the
peninsula . Stops were made at Tokeland twice on the round-trip, and in later
years a stop was included at Bay Center as well .
43
Reed acquired the mail contract between the major bay points, the
payment averaging $900 per year to handle them six times weekly . Launches
met the steamer at all stops and served as feeder lines, carrying mail and
passengers to the smaller bay communities .
Although Willapa Bay presented hindrances to navigation, seldom did the
craft miss a run, earning many times over, her name, RELIABLE . The
waters are filled with shoals, nearly half the bay's bottom being exposed at
low water, but numerous deep channels which criss-cross the area make it
easily navigable . Only in cases of minor groundings, becoming lost in the fog,
Photo Courtesy of Lucille Wilson, Nahcotta
or when storms whipped the waters to a fury did she fail to make her appointed rounds .
Regular operations were successful, but the real money-maker was the
excursion business . Excursions were very popular with the public and were
run for a variety of reasons ; to cruise the bay, to visit the beaches or to see a
wreck, or maybe a whale that had drifted in . One of the larger excursions
occurred when the battleships of the Great White Fleet passed off the
Washington coast in June, 1908 .
Sometimes carrying as many as 500 persons in a single day, Reed found it
necessary to purchase another steamer, a former Columbia river boat, the
SHAMROCK . The RELIABLE was 73 feet long and displaced 102 tons loaded,
but while the SHAMROCK was along the same lines, she was 20 tons larger .
Both were propelled by a fore and aft marine compound engine and were
44
I
equipped with a wood-fired Scotch marine boiler . Their modern appliances
included electric light plants and searchlights.
Later, when business required more boats, the launches SHERIDAN and
LASSIE were pressed into service . In 1909 Reed began using a barge with
benches, pushed between the twin steamers to accommodate the large
crowds of Sundays and holidays .
Still patronage increased. Originally the RELIABLE was certified to carry
135 passengers and the SHAMROCK 150, but the steamboat inspectors finally
relented to allow both 160 . Captain Reed claimed that both boats could carry
more, but when one looks at old pictures of the crowds, one wonders where he
could put the extra passengers .
While excursion fares were low, regular charges were quite high for the
era . From either Raymond or South Bend, for example, the fare to Nahcotta
was $1 .25 . To Tokeland the fare was $ .65 or $ .50 from Raymond and South
Bend, respectively .
One rate was a bargain . In 1908 the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co . and
the Willapa Transportation Co . pooled their resources to give a special daily
run from South Bend to Portland . Advertised as the "Inviting, Invigorating,
Indescribable Columbia River Route," the fare was only $4 .25 . The route was
a varied one, requiring changes between two steamers and a train . A twin
steamer left South Bend at 7 : 00 a .m. to connect with the train out of Nahcotta ;
then, at the Columbia river, the train met another steamer for Portland .
Connections were also made with the Northern Pacific railroad trains at
South Bend, allowing passengers on the afternoon trains from inland areas to
reach the beach resorts without delay .
Gradually over the years, improvements were made, allowing the
steamers to make the trip from Nahcotta to South Bend in two hours, including a twelve minute stop at Tokeland . The RELIABLE was converted to
an oil burner, the first such vessel on Willapa Bay to undergo the conversion .
I
Photo Courtesy of Lucille Wilson, Nahcotta
45
Advanced designs of propellers served to increase speeds somewhat .
But their new speed had no match to rival rubber-tired transport . By 1920
roads nearly circled the bay region and the automobile ferry INDEPENDENT ran to Tokeland . Patronage declined to only a fraction of what
it had been because cars were not dependent on tides or schedule of operation .
Their business gone, Captain Reed took first the RELIABLE off the run in
1921, and the SHAMROCK followed in 1923 . Captain Reed went into the towing
business before he retired and passed away in Tacoma in 1935 .
What happened to the twin steamers? The RELIABLE was not side-lined
for long . After a rebuilding, she was relented as a river and harbor
tugboat . The Jones Towboat Co . brought the RELIABLE to the Columbia
River for log towing and later sold her to the Columbia Tugboat Co . who
rebuilt her in 1942 for $75,000 . Finding her way to the Northwest Iron Works,
she was set to work supplying steam to ships in dry-dock for pumping water
and oil . In order to save the expense of a full crew, the steam pipe between her
boiler and engines was disconnected and thereafter she was towed by a Diesel
tug. In the late 1940's she was dismantled and her hull burned on the beat .
The SHAMROCK met nearly the same fate as the RELIABLE . The
SHAMROCK was also converted to a tug . In 1946 her boiler and engines were
removed and the hull sold to the Portland Fish Company who used her for
storage and as a houseboat in Portland . She too was burned on the beat .
With the passing of the twin steamers from the Willapa Bay scene, other
craft took over what remained of the business and held out for a few years .
Today they are all gone .
-0 -
Family Sparks
ersons bearing the name Sparks can be proud that they belong to a
family whit has produced an impressively large number of famous
sons . There have been a few, of course, who have had their shortcomings . Such a one was JOHN SPARKS who was born in 1758 on the South
Branch of the Potomac River and is buried in a small enclosure near the Mt .
Vernon road a short distance from Neward in Licking County, Ohio . In a
History of Licking County, Ohio, published by N .W. Hill in 1 1 (Page 335) we
are told that John Sparks was "one of the `queer' characters around Newark
in an early day ." The author goes on to say that "he was generally seen
barefooted walking along the streets and alleys with a fishing pole on his
shoulder for he was a true disciple of Izaac Walton . He had an overpowering
repugnance to labor and irresistable vagabonding proclivites ." In spite of
these undesirable characteristics, however, John Sparks possessed one claim
for distinction--in 1803, when Pres . Jefferson organized an exploring expedition to cross the Continent, John Sparks joined it and thus became a
member of the Lewis .& Clark Expedition . The purpose of this expedition was
to explore the Louisiana Territory immediately after its purchase from
France . The party started from the vicintity of Saint Louis, Mo ., on 14 May
1804 . They passed up the Missouri River and by late October had traveled
about 1600 miles . They wintered at the camps of the Mandans and Minnetarees in what is now North Dakota, and it was from this point that John
Sparks was sent back to Washington with dispatches . He arrived late in the
summer and was honorable discharged . He never married. He died on 28 Feb.
1846 at the age of 88 .
P
46
The Ilwaco Mill
And Lumber Company
1903-1939
By Ethel and Harley Gibson, Ilwaco
Ilwaco Mill as Seen from the River
lwaco's wealth of early history stimulates research into a variety of topics .
One significant activity was the Ilwaco Mill and Lumber Company located
at the end of First Street beside the dock at Baker's Bay . This enterprise
revolved around the activities of George Colwell, Charles F . Rogers, Ed
Woods and Orin Heath, their employees and their families to 1939, and had
considerable influence upon the community during these years - financially,
economically and socially .
I
According to an advertisement in the South Bend Journal, Dec . 27, 1895,
Llewelyn Colwell and Mary L . Gram were operating the Ilwaco Lumber
Yard . They offered for sale - "spruce lumber especially for boats, planed and
dressed lumber of all kinds . Flooring, ceilings and moldings, pickets, lattices,
and shingles, embossed moldings, Carlmized stone chimneys, fired bricks,
sash and doors - 1000 ft . or more delivered free - orders by mail to receive
prompt attention ."
To find a description of the original property where this enterprise began,
we consulted the Abstract of Title in the custody of Laura Rogers Smith . Here
47
we found reference to a series of Warranty Deeds in which the four children of
Jas . D . Holman (Frederick V ., Geo . F ., Frances A ., and Kate S .) convey to
Mary L . Gram and Llewelyn Colwell (Aug . 13, 1900) ; Llewelyn and Josie
Colwell convey to Geo . L. Colwell (Oct . 6, 1906) ; and George L . Colwell
conveys to Annie A . Rogers, etc . the following described land :
"Beginning at the N .E . corner of Fractional Block 10 in the town of Ilwaco ;
thence West along the South line of Eagle Street, 70 feet ; thence south to what
is known as Holman waterway ; thence East and south along the meander line
of Holman Waterway to where the Easterly line of said Waterway intersects
the West line of First Street ; thence North to the place of beginning . . . . All
being in the Town of Ilwaco, Pacific County, State of Washington, according
to the Plat thereof on record in the office of the Auditor of said County and
State . Lot 4, Section 33, Twp . 10N ., Range 11 West of Willamette Meridian ."
Deeds executed in Alcona County, Michigan, suggest this may have been
the previous location of the Colwell family . Apparently George L . Colwell was
a man of financial means . He married into the Habersham family but did not
become closely associated in local affairs and social activities . He is
remembered as an "old man with a long white beard who used to come to
dinner ." Others remember him as a dignified, efficient individual with a well
trimmed goatee .
Charles Fremont Rogers was born in Wisconsin in 1867 . He married Miss
Annie Chaplin of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan . 23, 1 :•: 7. They came west
bringing baby Margaret to Seatco, a small place in the vicinity of
Chehalis, Washington, where he went to work in a sash and door factory . They
came repeatedly on family outings to North Beach, making the journey by
railroad to Vancouver and Portland, then boarding the T.J . Potter, historic
river steamer from Portland to Ilwaco .
About 1899, Charles Rogers went into business : "Stout and Rogers, Contractors ." With Ollie Stout he built houses in the Stout Subdivision in Seaview .
He found the area so pleasant that he built himself a house at Second and E
Street . It is now occupied by his daughter, Laura Rogers Smith .
Mr. Rogers was quite an individual . He got about early Seaview on a
bicycle looking after his interests and his work building houses . Before the
days of many automobiles, travelling by bicycle was faster and easier than
walking any day .
There are some small houses still standing in Seaview which were built by
Mr . Rogers for rent to summer visitors for three months at a time . Each had
its own pump and outhouse . The cleaning of these houses, painting, making
drapes and repairing was not always a welcome pastime for the womenfolk .
On the ocean ridge between 13th and 14th Blvd . N . in Long Beach stands a
48
The Mill Yard
two story house with a widow's walk at the top . Built by Mr . Rogers, it is
known as the Elizabeth Lambert Wood home . Mrs. Wood was the widow of a
doctor and a writer of children's stories .
Returning to Ilwaco we find Mr . Rogers established in a house on Eagle and
First Streets . This house he bought from Mr . Colwell and remodeled it . It is
now owned and occupied by Dorothy Rogers Holsey, the youngest daughter .
It was in 1903 that Mr . Rogers went into partnership, as sales manager and
carpenter, with George Colwell, Orin Heath, sawyer partner, and Ed Wood,
engineer partner . On Oct . 14, 1903, the new enterprise became the Ilwaco Mill
and Lumber Co . according to incorporation papers notarized by J .J .
Brumbach, a local lawyer and editor of the Ilwaco Advance .
Aug . 16, 1909, Colwell and Rogers bought out Wood and Heath as shown by a
Certificate of Incorporation . Colwell became the silent partner. Rogers
assumed full management of the business .
This new enterprise was a welcome addition to the community . It provided
local employment to as many as 25 men at peak season, but always a dozen
for a working crew . Richard Patana - one of the last surviving employees was boom tender ; Bert Graham, sawyer ; Matt Patana, mill wright ; Chris
Hanselman, planer ; Harry Hurst, carriage man ; Fritz Keiske, edger man ;
Ed Taft, boiler man ; Wolfgang Green, engineer, from 1910-1918 . When
Marshall Rogers Sr . (son) returned from World War I duty he became
engineer for the remainder of the existence of the mill . Bookkeepers from
time to time were : Margaret Rogers who later became Mrs . J .H . Doupe ; J .H .
49
Doupe, formerly of Kernel Department Store ; A .J . Brier and Laura Rogers
(Smith) .
The night watchman was Peter Goldenberg, a colorful individual who was a
general favorite with everyone . From 5 p .m. to 8 a .m. he was required to
make hourly rounds, punching the time clock at each station---his water jug
with leather thongs is still in the possession of the Rogers family . Mr .
Goldenberg had three sons who helped pay their way through Ilwaco High
school by taking the early evening hours of their father's shift, usually the 5 to
10 :30 period. One son, Sam, is now a physician in Olympia .
Richard Patana was the boom tender . He also blasted logs that were too
large and cumbersome for the mill to handle . The carriage would take logs up
to 6 1/4 feet in diameter . Some logs like fir might be 8 or 9 feet in diameter .
These were blasted into halves while still in the water . Mr . Patana would bore
a 3 inch auger hole in the log, place sawdust in the bottom of the hole to keep it
dry, then up to 3 pounds of powder . Clay was packed on top of the powder and
around the fuse . When he lit the fuse and yelled "Fire!" all would run for
safety . The log would split open like a biscuit .
Richard Patana tells us that he worked for Mr . Rogers off and on for 25
years - off at fishing season, on for the rest of the year (with a few lapses) .
The machinery for the mill was accumulated by Mr . Rogers wherever he
could find it - in junk yards and "going out of business" deals - it was then reconditioned and installed in the mill complex by the men .
At first, 12 hours was a day's work . The enterprise saw the 10-hour-day
adopted and finally the 8-hour-day before it was sold to Lester Oakley in 1936 .
Charlie Rogers often commented jokingly : "I am from Ilwaco and I have a
mill down there . There are only about 15 employees but I want to say this : you
had better not be standing in front of the doorway when the whistle blows for
quitting time . They'll run you down for sure ."
Logs were brought in by railroad from Nahcotta after a trip by water
across the bay . The railroad built by Loomis ran down First St . (between the
present N .B . of C . building and Doupe's hardware ; directly to the mill beside
the dock . . ..According to the South Bend Journal of 1906 "a few years ago logs
bought in this section were shipped by rail to a mill in Ilwaco . Logs then were
bringing $3 or $4 per M but in 1913 Portland and Columbia River buyers were
offering $9 per M ."
Arthur Bell, a tug boat captain on the Lower Columbia River, recalls
bringing rafts of logs for the mill and leaving them out near the McGowan
Cannery, where Marshall Rogers would meet them with a small boat and
bring them in over the shallow water . The logs of spruce and fir came from up
river, many from settlers around Deep River . Finnish farmers did their own
50
The Mill Office
logging . Marshall Rogers Jr . remembers riding with his grandfather in an old
Studebaker to look at timber in the Deep River and Grays River area .
Knappton tugs (Knappton Towboat Co ., Arrow Towboat Co .) towed the logs to
the mill .
The Ilwaco Mill and Lumber Company turned out a variety of products,
such as pickets, moldings, telephone poles, cross arms, etc . They made and
sold box shooks, boxes for cranberries, fish and oysters - all made to order of
spruce and hemlock . The mill flourished, for the Peninsula was busy building
the railroad, ties were needed, homes, cottages, hotels were being erected .
The mill needed to be versatile in its output .
A dry kiln was an important part of the complex . It was steam heated .
Slabwood and sawdust were used as fuel in the burner . Much finishing lumber
was dry kilned and made into moldings to order, even matching previous
work done .
Telephone poles and cross arms were made of fir and cedar, 10 inches
square at the base tapering to 6 inches and 30 feet long . Some can still be
found in use - one was recently (1970) replaced near the Sam Dennison home
in Seaview . Rounded pickets, cut in the picket machine of the mill, appeared
often in this area .
Some lumber was shipped to Naselle and Deep River . There were some
good contracts for jetty timbers, expecially on Sand Island . Marshall Rogers
towed rafts of timbers over to Sand Island .
51
Building lumber for the present high school, except flooring, and for the
Ilwaco Presbyterian Church, came from the Ilwaco Mill and Lumber Company .
Customers could bring their own logs - salvaged or otherwise - and have
them cut to specifications on a half and half basis, the mill retaining half as its
share . Stories are told of salvaging along beaches above Megler, inaccessible
except by boat, the logs being cut and fl oated off to the mill at high tide . In this
way a family might obtain lumber for a complete house .
The mill complex consisted of four lumber sheds, two boiler sheds, engine
room, sawmill, planing mill, and a box factory .
Some machines in the mill were powered by electricity but most ran from
the steam boilers fired with sawdust and slabwood . Much work was done by
hand . Lumber and logs were moved by carts pulled or pushed by two or more
men .
The mill was in continuous operation under the same management from
1903 until the death of Charles F . Rogers in 1936 . Small companies were
finding increasing difficulties as near-by sources of timber became depleted .
The good roads (which Mr . Rogers championed) were a factor in the decline,
for trucks could work more efficiently and brought in competition . Large
corporations in Longview (Longbell, Weyerhaeuser, etc .) had bought up
timber holdings making it more difficult for small companies . The loss of the
boss, Charles F . Rogers, was a decisive blow .
After the death of Mr . Rogers the mill was bought and managed, for a brief
period, by a lumber broker from Portland by the name of Lester Oakley . Due
to business conditions at the time, and lack of know-how and capital on the
part of the new owner, the property was returned to Mrs . Rogers about 1938 .
Since most of the machinery had been sold, it was decided to scrap what was
left of the mill . Much of the work of tearing down and clearing the site was
done by the son, Marshall Rogers Sr . Many of the mill timbers became part of
the present Ilwaco Boat Works . Much left over lumber was sold to the people
of the Peninsula .
Charles Fremont Rogers was a civic-minded man . He headed up many
early memorable public activities - Port of Ilwaco, Kiwanis, Chamber of
Commerce . He was town councilman . He was active in the Ilwaco
Presbyterian Church for many years as elder and trustee . He contributed
time, money and materials for the present church structure . Wherever he put
his energies, he did his full share .
Except for daughter Ida Rogers Santo, who lives in Medford, Oregon, the
descendants have remained on the Long Beach Peninsula . Margaret, the
52
A Narrow Gauge Train Served the Mill
eldest daughter, married J .H . Doupe, the present town patriarch, and two
grandsons, Charles and Marshall Doupe, operate the family's store--hardware, furniture, and dry goods . Son Marshall Rogers, Sr . was an Ilwaco
police officer at the time of his death in 1966, his widow, Florence, is employed
in the women's department at Doupe's, while grandson, Marshall Jr ., is an
employee of the P .U .D . who also engages in commercial fishing in season .
Daughter, Laura Rogers Smith, is the bookkeeper at Doupe's . The youngest
daughter, Dorothy Rogers Holsey, worked as a nurse's aide at Ocean Beach
Hospital .
Thus we see how the Rogers Family, in putting down deep roots in this
community, continues to serve through the second generation of descendants
of the pioneers .
Seining on Sand Island : See next page
53
As I Remember Ilwaco
Seining on Sand Island
By M . William Koski, Raymond
ecently a reference to seine fishing on Sand Island caught my eye . Just
for fun I figured to list a few more memories of my "rough-hood" days .
First of all, I was born of Finnish parents in the Territory of
Washington on November 1, 1889 at Ilwaco, and we lived there until I was
about nine years of age and the folks pulled up stakes and moved to Chehalis
County (Grays Harbor now) . We landed in Cosmopolis but later on moved to
Hoquiam where I became a 6th grade drop-out .
But to get back to seine fishing on the Columbia . I was maybe 7 or 8 years of
age when my Dad was hauling salmon from Sand Island to Seaborg's cannery
in a sailboat, a plunger they called it . This boat was a little different than the
regular gillnet boats as it had a squared-off stern, while in those days the
gillnetters were double-enders . In other words, the latter had two pointed
ends, fore and aft (I guess so that no fish could tell whether it was coming or
going) . Whenever Dad was getting his boat loaded, I would sneak over to the
opposite side of the Island to watch the seiners work, and if I was lucky and
before they started hauling in the seine, one of the workers would toss me up
onto the back of one of those big horses while they were bringing the net in
with its load of fish . The workers would then pick out the salmon which would
be tossed into wagon hoppers till full, then hauled to the cannery boat or the
storage area if no boat was available at the loading dock. The scrap fish that
might have come in with the salmon were turned loose before the seine was
strung out again . Or any worker could help himself to any of the scrap, or
even the small salmon if they wished . (I believe that 25c each for the largest
and best fish was the limit paid in those days) . The seining was done on the
Astoria side of Sand Island, and the loading of boats to the cannery was done
on the opposite or Ilwaco side of same . The seining horses were so huge that I
seemed to be a "mile up" from the sand, and they were so broad-backed that
it looked like the only way a kid could fall off would be to do so on purpose.
These particular horses had long hairs on the backs of their legs just above
their hooves, and they were the same type of horses on Grays Harbor hauling
the brewery wagons) . Once in a while after the boat was loaded Dad would
have to hunt all over the Island for me, as I tried to miss a trip back to the
cannery, as it was more fun riding the horses and watching the seiners work
the net ; and, besides, I didn't get to go with him very often, as I had to waste
my time going to school during most of the fishing season .
R
But I guess Dad had his troubles, too, making several trips each day to and
from Seaborg's cannery at Ilwaco and keeping tabs on tides or indications of
approaching storms . The tides were easy to keep track of, but how he could
tell of an approaching storm I'll never know, unless after he got his fish
unloaded at the cannery he would run home, just a short distance away, and
ask Ma if her rheumatism was bothering her . Dad tried to tell me that I was
more trouble to him than any storm on the Columbia River, but I figured he
was trying to fool me, because I wasn't too bad . Oh, I might neglect to bring in
wood for the kitchen stove once in a while, or maybe forget to deliver a pail of
54
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milk to our neighbor, or maybe I couldn't even find the cow in time for the
milking in the first place . But this time when I heard Dad coming from the
other side of the Island bellowing "Villiam" with every other jump, as I tried
to mingle with the seiners pretending to help, until one of the Indians squealed
on me---or it may have been one of the
Finns . Anyway, I hurried out to meet
him and could see he was madder than
two wet hens . He grabbed me by the
back of my shirt and started back
toward the boat in a trot so fast that
only my toes would touch the sand once
in a while, all the time cussing me and
the storm, developing fast, which
would make this the last trip for that
day . I guess the trouble was that I was
too young to understand that whenever
the boat was fully loaded it showed only
a few inches of freeboard, so when the
Bay got rough during a blow the largest
waves would spill into the boat .
Therefore, it wouldn't take a great deal
of water to sink or capsize the craft
with the resulting loss of the boatload of
salmon and maybe the crew as well .
We got to the cannery all right as the
distance between the latter and the
Island was short---maybe a mile or so,
but not nearly so short as Dad's temper .
This particular boat, as well as quite a number of gillnetters that worked
out of Ilwaco, were owned by Seaborg's cannery . In fact, there were very few
privately owned fish boats in those days, either here or in Oregon, and there
were several large canneries strung along on both sides of the Columbia .
Whenever one was working a company boat, that firm would get the catch,
excepting of course that which was dealth with "under the table" . Many
times when some Finns were at our house evenings, I could hear them tell of
some certain party pulling a fast one on the cannery they fished for and laugh
their fool heads off, especially if one or two came with some whishky . If they
didn't bring any, there was always Hayden's Saloon down the road about a
block. The place where we lived was called Hayden's Cove, and across the
road from us was some people by the name of Kola, and us kids used to knock
around together with one of the boys named Otto . And just a little ways from
Kola's was a large sauna bath where all the Finns in that side of Ilwaco would
beat themselves with cedar switches in all that terrific heat till they looked
like boiled lobsters . The sauna bath was the big thing on Saturdays, especially
when the men had booze along . Then you could hear them raising cain over
most of the town . The sauna had certain rooms for entire familes, and for
women, and many a time we went for our bath when Ma would go into the
steam room with a nursing baby in her arms, so I guess it must have been o .k.
as it didn't hurt us any . The place we lived in was right at the bottom of a hill,
on which was the Presbyterian church, and it was up behind it that we kids
used to go and smoke cigarettes .
55
I'll never forget the first time I smoked a cigarette, which was up behind
that same church . There were four of us, two brothers named Saari, Irvin
was one of them, and he and I used to run around together, but I don't recall
the other's name . Brother Walter was a couple years younger than I and was
the third one, and then me . One of us bought a package of "Plum" tobacco,
fine cut, and some cigarette papers . We found a nice soft place in a bed of wild
violets where we rolled and smoked most of that package of "Plum", when
we decided to go home "before someone comes hunting for us", as we had
been there nearly the entire afternoon . Not one of us four got sick, but I would
have given a lot to have had pictures of us all trying to walk . None of us could
stand on our feet---just staggered around and then fell down, and laughing like
the fools we were . We were getting scared, as we knew what we'd get if we
were caught in such a condition . So we threw away everything and just sat
there trying to figure out what to do . Every once in a while we would try to walk
without falling down until gradually it began to wear off . Then, after we
figured we could make it, we headed for home . We weren't too sure yet,
either, as there wasn't a road up to that church, merely a set of stairs or steps
built into the hillside from the road to said violet bed, which was on a flat . So
after swearing the Saari brothers to secrecy we beat it for home . The twin
Saari kids lived further along the road leading to Seaborg's Cannery, but up
on a hillside that was called "Messhouse Hill", and still further up that hill
was the messhouse where they fed the cannery workers during the fishing
season . Then back along the top of this hill was "Chinatown" and was where
the Chinese lived while employed by the cannery . They lived in the largest of
several houses in a group ; it was two stories high . From their house to the
cannery was maybe half mile or so, and they had to walk along a single board
walk about afoot wide, so they would go in single file dressed in their Chinese
clothes with their hands and most of their arms tucked in opposite sleeves .
And as they went to work before we had to go to school and didn't finish for the
day until we got out, we would, weather permitting, squat up on higher
ground to watch them mincing along single file and "kiyiing", all of them at
the same time . They all had "pigtails" and those funny shoes, if one could call
them shoes, which they changed at their jobs . Quite a few of them would coil
their pigtails around their heads so they looked like some women . And as far
as we kids knew, there were no women in the bunch, and they were mostly big
fellows .
When the canning season ended at Ilwaco, all the Chinese would leave, and
be right back when the season opened again . After the Chinamen left us kids
would prowl through the houses where they had lived, hoping to find a fortune
hid away in some nook or cranny, but the most we ever did find was a lot of
Fantan cards and brass Chinese money--round with small square holes in
`em, and those Chinese nuts, I guess-rough roundish like shell which was very
thin, and inside was stuck one seed, or pit, around which was some kind of
gummy junk ; tasting of them, I for one couldn't blame them for not taking
them when they left. The houses the Chinese lived in were never locked as
they took their belongings with them when they moved out . But whether they
kept their doors locked while working the season, we didn't know . Anyway,
they were so tough-looking that nobody ever bothered them because we all
knew that "Knives" were the Chinamen's game . All one had to do was watch
those bruisers clean salmon! They would never miss . (When the day came
that a machine was developed which could clean fish, successfully, they
named it, most aptly "The Chinaman ."
56
In addition to gillnetters and seiners during this period, they also had
fishtraps (They've been outlawed for years) . These traps were all fixed gear
of larger twine than the gillnet, and were about four-inch mesh and the web
treated with boiling coal tar . This web was strung from many piling to form a
"lead" and the "pot" . The "lead" was strung on many piling which later
were driven "crosswise" of the river current in one straight line and would
connect with the "pot" . (This trap was not permited to extend beyond fixed
limits from shore because of river traffic) . This "lead" (prounounced leed) is
exactly what the word implies . Its purpose was to lead the salmon into the
trap, or pot, from which the fish had no chance to escape excepting by accident. The pot was made of the same tarred web with four sides and fixed to
four corner piling, while a web was fixed to the bottom on all four sides of the
pot . The lead was "fitted" as near as possible to the contour of the river
bottom between the inshore end of said lead and the pot . In this pot there was
a fairly small hole, or opening, near the mean highwater mark, and from the
bottom of this opening is a tunnel affair of web coursing downward to the
bottom of the lead webbing and tied thereto . Therefore, when a fish comes up
to this lead, he always heads for deeper water, and in so doing said fish will
follow that lead until it comes to that tunnel-like affair, which it follows up the
slope to the opening in the pot and into the trap . As this pot is webbed on four
sides and the bottom, the salmon tend to go deeper when in trouble, that fish
will not be able to find its way back out of the trap even though the dumbhead
"left the door open when he came in" .
Once in a while my Dad would work at trapping for the cannery in addition
to sailing the plunger between Seaborgs and Sand Island . The boat they used
trap fishing was different than the gillnetters, as it was flat-bottomed, about
six feet or so wide, and maybe eighteen feet long, or thereabouts . The craft
was tarred completely inside and out, and was used mainly for "lifting
traps" . I made a few trips when they "lifted" but didn't care much for it, as I
always got soaking wet from the splashing salmon . During the off-season, the
flat boats were used repairing the web and other maintenance . There were
generally two men lifting the trap into which they would enter by dropping
part of the web at a fixed point, just enough so the boat could be floated in .
Once inside, the men would pick up the bottom web at one side of the pot and
start moving the boat sideways to herd the salmon to the opposite side, where
they would more or less pile up on that
side. The men would then drape the web
over several wooden pegs on the boat
rail, grab a couple gaff hooks, and start
heaving those fish into the boat faster
than anyone could count them accurately. All the scrap fish, and. the
undersized salmon, were let go back into
the river, or some might be kept and
taken home for free. If they made a good
haul with the "lift" they would have to
knock some of the larger ones on the
head and stun them so the (fish!)
wouldn't flop overboard while on the
way to the cannery . The reason I got so
~
~
wet was because those two "gaffers"
delighted in heaving the fish where there
57
was always more or less water and slime, which would start flying when the
first salmon landed---and got worse as the fish piled up . But the men with the
gaffs had no worries, as they wore oilskins and gum boots, and my Dad got as
much fun out of it as the others .
When that boatload got to the cannery, they loaded the fish into wooden
hampers which were winched up and dumped onto the floor from where a
couple of men would "feed" the table at which the Chinamen worked . They
worked at one long table that had chutes through which all the waste was
dropped into the bay . The first man would slice off the head and fins, pass it to
the next one, who slit the fish open and removed the insides, and slid the
remains to the third man, who finished cleaning and washing same, which
was then sent down the table to several workers, who cut up the salmon and
stuffed it into tin cans .
In those days all of the waste was dumped into the bay, but as the cannery
was built on piling in deep water, only a small amount of that waste would
reach shore . And then only because of a storm, and usually just the fish
heads . In warm weather, those heads would begin to "ripen", but they
wouldn't be there long, because the Indians got them . I never could figure out
why, as fresh ones were at the cannery for free . I do recall the Finns getting
eggs and heads while they were canning, but my Dad would only get choice
heads for a "mulligan" that only he and Ma would eat . I wasn't too "finical"
when a kid, as we would catch a lot of bullheads, small trout, and crawfish,
then make a "mulligan" over a beach fire, bury a spud or two in the ashes to
bake and have us a "ball". But when Ma and Dad were cooking those salmon
heads in a large kettle, I didn't like the idea of several fish eyes, as large as
hen eggs, staring at me after they were well cooked .
Many times during the canning season our gang would go under the cannery . Where the waste came down, the water would be "boiling" with
suckers, tomcods, flounders, trout and perch, in addition to other specie of
which we cared nothing . I would begin bailing those fish into our boat while
the others would sort out the ones we wanted anti heave the rest of `em back
into the bay. Suckers (chubs) was what we got the most of, and then tomcods-that we preferred as they were practically boneless, a few trout and perch .
And while the bucket we bailed with had some big holes in the bottom and
sides, we would always get more or less water in with the fish, so before we
got to the point where we'd need to bail out the boat, we had plenty of eating,
of which tomcods were the best .
One day, after we had been under the cannery as usual, we tied up our boat
on shore, and on our way through the driftwood we run across a cat with
several kittens . We played with them, even though they didn't have their eyes
open yet . After a bit, we got to wondering if they could swim, even thought
that maybe they could swim better than they could walk, as they were falling
over every few steps . So we took a couple of them and waded out in the water
nearly to our knees and put them on the water . Sure enough, those two kittens
could swim as though raised in it . We picked them up again and headed
towards deep water, but the little buggers turned around, heading for shore
again . We turned them toward deep water again, and again they turned
around and headed for shore. We didn't think that was any fun, so we took
them back to their mother, who began licking the dirty water off of them .
58
As we neared home with our fish, we bumped into a couple of neighbor girls
who were playing house, and we were showing them our fish when my pal (? )
was telling the girls, who were both a little younger, about taking the kittens
out for a swim . They told us in no uncertain terms what a dirty bunch we
were, and one of them picked up a small coffee pot and because I was the
nearest to her, she slammed me across my face with it and split my upper lip
wide open . I got out of there in a hurry, blood running down my shirt front on
the outside, and with my mouth filling up with in on the inside . However, as
there were no doctors in town (but a horse doctor) Ma patched me up, and one
good job she did, too (as the scar resulting from a woman's wrath is barely
visible now---but as I have remained a bachelor all these years, I have since
wondered idly if that aggressive girl didn't knock something out of me when
she whaled me with that coffee pot) .
-0-
Kipling's
Canneries on the Columbia
(Continued from Back Cover)
Only Chinamen were employed on the work, and they looked like bloodsmeared yellow devils as they crossed the rifts of sunlight that lay upon the
floor .
When our consignment arrived, the rough wooden boxes broke of themselves as they were dumped down under a jet of water, and the salmon burst
out in a stream of quicksilver.
A Chinaman jerked up a twenty-pounder, beheaded and detailed it with two
swift strokes of a knife, flicked out its internal arrangements with a third, and
cast it into a blood-dyed tank . The headless fish leaped from under his hands
as though they were facing a rapid . Other Chinamen pulled them from a vat
and thrust them under a thing like a chaff-cutter, which, descending, hewed
them into unseemly red gobbets fit for the can .
More Chinamen, with yellow, crooked fingers, jammed the stuff into the
cans, which slid down some marvellous machine forthwith, soldering their
own tops as they passed . Each can was hastily tested for flaws, and then sunk
with a hundred companions into a vat of boiling water, there to be half cooked
for a few minutes . The cans bulged slightly after the operation, and were
therefore slidden along by the trolleyful to men with needles and solderingirons who vented them and soldered the aperture . Except for the label, the
"Finest Columbia Salmon" were ready for the market .
I was impressed not so much with the speed of the manufacture as the
character of the factory . Inside, on a floor nintey by forty, the most civilized
and murderous of machinery . Outside, three footsteps, the thick-growing
pines and the immense solitude of the hills . Our steamer only stayed twenty
minutes at that place, but I counted two hundred and forty finished cans made
from the catch of the previous night ere I left the slippery, bloodstained,
scale-spangled, oily floors and the offal-smeared Chinamen . . .
59
Fish
Canneries
on
the
Columbia
By Rudyard Kipling (1865 -1936 )
(In 1889, the year that "Bill" Koski was born
and Washington became a State, Kipling,
returning to England from India by way of the
United States, wrote letters to his friends .
These were later published as AMERICAN
NOTES . We now print excerpts from one of
these letters---see SOU'WESTER for Summer,
1969 for the episode entitled "Landing A Salmon
with Rod & Reel") .
We returned from the Dalles to Portland by
the way he had come, the steamer stopping en
route to pick up a night's catch of one of the
salmon wheels on the river, and to deliver it at
a cannery down-stream .
When the proprietor of the wheel announced
that his take was two thousand two hundred and
thirty pounds weight of fish, "and not a heavy
catch neither" I thought he lied. But he sent the
boxes aboard, and I counted the salmon by the
hundred--huge fifty-pounders, and a host of
smaller fish . They were all Chenook salmon, as
distinguished from the "steel head" and the
"silverside" . That is to say, they were royal
salmon, and California and I dropped a tear
over them, as monarchs they deserved a
better fate ; but the lust of slaughter entered
into our souls, and we talked fish and forgot the
mountain scenery that had so moved us a day
before .
The steamer halted at a rude wooden
warehouse built on piles in a lonely reach of the
river, and sent in the fish . I followed them up a
scale-strewn, fishy incline that led to the
cannery . The crazy building was quivering with
the machinery on its floors, and a glittering
bank of tin scraps twenty feet high showed
where the waste was thrown after the cans had
been punched .
Continued inside Back Cover