Roy Hadley to manage Lumberjacks baseball in 1923

Investigator comes to Eureka to look into allegations of widespread drug use

“Your city has been grossly libeled.”

This statement by T. J. McInerney, operative of the narcotic squad of the State Board of Pharmacy, led off a top-of-thefold article in the March 9, 1923 Humboldt Standard newspaper. He was referring to an article that ran in a San Francisco newspaper earlier in the month warning of Eureka's “fearful conditions” and stating that “there were more than 200 drug addicts (in the area).”

McInerney went on to say in the paper, “(The article) was one of the most glaring pieces of exaggeration that I have ever seen. It was that same story that brought me here two weeks ago to investigate and to break up the drug ring that was reported to exist here. When I alighted from the train here, I expected to find drug addicts and peddlers — I know both at a glance — standing on every corner where the bright lights glow every night.

“Instead of 200 drug addicts, you have exactly six, and these six have quit the use of drugs,” McInerney said of his findings after investigating the downtown area. “You had three peddlers and of those, one is in jail serving a sentence of 180 days, another has gone out of business here and has left the city and the other I expect to soon be behind bars.”

The front page of that same day's newspaper also reported on the death of Humboldt County pioneer Clara McGeorge Shields of Eureka. She died at age 68 from the flu.

“In clubdom and in civic affairs, Mrs. Shields had been one of the leaders,” the Standard said. “She was a former president of the Wednesday Club, president of the County Federation of Women's Clubs and an honored member of the Order of Eastern Star.”

The newspaper also said she'd written several books of poetry and was a frequent contributor to the Humboldt Standard, as well as a former editorial staff member of the Humboldt Times newspaper.

On March 10, 1923, the Humboldt Standard reported that Roy Hadley, star pitcher of the Scotia Club in the previous season, had been named manager of the Lumberjacks baseball team for the 1923 season, filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of T. C. Petersen. The paper stated that Hadley had recently left for San Francisco, where he planned to line up a number of “stellar players” for his team.

“Under his leadership, the Scotia team should be a strong one as Hadley is well-liked throughout the county and is a thorough student of the game,” the Humboldt Standard said.

The March 10 newspaper also noted the death of former Eureka resident William McLeod McKay in Berkeley.

“Many Eurekans will remember Professor McKay as the man who in 1895 organized the Eureka High School and became its first principal,” the Humboldt Standard said.

The “electrification of the Pacific Lumber Company's woods,” which had been rumored for more than a year, was at last going to become a reality, according to the March 11, 1923 Humboldt Standard. This was due to the lumber company's purchase of a $75,000 “electric donkey,” which was being set up on huge skids at the company's roundhouse at Freshwater Camp in preparation for transportation into the forest in the coming week.

On March 13, 1923, the Humboldt Standard reported that