Spokane's Railroads & Railroad History

 

How many of us recognize this as the old Great Northern Train Station in Spokane, of which only the Clock Tower remains in Riverfront Park?

Quoting Dale Swant, director of the Inland Northwest Rail Museum in Reardan: "Spokane was a major hub for a number of railroads in the late 1800s right up to today. Companies like the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Burlington Northern, Milwaukee Road, Union Pacific, Spokane International and Spokane, Portland & Seattle railroads served the area and branched out to almost every community to serve farmers, ranchers and passengers who used railroads as their primary form of transportation and shipping."

Quite likely your Inland Northwest ancestor came via the railroad. Hundreds of books have been written about the railroad history in our area but likely you won't have time to find and read them all. Your best best is to visit the Inland Northwest Rail Museum.  Open Friday-Sunday, 10-5, on Hwy 2 just west of Reardan. Check out their website:

www.inlandnwrailmuseum.com

This would be a fantastic family outing! They schedule frequent special events............ stay tuned to the website. 

Washington Facts: Test Yourself

 

Time for a test. Give yourself a pat on the back for each one you know (answers at the bottom):

1. Washington is the _____ largest state in the nation.

2. The highest point in Washington is ________ with elevation of _______.

3. Where is the geographical center of Washington?

4. Washington ranks _____ in the nation for population.

5. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Washington was ______ on _______ at ___________.

6. The hottest temperature was ________  on ______ at _________.

7.  Washington became a U.S. Territory in _______.

8. Washington became the ______st state on _______.

9. Washington's state motto is ______ which means ____.

10. Washington contains _______ counties.

11. Washington's official state name is the ________.

12. Washington's state flower is the _______ and state tree is ______. 

1. 12th largest

2. Mt. Rainier, 14,411'

3. Ten miles SW of Wenatchee

4. 18th

5. -48, 30 Dec 1968, Winthrop

6. 118 on 5 Aug 1961, Ice Harbor Dam

7. 1853

8. 11 Nov 1889

9. 39 counties

10. Alki, meaning "by and by"

11. Evergreen State

12. Pacific Rhododendron/ Western Hemlock

Spokane's Two Milk Bottles

 

You've driven by them 100 times...... the big white Milk Bottles in the Garland district and downtown just east of the First Presbyterian Church. Haven't you wondered about them??

According the Wikipedia, the big Benewah Milk Bottles are  landmarks in Spokane and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are two milk-bottle shaped buildings, both constructed to accompany a dairy operation's store. 

These "bottles" date back to 1935 and were commissioned by Paul E. Newport, owner of the prosperous Benewah Dairy Company, and were designed to serve as stores for the dairy's products. At 38-feet tall and 15-feet wide, the stuccoed  structures were in large part intended to appeal to children.

Company ads of the day were designed "to build better men and women by making dairy products attractive to boys and girls. No expense will be spared to make these new stores as sturdy and fine as good as the products they represent." 

1918 Barn In Wilbur, Washington, Well Worth the Drive To See

 

How many times have we zoomed out Hwy 2 on our way west, and barely blinked when we went through Wilbur, Washington? And look what we've missed.

Annette Archuleta's photo of this 1918 barn was published in Journey, the magazine of the American Automobile Association in the Winter 2022 issue.  

Victor Whitman had dug up some history on the barn: "According to the Washington Heritage Barn Registry, the farm's original owner, Vic Lauritzen, hired two builders from Denmark to come to Wilbur, and they spent two years constructing the barn by hand. The two weathervanes atop the rood are inscribed with the date 1918."

"Wilbur is in Lincoln County and had a thriving Danish community from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, when roughly a quarter of the inhabitants were first-or second-generation Danes." 

Beside, look what we missed, did we realize that there was a thriving Danish community in Lincoln County? And did we realize that there was a Washington Heritage Barn Registry?? 

There is so much history in Eastern Washington!!!

Television Shows In 1953 in Spokane

 

This image was from Nostalgia Magazine, the July-August 2011 issue. The article also included:  "Spokane had three active channels in those early years, all available with simple "rabbit ears" antennas. They were KHQ (NBC), KREM  (ABC), and KXLY (CBS). 

Do you remember the end-of-day sign off with the blaring of the national anthem followed by a weird test pattern? And did you notice that KHQ began the day (at 2:25pm!) and ended the day with prayer???

PERSI Update

 

Periodical Source Index (PERSI) Available for FREE at ACPL

This update penned by Gena Philibert-Ortega on February 11, 2022, caught my attention:

Have you used PERSI? If you have been using PERSI over the years, you may have searched it from a genealogy subscription website, but it was recently announced that PERSI is going back to its home at the Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library. You can now search PERSI from the Genealogy Center website for FREE. 

Not sure what PERSI is? Let's start with an introduction.

 The Periodical Source Index 

The Genealogy Center explains that “PERSI is the premier subject index for genealogy and local history periodicals, and is produced by the staff of The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library (ACPL). Using this valuable resource provides citations to readily-available periodical sources.” 

PERSI is a periodical index of history and genealogy magazines, newsletters, and journals that span the 1800s to the present day. The majority of the periodicals are US-based, but it also includes publications in Canada, the British Isles, and other countries. The periodicals in PERSI are in the collection of the Allen County Public Library (Fort Wayne, Indiana), and they index the materials. However, it is not an every-name index. Instead, it is a subject index and includes indexed words such as record types, location, surnames as subject, and how-to articles.

Why Use PERSI? 

You might be thinking, "why should I use PERSI? After all, it's an index!" Indexes provide us with a unique finding aid. In this case, these periodicals have articles of use to our research including histories, images, and indexes of local records that genealogy societies, historical societies, and individuals have published in newsletters, magazines, and journals. These articles can provide an ancestor's name or context for researching your ancestor's time and place. And they can point the way to unique record collections you didn’t know existed. It's vital to seek out and identify materials located in the place your ancestor lived. These periodical articles can provide a glimpse of what is available. 

To read the rest of Gena's article, and to see her examples, click to the Allen County website (www.alcp.lib) and scroll down to the article........ and enjoy whatever else you may find on this good website!

More New Jersey Trivia

 New Jersey is believed to have the first public library in the country with a building of its own to house its collections. Chartered in 1757 from King George II, it was erected in Burlington. It is the oldest continuously functioning library in New Jersey. 

The Seven Stars Tavern in Salem County, New Jersey, in 1762, had a "drive up" window where a man on horseback could be served food and "a noggin of grog" without dismounting from his horse. 

The drive-in movie had its orgins in 1933 in New Jersey. A 10-acre plot in Camden set up the first car-park-movie-theater there. Operators put on two shows every night on a 40'x50' screen and had nine parking rows set up to accomodate 500 cars. 

Source: Tales of New Jersey, 1963.

Quaint Words Of Our New Jersey Ancestors

 

An 1893 book by Francis B. Lee explained some of the quaint words and phrases used by our New Jersey forebears.....and some are still in use today. Consider:

Boughten  -- something you purchased

Boyzee -- referring to your boyhood

Bellywax --  molasses candy

Bellywhistle -- a drink of molasses, vinegar, nutmeg and water

I beant going --  meaning "I'm not going to the party"

Doubled-up --  got married

Golykeeper -- and old South Jersey cuss word

Jimminy crickets --  still used today

Ketchy  --  used to describe changeable weather

Lashin's -- meant plenty, like lashin's of food

Pretty middlin' smart  --  how good health was described

Shacklin' person  --  a lazy, shiftless person

Skyscraper  --  indicated a chap with a mighty high attitude

Snew  --   if snow fell last night

Step-mother  --   a ragged fingernail

Ten fingers  --  an oyster man's term for a thief

O-be-joyful  --  applied to someone a bit under the       influence..."he's pretty oh-be-joyful tonight"

Apple palsy  --  a step beyond applejack, sometimes known as Jersey Lightning

Those of us with New Jersey ancestors, are any of these words or phrases familiar??