This Week in Bonners Ferry History
100 Years Ago
An attempted slacker was inducted into the service when trying to leave the country. Aloysius Edward Fiala, an employee of the Idaho Continental Mine was apprehended a few days ago, while on his way out of the country and having failed to register for the draft. Postmaster John R. Viley took the suspect to Sheriff Dunning’s office where arrangements were promptly made for his induction into the service and has been sent to Camp Lewis, Washington.
Statistics compiled by the New York Milk Committee reveal that there was a bumper baby crop throughout the U.S. in 1917. Basing its conclusions on figures gleaned from 163 of the largest cities in the country, the committee estimates that the number of births totaled 2,678,000 and the number of deaths totaled 1,648,000, leaving a national increase in population of over 1,000,000.
Henry Henige, a local tie maker has gone to Spokane with the avowed intention of securing a wife. His ad in the Spokane paper: “I want a woman of 35-40 years, not afraid of work, who is willing to go with me to my camp and make her home. I want a woman who can talk a lot and the more she can talk the better. I will be pleased as life in the woods is so lonesome that a woman’s voice will be a welcome change.”
An advertisement purchased by patriotic contributors from Copeland, including the Washburn, Guthrie, Dehlbom, Gudbaur, Krause, and Ripatti families says:
In the name of the women of Flanders
Who are ploughing the German fields,
Yoked to the ox and under the lash
Buy bonds - lest the country yield.
In the name of the girls and the children
The Belgian, the Serb, and the French,
You know what a German victory means
Buy bonds for a stronger trench.
In the name of our murdered seamen,
Of hospitals bombed from the sky,
In the name of Good Friday, in Paris
In the name of Decency - Buy. Author - Lucy Price
50 Years Ago
An eight-year-old girl from Bonners Ferry won the Junior American Indian beauty contest at the recent Pendleton (Ore.) Roundup. Mary Ellen Baker, a member of the Gros Ventre and Mandan Indian tribes and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gail Baker of Bonners Ferry, won the title with an unusual costume, a pretty smile, and considerable poise. Her 30 year-old costume is covered with 500 elk teeth. She is a student at Southside Grade School.
Atty. James F. Lyons has resigned as contract officer at the University of Idaho to enter private practice as an attorney, and is now associated with the firm of Nixon and Nixon in Bonners Ferry effective Oct. 1.
Mr. and Mrs. Don Kerby attended the state real estate convention in Twins Falls Sept. 19-21. Mr. Kerby was presented a medallion from Omega Tau Rho-National realtor honorary, having served as an elected officer of the National Association of Real Estate Boards.
15 Years Ago
The local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity is celebrating its 10th anniversary. In the years since, Mt. Hall teacher, Dave Gause helped found the Boundary County Habitat organization, volunteers have built four houses for families from the community and a fifth is in the planning stages.
The Mace Gallery annual fall show will feature the oils and the watercolors of the Pacific Northwest by Jean Mace and the colored pencil work of her daughter, Judy. There will be 28 new pieces among the many paintings of the people and places of our Northwest country.
A former athlete and graduate of BFHS took top honors in his class at the Idaho State Police Advanced Training Academy, Kenny Yount, 23, son of Ken and Alisa Yount, was third out of his class of 34 at the POST Academy and one of eight graduates who became Idaho State Police officers.
— Submitted by the Boundary County Museum