100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Nov. 2, 1924

Wrongly Addressed Voter’s Pamphlets Can’t Be Delivered

Voter’s pamphlets numbering over 600, mailed to Bend people by the secretary of state, but not deliverable because of improper addresses, were placed in a large basket in the local postoffice today for general distribution by Postmaster J.J. Hogan.

With the general election only one week away, Postmaster Hogan was faced with the problem of sending the pamphlets back to Secretary of State Kozer or delivering them here. It is obvious, according to Hogan, that the revised list of voter’s was not used by the office of the secretary of state when the pamphlets were mailed out.

Many of the voters to whom the pamphlets were addressed have moved out of Bend, it has been ascertained by employees of the local postoffice. Also, in cases where people have moved in the past few years, pamphlets have been mailed to them to their former addresses, as well as their new.

Patrons of the postoffice made a marked inroad into the basket of pamphlets today, and it is estimated that nearly one-half of the 600 had been taken early this afternoon.

Plan Roundup To Buy Pump

To raise funds for the purchase of pumping equipment such as the forest service uses for fighting fire in the forest, the people of Sisters are planning to hold a roundup at Sisters on Sunday, November 9.

A bucking contest, bull and calf riding, saddle horse and novelty races and other features which go to make up the usual “wild west” show, are being arranged, and since the Sisters country boasts a number of good buckaroos and also some hard bucking horses, the show is expected to be a good one.

Among the races will be a wardrobe race, cigarette race, a novelty race and one for ladies with their saddle horses.

Purchase of the fire fighting equipment is being considered as a result of Sisters’ recent fire in which a large part of the business district was destroyed.

Masquerade Costumes at Annual Ball To Be Most Brilliant Ever

Masquerade costumes worn at tonight’s annual Hallowe’en ball given by the Library club at the school gymnasium, will be more attractive and original than they have ever been in the past, and character costumes will be more generally worked than ever before, judging from the preparations which have been going on in local homes for the last week.

Decoration of the auditorium has been completed by a committee under the direction of Miss Helen Johns. Refreshments will be served, it is announced, this part of the entertainment being in charge of Mrs. H.J. Overturf.

Mrs. J.F. Arnold has had charge of securing special entertainment. Music for the dancing will be furnished by Hosmer’s orchestra. All dancers must wear masks, the central committee, headed by Mrs. R.S. Dart announces. They will not be required to have fancy costumes. It is predicted that both the dancing floor and the galleries will be filled to capacity tonight.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Nov. 2, 1949

Bend Neewollah paraders Win Prize Awards

Ghosts, goblins, spooks, devils, bats, walking pumpkins, witches on brooms- even a headless man- appeared in downtown Bend last night, as children participated in a Neewollah parade sponsored by the American Legion and Auxiliary. Besides the traditional Hallowe’en figures there were many other colorful character portrayals, including pioneers, gold miners and pirates. Large crowds witnessed the parade.

The parade formed in front of the county courthouse, and at 6:57 p.m., three-minutes ahead of schedule, the line of marchers started to move down Wall street. When the last section of the parade was swinging into line from the starting point, the head was nearing the high school gymnasium.

Bend high school majorettes, in masks led the parade, with the high school band following. As the parade ended, the entire group packed into the gymnasium, where candied apples were distributed and prize winners were selected by the judges.

Trick or Treat Group Motorized For Efficiency

Even trick-or-treaters are now motorized.

Last night, a motorized unit of some two dozen high school youngsters covered the region east of Bend in a farm truck, equipped with spotlights. The truck stopped at the various ranch homes, which were spotlighted by the driver as the youngsters made their peaceful demands. It is believed that the motorized unit was en route to some Hallowe’en party in the neighborhood and gathered “plunder” en route. No vandalism was reported from the farm neighborhood.

Interest Shown Here in Little Theater Setup

The first step in forming a Little Theater for Bend and vicinity was taken last night when an enthusiastic group met in the commission room of the city hall. The meeting was called by Wayne Hamilton, city recreation director, in response to the public interest shown in this movement.

Various aspects of amateur theatricals were discussed by those present. A resolution was passed to form a Little Theater group and elect a president, vice-president, secretary, and executive committee at the next meeting.

It was pointed out that there are many duties involved in producing a play besides those of the actors. Make-up artists, stage hands, scenery painters, lighting experts, directors, producers, and property personnel all are needed for production.

Wayne Hamilton, who called the meeting, said “such a large interest on the part of those desiring a Little Theater in Bend and vicinity assures me that it can and will become a reality.”

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Nov. 2, 1974

Cosmic Cowboys’ restoring old Sisters Hotel

A group of ten young Portland businessmen is renovating the historic Sisters Hotel. The group under a general partnership registered as the “Cosmic Cowboys”, was brought together by Stan Garside, 30, formerly of Lake Oswego, now of Sisters. “We’re restoring it as antique, inside and out,” Garside said. “The remodeling is underway right now.”

The Cosmic Cowboys will use the hotel as their own private retreat this winter. Then by next spring, the hotel will be ready for renting out to groups, Garside said. Antique furniture, some of which was included in the purchase of the hotel, will decorate the 10 rooms upstairs. Old fashioned wallpaper, potbellied stoves and brass beds with quilt bedcovers round out the decor.

But modern conveniences are part of the plan, too. There will be a sundeck on the roof, a whirlpool bath, sauna, and a banquet room with a bar. A stereo sound system and screening room for films also is being installed.

When the hotel is ready for renting out, a four wheel drive vehicle also will be provided for the guests’ use, Garside said. There will be a workshop for guests and members of the partnership to work on their skis or motorcycles.

The group bought the hotel and its adjoining antique shop from Mrs. Gertrude Smalley, Sisters. According to Phillip Hitchcock, longtime Sisters resident, the adjoining shop was built in 1908 and was the first hotel in Sisters. (The ship has been leased out by the partnership.) The main building was constructed in 1914.

Hitchcock says his late aunt, Mrs. John W. Dennis, told him that her husband built the hotel “with poker winnings — a good share of it with a marked deck.” There was always a poker game going somewhere in Sisters, which had about the same population then as it does today — about 600.

A well-to-do Englishman, sent to America by his family in England, provided most of the cash to build the hotel, Hitchcock said.

“It just never occurred to the Englishman that a gentleman would cheat at cards,” Hitchcock said his aunt reported. Hitchcock’s aunt and uncle ran the hotel for years, and Mrs. Dennis “set the best table in Central Oregon,” Hitchcock said. As a young man, Hitchcock lived at the hotel while he worked in the woods during the 1920’s.

The hotel is one of the few remaining authentically antique buildings in Sisters, Hitchcock said.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

Nov. 2, 1999

The Woman on Wall Street

Marjorie Smith is the closest thing Bend has to royalty. In fact, if you are looking for the most native Bendite around, all trails would lead you straight to Miss. Smith. First qualification for most native status: you’ve got to be born in Bend. And of course she was, but then so were a lot of folks. Smith does them all one better. She was the first baby born in the first hospital in Bend. The hospital building is long gone, retired to a farm in Alfalfa, but Smith is still around living in the same apartment she was raised in above the Wall Street storefront where her folks ran Bend’s first hardware store.

That automatically qualifies her for the second test in the most-native contest: That you’ve lived your life here.

The third test — that your family figures prominently in the creation legend of Bend — is the one that really sets Smith apart. Most of the entrants in the most —native contest had parents who worked at one of the mills or ran a long-since defunct restaurant. Nothing is so tenuous in smith’s family history.

Her dad actually built the long-gone wall that gave Wall Street its name. Shoot, the he built Wall street too, yanking all the tree stumps out of the right of way, back when this century was brand new. He built the city’s first sidewalk too, and he made sure his wife was the first person to walk down it.

Yep, Marjorie Smith’s been part of Bend for a long time. Long enough that she herself figures in the life histories of many younger native Bendites.

“I know the boss over at The Bulletin all right,” she said, referring to Betsy McCool, chairwoman of the newspaper. “I taught her in my fifth-grade class. I’ve got the class pictures still. I remember Betsy. She had those great big horn rimmed glasses. She must have contacts now, doesn’t she? She was a skinny little girl. She should be, after all, I haven’t changed a bit.”

And talking to her, you get the feeling Smith probably hasn’t changed much since retiring from a career as an elementary school teacher at Pilot Butte Elementary. She won’t give her age, on grounds that ladies just don’t, but it’s a safe bet that she’s older than the 1958 Chevy she cruises around town in.

“I remember most all my kids,” she said, sitting in the living room of the apartment her father built in 1909. Her parents died in 1955 just five days apart. Since then, Smith has had the 8-room home all to herself. Her two brothers, now deceased, lived elsewhere. “I’d like to have a reunion with my kids. There would be about 600. Course there isn’t room up here for all of them.”

“Up here,” is upstairs from the Blue Teal clothing shop on Wall Street, the only original wooden building left downtown. All of the other original wood framed shops burned in a fire in 1914.

“When all of them were burning, mother took all the blankets off the beds and wet them down and hung them on the sides of the building. The firemen kept them wet. Time it was all done, this was the only thing standing,” Smith remembered.

The hardware store was a good thing to save, for a town that needed rebuilding from the scorched ground on up. The new buildings were made of fire-resistant brick, and it’s a safe bet that Marjorie’s father, N.P. Smith, and his store sold plenty of hinges, cast iron stoves, paint, pails, mops and saws to his fellow shopkeeper.

“Downtown was so different back then,” Smith said. “I’d look out this window, out over Wall Street, and there was nothing but empty lots. I wish the city would trim their trees from in front of my window. They block my view now. There used to be a bakery across the street, and a grocery store. A meat market right next door. Everything you needed was right downtown then.”

“I get lost here now. I know right where I am and then I end up in one of those subdivisions that I’ve never seen before,” she said, but added that she isn’t totally opposed to growth. “I just don’t understand where 50,000 people work.”

Saying goodbye at her front door, Smith said, “You tell your boss that her old teacher says ‘hi’.”