Old Time Notes from The Beacon

130 Years Ago Nov. 1, 1890

• The Gualala mill, says the Record, holds onto the even tenor of its way. It employs winter and summer, year out and year in, about forty men in the mill and one hundred and fifty in the woods. The Company uses two ox teams of 12 yoke each. It is quite a sight to see these long rows of giant animals so skillfully handled by their drivers. The mill cuts about 37 thousand feet a day.

• The work of building the new bridge over the Navarro River has already begun. It will span the river just above the engine and tool house that stand immediately east of the north end of the old bridge. The southern approach will pass over almost the center of the old mill site. The north approach will be above the railroad.

• The new mill at Usal will be 200 x 280 feet and will be furnished with two band saws. Its sawing capacity will be over 100,000 feet of lumber per day.

• The largest potato dug so far from the thirty-third successive annual crop of Wm. Heeser on his ranch adjacent to Mendocino, weighs four pounds and three ounces.

105 Years Ago Oct. 30, 1915

• Peter Sansi andMiss Mary Baird, both residents of Albion, were made man and wife by Justice of the Peace W. T. Wallace in this place last Saturday.

• The Fort Bragg hospital building is to be thrown open for the inspection of the public on Thursday afternoon and evening. The new institution is thoroughly modern and up-to- date in every particular and was erected and furnished at a cost of $26,000. The coast has now a hospital that will compare favorably with any similar institution in the state.

• In an automobile accident which occurred near Salmon Creek last Monday, Andrew Branstrom of Elk, who was driving the car, was thrown out of the machine and badly injured, being rendered unconscious for several hours. Emil Smith was also hurt, being thrown under the car.

• John E. Triguerio of the Mendocino Drug Company had a narrow escape from death last Saturday morning when his clothing was caught by the revolving shaft of a gasoline engine. His garments were stripped from him, both bones in his left arm broken, and he was badly bruised and shaken up.

75 Years Ago Oct. 27, 1945

• Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Matson returned to Elk on Wednesday evening, where they will make their future home. They have been living in Berkeley during the war, where Melvin has been working in a shipyard.

• Sgt. Miles Paoli arrived in Mendocino Wednesday from the Pacific Theatre of Operations, where he has been stationed for some time.

• Tentative plans call for an end of shoe rationing either Sunday or next

Thursday, it was learned this week.

• Emery Escola has been given an honorable discharge from the service after a period of four years, most of the time being stationed in the Hawaiian Islands. Emery advanced to the rank of staff sergeant during his period of service.

• Harold Reep has returned from the European sector and is now home with an honorable discharge from the service in his possession. Harold Reep fans are going to miss the interesting letters, written by this young man, which have appeared regularly in the local paper since he was sent overseas.

• Pfc JohnMorris is again a civilian after three years of service in the Army Air Forces. His last duty station was Pinecastle Army Airfield in Florida.

55 Years Ago Oct. 29, 1965

• Miss Caroldean Creath was crowned Homecoming Queen for 65-66 at coronation ceremonies last Saturday night during the Homecoming dance at Mendocino high school gymnasium.

• An even 100 persons, members and guests, were present to enjoy the Mendocino Study Club Husbands’ Night dinner and program on Friday evening at PrestonHall. Hostess chairman Alma Mendosa and her committee, Isabel Sandbothe, Marie Ferrill, Betty Thompson, Mary Graves and Linda Peck, received many compliments for their masterly handling of arrangements and decorations.

• Death— October 10th claimed an outstanding business man of Crescent City and Del Norte County in the person of Eustace Griffin. Mr. Griffin was born at Mendocino 94 years ago and spent his boyhood and received his early day educational training here. And Griffin’s pond, fed by high tide waters of Mendocino Bay, was where many a Mendocino youth learned to take the first strokes in the art of swimming. It is just south of the big blowhole that enveloped in time of earlyday storm a schooner which broke in half and was swallowed up there. Mr. Griffin’s early day home was the present site of the Harry Docker home near what was the site of our first and only tannery which we believe was operated by his father.

30 Years Ago Oct. 25, 1990

• The year 1989-1990 was the year to be in Germany, and Mendocino High School’s Zachary Yarnes was there. An exchange student from June 1989 to June 1990, Yarnes spent his junior year as a student at Pascal Gymnasium, the equivalent of a high school in Grevenbroich, Germany. Yarnes lived in Munchrath, a village of 400 people located two hours east of Berlin. “It was definitely the year to be in Germany. The BerlinWall opened and the Germans won the World Cup soccer championship.” For about $3, Yarnes bought a piece of the BerlinWall from an East German man.