Courtesy of the Legislative Planning Committee, Washington Library Association Library Related Legislation. The Washington Library Association (WLA) tracks state legislative activity that will potentially affect Washington Libraries. Their tracker is posted to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog.

For information on the legislative process or becoming involved, see the WLA site referenced above.

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

Although the word “snarky” wasn’t really used in 1889, the concept was there– as we shall see.

In this case study we should start with the 1889 Constitutional Convention held in Olympia, where delegates from across Washington Territory met in order to hammer out a guiding document. When I read through the WSL copy of The Journal of the Washington State Constitutional Convention, 1889, I find an entry for July 17 describing a proposition submitted by a generally quiet gentleman from Lincoln County with the literary name of Handford Wentworth Fairweather:

“Relating to Bribery of Officers. By Mr. Fairweather. Referred to Committee on Legislative Department.”

H.W. Fairweather, 37 years old, was a former railroad executive turned banker from Sprague. You might recall his name as a narrator in our blogpost about Amore de Cosmos.

Apparently Mr. Fairweather’s action at the Convention amused the folks back home. The random reel this week is from The Wilbur Register for July 26, 1889. They just don’t write political commentary like this these days. I have tried to keep the original spelling and punctuation as true as possible while still keeping it readable:

“At last Delegate Fairweather has been heard from. Lincoln county, through her delegate, has become famous, and the delegate won renown, which handed down to posterity, in generations to come, will shine with such brilliance as to illume a world with its glory, until the bones of all the honored dead now in peaceful repose at Westminister shall grow restless and turn green with envy.”

“Delegates from other counties might devote their entire attention to such unimportant, common place matters as schemes for state, county, and municipal government, legislative and executive powers, the bill of rights, revenue and taxation, or the judiciary to the exclusion of others of such vital importance that a state government formed without them would surely prove uninduring. No such neglect is to be charged to this renown member from Lincoln. To his fertile brain is to be ascribed the keystone plank of the constitution without which it never could have proven durable.”

“Mr. Fairweather has figured considerably in legislative and public affairs. In such matters his is the wisdom of experience. He has necessarily stood by, a disinterested spectator of course, and witnessed the corruption, bribery and dishonesty that creeps into legislative bodies, prostitutes public servants, pervades our elections and even contaminates railroad employees. Of course there are men who have taken to this state of things like ducks to water or swine to a swill barrel. But not so with Mr. Fairweather. Oh no! not he. He has revalted at the sight. His pure and lofty character became horrified at these spectacle and turned from them with loathing and disgust. That a nature such as Mr. Fairweather’s should grow restless while his country was polluted with such enormities is not to be wondered at. Indeed to his sensitive nature it was extremely cruel. Perhaps those acquainted with Mr. Fairweather have observed an anxious troubled expression lurking on his saintly countenance, but now, the cause of its existence having disappeared serenity and peace once more there reigns supreme.”

“There is a day distinguished from all others in the life of every man. Mr. Fairweather had his day in the territorial constitutional convention last week.”

“‘Mr. President,’ rang out in a clear tone, and the richness that sounded in that voice was conclusive to those who listened there was nothing of the spurious about it. The convention was at once hushed in rapt attention and the gaze of every member was directed toward the member from Lincoln county, who stood in his place, his towering symetrical form the impregnable fortress of the keenest sense of honor, while the frank, open countenance, for which he is noted, was directed at the presiding officer. The occasion will long remain fresh in the recollection of those who witnessed it as a momentus event. There stood Mr. Fairweather, The delicate flush on his pale cheeks proclaimed the humility, bashfullness and retiring reserve that had sought and found seclusion there. His large, black eyes, the realms of sincerity, whose borders of pearl like purity the ideal madonna has yet to equal, that appear as the entrance to caverns stored to overflowing with the gems of honesty and saintly integrity, that shown forth in a hallow of glory compared to the low, calculating, cunning discernable in the small, keen opticts of several surrounding colleagues.”

“Then when Mr. Fairweather sent to the clerk’s desk and had read a provision to be embodied in the constitution prohibiting bribery and bribe taking by public servants the blow of the mighty avenger of political corruption fell. Think of this great blessing, Mr. Fairweather secures to your future state, fellow citizens. The state of Washington is not to be contaminated by this form of public corruption because it will be prohibited by the constitution and to this member from Lincoln county is to be ascribed all honor and glory.”

“Every member present recognized the great importance of this provision. As Mr. Fairweather took his seat numerous were the glances of admiration directed toward him. For so far-reaching a stroke a statescraft he would have, without doubt, been the unanimous choice of the convention had a vote then and there been taken, for U.S. Senator. Still here and there were noticeable members not at all pleased. The good and righteous Judge Turner winced a little as his recollection was carried back to former campaigns and future necessities in Spokane county politics. President Hoyt closely scrutinized Mr. Fairweather to ascertain if anything of a personal nature was intended. Delegate Moore remembering the ‘personal explaination’ a heartless reporter had compelled him to make, by casting base reflections on his recently received consignment of Kentucky’s choicest brands, could not suppress a preceptable quivering of the lips, while Tom Griffiths, constantly on the look out, was not a little chagrined to think so favorable an opportunity to cover himself with glory and bask in the rays of public attention had escaped him.”

“Had the dome of the capitol been otherwise than secure and durable without doubt a dove would have descended, with a similar message to that conveyed to John the Baptist as he stood in the midst of the Jordan over eighteen hundred years ago. Had Mr. Fairweather at that moment murmured ‘it is finished’ and expired, as did that good man from Calvery’s Cross, all the hosts of the earth, even unto the present day, would have proven unequal to the task of preventing his assent to the realms of eternal bliss.”

“After so worthy an occurrence and historical event undoubtedly the convention immediately adjourned for the day in commemoration thereof, but upon this point our information saith not.”

H.W. Fairweather went on to be elected to the very first Washington State Senate and served one term. A essay he wrote about the history of the Northern Pacific Railroad can be found in the Washington Historical Quarterly v. 10, no. 2 (Apr. 1919).

by Rand Simmons and Kristy L. Coomes

Dorothy R. Cutler was one of the power-houses of the Washington State Library during the 1950s through the 1970s. Dorothy died on March 20, 2013.  She was 95.

Dorothy’s career began in the 1940s with her first job at Salem (Oregon) Public Library. She also served in the Special Services Branch, U.S. Army, in Hawaii and Guam, during World War II (1943-1946), and following at the Contra Costa County (California) Library (1946-1951). She earned a B.A. from Willamette University in 1940, a B.A. in Librarianship from the University of Washington in 1941, and an M.S. in Library Science in 1952 from the University of Illinois. While attending the University of Illinois she worked in the University Library (1951-1952) and joined the Washington State Library in 1952.

In Dynamics of Change, former State Librarian Maryan Reynolds consistently refers to two library consultants by only last names, an indication of their prominence in moving the Washington library community forward, Dorothy Cutler and Dorothy Doyle.

Cutler is remembered not only for managing the first Library Services Act funded Columbia River Regional Library Demonstration but also for her leadership with the Governor’s Conference on Libraries (which predated the White House Conference on Libraries) and her leadership role with the Washington State Advisory Council on Libraries.

Kristy Coomes, long-time employee of the Washington State Library noted, “Dorothy was one of the pioneers that made the dream of statewide library service come true.” Enormous growth in library services occurred in Washington’s libraries during Dorothy’s tenure as Chief of Library Development.  For example, it was during this time that the State Library created the first digitally produced printed catalog of the newly established Timberland Regional Library and the State Library. This project grew rapidly to include many libraries and eventually resulted in the Washington Library Network.  As staff to the Washington State Advisory Council on Libraries she was key to both the creativity and the planning necessary to move forward on many fronts.

When Dorothy Cutler left the Washington State Library she later told the Olympian newspaper (November 18, 1979): “… I said I was quitting, not retiring. Because retiring seems to mean sitting on the shelf, and that’s not for me!”

Today there are thirty library districts, junior taxing districts created by a vote of the people, across the state. Dorothy Cutler was one of the key players in Washington’s history of establishing library districts statewide and improving services that libraries offered to their constituents.

Our thanks to you, Dorothy, for your creativity, your planning abilities, and your ability to bring people together to accomplish commonly held goals.

Courtesy of the Legislative Planning Committee, Washington Library Association Library Related Legislation. The Washington Library Association (WLA) tracks state legislative activity that will potentially affect Washington Libraries. Their tracker is posted to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog.

For information on the legislative process or becoming involved, see the WLA site referenced above.

 From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

Sea serpent stories are developing into a subgenre in this column. Although the creature described here resembles the “DungeNessie” serpent sighted in 1892 in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, this particular sighting took place very near to the 1899 episode of The Sea Serpent That Got Away.

 This article was found in the Dec. 7, 1855 issue of the Puget Sound Courier, published out of Steilacoom. The serpent was seen off of Devil’s Head, on the tip of the Key Peninsula. Then it took off and vanished between McNeil and Anderson islands. It is interesting that all of the geographic names mentioned in this article have remained essentially unchanged since 1855:

 THE SEA SERPENT.

 Mr. Editor:

 “I hasten to communicate to you the important and interesting fact that the world-renowned sea serpent, has at last condescended to pay a visit to the waters of our beautiful inland sea; and from the great delight he was evidently enjoying, that it is but fair to presume he will visit us annually.”

 “For the gratification of the hundreds of thousands of anxious people in the world who have seen in the papers so many unsatisfactory accounts of his mighty snakeship, I will endeavor to give a correct and truthful description of him, praying all who may read it, to give the relation their full, firm, and entire belief. Early in the morning of yesterday, December 2nd, a party of us left Johnson’s Point, so called, where we had camped the night before, on our way from Olympia to pass ‘down the Sound.’ We had just fairly got started, some two hundred yards, perhaps, from the shore, when I, who was steering the boat, noticed a sudden and unusual commotion in the water in the direction of the Devil’s head– a high Bluff bank so called, and directly in our track. Pretty soon the flurry was over and the waters subsided into a calm. For a moment I supposed that there was a shoal of ‘Killers’– gamboling, which, being a common occurrence, I took no further notice of.”

 “Looking again in the same direction, however I saw intervals of some ten feet apparently four round, dark looking spots, somewhat resembling Buoys, upon the water. This awakened some curiosity in my mind, and I gazed upon the phenomenon intensely; but when I saw as I did a moment after, an object of startling appearance rise gradually from the water to a height of fifteen feet, seeming to connect with the dark spots on the surface. My amazement was complete, and I immediately directed the attention of those who were with me in the boat, Messrs Ramsay, Turnbull, Clough and Shanutt, to the singular looking object and asked them their opinion of it.”

 “They immediately ceased rowing and looked in the direction indicated by me anxiously and earnestly for someminutes, when the truth as to its real nature seemed to break upon our minds simultaneously, and we all exclaimed at once ‘its the Sea serpent its the Sea Serpent!’ Ah, then it would have done you good and made the ‘cockles of your heart beat with joy’ to see how four white ash oars were made to bend and spring under the vigorous strokes of as many athletic young, men creating a miniature water fall under the bow of our sweet little craft. ‘Give way strong my lads, Give way strong’ was the cheering word frequently given; and they did ‘give way’ strong, for, in fifteen minutes we had accomplished a distance that ordinarily takes forty five, and had reached the spot as near as we could judge, where we had seen his royal Snakeship. We then lay upon our oars and looked about us in all directions for a nearer and better view of the distinguished stranger– not long was we doomed to look in vain, for within five minutes from the time we ceased pulling, the monster again rose to the surface on our Starboard Bow and within thirty yds. of us.”

  “If we were surprised before, when seeing him from a distance we now were perfectly amazed, and so badly frightened withal, that there was not one in the party, who did not send up an involuntary and sincere prayer to Heaven for a safe delivery from the neighborhood of so hideous and dangerous looking a Customer. Curiosity however, was stronger within our breasts than fear and consequently we took no measures to get an offing but determined, on the contrary, to hold out where we were, and if possible get a good view of the animal from head to tail and thereby determine his length, size, color, and general appearance, that we might contrast him, as a whole, with the descriptions we had from time to time seen in the journals of the day, for the last twenty years.”

 “Our laudable curiosity was destined to be completely gratified, for the monster, after coming to the surface, straitened himself out at full length, gradually raised his flattened serpent looking head some fifteen feet in the air, and opened his mouth, which was sufficiently large to take in a yearling heifer, took a cool look all around, and at last fixed his small piercing eyes, full upon us, in a manner that seemed to say, who and what are you, that you dare approach so near, or disturb the element which owns me, and me alone, as its monarch.”

 “For the space of ten minutes we were thrilled on the marrow in our bones by the indescribable and strangely fascinating look, and I verily believe that if our soul’s salvation had depended upon this action, so trivial as that as a single sweep with our oars, that we could not have given it– for we were so utterly amazed at the huge proportions of this monster of the ‘Deep’ and so nearly petrified with fear at finding ourselves in such close proximity to him, as to be completely incapable of the least effort,– not for a thousand worlds would I again experience the agonizing sensatives that my mind was tortured by in those ten minutes, or be again so entirely at the mercy of this hideous and frightful looking Serpent.”

 “I am aware that there thousands of incredulous persons in the world who utterly disbelieve the tales that are told of this mighty Ocean Snake, and will dare even to deny the truth of this relation, and accuse the writer of having a distempered imagination or disposition to practice upon the credulity of the silly, and the inexperience of the young. To such I would say, that my imagination is neither distempered nor ardent and that I have no disposition whatever to impose a falsehood upon the simple and credulous. The length of this monster was about 90 feet, and his average size nearly that of our firs. His color was a dirty green, and his whole body, apparently, covered with scales.”

 “At the expiration of ten minutes he turned his head in a northerly direction, and the last we saw of him he was making a ‘strait wake’ through ‘Balches passage’ at the rate of 20 miles an hour.”

 “Yours Respectfully, Robt. Littlejohn.”

 The Puget Sound Courier is one of many historic newspapers that has been digitized by the Washington State Library and is available online.

Aberdeen Herald, W.T., 1890-1917                        Adams County News, Ritzville, 1898-1906,

Columbia Courier, Kennewick, 1902-1905                   Kennewick Courier, 1905-1914

Evening Statesman, Walla Walla, 1903-1910               Lynden Tribune, 1908-1922

Newport Miner, 1899-1922                                                Vancouver Independent, 1875-1910

Washington State Journal, Ritzville, 1906-1907        Wenatchee Daily World, 1905-1922

Seattle Star, 1899-02-27 1922-12-30

We are on the third and last grant cycle of this project, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Library of Congress.  Approximately two thirds of the states across the country are now participating, contributing over

6 million pages of newspaper content to date. In the west Oregon and California are current participants and over the next few years we should be seeing the contributions of our neighbors, Alaska & Idaho.

To learn more about the NDNP program, popular topics, valuable teaching resources (check out NEH’s EDSITEment! page), podcasts and videos, start with a look at the http://www.loc.gov/ndnp website and click on “NDNP Extras.”

The Wolves of Washington

March 21, 2013 @ 12 p.m. Presented by Linda Saunders, Director of Conservation, Wolf Haven International

Come learn about the return of wolves to the state of Washington after being gone for almost 80 years! We will discuss how this top predator may benefit the natural ecosystem in our state. You will also learn about the plan Washington State has to promote the existence of wolves in the wild, and how peaceful co-existence can be achieved.

Wolf Haven International (WHI) is a 501(c)(3) organization that has worked for wolf conservation since 1982. The mission of WHI is to conserve and protect wolves and their habitat. We do this by: providing sanctuary for captive born wolves, educating the public on the value of all wildlife, promoting wolf restoration, and protecting our remaining wild wolves and their habitat.

For more info or to RSVP, call the Washington State Library, 1-360-704-5221

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

Naturally the word “Library” in the following headline is what first caught my eye, but as the story unfolded I knew it had to be shared as the tale of a true Washington State original.

This was found at random in The Oakville Cruiser, page 1 top of the fold, Jan. 28, 1916.

 Champion Designs New Saw in Law Library

“The law library of the University of Washington may be a strange haunt in which to find the champion cross-cut sawyer of the world, but that is the winter lair of Chas. A. Newton of Oakville, junior law, crew man, football player, and undisputed champion of the saw men of the universe. And between law classes, this lawyer forester is preparing to better his own unbeaten record with the crosscut saw by designing and manufacturing what he expects will be the fastest sawing machine in existence. In the husky logger who won the world’s championship sawing contest during Shriner’s convention in Seattle last summer, few recognized the young university athlete and barrister. And if the story about the remarkable new saw he is making, down at the crew house, hadn’t leaked out his exploit in defeating the best woodsmen in the country at their favorite contest would perhaps have remained unknown at the university and the law school would not have discovered its newest celebrity.”

“Newton has handled a saw from the time when he used it to cut firewood for the kitchen stove with a little red bucksaw until the day last summer that his remarkable skill was first publicly demonstrated when he won the big sawing contest from thirteen other loggers at the Hoquiam splash, the yearly Grays Harbor celebration. There he created a sensation among the lumbermen by cutting his log of 34 inches in 4 minutes and 20 seconds, defeating Nelson Knight, a logger from near Malone, who had won the contest for the past six years.”

“Later in the summer he clinched his triumph by the exploit during Shriner’s week. The six men who contested then, and whom he defeated at Woodland park, were experts drawn from all over the timber country on this side of the Rockies. And as the west has the biggest trees, so has she the best lumbermen. Therefore the Shriners’ committee designated the winner from this sturdy band of six, ‘world’s champ.’ Europe being in no position to participate in either Olympian or sylvan games, Newton is the proud bearer of the world title.”

“It is seldom that a log sawing contest has been viewed in Seattle in the last thirty years, so the real excitement of the race is little known. When the lumberjacks hue up on a peeled fir log and, at the signal, start to saw like mad, the Poughkeepsie regatta is not half as exciting. The big log is lost to sight in the flying chips and the sawyers are hidden in a cloud of sawdust. The long saws rip back and forth across the green wood in a rending, grinding chorus and are seen only in the flashes of silver, like the oars of a racing shell. When there comes a final ripping crack, the winner emerges from the sawdust cloud, looking like ‘the scarecrow man’ in the ‘Wizard of Oz,’ but the most envied man in all the lumbering towns in the west.”

“This honor has twice fallen to Newton, and when his new saw which he is now working on is finished he will be in trim to once again pull down the laurels at the Aberdeen splash that is scheduled for early in July.”

“Newton’s new saw will be different from any other saw in existence. He has figured out a cutting edge that he says will be faster than any other present saw. His scheme is for a saw with fewer cutting teeth, more rakers and bigger gullets, weighing in all sixteen pounds, which will be a few pounds heavier than the average saw, but will give a better cut. He is now marking out the saw blank– and when he is finished it will be stamped out by the Simonds Manufacturing Co. He will then file it himself by a method which he claims has just a little bit the edge on all other systems.”

“Newton made the trip with the crew to California last year and only had three minutes more to play to make his football letter.”

“‘Rusty’ Callow hastens to say that Newton is one of the best saw pullers in the country, and the blond gentleman knows, for he tried to beat Newton twice. It’s wonderful how these lumberjacks get ahead.”

In an effort to follow up on the life and career of Mr. Newton I had to go no further than WSL’s own NW Card File. Thisfinding aid is the product of decades of indexing newspapers and books by WSL  staff from the former Washington Room in the old Pritchard Building. I am happy to say we are now in the process of making this file available online. This will take a long time to input and at this point I’d like to make a pitch for any volunteers with good indexing and data entry skills to step up and serve the cause of Washington State history and culture.

Anyway.

I not only found a couple cards leading me to Mr. Newton’s obituary, but also a nice Tacoma News Tribune Sunday magazine profile in 1970 (Oct. 4) by Roland Lund and Warren Anderson.

Charles Arthur Newton was born Mar. 5, 1888 in Oakville. He served in the Army, graduated from college at Ellensburg in 1911, and taught school in Nagrom, near Yakima.

His teaching career was brief, and he enrolled in the University of Washington law school while at the same time was involved in sawing contests and school athletics, playing football and as a member of the rowing team. After he graduated he worked as an assistant coach for the Yale rowing team.

Upon returning to Washington he married Elsie Ham in 1925 and settled back home in the Oakville area, on a farm along the Chehalis River. According to the 1970 profile, “stuffy courtrooms and dusty lawbooks didn’t appeal to a hearty outdoors person raised on a riverside homestead. ‘I could make $9 a day filing saws– or logging.’ The woods would be Newton’s choice– saws– machinery– working with huge hands that only a few years before gripped an oar handle and flipped through pages of thick books.”

Mr. Newton died Aug. 26, 1982 at the Veterans Home in Retsil.

Courtesy of the Legislative Planning Committee, Washington Library Association Library Related Legislation. The Washington Library Association (WLA) tracks state legislative activity that will potentially affect Washington Libraries. Their tracker is posted to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog.

For information on the legislative process or becoming involved, see the WLA site referenced above.

Courtesy of the Legislative Planning Committee, Washington Library Association Library Related Legislation. The Washington Library Association (WLA) tracks state legislative activity that will potentially affect Washington Libraries. Their tracker is posted to the WLA web site and we will also post it weekly on this blog.

For information on the legislative process or becoming involved, see the WLA site referenced above.