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

When the Washington Irrigation Company attempted to perform a little social engineering in the community of Zillah in an effort to close the saloon, the cause of alcohol found an unlikely champion. The story is told in the Feb. 20, 1903 issue of the Yakima Republic:

IS A DEFENDER OF BOOZE

 A Zillah Minister Who Stands Up For Good Whisky, But Not For Bad

“A minister at Zillah last Sunday night created something of a sensation in his pulpit, according to a resident of that little town who was here this week, when he declared that he occasionally took a drink himself, and that inasmuch as men would get whisky anyway if they wanted it, there wasn’t much harm in giving them facilities for getting good whisky.”

“The Washington Irrigation company has offered to set apart $1400 worth of its justly celebrated Sunnyside land for the endowment of a library at Zillah if the people of that place will cut out the saloon which has been in operation there and which has been a bone of contention among the inhabitants each year.”

“Commenting upon this proposition, the minister referred to is said to have taken a stand in favor of the saloon as against the library; and to have asserted that if he wanted to he took a drink of whisky, and preferred good whisky.”

“This unexpected deliverance by a minister of the gospel has furnished a valuable topic of conversation at Zillah this week.”

“The Zillah man who mentioned the matter to the Republic stated that it is as yet undetermined whether the people down there will favor licensing the saloon for another year. Recently the proprietor, Correll, hurt himself quite severely, and his bad luck has created some sympathy for him.”

The Washington Irrigation Company’s place in the history of the area can be found in The Victory of National Irrigation in the Yakima Valley, 1902-1906.

It appears Zillah did not get a library until Prohibition took effect. Meanwhile, in recent history another church in the town has made the news. In order to  publicize the name, the Church of God – Zillah constructed a wire sculpture of the famous Japanese movie monster outside the building.

From the desk of Carolyn Petersen, Assistant Program Manager, Library Development.

Recently I had occasion to visit the newly remodeled downtown branch of Yakima Valley libraries.  To quote Fats Waller “The joint is jumpin’”.  Folks were streaming in and out of their newly repainted, updated and light filled central library on a Thursday noon hour, not necessarily a prime patron time.

Attached is a view of their renovated Young Adult area.  If you are in the area, stop by.  You will be impressed by the progress the Yakima Valley library staff have made in updating this essential resource

Random News from the Newspapers on Microfilm Collection: An Odd Story About the Odds

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

This tale of coincidence caught my eye as I was perusing through the Yakima Herald. It can be found on page 3 of the May 30, 1889 issue, less than six months before Washington became a state:

The Strange Story of Dick See

“The story of the arrest of Richard See, who was recently taken from Ellensburgh to California, on a requisition charging him with murder, is an interesting one. Seventeen years ago See’s father and William Duncan were playing cards in a saloon in Los Angeles. A dispute arose and Duncan struck See in the face. Dick See, who was then a young man, was present and was greatly incensed. He left the saloon, went home, saddled his father’s fleetest horse, took his gun, carefully loaded it with buckshot, and went back to the saloon. When he arrived there the quarrel had been settled and the elder See and Duncan were in the act of drinking together at the bar. Young See deliberately pointed his gun and fired and Duncan dropped dead. The murderer fled to Winnemucca where for sixteen years his identity was lost under the name Bennett Jackson. A year ago he moved to Cle-Elum and resumed the name of See for the purpose of getting his share of an estate left by his grandmother. While in Cle-Elum he committed robbery and during his trial at Ellensburgh a stranger dropped into the court room. This stranger proved to have been one of those who were present in the Los Angeles saloon at the time of the shooting, and he recognized See as the murderer. He notified the California authorities, extradition papers were gotten out and when See’s sentence for robbery expired Detective W.H. Russell, of Los Angeles, was promptly on hand and took the prisoner in charge. This is only another verification of the old adage that ‘Murder will out’.”

Wow. What were the odds?

These were apparently real two-fisted times for central Washington Territory. Included in a neighboring “Local Brevities” column is this: “Ellensburgh is thronged with rough characters and a special force of police is required to maintain order.”

The Washington State Library recently contributed another 23,000 historic newspaper pages from seven newspapers to Chronicling America, making Washington State’s contribution to the program a total of 23 titles and over 115,000 pages. Read and research issues from these and other newspapers around the U.S. for free at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. 

100 years ago. Seattle Star, September 24, 2010

There are now 23 newspapers from Washington State currently included in Chronicling America:  

• Cayton’s Monthly, 1921
• Cayton’s Weekly, 1917-1921
• Colfax Gazette, 1900-1912  
• Colville Examiner, 1907-1922
• Commonwealth (Everett), 1911-1914
• Co-operative News, 1917-1921
• Daily Republican (Seattle), 1896
• Industrial Freedom, 1898-1901
• Islander, 1891-1898
• Leavenworth Echo, 1904-1922
• Northwest Worker, 1915-1917
• Pullman Herald, 1888-1922
• The Ranch (Yakima), 1894
• The Ranch (Seattle), 1902-1914
• Ranche and Range (Yakima), 1897-1902
• The Republican (Seattle), 1896-1898
• San Juan Islander, 1899-1914
• Seattle Republican, 1900-1913
• Seattle Star, 1899-1910
• Tacoma Times, 1903-1918
• Washington Farmer (Spokane), 1914
• Washington Socialist, 1914-1915 
• Yakima Herald, 1893-1912

Chronicling America provides free and open access to nearly 2.7 million full-text searchable pages from 348 titles published between 1860 and 1922 in 22 states and the District of Columbia. The Washington State Library’s National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) grant was renewed through June 2012, allowing more pages from other newspapers around Washington State to be uploaded over the next two years. 

For more information about Chronicling America, contact Laura Robinson, project manager for Washington’s National Digital Newspaper Program, at [email protected] or (360) 570-5568.

The Washington State Library recently contributed another 50,000 historic newspaper pages from nine newspapers to Chronicling America, making Washington State’s contribution to the program a total of 16 titles and 92,000 pages. People can read and research issues from these and other newspapers around the U.S. for free at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.

100 Years Ago. Tacoma Times, June 24, 1910

There are now 16 newspapers from Washington State currently included in Chronicling America:

• Cayton’s Weekly, 1917-1921
• Colfax Gazette, 1900-1912
• Colville Examiner, 1907-1922
• Commonwealth (Everett), 1911-1914
• Daily Republican (Seattle), 1896
• Leavenworth Echo, 1904-1922
• Pullman Herald, 1888-1922
• The Ranch (Yakima), 1894
• The Ranch (Seattle), 1902-1914
• Ranche and Range (Yakima), 1897-1902
• The Republican (Seattle), 1896-1898
• San Juan Islander, 1899-1914
• Seattle Republican, 1900-1913
• Tacoma Times, 1903-1918
• Washington Farmer (Spokane), June 15, 1914
  
• Yakima Herald, 1893-1912

Chronicling America provides free and open access to more than 2.3 million full-text searchable pages from 295 titles published between 1860 and 1922 in 19 states and the District of Columbia. The Washington State Library’s National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) grant was recently renewed through June of 2012, allowing more pages from other newspapers around Washington State to be uploaded over the next two years.

For more information about Chronicling America, contact Laura Robinson, project manager for Washington’s National Digital Newspaper Program, at [email protected] or (360) 570-5568.

Lynne Greene, who recently won the Governor’s Volunteer Service Award, has been director of the Davis High School Library for 27 years. Greene traveled to the Governor’s Mansion in Olympia in April to receive the award.

And she’s up for another honor this summer. Her two staffers are nominating her for the Washington Library Media Association’s 2010 Librarian of the Year.

The Yakima-Herald Republic has a detailed profile of Greene in its June 3, 2010 online issue. The announcement from the Washington Commission for National and Community Services is available here.

Congratulations, Lynne! We salute you!

I recently did a post on the loss of the “Spokesman Review”, however, I am happy to report that we still have many newspapers in the library to provide a touch of home for our patrons. As newspapers can be very expensive we cannot purchase all of them that are published in Washington, but we do our best. To that end we carry the larger metropolitan areas (excluding Spokane). This includes Olympia, Seattle, Yakima, Tri-Cities, Everett, Tacoma, Wenatchee, Vancouver, and usually the local paper for the area the prison is located.

All of these cities are still mailing out their newspapers and I hope they continue. If they don’t, the inmates will lose one of the few touches of home that is still available to them. Newspapers not only provide news of their local areas, but also a connection to a community. This connection can provide listings for jobs and housing which is important for the inmates releasing back into society, but it also provides the stories that make it a community.

Since local news is not the only interest of our patrons, we also carry newspapers that appeal to different cultures and lifestyles. To meet these needs we carry El Mundo, La Opinión, Smoke Signals, Indian Country Today, and Seattle Gay News.

The wave of the future may be the Internet, but here’s to hoping that some things remain in print.