Holiday prep and festivities well under way and a look backward

Music in the Air

A concert will be performed Friday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 1, at 2 p.m. by Alicia Mielke on flute and Kevin Garnica on piano at the Mielke barn located at 35099 Rolinco Road E., near Sprague, nine miles south of Harrington on the Harrington-Tokio Road. The concert will consist of a full hour of music with an intermission midway. No tickets or invitation are needed. All are welcome with a suggested donation of $20. For additional information, the Mielkes may be contacted at the barnconcert@gmail.com address.

Santa is coming

Due to unstable weather patterns in the Pacific Northwest, Harrington Opera House has enlisted the Harrington Fire Marshal to replace those beautiful reindeer (Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen) to bring Santa to town. Children who wish to watch his arrival need to be on Willis Street before 11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1. Karen Robertson will be available to take professional photos of children with Santa from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The venue will remain open until 1:30 for those who wish to take their own photos. The Harrington Chamber of Commerce will provide goodie bags.

Holiday Bazaar

Harrington’s Second Annual Hometown Christmas Celebration is Saturday, Dec. 1, from noon to 5 p.m. with a variety of vendors at the Memorial Hall. Children’s crafts will be offered from 1 to 2 p.m. Throughout the day, there will be Christmas music on the keyboard. Children’s piano, as well as tap and jazz dance performances will be featured. Homemade soup and rolls will be served from noon to 5 p.m.

Tree lighting

The day’s celebration will end with the tree lighting at the corner of Willis and Third at 5:15 p.m., when the Harrington Elementary students will sing holiday favorites.

Kids perform Wednesday

“Holiday Songfest” will be presented Dec. 5, Wednesday, from 6 to 7 p.m. by the K-6th-grade students under the supervision of Taunya Sanford at the Harrington Opera House. This event provides the students with the opportunity to perform on the Opera House stage. It is hoped that the community will turn out in good numbers to support the efforts of the school and community working together for the benefit of all.

Thanksgiving among us

The Harrington Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by the Harrington Food Mart, Lincoln County Hospital, Good Neighbor Pharmacy, Les Schwab, The Post and Office, Subway and “friends” of the annual event was attended by 50 people. Chief chef and organizer of the dinner, Jen Mallery, arrived at 6 a.m. with her helpful crew streaming in as the clock quickly moved ahead. The dinner guests began arriving at 10 a.m. An Invocation was given by Tony Hamilton, who also introduced Mallery, who in turn introduced her support crew, who served the guests at the tables. The feast was a bountiful supply of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, rolls, green beans, cranberry sauce and olives. The offering of pies was apple or pumpkin, and both were well received. Following dessert and much conversation, people prepared for bingo (and, of course, prizes) in which both adults and children participated.

Historic Thanksgivings

It must have been a unique experience to have one’s name appear in the columns of a newspaper in the very early days of life in and about Harrington. With a whole collection of news items from 1882 to 1900, the first mention of Thanksgiving in that group is in 1894 at which time this tiny mention was made in the Davenport paper, the Lincoln County Times: “Walter Knapp and his daughter will discourse music for the Harrington people Thanksgiving night at the ball to be given in Turner & Plough’s large hall.” The following year, we learn that this was an apparent annual event: “Bills are out announcing a Thanksgiving ball to be given Wednesday evening, Nov. 27, at Turner & Plough’s hall. Music by Edwall Orchestra.” The turkey and Thanksgiving festivities were competing in 1895, however, as that was the year that the first actual “church” edifice was being built, and high hopes were for it to be completed by Thanksgiving. “Thanksgiving services were held in the new German ME Church, after which a turkey dinner was served at the residence of Mr. Beelar (Buehler).” Rev. Buehler was the first pastor of the Zion German Methodist church seven miles northwest of Harrington; their church had been built in 1889. The Harrington German ME Church was built on the northeast corner of the intersection of Alice and 3rd street, where for many years a portion of the old church had been remodeled into a house which later became the parsonage for the Harrington Church of the Nazarene.

When the Citizen began publication on Nov. 11, 1898, it made it much easier for one’s name to appear in the gathered Harrington news items. In its first edition, it stated: “Published Every Friday At Harrington, Wn. Jas. R Goodwin, Verne L. Joslyn: Editors and Publishers.” These two men had some winning ideas on making the paper survive the odds, as can be seen in this their first statement to their patrons: “In offering to the people of Harrington and vicinity the first number of the Citizen, the publishers do so with a confident belief that the field for such a paper is an excellent one, and by hard work and perseverance we hope to deserve success. While the newspaper business may be a comparatively new one to us, we feel that no apologies are demanded so long as we print the news truthfully and fully, but to our critics we would say, deal gently, to our friends be patient and to our enemies, if perchance some should look at us in that light, be just. Our object is to give the people each week a paper worthy of the name it bears, working for the welfare of Harrington and vicinity, advancing whatever cause is right, and to stand firmly for principle. A glance at our advertising columns is proof enough that the Citizen has come to stay. To the merchants of Harrington, who are so liberal with their patronage, we are thankful, and hope to be able to give them a receipt each month, ‘For value received.’ If there are those who do not agree with our opinion as expressed in these columns, we will say, in the words of another country editor: ‘When a subscriber finds a line in his paper that he does not like and can’t agree with, if he will bring his paper to the office and point out the offending line, the editor will take his scissors and cut it out for him’.” (Citizen: 11-11-1898)

“Local Matters. Herman Dyke is a Spokane visitor today. Mr. F.J. Lively of Spokane is in town for a few days. Hazlewood dairy milk for sale at the Up-To-Date Restaurant. A live correspondent is wanted in each locality where the Citizen is read. Mace DeLane, proprietor of the Up-To-Date Restaurant, spent Thanksgiving at this place. M.T. Chism has traded for the Talkington house and will rent the upper story to a small family, cheap. Dave and Wilbur Yarwood passed through town Tuesday en route to Mohler. Wilbur recently took unto himself a helpmate for life and is correspondingly happy.

A Grand Success. To say that the Thanksgiving ball was a success, would be putting it mildly. Long before the shades of night had gathered the merrymakers commenced to arrive and with the first sounds of the music there was a goodly number of dancers upon the floor. The splendid success of this, their first ball, bespeaks a liberal patronage for the managers, Messrs. Green, Charlton and Douglas, and their next public dance, which will be given on the evening of Dec. 23, will doubtless be largely attended. For Sale At a Bargain. The finest brick residence in the city. Call on M.T. Chism.” (Citizen: 11-25-1898)

Thanksgiving in 1899 was not about turkey, potatoes or even the grand ball, it was about wheat! One of the main thriving industries to keep the townsmen employed was the Harrington Milling Company with the construction of the mill. They had a brief trial run, but the “first run” was planned for Thanksgiving day. A lengthy description of the plant included a guided tour by Manager Smalley and began in the basement where piles of sacked grain waited. A conveyer carried the grain to an elevator which took it up to the floors above. The conveyer consisted of a wooden box about 12 inches square running the full width of the room and containing augur-like iron pieces. Hoppers were attached to the conveyer, into which the wheat was dumped. There were four hoppers, one each for the north and south parts of the basement, one for the warehouse adjoining on the west and another for wagon loads on the east side of the building. The first floor had four iron packers, two for flour, one for bran and shorts and one for feed. There was also a separator and a dust collector. The dust was carried to the second floor and thrown out into space on the outside of the building. The second floor was called the grinding floor. There were two corrugated rolls and five smooth rolls, a barley mill, a separator for cleaning wheat and flour bins. Three grades of flour were made: Patent, straight and low grade. The third story was called the purifying room in which were located aspirators, two tubular dust collectors and a wheat scourer. The fourth floor had two plansifters and the plansifter scalper where the bran was taken off, a long scourer, a centrifugal reel separator, a dust collector and a cockle machine. On a platform above the fifth floor were elevator heads, the top of the elevator system. The capacity of the mill at its opening was anticipated at 200 barrels a day. Four brands of flour would go on the market from the Harrington Milling Co: Harrington Best, Morning Glory, Uneda and Sansation. J. Chisholm was the contractor for the enormous building which functioned until 1921, although it sold to Spokane Flouring Mills in 1901. The original incorporation papers were signed by Harrington’s leading citizens: John F. Green, A.L. Smalley, Adams & Mitchum, Davis Johnson, Jack Adams, J.W. Hughes, J. Gus Olson, F.M. Charlton and Will Green, all of Harrington and vicinity, and Dan Hoch of Spokane. At the first annual meeting, the following officers were elected: John F. Green, President; A.L. Smalley, VP and Manager, and A.G. Mitchum, Secretary and Treasurer.