Hometown History

I was raised in Onalaska WA, and came back here to raise my own children, as many of the townsfolk have also done. Three generations in my family have gone to the same schools here in "Ony", starting with my father. There are teachers at both the Elemetery and High School that have taught children for over 18 years, seeing many siblings and 2nd generations come through those doors. In 1983 Onalaska was put on the map when we became the State "B" Basketball Champs. Then in 1986, we did the same for State "B" Football Champs! Below is a little Onalaska History.

I Love This Country Town!

 

Lewis County Genealogical Society

For the past 14 years I have been involved with Genealogy, basically I grew up around it, as my mom has been researching our family history as long as I can remember. Together we work on the bi-monthly newsletter, and I recently took over as webmaster of the web site. It now has a nice, user-friendly layout. Some of the topics include: Favorite Genealogical Links, Past Newsletters to Download, Upcoming Events, Local History, Nostalgic Photos, Lewis County Cemeteries, Publications For Sale, Washington State Archives, and Lewis County GenWeb Project.

Read below for a preview of our newest page I'm working on - Lewis County Postmasters. (Featuring my Great-Great Grandma Sarah C. PARNEL)

Richard - Sarah - James Parnel

Tildon Post Office was established July 13, 1882 by Mrs. Sarah C. PARNEL (Mr. Richard C. PARNEL)

Postmasters: Mrs. Lizzie HILL (August 12, 1891), Mrs. Sarah C. PARNEL (April 20 1892) discontinued July 22 1895, mail to Cinebar.

Location: 4 miles east of Alpha, 5 miles west to Cinebar.

A contract route from Napavine served Tildon, a logging center. W.H. STEEL received $929.96 for carrying it for the first year starting February 1 1894. In turn, Tildon Post Office served Sulphur Springs office and in that year H.H. LAWTON was the carrier receiving $1246.56. On August 16 1893, Frank HEYWOOD carrier between Tildon and Core was fired upon by ambush and slightly wounded. His assailant was never apprehended.

 

One of the Wonders of the Northwest

Located 9 miles east of Napavine on SR 508. The town was founded in 1914 by the Carlisle Lumber Co, which built the largest sawmill in the county. There is some confusion over the source of its name. One source says its name came from Unalaska, in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Another source says the Carlisle Lumber Co. named it after Onalaska, Wisconsin. The mill was forced to close in 1938 as a result of the Great Depression, and the town of 1,000 dwindled to only a few hundred residents today.

The mill property of the Onalaska Company is one of the most complete plants of the kind in the state and the business controlled by the company ranks with the foremost enterprises of this character in the northwest. Active in the management of the company's interests in Onalaska is William A. Carlisle, who was born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1888, a son of William Carlisle, president of the Carlisle-Pennell Lumber Company of Atchison, Kansas, the owner of the business at Carlisle, Washington, conducted under the name of the Copalis Lumber Company. 

This company was organized in 1912, at which time a modern lumber mill was erected with a capacity of one hundred and seventy-five thousand feet. A twelve-machine shingle mill was also built and the wise promotion of the industry there has led to the attainment of substantial success. The company has its own logging camps, its logging road and splendid equipment of every kind and employs about three hundred and fifty men. 

The officers are: William Carlisle, president; George Dysart, vice president; and A. P. Sprague, secretary, treasurer and manager. Still further extending his efforts in connection with the development of the lumber industry in the northwest, William Carlisle and his son, William A., started active developments in February, 1914, at the site of Onalaska, in large timber holdings of the Carlisle-Pennell Lumber Company in that vicinity.

They then organized a company known as the Onalaska Lumber Company and began clearing ground for a lumber mill.

On the 1st of July, 1914, George Dysart became the vice president, with William A. Carlisle as secretary, treasurer and manager. The company at first put up a small mill with which they sawed the lumber to build the present mill, which was completed on the 1st of May, 1916.

They erected one of the most modern and splendidly equipped mills ever built in Washington, having a capacity of two hundred thousand feet of lumber daily.

The mill proper is run in part by electricity and the planning mill is run entirely by electricity. The company also built a large shingle mill equipped with six Sumner machines, having a capacity of two hundred and forty thousand shingles daily. This mill is a model of its kind, operated entirely by electricity and equipped with blowers, which remove all dust and render it a pleasant place in which to work. The company operates its own logging camps and has about three and one-half miles of logging railroad with standard equipment. They employ in all three hundred and fifty men, engaged in the manufacture of both rough and finished lumber. The large steam plant generates its own electricity, with which the plant is operated, and also supplies light for the town of Onalaska.

The company built dwellings, which are of four and five rooms. The five-room houses all contain bathrooms. The lumber that was used in the construction of these dwellings was all sawed in the mill. The company also built a store and there is a meat market, a barber shop, a pool hall and a moving picture theater. A regular physician is in attendance, furnished by the Hospital Association.

There is a schoolhouse with four teachers and an attendance of one hundred and sixty pupils. The town covers one hundred acres of ground. There is a gravity water system, water being secured from sixteen springs and supplied by pipes to each house, while in every department of the mill there is also running water. The Newaukum Valley Railroad is built to the town from Napavine, where connection is made with the trunk lines. The company built a dam eight hundred and seventy feet long and has a seventeen-acre pond for storing logs. Six kilns have been built for the drying of lumber and two for the drying of shingles. Boarding houses have been built and are operated to accommodate two hundred men. 

The size and completeness of Onalaska cannot fail to impress many visitors to the town and in fact must excite interest and admiration, knowing that all this splendid work has been accomplished within three years. I love living here!

Onalaska Links

• View a map of Onalaska, from the Lewis County Public Works Dept. Road Atlas.
• Onalaska School District
• Carlisle Lumber Co. #7 Train

Postmasters of Lewis County

Tilden or Tildon

Located on Bear Canyon Road, 23 miles west of Morton along SR 508 (between Cinebar and Alpha). The post office was established on July 13, 1882 by Mrs. Richard (Sarah) Parnel.

• 1900 Census, Tilden Precinct

Shoestring

Shoestring is about 5 or 6 miles east of Onalaska on Hwy 508. Not a town, just a wide place in the road. Those who live in Shoestring are in the Onalaska School District. Named after a wild flower (Delphinium). This cemetery was donated by my relative, Mirinda Hively Shaffer, March 8, 1829 - April 1, 1882.

Salkum

Located 18 miles west of Morton on US Hwy 12. The name comes from the Indian word for boiling, in reference to the "boiling" Mill Creek. It was originally settled by William Hammil and his wife, and was once the site of two sawmills until the timber supply was depleted. The original site of the town was 2 miles south of its present location. The post office was established by Jacob Beusch at the old site on Oct. 10, 1882, and moved to its new location on May 5, 1890

• View a picture of the Salkum Mill and Dam

Riffe

Located on the Cowlitz River 8 miles southwest of Morton. The town originally called Baugh but was renamed in honor of Floyd L. Riffe, founder of the Primitive Baptist Church in 1890 and the town's first postmaster in 1897. The post office was closed on May 31, 1966 and Riffe was abandoned when the Mossyrock Dam was built and is now flooded by Riffe Lake. In the late 1980s, during a severe summer drought, Riffe Lake grew so shallow that the town was again visible, for the first time since the dam was built.

Nesika

The Riffe Post Office was established by Floyd Riffe on Sept 20, 1898. The Riffe Post Office was located on the banks of the Cowlitz River, which then became known as Riffe. Riffe was located nine miles east of Mossyrock and twenty three miles west of Vance (Randle). Riffe's first mail was a star route from Forest; this was transferred to Chehalis July 23, 1926. In 1960 the service was by Chehalis-Morton Star route. A Riffe star route served the Nesika and Green Mountain areas. Mrs. Maude Schwartz, daughter of Floyd Riffe, was carrier in 1960, having started as temporary carrier in 1920 with horse and buggy on the Riffe-morton Route.

Kosmos

The original site is in a ravine near the mouth of Rainy Creek, a half-mile SW of its later location. Its last site; 7 miles SE of Morton, 11 miles east of Riffe and 2 miles SW of Glenoma on Steffon Creek. Established June 15, 1903 by Charles W. Hopkinson. He built a water-driven sawmill on Rainy Creek, operating it by fluming the water. In 1911 the post office was moved to the right bank of Rainy Creek and about 200-300 feet south of Steffon Creek Bridge where it was conducted in a store located opposite the Kosmos School. Rainy Creek and Steffon Creek converge near this point. When reopened in 1921, the post office was placed in the James Albert Ulsh general store. Its final quarters were a building which had been erected in 1940 at the same site. All buildings in the village were razed in 1967 prior to inundation of the area by water behind the newly erected Mossyrock Dam. On July 15, 1930 the Barrett store-post office was burglarized.

• Picture of Kosmos to Nesika Bridge, blown up before flooding.
• Here's Another view of the Bridge
• Kosmos - Old Restaurant Tile Floor

Morton

Morton has replaced Chehalis and Centralia as the center of logging in Lewis County and is the third-largest town in the county. It is located at the junction of SR 7 and US Hwy 12, about 43 miles east of Chehalis. In 1888, the first post office opened.

The story goes that Mrs. Baumhauer, the first white woman in the valley, campaigned vigorously to have the town named for her. After lengthy debate, Republican sentiment prevailed and the town was named in 1889 for Levi P. Morton, a former U.S. senator from New York and the newly-elected Vice President (under President Benjamin Harrison). Levi Morton would go on to become governor of New York. Mrs. Baumhauer was sorely disappointed. On June 11, 1890, James Kelso was appointed the first Postmaster. The first school was held in 1890 at the Burnap homestead. Mrs. Burnap taught until Mrs. Jennie Neady Corey was hired as the first teacher in 1894. The first school enrolled 13 students: Fred and Anna Buchanan, Gold Temple, Vannie Monk, Clarence Ross, and the Nichol children. The Morton Cemetery Association was chartered April 16, 1904, leading to the establishment of the Morton Cemetery near the junction of SR 7 and US Hwy 12, where many of the pioneers are buried.

The Tacoma Eastern Railway brought in the first train in 1910, opening Morton up to commerce and to the rest of Lewis County.

The advance of the railway prompted a major boom in logging companies, sawmills, and shingle mills. At one point, no fewer than 100 mills existed in the surrounding region. Morton was incorporated in 1913 and Thomas Hopgood was elected its first mayor. Much of the business district was burned by fire in 1924, which started at Hilts Hotel and quickly destroyed 19 of 23 business and left 50 residents homeless. However, the homes and businesses were quickly rebuilt within the next two years. Although logging operations have decreased dramatically over the years, Morton's economy still relies heavily on logging. Every year, during the second weekend in August, the Morton Loggers' Jubilee is held to commemorate the importance of logging in Morton. The weekend includes a parade, logging competitions, and exhibitions.

• View a Map of Morton
• Morton Loggers' Jubilee - "The Granddaddy of all Logging Shows" August 7-8-9-10, 2008. Working loggers from as far awya as Australia demonstrate their skills in this international competition. Birling (log rolling), axe throwing, speed climbing, choker setting, tree topping, single and double bucking, horizontal and vertical chopping, and the obstacle pole are among the 14 competitive events.