As told by, Wayne D. Leathers
At the advent of the automobile there were fewer and fewer stages and more Auto's traveling.
There were no gas stations so people carried gas with them. Well, it seems that a drummer who spent the night with the
Leathers left behind a part of a jug of gasoline. Ma tipped it over and spilled some on the porch seeing right
off that it would be very useful as a cleaner but smelled a bit strong. Still, she found the ideal place to use it;
she scrubbed down the inside of the outhouse - cleaned it good too! The strong odor also did its job.
Just as she finished, Grandad, with his newspaper and pipe in his mouth, settled down in the cleanest privy in town.
BOOM! And there was only smoke and dust where once was the family privy. Grandpa was sitting in the brush, pipe stem in his
mouth, whiskers and hair smoldering and smoking but still holding what was left of his paper.
I asked him what had happened? Shaking the cobwebs out of his head, he answered, "I don't know." "I started to light my pipe -
must of been something I et." End!
Photo, ya think?
Nov. 1900
R.D. Larson, stage driver on the Ontario and Burns stage line, has recently had some queer
experiences with a strange wild animal that haunts the road at an isolated point 30 miles
between stations. The animal has the form of a man but the head of a cow. It comes down
near the road and stands quietly as the vehicles pass.
The driver has seen the creature several times and had passengers on the stage, to
verify the report. The animal does not seem to be frightened by the presence of human
beings, but on the other hand has a curiosity to investigate them. He makes no sound and
has never been seen in the night.
Larson has pledged to capture the thing the next time it shows up. It is supoosed, it is a ruse
of some kind, but some agitation is being felt. It shows itself in the neighborhood of former stage hold-ups, and is
in the vicinity of where Indians in former days did some of their worst work.
Although the strange thing frequently comes within 100 feet of the road in broad daylight, Larson is
unable to say whether or not it is clothed.
Dear Son,
I'm writting this slow cause I know that you can't read fast. We don't live where we did
when you left. Your mom read in the paper where most accidents happen with-in twenty miles
of the home so we moved. I won't be able to send you the address as the last Oregon family
that lived here took the numbers with them for their next house so they wouldn't have to
change their address.
This place has a washing machine. The first day your mom put four shirts in it, pulled the chain
and haven't seen them since. It only rained twice this week, three days the first time and four days the
second time.
The coat you wanted me to send you, your Aunt Sue said it would be a little too heavy to send in the mail
with them heavy buttons, so we cut them off and put them in the pockets.
I have a great new job. I have over 500 men under me. I am cutting grass at the cemetary.
About your sister - she had a baby this morning. I haven't found out whether it is a boy or a girl, so I don't
know if you are an Aunt or a Uncle.
Your Uncle John fell in the whiskey vat. Some men tried to pull him out, but he fought them off .... playfully
.... so he drowned. We cremated him .... he burned for three days.
Three of your friends went off the bridge in a pickup. One was driving, the other two were in the back. The
driver got out. He rolled the window down and swam to safty. The other two drowned. They couldn't get the
tailgate down.
Not much more news this time, nothing much has happened. Write more often.
Love Dad.
P.S.
Was going to send you some money but the envelope was already sealed.
Hugh Williams, The Inevitable -- An exchange says: "In the year 1664, on the
5th of December, a boat crossing the Menai Straits, with eighty-one passengers, was
upset and only one of the passengers, a man named Hugh Williams was saved. On the
same day, in the year 1785, another boat was upset containing about sixty passengers
and every person perished with the exception of one, whose name was Hugh Williams: and on the 5th of August,
1820, a third met the same disaster, but the passengers of this were no more than twenty-five; and singular
to relato, the whole perished with the exception of one, whose name was Hugh Williams."
Sept. 19, 1879
Tapeworm - A few days ago Doctors Logan and Richardson of The Dalles succeeded in taking from
Mr. Parkhurst of Antelope, a tapeworm sixteen feet long and about one-half inch wide. He had
carried this fellow in his stomach for about ten years, and at times suffered a great deal of pain
resulting from its presence. The gentleman is now improving rapidly and is feeling like a new man.
June 18, 1900
A board was removed from the flue of the Delbert Nichoson house by Chuck Crawford, when he tore the house down
to build an addition onto his existing house. There was writing on the board and read as follows: "To whome
soever finds this, This is June 18th, 1900. The countyseat was won by this town by ballot the 4 day of this
month, my bussiness here to day is flue building, I am a masson. We have had several days of rainy weather
and the sky is very cloudy today, crops are looking fine fruit prospects are good. Good bye friend. I may have
been burried a century when you find this. I am 47 years old have lived near here 18 yrs."
It is displayed at the Fossil Museum, in Wheeler County, Oregon.
Taken from the book "Modern Black Smithing, 1904
* Don't lose your temper. Don't hit your horse with the hammer.
* Don't smoke while shoeing. Don't imbibe in the shop.
* Be always polite. Keep posted on everything belonging to your trade.
Read much. Drink little. Take a bath once a week. Dress well. This done, the
craft will be elevated and the man respected.
1895 - The Dalles Chronicle
Clarence Cole, member of the legislature from Multnomah county, and one of the two of its representatives
who refused to support Dolph, has brought suit against the Oregonian for $45,000, alleging that his reputation
has been damaged in that amount. The fact that Cole was a member of the Oregon legislature will make it difficult
to establish the fact that there was anything that could be said beyond the mere statement of the fact that would
injure his character. However, the Oregonian should have profited by our advice, and in its sweeping assertions
modified its language. "Stinkard" is a rude, vulgar word, and our big contemporary should have used "stenchard."
Nov. 1900
Young-TenToes, 13th assistant secretary of the Muskrat department in Chief Howlish Wampo's jurisdiction of Umitilla
Reservation. He came in a light truck, and his load was a neat casket enclosed in a plain box.
His journey was at the request of Columbia Dick, a brother red man, and they and two other Columbia's started for
the Blue Mountains, a days journey to bring back the body of Wah-pee-tah, (which means bell of the BlueJays), a young
woman who mem-a-loosed at the Camas camp last summer.
She will be re-interred among the rocks and sage brush along the Columbia, and the journey from her first grave to her second
will cover a distance of 110 miles.
In explaining the woman's death the Indians seem to think that it was caused by the over exertion in trying hard to breathe.
Old time, true home remedy, that is not recommended. To cure a chest cold: wear a flannel shirt with turpentine and lard
on it - all winter.
A place called Rowena Dell near Mosier in Wasco County was so infested with
rattlesnakes that exasperated pioneers fenced it and filled it with hogs. The hogs ate
the snakes and the place became known as Hog Canyon.
