Local history for your reading pleasure

Highlighting the Past: Kinzel and Kinoshita

In June of 2015, local home owner Kris Moritz donated a sizable collection of photos and memorabilia from her mother’s (Alice Kinzel Moritz) estate. At that time it was reported in The Record of the heritage of Alice Kinzel, descended from Russia-born Fred A. Kinzel and his wife Katherine Kramer (of the Peter A. Kramer lineage). Alice Kinzel was one of 22 graduates in the Harrington Class of 1942. Many familiar names are in that class: Verne Heimbigner, Eugene Cronrath, Rudolph Wagner, Theodore Watanabe, Keith Williams, Garth Cormana, Irene Fiske, Marian Harter, Frances Gateley, Glenna Hawkins, Dorothy Flemming, Norma Schultz, Dessie Mae Watson, Ruth Roth, Eleanor Lucht, Dorothy Dietrich, Mary Rieth, Marjorie Coleman, Jean Defabaugh, Marie Timm, Maxine Abbott and Alice Kinzel.

Last fall the city library received a similar collection of photos and memorabilia from the family of Joshyo Kinoshita, the son of Japanese immigrants who owned the local restaurant in 1926 and after the Depression. Under their ownership, the restaurant was robbed. “Hold-Up Man Robs Japanese. ‘Stop,’ demanded a stick-up-man about 10 p.m. last night to Joe Kinoshita, proprietor of the Royal Cafe, as he and his wife were going home down the alley back of the cafe. They stopped. ‘Put your money on the ground,’ was the next command, the robber’s gun still pointing at Joe. ‘All right,’ replied Joe, turning as pale as a ghost. And he layed (sic) $100 on the ground. ‘Now go home,’ said the bandit. Joe did. Marshal McKinnon was soon notified and the search for the thief is in progress. A ‘stop payment’ order was placed at the bank for about $40.00 in checks but the rest is gone.” (Citizen: 2-19-1926)

Born April 12, 1925, Joshyo became known as the “Boy Ran (sic) Over by Automobile.” “Joseph Kinoshita, better known as ’Jo-Jo’, the little Japanese lad whom you see about the Royal Cafe, was knocked down by an automobile about 8:30 Saturday night and quite severely bruised and scratched up about the head and face. The wheels of the car did not run over him, but cleared him as the car passed over him after he was knocked down. ’Jo-Jo’ had been across the street to the Family Theatre to get a bag of popcorn and ran out into the street on his way to the Royal Cafe when he was struck by a car driven by one of Mr. E.O. Mudd’s sons. Mr. Mudd did not see the little fellow until right upon him and applying the brakes stopped the car within its length. Marshal James McKinnon was close by and carried Joseph to Dr. Wagner’s office where his wounds were dressed. Tuesday he was taken to Davenport where an X-ray indicated that no bones had been broken. The little fellow is still running about the restaurant, but looks like he had had a fight with a quartet of Tom cats. Those who saw the accident say it was unavoidable.” (Citizen: 8-30-1929)

This did not deter him as he graduated from Harrington in the Class of 1943 in which the graduates were: Cecil Birge, Josephine Roth, Donald Watanabe, Regina Depner, Robert Baker. Shirley Williams, Joshyo Kinoshita, Marie Yarwood, Arthur Mann, Virginia Turner, Ronald Watanabe, Dorothy Taylor, Leonard Long, Carol Hopp, Tommy Kubota, Glen Abbott, Adeline Stelzer, George Carpy.

The Harrington Library is attempting to reconstruct the data for the graduating years of 1927 through 1945, years in which no high school annuals were published. These two contributions of Kinzel and Kinoshita memorabilia have been added to the news items of baccalaureate and graduation articles, graduation photos of seniors, class history articles, and some of the “Seniors in Review” items from the archives of the Citizen.

Indexes for the Kinzel and Kinoshita notebooks of memorabilia have been written so that we can know at a glance which photos have identifications and which do not, as well as to know if we have a specific photo in our collection. The Kinoshita photos include the Harrington student body of 1939-40 with no names and the Kinzel collection has the student body 1940-41 will all names included. It was possible to then take the names furnished by Kinzel and add those names to the Kinoshita photo of the same group. Both collections have the student body in 1942 but neither had the names attached. Both notebooks contained a large group of business cards, many duplicates between the two sources. Many individual photos are in each set, many with names. These collections include commencement programs, sports booklets, sheet music, advertisement fliers for junior and senior class plays, mementos and photos from senior sneak events, Letter H Club photo, news and sports items, and obituaries of classmates added years after their graduation.

With more winter months ahead of us, the Harrington Library is hoping that families of former graduates will bring copies of early school events where photocopies can be made and a greater collection can be built for the years in which no annuals were published. The graduating classes from 1918 to present have their photos posited on the walls of the halls of the high school. No annuals were published before 1920, which leaves 14 years in which data is being gathered, as well as the previously mentioned data after the 1926 annual to the annual of 1946, a period of 20 years more.

An oration from the first graduate from Harrington High School in 1907, Grace Snyder, was given entitled: “Nulla Palma Sine Labore”, No Reward Without Labor. “Do you wish to know of what you are made? Act, and you will find out; slumber and you will never know. In action alone does a character unfold and develop, in action alone does a nature become a living, tangible reality. The germ of character lies sleeping, even lifeless, until a man wakes it by a determination to act. It is then that his real character and strength are found; it is then that he feels more keenly the need of work, physical as well as mental. His limbs are strengthened by exercise and his sinews, braced by exertion. If every organ performs its appointed duty, it grows thereby, and the body is kept strong and well. Exercise quickens the circulation and the joints are kept pliant by use. Disease is repelled by internal vigor, and the whole body, free from the petty ailments entailed by sluggishness, does not fall a prey to peevishness and irritation, and the time is usefully employed, not idly wasted in murmurs and discontent... Anyone can drift with the current; it takes hard work to row up stream, but when allowed to drift, the boat, though gliding so smoothly and easily, must at last reach the rapids, be dashed upon the rocks and lost; but when guided by a steady oar, it safely reaches the required destination. Shall we drift, or row? Nothing in life worth the having, ever was gained without effort. If all things come to him who waits, they come only when he has filled his period of waiting, with persistent working. The things worth while are those difficult of attainment, and those things prized, must be striven for. Truly, ‘There is no victory without labor’.” (excerpt Citizen: 5-31-1907)

This young graduate was married in 1908 to Harry E. Morgan, and together they operated a grocery store and raised three children. Grace died in 1944 in Portland.