Compiled by Don Hoiness from archived copies of The Bulletin at Deschutes County Historical Society.

100 Years ago

For the week ending

Oct. 7, 1917

Kenwood chickens become victims of youthful fishermen

Suppose you wanted chicken for dinner. Did you ever consider the possibilities of “fishing” for them?

Mike Kasprowitz, over in Kenwood, believes his neighbor’s children are very expert in this line, so expert in fact, that he took his complaint to Judge Ellis yesterday afternoon in hopes of finding some means of stopping the clandestine activities of the youngsters next door who are menacing the only two chickens of his flock of eight which had not yet fallen into their snare.

According to Kasprowitz, he moved in six weeks ago with eight biddies which he duly installed in the back yard. Since that time they have gradually disappeared, leaving no trace of their whereabouts except the agonizing squawks which heralded their arrival on the other side of the fence.

The complainant did a little Sherlocking on his own account and soon discovered that the children in the next house had rigged up a fishing line which they baited with meat and hung over the fence. When the unsuspecting chick nibbled the tempting morsel, the fisherman gave a jerk and landed the drumsticks for dinner.

Kasprowitz now feels abused. According to his own words, he wants it stopped so his family can live in “peace and harmonies.”

Offer reward for deserters

Every man who failed to report to his local draft board for military service when notified to do so is listed in the army draft records as a deserter. A reward of $50 in cash will be paid for the delivery of any such deserter to the nearest army camp or post.

Notification of this reward and instructions to begin at once a statewide hunt to round up slackers of this type have been received by the Adjutant General from the Provost Marshall General in Washington.

The instructions emphasize that the reward will be paid over upon delivery of the deserter, regardless of whether he is able to prove later that his failure to report was not willful. The $50 is to include expenses incurred in the delivery.

“If, after such persons are brought to a military authority,” say the instructions on this point. “If it appears to the military authority that their delinquency is not willful, they will be forwarded to a mobilization camp and their local board will be given credit.

“If it appears that the delinquency was willful, they will be prosecuted before court martial as deserters.

“In either case the reward is payable.”

75 Years ago

For the week ending

Oct. 7, 1942

Navy will use 
mountain lodge

The immediate occupation of Timberline Lodge, Ore. by the navy as a recuperative center for naval officers was disclosed today, following a conference in Seattle where an agreement was reached between the 13th naval district headquarters and officials of the lodge.

The lodge will be one of several centers maintained by the navy which previously have been found highly successful in restoring officers to sound health, it was announced.

Navy officers will be the only guests and most of them, it was stated, will be from the north Pacific region.

Reward

There is reason to believe that scrap material turned in for patriotic purposes is being stolen from the assembly point on Bond Street. The Bulletin will pay a reward of $10 for the arrest and conviction of any person stealing scrap from the assembly pile.

Germans first if food short, Goering told

Occupied countries facing the most terrible winter of modern times knew today by official pronouncement that they would be left to starve if that is necessary to feed Germans.

Hermann Goering, Nazi No. 2, said in a harvest thanksgiving speech in Berlin yesterday :

“I am very much in favor that the peoples of territories placed under our care and conquered should not suffer hunger. But if difficulties should arise by measures of the enemy than all shall know: If there is hunger — on no account will it be in Germany.

“From now on it must be an unshakable fact that the German workman and those (foreigners) working in Germany are to be supplied the best of all with food.”

Germany already had been taking all the food it could get from occupied countries and it had been making merciless demands on its satellites, including Italy, for more.

50 Years ago

For the week ending

Oct. 7, 1967

For a reminder (editorial)

A new book on the Tillamook Burn of 1933 appeared on the desk a few days ago. “Epitaph for Giants” it was named. Written by J. Larry Kemp, it was published by Portland’s Touchstone Press.

The original Tillamook Burn, and subsequent fires in 1939 and 1945, were the most costly in the nation’s history from the standpoint of timber destroyed. Kemp wrote the story well, and wrapped it around a number of excellent photographs.

The book arrived a few days before a Coast trip was on the agenda. The Bulletin rented a car at Hillsboro, Ore. and drove through two edges of the burn. His trip took him from Hillsboro to the Coast over the Sunset Highway, and back to Hillsboro from Tillamook. It was the first time he had driven over either road since 1941.

Signs of the old fires still are visible. In some areas re-vegetation has been slow, particularly on south-facing slopes where moisture conditions are less favorable. There are spotted erosion washes. Snags — small ones for the most part — still stick up through the undergrowth.

But 20 years of salvage logging, during and after World War II for the most part, have seen most of the snags fall. And 22 years of natural reseeding have done much. Reseeding by men, some of them prisoners from the Oregon State Penitentiary, has filled in most of the rest of the gaps. The logging truck and tractor came into their own on the Burn; early snags were salvageable.

Now the alder and Douglas fir predominate once more. Everything from wild blackberries to hemlock and spruce compete vigorously. Tillamook and Washington counties — almost bankrupt by the Burn — are healthy and prosperous once more.

But for a remainder of how things once were, take a look at Kemp’s book. There still are fire experts who believe it could happen again.

Lesson from storm (editorial)

Here’s one of the reasons The Bulletin favors the burial of power and telephone lines. There were over 50 calls received by the Bend Police Department about downed power and telephone lines after the powerful windstorm Monday night with the losses amplified. Hundreds of trees and poles were blown down. There was no need for these calls if lines were underground.

25 Years ago

For the week ending

Oct. 7, 1992

Just another 
Saturday night dance

Outside the moon is full. Inside, lights are low, and the saxophones of Vernie Olson and Don Clark weave through a Texas swing classic, caressing the choruses in perfect 1-3 harmony.

Couples whirl across the hardwood with grace and an occasional giggle. It’s the second Saturday of the month. It’s time for the Eastern Star Grange dance.

There are three wood stoves in this high-ceiling, 75-year-old building. The building was chartered on March 16, 1912 — back when Bend was part of Crook County.

In the dining room, a wood cook stove has been fired up, but only for heat. Electric ranges, dating from 1936, have baked the cakes and brewed the coffee.

Dining tables are spread with red-and-white tablecloths and walls are decorated with Saturday Evening Post covers. But not even Norman Rockwell could create an image of homespun Americana as welcoming and as finely detailed as this one.

“It’s a place where people feel comfortable,” says longtime grange member Helen Rastavich. “We always get the nice crowd.”

Granges began in 1867, when individual farmers (who at that time accounted for 80 percent of U.S. population) formed cooperatives to deal with wildly unpredictable market conditions. The National Grange chartered hundreds of local granges.

Grangers, also called “patrons of husbandry,” met in grange halls. They talked business. They held dances and potluck dinners. They had political clout.

More than a century later, economic conditions in farming are still wildly unpredictable but everything else is different. Farmers now account for less than three percent of the population. National grange membership, once more than a million, has been cut to about 300,000. What remains of farmings political clout, has, like a lot of farm people, gone to the big city.

The grange halls, fortunately, survived (most of them — Deschutes County once had eight and now has five) and the members still have meetings, potlucks and dances.

Eastern Star is typical in that very few of its members are real farmers, but all shared what one woman called “a country outlook on things.” With a stable membership of about 150, Eastern Star Grange is unusual. And fortunate — they own their own building.

Say … isn’t this weekend the second Saturday of the month?