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Tag: Centralia

Archives Spotlight: History mystery solved!

Archives Spotlight: History mystery solved!

It took us some time, but we managed to put a name to this portrait photo from state archives, solving last week’s mystery. We’d been unable to identify its subject from its original caption of “Unidentified Representative” and description of its subject as a former Washington legislator at the time Vibert Jeffers took the picture in 1939. Scott Sackett of the Central Regional Branch of the State Archives in Ellensburg solved the mystery. The gentleman pictured is Frank O. Miller,…

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Cindy Ryu and Joan Kim.
Korea 65 launch countdown: Cindy Ryu and Joan Kim

Korea 65 launch countdown: Cindy Ryu and Joan Kim

Our Legacy Washington program is getting ready for the Sept. 14 launch of its new exhibit in our front lobby, “Korea 65: The Forgotten War Remembered.” The exhibit tells the stories of 13 Washingtonians who experienced the Korean War in different ways, from U.S. soldiers who fought in the war, to a nurse who worked in a MASH unit, to Korean Americans who grew up in Korea during or after the war. The public is welcome to attend the Korea…

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The Philanthropic Ghost of Centralia Washington

The Philanthropic Ghost of Centralia Washington

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: The random news for this installment was discovered in The Daily Hub (Centralia, Wash.), February 26, 1916. The following ghost story was top of the fold front page news:               CENTRALIA HAS VERY GENUINE HA’NTED HOUSE Ghostly Manifestations Defy Solution In Spite of Family’s Best Efforts– Spirit Is Apparently Friendly  Centralia has a haunted house.  This piece of news…

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Blackie Carroll and Irish Slim, a Couple Rotten Yeggs

Blackie Carroll and Irish Slim, a Couple Rotten Yeggs

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: The term “yegg” really has some power to it and was used frequently by reporters in the course of telling the story of Blackie Carroll and Irish Slim. Melisa Sevall, a Public Services librarian who had worked in the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center Library before the WSL Central Library staff, pointed me to the reference work, Language of the Underworld / by David W. Maurer…

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Paul’s Aunt

Paul’s Aunt

Years ago my nephew used to go to the library in Centralia “regularly”. He was such a regular user in fact that I when I was the lead in the Circulation Dept. at the Washington State Library, I went to a meeting for Innovative users and the librarian from the Centralia Timberland Library introduced me as Paul’s Aunt. I got a big applause. It still brings a smile to my face when I think about it. My family has always been big…

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Face to Face with a Ghost in Centralia

Face to Face with a Ghost in Centralia

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: This week’s newspaper on microfilm picked at random is the Centralia Daily Chronicle for Feb. 9, 1909. The reporter who covered this ghost story must have been something of a Wise Guy. Dealy McCracken, the main subject of this piece, was born De Laparis McCracken in North Carolina in 1838. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and at some point was…

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