2016voice winter by The Newport Miner

Winter 2016

oice

Of the Pend Oreille River Valley

Historic Businesses Establishments near the 100-year mark still going strong today Ranches • Banks • Pharmacies • Funeral homes • Newspaper

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Past, present and future

f you walked down main street 100 years ago, there would be a handful of establishments you would recognize from today’s main street. A bank, a funeral home, a pharmacy, a ranch and a newspaper, all existed in some variation 100 years ago, and are still thriving today. In this issue of Voice we recorded the history of five of those institutions that make the Pend Oreille River Valley tick. This is by no means a comprehensive collection of long-time establishments, but more of a snapshot of what we have all come to rely on always being here. The bank in Ione and funeral home in Newport have changed hands and names over the course of a century, but the institution is the same. Likewise, The Miner Newspapers have undergone a change in ownership over the last 115-plus years – most recently in 2015 – but the newspaper itself has never waivered in its dedication to this community. The Krogh family homesteaded here more than a century ago, and the youngest generation has no intention of ending that tradition. And White Cross Pharmacy in Priest River is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago. As you read these stories you can almost hear the voices of those people who came before us. They laid the foundation for what is successful today. And with a little luck and a lot of work, we hope these establishments are around for another 100 years. -MCN

INDEX Krogh Ranch still making a living PAGE 4

WHITE CROSS A COMMUNITY FIXTURE PAGE 8

A TOUCH OF HISTORY AT IONE BANK PAGE 10

NEWSPAPER ARRIVES BEFORE MOST INSTITUTIONS PAGE 16

THE BUSINESS OF DYING PAGE 25

Voice Published: December 2016 Publisher: Michelle Nedved Writers & editors: Sophia Aldous and Don Gronning Design: Brad Thew Advertising: Lindsay Guscott, Cindy Boober and Micki Brass

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VOICE is published quarterly as a supplement to The Newport Miner and Gem State Miner, 421 S. Spokane, Newport WA 99156. TELEPHONE: 509-447-2433 EMAIL: minernews@povn.com FAX: 509-447-9222 Reproduction of articles & photographs is prohibited without permission of the publisher. See all issues at The Miner Online: www. pendoreillerivervalley.com

Krogh Ranch still making a living By Don Gronning

Voice photo|Don Gronning

John Krogh at the family house where his grandson now lives.

Winter Voice

Voice photo|Don Gronning

Dylan Krogh is the latest Krogh to run the ranch. Here he lifts a round bale into the barn.

t’s about 10 degrees on a clear blue day in late December and 80-year-old John Krogh is out with his grandson putting in feed for the pigs. It’s not what you would normally think of as pig food, though. It’s macaroni. Krogh feeds about 800-900 tons a year to his feeder pigs. “We used to get bread,” Krogh says, from a bakery in Spokane. Krogh is nothing if not adaptable. The feed was cheap, not much more than the cost of going go get it. That’s what it takes to keep a place going generation after generation like his family has done. And the Kroghs intend to keep on doing it. John’s grandson Dylan Krogh, 24, is the latest in a long line of Kroghs to run the Krogh Livestock and Trading Company. “I’ve been working here my whole life,” Dylan says. “I’ve been following him around since I was a little kid.” He says he’s never wanted to do anything else than run the ranch. The ranch dates back to 1905, Winter Voice

started by the first John Krogh, who came to the United States from Norway in 1872. “Grandpa homesteaded here with three people,” John Krogh says. All three people established quarter section homesteads near Sacheen Lake. A quarter section is 160 acres.

John’s father, Harry, and grandfather established a sawmill. “Grandpa and Dad ran a sawmill for 50 years,” he says. They produced planks that were used on the first Usk Bridge. In addition to planks, wood was used for heat and the family supplied wood to the hospital, school

and courthouse in Newport. “They took a lot of wood,” Krogh says. Krogh went to Newport High School in the 1950s, where he was on the school’s boxing team, fighting at 132 pounds against Continued on page 6

Voice photo|Don Gronning

This is the sign people see from Highway 211. The Krogh Ranch dates back nearly to the turn of the 19th century.

Voice photo|Don Gronning

Dylan and John Krogh wait for Austin. The ranch work slows down a little in winter but never stops. From Page 5

Voice photo|Don Gronning

Dylan Krogh and his grandfather, John. Dylan says he’s never wanted to do anything but run the ranch.

schools like Bonners Ferry, Deer Park, Priest River and Wallace. “We had some ferocious fights with the Priest River boys, not all in the ring,” Krogh grins. After high school he went to college at Washington State University, the first in his family to attend college. He graduated with a degree in agricultural economics in 1959, but it was tough. There were times he thought of

dropping out, but he stuck with it. One of his sources of motivation was that he wanted to buy 80 acres of land near the ranch. It was owned by a neighbor, Laura Sherman. “Mrs. Sherman said, ‘I know you want to buy the property,’” Krogh said. But she insisted he complete college first. So when Krogh got his degree Continued on page 7

Winter Voice

Voice photo|Don Gronning

John Krogh with some of his hogs. From Page 6

he headed over to the Shermans’, showed her the degree and bought the property. Krogh said he had other help to get through school. “You never know who is running interference for you,” he said. “I had an ag teacher who had someone keep an arm around me and keep me on track.” His boxing coach and his basketball coach from high school came to see him at WSU. After he graduated, his father told him he had to go get some experience before he could come back and work the family place. “He said when you come back, I’ll be older and we don’t want you to leave,” Krogh says. That led to a career selling feed as a representative for Western Family, starting in Sunnyside, near Yakima and eventually ending up servicing a territory that ran from Walla Walla to EllensWinter Voice

burg. He liked it. “Nobody was looking over your shoulder,” he said. Eventually he came back to the farm. One day he was approached by Pend Oreille County Auditor Glen Earl to run for county commissioner. “He said, ‘C’mon, I’m going to buy you lunch and you’re going to register for office,’” Krogh said. He won two terms as county commissioner, as a Democrat, serving from 1969-77. After all the time working with Western Family, Krogh developed a knack of working with people, building relationships. The current ranch consists of about 3,000 acres of rented land and about 1,400 acres that they own. The Kroghs raise hay, run cattle and hogs on the land. Dylan says he has no plans to sell the place to developers. He intends to keep it a working ranch. “Hopefully it’ll go another hundred years,” he says.

Voice photo|Don Gronning

John and Austin walk to the barn.

White Cross a community fixture

95-year-old pharmacy shares secret for longevity

By Sophia Aldous

Courtesy photo|Shannon McGlashan

The old stage curtain from the Rex Theater that was part of the Beardmore Building. It was a curtain that had advertisements from businesses back in the 1930s and 40s. White Cross Pharmacy is one of those advertisements.

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nticipating its 100th birthday in a mere five years, White Cross Pharmacy in Priest River has the distinction of being one of the oldest continuously run businesses in Idaho, according to Rich de Blaquiere, who owns the store with his father, Gary, and business partner, Shannon McGlashan. White Cross Pharmacy was first established in Priest River in 1922, and has since branched out to include locations in Sandpoint and Spirit Lake. The Priest River location has moved to several different sites throughout the years, starting in the historic Beardmore Building, and moving to its current location in 1996 at 5453 Highway 2. At its largest in the late 1980s and early 90s, White Cross Pharmacy occupied the 8,200-square-foot original IGA building near Mitchell’s Harvest Foods. At one point the pharmacy offered video rental, hardware, and gifts. “When dad first bought the pharmacy, he was unaware that over half the sales of the business he had just bought was from cigarettes,” recalls Rich de Blaquiere. “He stopped selling cigarettes before moving uptown, around 1979.” De Blaquiere says he is not sure who first established White Cross Pharmacy, only that it went through five separate ownerships before his father and mother purchased the business after moving to Idaho from California. “There were a lot of hours, a lot of hard work,” says de Blaquiere, who worked at the pharmacy as a teenager attending Priest River High School. “As pharmaceuticals have changed, we’ve changed too.” The Sandpoint location was first established in 2003 and was moved twice to end up at its current location in 2011. In July of 2014, White Cross Pharmacy found a home for its newest location in Spirit Lake, Idaho. The pharmacy is located inside Miller’s Harvest Foods in the heart of town.

Courtesy photo|Shannon McGlashan

Rich de Blaquiere’s wife, Wendy, and business partner Shannon McGlashan in front of the old curtain. “If I remember correctly White Cross is the only business advertised on that curtain that still exists today,” says Rich de Blaquiere. “I believe that curtain is displayed somewhere in the Beardmore Building today.”

This arrangement resulted in the first pharmacy services in Spirit Lake in more than 30 years. Being a fixture of the community for so long, White Cross is involved with job training for area youth, collaborating with Priest Community Cares to assist patients in need during the holidays, and giving to the Helping Our Hometown charity, which helps fund extracurricular activities at local schools. “A few years back the laws changed and it made it so you couldn’t hire anyone less than 18 to work in the pharmacy,” says de Blaquiere. “The pharmacy had always had a tradition of hiring high school students dating back to even before my brother and I started working there. We now work within the framework of an exception with the rules that allow high school students to work with us as long as it’s coordinated with the school. It’s a good way to get some help and a good way for students to

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get some experience in a healthcare setting.” De Blaquiere credits White Cross’s longevity to adapting with the times and treating the profession of health with compassion and competency. “The responsibility we have is

a serious one,” says de Blaquiere. “The volume of medications that go through pharmacies these days is tremendous and demands continuing education and good communication. It’s all the things that hopefully keeps us around for 200 years.”

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A touch of history at Ione Bank By Don Gronning

Courtesy photo|Pend Oreille County Historical Society

This is how the Ione bank looked in the early days. The bank was started in 1909.

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Courtesy photo|Pend Oreille County Historical Society

Elizabeth “Betty” Thompson was branch manager at the bank for more than 40 years. She managed the bank from 1913-1955.

hen bank customers to the Mountain West Bank in Ione walk in, they are reminded of the bank’s deep history. They see a bent bar on the teller cage, the result of an early days bank robbery. They see the bullet safe, a big

safe that took many men to move it to its current location. “People are pretty impressed when they walk in,” says Dena Brown, who works at the bank. She worked at the bank at its former location, where it Continued on page 12

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This cannonball safe is one of the historic pieces brought over when the bank moved to its current location. It took many men to move the safe. From Page 11

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had been for 101 years before moving a few feet down Main Street, from 217 Main St. to 223 Main St. Brown says a conscious effort

was made to not renovate the historic items. “People tell stories about them,” she says. Brown says the economy up Continued on page 14

Winter Voice

Courtesy photo|Pend Oreille County Historical Society

This is the bank as it looks today. It is the only bank for three towns: Ione, Metaline and Metaline Falls.

Winter Voice

From Page 12

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north has improved with the 2014 reopening of the Pend Oreille Mine. “It helped a lot when the mine opened,” she says. She said when the mine closed in 2009, it really hurt the economy there. The north county has seen plenty of ebbs and flows in the economy since the bank opened in 1909. Brown put together a history of the bank. In 1909, five men got together to form the Ione State Bank, which was one of the first five buildings and businesses in the north county. It was in Stevens County, then, with Pend Oreille County not being formed for another two years, in 1911. Interestingly, the bank’s articles of incorporation said the corporation was to last 50 years. It operated under the name Ione State Bank for 65 years. When the bank corporation started, only shareholders could be board members and they needed to own at least five shares of stock in the bank.

In 1913 one of the first five investors and bank president F.A. Blackwell of Spirit Lake, Idaho, decided to dispose of his bank shares and appoint Elizabeth “Betty” Thompson to the role of bank president. When she took the job, she was one of the few heads of a banking institution in the county. She served as bank president for more than 40 years, retiring in 1956. The bank operated as Ione State Bank until 1973, when it merged with the Spokane based American Commercial Bank. That started a series of transactions that saw the bank’s name change, from Pacific National Bank of Washington in 1980 to First Interstate Bank in 1984, to American West in 2000 to its current status, as a Mountain West Bank. It became a Mountain West Bank in 2004, with Nickie Dickinson manager, a position she holds today. Today the bank remains a vital part of the north county business community, the only bank for Ione, Metaline and Metaline Falls. It’s also a part of living history.

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efore most institutions By Fred Willenbrock

efore most businesses (except the tavern) or organized government, printers looking to make a buck out West packed a press on a wagon to the center of any growing group of pilgrims. They made money printing advertising, legal notices and announcements with some news slipping in. Community newspapers evolved both in content and technology over the decades. The Newport Miner followed the mold in the 1800s and throughout history to what it is today. The Newport Miner is believed to have started as the Newport Pilot in 1897. Some historical writers say these were the same publication, but others – noting the change in numbering – think not. If the 1898 issues were not missing, we would probably have the answer. M. P. Stevens was the editor/ publisher of The Pilot in 1897

and 1898. W. R. Herbert was the editor/ publisher of The Miner from 1899 to July 30, 1900, when he took a position with a job printing house in Spokane. The Miner on July 7, 1900, announced that the Talmadge Brothers had taken charge of the paper and would continue its publication. Warren E. Talmadge was listed as editor. During these early days, the newspaper was printed by a few people on a letter press. Simply put, type was hand gathered one letter at a time with wood engraving for art. With ink rolled on, it was pressed onto one sheet of paper at a time. There were various sizes and types of presses but the principle was the same. It was a slow and labor-intensive process. But one of these presses and someone Continued on page 18

File photo

Freeman Frost became publisher of The Miner in 1945.

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File photo

Newport Miner publisher Fred Wolf operates a linotype machine in The Miner office in the early 1900s. From Page 17

who knew how to use them provided the only mass communication for the region. The magic of this seemed to lure individuals to The Miner as it changed hands many times, or more likely was the fact that there were easier ways to make money in the growing town. Brothers Warren and Charles Talmadge bought four large parcels of land, known as government lots, from the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1898 and preceded to plat “Talmadge’s Addition to the Continued on page 20

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File photo

Newport Miner Publisher Hal Talmadge is pictured in the Miner Office.

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File photo

An early newspaper press.

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History of The Miner

1897 - The Newport Pilot begins its run with M. P. Stevens as editor 1899 - Aug. 19, The first issue of The Newport Miner is published with W. R. Herbert as publisher 1900 - July 7, the Talmadge brothers take the helm of the paper 1901 - Feb. 12, E. W. Burrows takes over 1901 - Feb. 9, H. S. Swenson buys the paper with Clyde C. Henton helping out 1907 - June 20, Hal Talmadge is publisher 1907 - Sept. 21, Fred Wolf begins his 38-year career of running The Miner 1945 - Dec. 1, Freeman Frost takes over 1964 - Oct. 1, Gerald E. Carpenter buys the paper 1977 - Jim and Sheri Hubbart are co-publishers 1986 - September, Fred and Susan Willenbrock buy the paper 2015 - March, Louie Mullen of Wyoming buys The Miner. 2015 - June, Michelle Nedved is named publisher

From Page 18

Town of Newport, Idaho,” which essentially was all of downtown Newport, Wash. They operated the Newport, Wash., Land Company in a small building near the Great Northern Railway tracks. The building also housed The Miner for a time. Talmadge relinquished the position of editor to E. W. Burrows on Feb. 12, 1901, but a month later, on Feb. 9, 1901, H. S. Swenson became editor. Swenson and Clyde C. Henton were co-publishers from Aug. 10, 1901 until June 20, 1907. Hal Talmadge was the editor from June 20, 1907, to Sept. 21, 1907. An old article states that Henton planned to install a second-hand press he had purchased in 1905, but he died before the project was completed. In 1907, to make way for the new Idaho & Washington Northern Railroad, The Miner built a new office further north on Washington Avenue. A few weeks earlier, on Sept. 21, 1907, Fred L. Wolf from Elkader, Iowa, had taken over as publisher, a position he would hold for 38 years. Wolf would prove to be one of Pend Oreille County’s best promoters and benefactors. Sometime in the 1950s the first big innovation in printing arrived in most print shops like The Miner. Before that, some changes in the way type was set occurred. Instead of gathering it by hand, a machine would put the lead letters into the form for printing, following a crude typewriter. Linotype made the job faster, but by today’s standards it was like a telegraph to an iPhone. Back in Wolf’s day, since it was so time consuming for a few people, including the publisher himself, to set the type, they worked with what news they had each day and printed it. So sometimes a story about a social event would end up on the front page while a big news story was found inside. For most of his tenure, The Miner was a black and white sea of words with little art or pictures. Many of his personal crusades made the front page of The Miner. Wolf has been called the “Father of Pend Oreille County.” He was an all-around citizen activist since first coming to Newport to take the helm of the paper. The county division was his first major local cause. He also served three terms in the state House of Representatives, starting in 1919. He pushed for an improved highway through

Newport including a bridge over the river, and all the way into the 1950s, he set off the first blast to build Albeni Falls Dam and lived to see its completion. Wolf passed away Oct. 29, 1957, at Sacred Heart hospital in Spokane at the age of 80. “Fred Wolf had done more for this town and county than any other individual in its history, and the list of his achievements for the community will probably never be equaled,” wrote 1950s Miner publisher Freeman Frost. Wolf had sold The Miner at the end of 1945 ending a 38-year career with the paper. The new owner, Freeman S. Frost, was from Gooding, Idaho. Local pictures started appearing more often with the change of ownership and the end of the war. The change was noted a couple months into Frost’s ownership. Offset printing became the most dominant form of commercial printing in the 1950s. This was in part due to industry improvements in paper, inks and plates. These improvements allowed for greater speed and plate durability. The majority of modern day printing is still done using the offset printing process. A cylinder was wrapped with a metal plate that was pressed against ink and water rollers. Just below the metal plate cylinder was a blanket cylinder. Below that was an impression cylinder, which fed the paper against the blanket cylinder so that the image could be transferred. While the basic process in offset printing has remained the same, some modern innovations include two-sided printing and using large rolls of paper fed into the machines. Also direct to plate from computer technology is now used. Freeman S. Frost was editor/ publisher from Dec. 1. 1945, to Oct. 1, 1964. Featured in the book “Pend Oreille Profiles” by Lee Taylor, Frost said during the Depression when he was forced to leave college and go back to work, he sold newspaper subscriptions part time. “Customers paid for subscriptions with chickens, vegetables, old roosters and beetle-stung potatoes. I did my own cooking and never asked for any pay as long as I had enough to get by. “Mostly women subscribed to the weekly papers. I’ll never forget the husband who phoned and said, ‘my wife has a subscription with your paper, but she died last week and won’t be Continued on page 22

Winter Voice

File photo

The Miner staff and customers pose in front of The Miner office on Washington Avenue next to the current library.

A ‘Miner’ mix up More than 116 years ago, the first issue of The Newport Miner appeared on the streets of Newport and around Stevens County. (There was still no Pend Oreille County at the time.) Or at least that is the indication from early copies of The Miner and other early historical writings. There are no known remaining copies of the first issue. Writings at the Pend Oreille County Historical Museum in Newport state that the first issue was dated Aug. 19, 1899. The first issues that are known to exist are both at the museum – June 30, 1900, and July 7, 1900. These are the last two issues of the first year of publication. The second year of publication began on July 14, 1900, making one question the authenticity of the August startup date. An article published in The Miner back in 1945 stated that the first year of publication was 1902, and that apparently has been accepted as the actual date, even though published information showed otherwise. Most weekly newspapers are numbered by the year, with the first issue known as Volume 1, No. 1 and the second issue being Volume 1, No. 2, on through issue 52. The Miner uses a slight variation, going with “First Year” instead of Volume 1. This is possibly a chicken versus the egg situation, since most of The Miner’s numbering errors occurred in the first seven or eight years. Assuming the July date is correct, what should be the Tenth Year, No. 1, is actually listed as the Eighth Year. An exhaustive study as to where the errors were made has not been done because of the fragile condition of those early publications, but this accounts for the lost years on The Newport Miner’s nameplate. But actually, there is still another error. The Miner “Year” now flips over in late February, instead of in July or August. This is because publishers faithfully have included 52 weekly issues in each year of publication. But every two to four years, one of the publication dates falls on a “Fifth Wednesday.” When that happened, there should have been 53 issues for that year. Over the better part of a century, The Miner’s new year has backed up nearly five months. Winter Voice

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From Page 20

needing it any longer.’” Gerald and Beverly Carpenter purchased The Miner from Frost in 1965. They sited pressure from other interests as a chief reason for their decision to end their 12-year proprietorship in 1977. Carpenter had been active in real estate development and taught full time at Spokane Community College. Co-publishers Jim and Sheri Hubbart from California took over from the Carpenters in 1977. Jim, 50 at the time, was a veteran daily newspaper re-

porter with an eye for news and photography. He had been director of creative services for an advertising agency before bringing the family to Newport. Sheri, then 36, had a background in retailing, sales and business administration. They also took over The Gem State Miner, which circulates in West Bonner County, Idaho. It was started by Carpenter’s 21-year-old son Eric. They continued the tradition of Miner publishers, pushing their adopted communities toward better economic days. Both were involved behind the scenes from

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recruiting a newsprint mill to the community to filling the empty keyboard manufacturing building in Newport. Community newspaper technology was really starting to evolve. Most of it was in the “pre-press” work. Primitive computers were used to make type on photosensitive paper, replacing the hot metal. Stories at The Miner were first typed on manual Royal typewriters and someone would then enter the words on film. It was pasted on paper and photographed by a giant camera. The negative made the plate for the press. This meant that better quality and timeliness of news was increasing in rural communities The Miner covered. Jim Hubbart, who also served as editor, was not afraid of controversy or covering hot stories. In a note to Hubbart, Robert Mathews, the infamous leader of a white supremacist group, The Order, killed by FBI agents, wrote: “Over the past several years you have shown journalistic integrity and courage through your willingness to treat my letters fairly and impartially even though they were extremely controversial …” The Miner staff had earned awards during the decade. One judge wrote: “It is obvious J. E. Hubbart is not afraid of controversy.” In what was his last “Year in Review,” column before retiring in January 1986, Hubbart wrote: “1985 was a year that began in anticipation and ended in apprehension.” When Fred and Susan Willenbrock, both 34 at the time, arrived in Newport to take the reins of The Newport Miner, they didn’t know if they were in their new community’s low point or high point. The couple from the Seattle area was about to own their first newspaper. They officially took over the business in September 1986. Around them, Keytronic was selling their building, the paper mill was on hold, Albeni’s sawmill was on strike, federal agents were still chasing white supremacists around and unemployment was in double digits. Willenbrock was a University of Washington journalism graduate who had managed newspapers in the Seattle area. He said Hubbart told him this was the newsiest place he had ever worked. Susan had worked in education and youth programs and was only planning to help out part time at The Miner. That didn’t last long. Susan was the

project manager for The Miner, working more than full time for decades. When the Willenbrocks took over, Hubbart had been hospitalized a year earlier with a heart attack and as he put it in his final editorial: “You got to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.” Willenbrock wrote: “Several have let us know that some tough economic storms have hit. One of the first men I met was leaving town.” But he went on to say that becoming the publisher of a community newspaper is like becoming a guardian. “It’s only temporary, with a beginning and end. And during your time, you can only hope the newspaper serves the community, readers and advertisers.” Hubbart wrote: “We pass the torch to a young and capable publisher who we feel confident will carry on a long and proud tradition at these newspapers.” That ended his nine years at The Miner. Willenbrock became the seventh and second longest on the job. He served as president of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association in 1996. Just a few years after arriving, Willenbrock started to dramatically change the technology used to produce his newspapers. Typewriters were replaced by typesetting word processers. Every few years, these were replaced by next generation computers, eventually morphing into typesetter and layout tools. Just as equipment was bought, it became obsolete. The darkroom and chemicals haven’t been used for years and photography is done by digital cameras downloaded to computers. Computers were networked and very little paper changed hands. Pages are emailed to the press. Quality and timeliness reached unprecedented levels by 2000. It allowed more color, which was absent until the late 1990s. More special sections were added and expanded. In March 2015, the Willenbrocks recognized it was time for them to pass on the torch. They sold the newspapers to J. Louis Mullen of Wyoming. Mullen, who is the first owner of The Miner to not live locally, comes from a family steeped in community newspapers. The Miner was the third newspaper he bought, and mid-2016, he and his brother Lloyd purchased the Port Townsend Leader on the Washington peninsula. Their Continued on page 23

Winter Voice

From Page 22

parents own or have owned more than 12 newspapers. With Mullen being an absentee owner, the daily operations were left to the staff. Michelle Nedved became publisher in June 2015. Today the staff consists of Nedved, news editor Don Gronning, office manager Jeanne Guscott, advertising manager Micki Brass, graphic designer Brad Thew, reporter Sophia Aldous, advertising representatives Cindy Boober and Lindsay Guscott, assistant office manager Natalie Babcock, and delivery driver Terry Bradford. During the years, the staff has earned numerous awards from peer groups and organizations for their work in news writing, advertising, opinions, photography and community service. In 2009,

the newspaper earned the general excellence award from the Washington Newspaper Publisher’s Association going up against much larger newspapers. That same year, the paper earned the community service award for promoting the renovation the Newport School District’s sports stadium. The Miner earned general excellence again in 2012 and 2015. Just like publishers of the past have done, The Miner, and its staff have their hearts in this community. They champion its causes, watch out for its best interests, and along the way, tell the story of its people. Editor’s note: The story was compiled from a history of the early Newport Miner written by former reporter and editor Mike Denuty, from the pages of The Miner and from the memories of current and past employees. Michelle Nedved added the information since the departure of Fred and Susan Willenbrock.

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The business of dying

Long history of funeral home starts with a furniture store By Michelle Nedved

Courtesy photo|Sherman Knapp Funeral Home

Clarence Sherman stands outside the current funeral home. He and his wife May owned what is now called Sherman Knapp Funeral Home and Crematory from the 1920s to the 1990s.

Winter Voice

herman-Knapp Funeral Home is an institution in the Pend Oreille River Valley. As one of the oldest businesses in Newport, the funeral home began as both a undertaking service and furniture store. Current owner Keith Campbell explains it was not uncommon for undertakers to build furniture as they were already building caskets. Sherman-Knapp will soon become Sherman-Campbell Funeral Home and Crematory. While Keith

In May 1909, undertaker Henry Miller purchased a new automatic coffin lowering device, which was used for the first time in a Sunday service. The outfit allows for decoration of the grave and does away with the possibility of an accident in lowering of the casket, doing the work automatically. and his wife Cindy bought the company nearly 11 years ago, the change in names has come slowly. The Sherman will remain, Keith explains. The Shermans owned the funeral home from the 1920s until they sold it to Kurt and Kim Knapp in the 1990s. When the Campbells eventually sell, Keith hopes the next owners will also keep Sherman. A long line of families have operated the funeral home – or undertaker service, as it used to be called – since its first incarnation in 1907. The first ad for A. Ray Williams Furniture and Undertaking appears in the Nov. 16, 1907, issue of The Miner Newspaper. The building was located on Washington Avenue, north of the Antler Hotel, according to the Pend Oreille County Historical Museum. At that same time, an undertaker by the name of Henry A. Miller was also in operation. But his story is a bit more colorful. His business and personal life went through a number of trials and tribulations, including a restraining order filed by his wife in April 1908. The couple eventually divorced, and Miller filed for bankruptcy. His company was taken over by the Spokane Jobbers Association, and Miller worked as the manager. The Miller Furniture Store offered furniture, undertaking and embalming. An advertisement from October 1908 Winter Voice

boasts a connection to a specialty hearse as well. Campbell pointed out that undertaking was one of those industries where the competition knows exactly how well your businesses is doing. Not only are funeral homes listed in obituaries, but the undertaker and embalmer in charge of remains were noted in news stories on deaths and accidents. “Undertaker Miller was called to Priest River to take charge of the remains of S. W. Moore who burned to death when a kerosene lamp exploded,” reads a news story in the July 28, 1908, issue of The Miner. On Oct. 8 of that same year, Miller was in charge of the remains of Joseph Hulsman who died of an asthmatic attack. From what can be gleaned from advertising in those early decades of the 1900s, a handful of undertakers operated in what is now Pend Oreille County. Advertisements for Miller came and went and then reappeared throughout the early 1900s, as his personal problems were also documented. “He has been conducting a profitable business here, but family troubles, connected with his second wife and subsequent separation and litigation forced him to take this action,” The Miner reported in April 1908, in regards to Miller’s handing over of his assets to the Spokane Jobbers Association. While Miller’s troubles laced the pages of The Miner, Williams’ business advertised and responded to numerous deaths. Williams took the state examination in Walla Walla to become a licensed embalmer in October 1908. W. E. Boger, who assisted Williams for some time, bought part of the A. Ray Williams Company, including the undertaking and furniture store, in May 1909. Williams was expected to stay in the area, but in August 1909, he sold his remaining stock in his furniture store and moved to Colville. Boger took on another partner in January 1910, when W. A. Ladwig purchased half of the Boger Furniture Co. Boger, in turn, moved to Lothair, Mont., with his family, with plans to start a first general mercantile business in the new town. “They shipped a car of household goods and a car of lumber from this point,” The Miner reported March 24, 1910. It appears that Miller remained a busy undertaker through 1910, while advertisements were mostly for Ladwig’s company. In August 1910, advertisements appeared for Continued on page 27

Voice photo|Michelle Nedved

This photo of May and Clarence Sherman hangs in Sherman Knapp Funeral Home and Crematory. Keith and Cindy Campbell bought the business from Kurt and Kim Knapp 11 years ago. The Campbells are in the process of changing the name to Sherman Campbell Funeral Home and Crematory.

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The embalming license of Williams Davis hangs in a hallway at Sherman Knapp Funeral Home. The embalming licenses of May and Clarence Sherman are also on display.

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with Ladwig as the manager and licensed embalmer. G. R. Klopf, is also a partner, but he died nearly two years later in November 1914. “The death is reported of G. R.

From Page 25

not just Miller and Ladwig, but for Harding and Harding, undertakers. Miller’s personal problems

A. J. Green, a Spokane druggist was accidentally shot in a boat near Locke in October 1913. Prosecuting attorney Jones, Justice Lusher, Dr. Phillips and Undertaker Harding made the trip to Locke in Phillips’ car. It was proved to be accidental. There was a dog in the boat too. But while driving to Locke to investigate the Green shooting, Dr. Phillips ran over and killed a pheasant. It is rumored that the game commission will look into the matter as Dr. Phillips has failed to take out a license, and there is a question whether it is legal to kill pheasants with an auto. Prosecutor Jones and Justice Lusher were in the party, and may also be held to have contributed toward the violation of the game laws. continued. He foreclosed on his lots located in the Talmadge Addition in November 1911. The Hardings continued to operate, and in May 1912, moved into a building that had formerly been occupied by the Star Theatre. In January 1913, Newport Undertaking Co., comes into existence,

Klopf, undertaker, of Rathdrum, and a pioneer of that section. Mr. Klopf was well known in Pend Oreille County, operating branches of the undertaking establishment at Newport, Ione and Metaline Falls,” The Miner reported. In March 1915, C. E. Bobo and sons, funeral directors and licensed em-

balmers from Rathdrum, appear on the scene. They purchased Newport Undertaking Company, which was still under the management of Ladwig. The office was located in the building behind Northern Hotel, formerly used as an office by the Newport Water Co. The following month, the Bobos bought 24 feet of frontage on Third Street, and bought the Harding Undertaking business, combining the last two funeral homes into one operation. The Bobos moved to Newport from Rathdrum in early 1916. “The Bobos conduct an extensive undertaking business operating along the line of the Milwaukee from Rathdrum to Metaline Falls,” The Miner reported. “They formerly maintained headquarters at Rathdrum, but will now make Newport their principal place of business, the location here being more central.” James Bobo, one of the sons, moved to Ione in April of 1917 to work as a barber. The family’s hearse followed, being towed from Rathdrum to Ione by Willy’s truck. The Bobos operated in both Idaho and Washington, and continued to grow the company. They purchased a Reo truck in 1917, and mounted their hearse body on it. It was refurbished in Spokane and

arrived in Newport in November, “beautifully finished in steel gray, that would do credit to any city,” according to The Miner. That new hearse made the trip to Priest River without difficulty in December of that year. Around this time, the tradition of Newport’s undertaker taking public office began. B. E. Bobo was appointed county coroner, to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of J. M. McDonald. He was elected coroner in September 1918. That was short-lived however. William Davis of Bozeman, Mont., arrived in Newport in June 1919, and bought the Bobo undertaking business. The Bobo family moved from Newport the following month. The father was expected to open a hardware businesses, and his son Eddie was to work for the Buchanan undertaking establishment in Spokane. The town was excited for Davis to arrive. “Mr. Davis makes a very pleasing impression upon our people as a business man and a valued addition to our town. He is a good roads booster and was active in the work in Montana. He is making extensive alterations in the south store room of the Edminston Continued on page 28

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From Page 27

building in which he will locate his undertaking parlor. The family is living in the Moore house vacated by Dr. Wallace and wife,” The Miner reported in June 1919. Davis renovated the Edminston building, both inside and out, offering a funeral chapel. The brick building behind the Edminston building, that once housed a bake-shop, was remodeled for a garage and workshop for Davis in August 1919. The beginning of the following year, Davis was appointed by the State Health Officer, to act as registrar of vital statistics for the Newport and surrounding areas. In March 1922, Davis leased the basement room of the Edminston building and used it for casket displays and a store room. It seems he was a good embalmer too. “William Davis is in receipt of a letter from undertakers at Newton, N.C., stating that the body of P. E. Hunsuker had arrived in excellent condition and complimenting Mr. Davis on his work,” The Miner reported in early 1924. Sometime in 1924, C. L. Booth joined Davis in the undertaking business. They purchased the Adam Voos building on Spokane Avenue – where Sherman Knapp is located today. They began a remodel in April 1924, and placed a foundation under the building. That building originally stood next to Kelly’s Tavern on Fifth Street, and housed the funeral home in both locations. Davis had bigger plans, though. He bought half the interest in the oldest established undertaking firm in the state of Idaho in August 1925, and moved his family to Boise. He resigned as county coroner and the county commissioners appointed Booth to fill the vacancy. Davis was later appointed to the Idaho State Embalmers Board. Booth was elected president of the Inland Empire Funeral Directors Association in March 1927, which had nearly 200 members from towns and cities throughout eastern Washington and northern Idaho. “The association has for its aim a unified service of greater efficiency, ‘with all the little details, the courtesies, the kindliness and thoughtfulness being emphasized, taking away the professional director and leaving the kindly, sympathetic friend in the time of trouble,’” The Miner reported. In May 1927, the garage businesses of Carpenter and Sherman dissolved. Carpenter remained at the helm of the garage business, and C. E. Sherman, who was the local representative of the Continental Oil Co., was to devote his

time to that business. But later that year, Clarence Sherman purchased an interest in Davis and Booth Undertaking in Newport. In a September 1928 issue of The Miner the first advertisement appeared with the Booth and Sherman name. A four-room apartment was prepared on the second floor of the building on Third and Spokane, for the Booths to live in. In April 1928, Davis returned to Newport for a visit. He had sold his undertaking business in Boise, and was representing a San Francisco casket house in eastern

Believing that the custom is a dangerous one and hallowed by nothing more than antiquity, many funeral directors are joining in a national movement to discontinue the uncovering of the head by those attending funerals, as reported in December 1929. Much sickness has been traced to the custom of standing bareheaded outside the place where services are held and at the graveside during funerals. Washington, northern Idaho and Montana. Davis returned to Newport from Bozeman, Mont., in 1930 and bought back his interest in the business. That year it became known as Sherman and Davis. The new partners added a hearse and ambulance. The hearse was mounted on a Lincoln chassis with an eight-cylinder, 96 horsepower engine. The ambulance was a Graham-Paige chassis, mounted with a body designed by Davis. His goal was to provide all the possible comfort to their riders. In 1992 Kurt and Kim Knapp purchased the funeral home from the Shermans. They successfully ran it until selling it to the current owners, Keith and Cindy Campbell in 2006. The Knapps are still very active in the community, and Kurt has served as Pend Oreille Public Utility District commissioners for several years. Keith Campbell is a Newport City Councilman. Winter Voice

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Courtesy photo|Sherman Knapp Funeral Home

In the 1950s an addition was built to house a new chapel at Sherman Knapp Funeral Home. The previous chapel area was then used to display caskets, but is now used for receptions.

Winter Voice

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Courtesy photo|Sherman Knapp Funeral Home

Notice the Furniture and Undertaking sign. Undertakers used to also be furniture makers because they were already in the business of building caskets. This is Main Street in downtown Newport, presumably what is now Washington Avenue, taken about 1907. At that time A. Ray Williams owned what would eventually become Sherman Knapp Funeral Home and Crematory.

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Long-time employee worked through changes in technology, publishers By Don Gronning

n 1961, Lee Smith was just out of high school when he heard about an opening at The Miner. “I was working at Pat’s Picture shop at the time,” Smith remembers. The ad salesman for The Miner came by and suggested that Smith go down and apply for a job. So Smith did. That began a career in printing that lasted more than four decades, all at The Miner. Smith saw the newspaper industry change dramatically in the time that he was at The Miner. He worked for four different publishers. “When I first started, I was a printer’s devil,” Smith said. A printer’s devil was an apprentice who did a variety of tasks, from mixing ink to taking out the trash. Building a newspaper was far different in those days. Individual letters were cast in metal and arranged in lines. The lines were adjusted for space and then put into a rack that made up the page. The letter-filled rack would weight as much as 50 pounds. Ink was rolled over the top and the page was printed on newsprint. “We printed our own paper in those days,” Smith said. They would hand feed the pages into the printer, one sheet at a time. Then they would turn the page over and print the other side. “Most of the time we printed eight-page papers,” Smith said. Adding more pages meant quite a bit of work, involving two extra people. Reporters and correspondents would hand write their stories. They would then go to the typesetter, who would type the stories on a linotype machine. The linotype machine was 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Typists would type on a keyboard that bore little resemblance to today’s keyboard. The top three rows were for lowercase letters, with the next three rows for capitals and another row Winter Voice

for dingbats, the ornamental characters that were used for spacing and decoration. The letters were grouped so that commonly used words could be easily typed, such as the word “the,” which could be typed with one movement. By the time Smith retired in 2003, printing of the newspaper bore little resemblance to the way it was made four decades earlier. A few years after Smith started, reporters started writing with manual typewriters. Each desk had a bottle of rubber cement and reporters would cut and paste their stories together, handing off to the typesetter, who typed them again. Jump forward to the early 1990s, when reporters and editors moved to McIntosh computers. The paper was first laid out electronically, using a page layout program, although in the end the page was pasted onto layout sheets and a negative was shot of the whole page. Digital cameras replaced the film cameras and eventually the whole paper was laid out and electronically transmitted to the printer. Smith also worked for four of The Miner’s publishers. “All the owners were funny,” Smith said. He started out working for Freeman Frost. “He took a lot of photos,” Smith said. He remembers the annual Christmas pictures of the Frost beagle, with its long ears. Frost was just an ordinary person, Smith said. “He really wasn’t like a boss,” he said. Frost would take a month off in the summer. “He’d just tell us to make sure the paper got out,” Smith said. Frost sold the paper Jerry Carpenter in the mid 1960s. “He was into real estate,” Smith remembers. “He would sell five acre parcels for $25 a month.” Carpenter also taught community college courses, including courses in journalism. Since he was away so much, his wife and son handled much of the newspa-

per business, Smith said. “One day I took off my apron and told him, ‘you try this on, I quit,’” Smith said. “He asked why. I told him I had too many bosses.” In the end, Smith didn’t quit. The paper was sold to Jim and Sherry Hubbard in 1977. Hubbard was a big city newspaper and ad man from California. He wasn’t afraid of controversy, and the stories reflected it. He wasn’t always beloved by some of the subjects of his stories. That didn’t bother him much, though, Smith said. “He always said, ‘if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen,’” Smith remembers. “He would say, ‘this is my paper and I’ll run it the way I want to.’”

Fred Willenbrock took over in 1986. Smith said the first time he met Willenbrock, he thought he was a new reporter. Smith didn’t know the paper was for sale. In fact, every time the paper changed hands, the staff was among the last to know, he said. “It was always a shock to the employees,” he said. But Willenbrock was indeed the new publisher, Smith’s fourth. “He was the best editorial writer of all of them,” Smith said. No matter whose name was on the masthead as publisher, Smith said the paper was really owned by the community. “The Newport Miner belongs to Pend Oreille County,” Smith said.

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