Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
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Josephine Winchell was born in Hood River, Ore., in 1863. Seventeen years later she married William Ditmar, 25. They claimed a quarter in 1880 and homesteading in 1886. They also claimed a timber culture in 1889, but this was not proved until 1898. In 1893, they were divorced. Josephine got custody of the five boys and the homestead quarter, horses, and farm equipment to support them. William was to pay off their debts. William remarried and worked the timber culture quarter. He earned enough to be able to purchase some more...
REARDAN - For most Lincoln County locals, the iconic concrete grain elevators stand to define our home towns. When one is lucky enough to fly over the area, they first look to the elevators to identify which town they are flying over. The six at Reardan have stood there for nearly 70 years. But how did they get there? Were they just born or plopped down there? In Jan. 1952, Reardan woke to realize that its oldest building and best-known landmark had burned to the ground. The...
REARDAN - Several young men from LincolnCounty served in Spruce Squadrons during World War I, including Reardan men August Mahrt Sr., Gustave Wagner and John Hickenbottom. Most World War I soldiers do not include the Spruce Squadron designation on their tombstones, making them hard to find, so there are probably many more. There were about 19,000 men serving in Washington and Oregon. Wagner learned about the Spruce Squadrons while doing his basic training at what was then...
LONG LAKE - Little Falls Dam is now overlooked due to the other larger dams in the area, but in its day Little Falls was a technical wonder. It boasted having the largest turbines in the world, matching the size of the Niagara Falls turbines. It doubled the generating power of the Washington Water Power Company (WWP, now Avista). It was also the most remote of all WWP dams. There was little advance publication of the construction of the dam. The WWP had gotten permission from...
REARDAN - On the morning of Aug. 3, 1926, two sisters, Amy and Myrtle Shipman, telephone operators for the Interstate Telephone Company and daughters of the owners of the Inland Hotel in Reardan where they were living, were awakened by the crackling sounds of fire. They quickly raised the alarm. The fire destroyed the two-story brick building known as the Bowie Block where the fire started. It housed Hanel's Pioneer Drug Store and Sherman S. Bentley's General Store on the...
FORT SPOKANE - James Monaghan was an early pioneer of eastern Washington and one who paved the way for many other pioneers that followed him. He is mentioned in the history of Lincoln County on the county's web site, although most of his accomplishments were outside of the county. He was born in Ireland in 1840 and went to New York when he was 16 years old. Two years later he came to Washington territory via the isthmus of Panama [The other alternatives would have been...
