Compiled by Don Hoiness from archived copies of The Bulletin at the Des Chutes Historical Museum.

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 3, 1915

Withycombe inaugurated

James Withycombe, of Corvallis, was this afternoon inaugurated Governor of Oregon. The ceremonies attending his official occupation of the Governor’s chair were simple and impressive.

Highlights in first message of Oregon’s new chief executive

To prove worthy of the confidences reposed in me is my sole desire.

Let the record of this session be one of forward-looking legislation.

A short, sane session, with a few good laws, at this time infinitely preferable to a lengthy assembly, replete with drastic changes and burdened with many enactments carelessly devised.

The principle upon which we should act when state money is concerned is the same as if that money were our own; we should insist upon receiving one hundred cents of value for every dollar expended.

I deem it wise to express the opinion that Oregon’s legislation in the future should be guided by the general rule that centralization is desirable in the administration of state government.

It becomes your duty to provide laws that will effectively prohibit the sale and barter of intoxicants. These enactments must neither be so drastic as to be non-enforceable, nor so lax as to be ineffective.

Therefore, you are earnestly urged to provide the governor with the means of properly enforcing the prohibition laws.

It is generally conceded that agriculture is our basic industry and if we are to realize a truly greater Oregon we must lay the foundation by means of constructive legislation for the agricultural development.

Shevlins buy interest in Deschutes Lumber Co.

One of the biggest timber deals ever known in this section had just been closed in Minneapolis, according to messages received here yesterday. By it, holdings of the Deschutes Lumber Company are transferred to a group of capitalists understood to be headed by the Shevlin timber interests.

Through the timber blocking which was finished last spring the holdings of the company were collected in a compact body and soon it became known that the Weyerhaeusers were considering the purchase of the timber lands. Surveyors representing both parties spent many weeks in cruising the lands and estimating the amount of timber and at one time one of Weyerhaeusers, representing the prospective purchasers, and the Prince Brothers of St. Paul and Minneapolis representing the owners visited here. Although this deal finally fell through it is understood that it had more or less to do with the sale that is now reported in providing accurate estimates of the timber and in other ways.

The chief owners of the Deschutes Lumber Co. are the S.S. Johnson estate of San Francisco, F.M. Prince of Minneapolis, and George H. Prince of St. Paul. John E. Ryan of Bend is associated with them. Mr. Ryan went east a few weeks ago in connection with the sale which is now reported closed.

It is not known just what rearrange of ownership is involved in the present transaction beyond the fact that the Shevlins enter the company. It is believed, however, that the Johnson interest is sold and possibly that of the Princes. No information as to the plans of the new owners is yet available.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 3, 1940

Hitler claims 1940 is Nazis’ decisive year

Fuehrer Adolph Hitler bitterly attacked Jews in a new year proclamation to the national socialist party today and said that since “Jewish reactionary war mongers in capitalist countries want war they shall have it.”

Hitler said that Germany “faces the most decisive year in her history” but, he said, “1940 will bring a decision.”

“Come what may it will be our victory,” he told the party.

“One thing we all recognize”, he said, “is that the Jewish capitalistic world enemy who faces us knows only one aim, namely, to destroy the German people.

“The German people did not want this fight. Until the last minute I tried to offer England our friendship and in addition to that, after Poland’s elimination I was willing to make proposals which would have secured the peace of Europe for a long time.

Hitler also issued a proclamation to the armed forces in which he said that “before us lies the hardest kind of battle for the existence or non-existence of the German people.

In his proclamation to the army Hitler said that “Germany must be victorious” and the message to the party said that “Germany will emerge victorious from the war forced upon her.”

He said that the course of the war has shown that the allies have not dared to attack the west wall and that in engagements thus far German soldiers have proved their traditional skill and courage.

Marshall Hermann Wilhelm Goering, commander in chief of the air force, issued an order of the day in which he said that the “German air force stands on the threshold of a new year in confidence and steady as a rock.

Mavericks’ ball isNew Year’s

The annual Maverick’s ball will hold the center of the festive spotlight in Bend this New Years weekend.

For the 19th year the B.P.O.E. will hold their grand ball. The Maverick’s dance, an old favorite in Bend, will start at midnight Sunday for the invited guests in the Pilot Butte Inn, although 11 o’clock has been set as the time for the guests to arrive.

There will be no dancing in Bend on Sunday.

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 3, 1965

Wallander baby first arrival in New Year here

A young Sisters couple, winner of Bend’s 1965 baby derby, will claim 28 valuable gifts provided by local merchants.

Mr. and Mrs. Dale Wallander are parents of the first infant born this year at St. Charles Memorial Hospital. The 9 pound, 12 ounce boy arrived New Year’s Day at 3:24 a.m.

The baby is the Wallanders’ second child. They have a 13 month old daughter, Shari.

Wallander, 25, is manager of Howard Morgan’s Black Butte Ranch near Sisters. Mrs. Wallander is 23. The couple came to Central Oregon a year and a half ago from Southern California.

Gifts provided by local merchants range from baby food and milk for the infant, to cigars and a sport shirt for the father, housekeeping aids and restaurant meals for the mother, items to ready the family car for a trip and home conveniences for the whole family.

Last year’s winner who will be one year old today is Kip Kiven Schossow. He is the second child of Mr. and Mrs. Larry Schossow, life-long Bend residents, who live at 28 Sullivan Place. “The gifts were wonderful,” Mrs. Schossow said. “We really appreciated them.” She is the former Karen Mastrud.

Top 10 Oregon stories in 1964 are selected

The top 1964 news story in Oregon was the great December flood which caused an estimated $315 million in property damage, destroyed at least 570 homes and claimed 18 lives.

The flood occurred after balloting was completed on an eventful year by newspaper, radio and television editors throughout the state.

Here are the other 10 stories:

1. Oregon primary and Rockefeller victory.

2. General Election.

3. Tidal wave aftermath of Alaska quake.

4. Pulp and Paper Strike.

5. Repeal of death penalty and commutations of three death sentences.

6. Oregon’s booming economy.

7. Quadruplets born in Portland.

8. Seaside riots.

9. Columbia River treaty and President Johnson’s visit.

10. Defeat of State Treasurer Howard Belton and liquor agent raid on election party for treasurer-elect Robert Straub.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Jan. 3, 1990

Top stories of the decade of the 80s

1. Mikhail Gorbachev assumed leadership in the Soviet Union in 1985 with a policy of reform of a faltering communist system. In a series of stunning developments in 1989 he withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan and then stood aside as mass popular movements undercut Communist power in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania and East Germany. Gorbachev even gave tacit approval in November as the incarnation of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall crumbled amid joyous celebrations by East and West Germans.

2. AIDS — acquired immune deficiency syndrome — first made its deadly appearance in the United States.

3. Republican Reagan was elected in 1980 vowing to trim the federal government. He cut taxes sharply and shrank social programs.

4. Drug Addiction and the crime that comes with it rotted the core of America’s inner cities and spread across the landscape. Efforts to halt the flow of cocaine from South America were only marginally successful, and some responsible people debated the legalization of drugs.

5. In the 1980s, the United States launched a reusable spacecraft — the shuttle. But the explosion of the shuttle Challenger shut down the U.S. manned space program for two years. All seven aboard Challenger, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, were killed.

6. Terrorism zeroed in on American targets through the 1980s most agonizingly in Iran, where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days by followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

7. An explosion and fire in a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Soviet Ukraine in 1986 killed 31 people, forced the evacuation of thousands, and spewed radioactive clouds that circled the globe. It was a severe setback to nuclear energy.

8. Communist China liberalized its economic system through the 1980s. In 1989 freedom began to blossom with the spring in Beijing, only to be brutally suppressed when Chinese troops killed hundreds, if not thousands, of protesting students in Tiananmen Square.

9. Lt. Col. Oliver North became a national figure overnight in 1986 when it was learned the United States had sold arms to Iran and used some of the proceeds to supply pro-American guerrillas in Nicaragua. Dramatic congressional hearings and prosecutions attempted to learn who, including President Reagan and Vice President George Bush, knew what and when.

10. Washington, haunted by memories of Vietnam, walked a tightrope all decade long through civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Efforts to support democratic government in El Salvador were embarrassed by right-wing death squads within the military. In leftist Nicaragua, U.S. assistance for the Contra guerrillas wound down as president Bush succeeded Reagan, who had called the Contras the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers.