Remember When?

d105 YEARS AGO • FEBRUARY 28, 1918

WILL CUT MATCH TIMBER

Start Erection of Mill at Whitepine to handle 5,000,000 Feet of Wood

Work has been commenced by the Idaho Match Works on a saw mill about seven miles up Whitepine Creek to handle the cutting of about 5,000,000 feet of whitepine timber for the manufacture of matches. The machinery arrived the latter part of the week and is being taken to the mill site and a force of men is at work on the building.

The timber which will be worked up into match blocks has been purchased from the government by Swan Swanson who has entered into a contract with the match company to log and deliver it to the mill and then to deliver the sawed product to the railroad. The government contract calls for the logging of about 8,000,000 feet, but only a little more than 5,000,000 feet is the white pine available for the making of matches.

The tract is located on Whitepine Creek which will be used to convey the logs to the mill A dam has been constructed at the mill site to store the logs until they are sawed, and the blocks will be seasoned at the mill for some time before they can be hauled to the railroad. Owing to the lay of the land the hauling will have to be done during the winter, while the sleighing is good, but the logging will be done during the summer season. It is estimated that it will take four or five years to complete the contract.

70 YEARS AGO • FEBRUARY 18, 1953

TELEVISION TESTS PROVE IMPRACTICAL

In accordance with the modern policy of Larson’s Cash Store to bring the people of Thompson Falls the answers to the latest questions - when will we have television? - the Green brothers arranged to bring in a television expert with a portable antenna that would extend to 65 feet, a Zenith television set and the latest testing equipment available. Starting at Larson’s Store a series of 5 tests were made in and around the city. All of the tests within the city showed the signal to be too weak for a good picture. The signal was not being received direct from Spokane but was being bounced back to our city from Mount Silcox. A test made at Ed Hartman’s picked up the signal direct from Spokane and was the only location tested which brought in a fair picture.

Tests made with the strength meter indicated too weak a signal for a dependable picture. The results of this survey will be forwarded to the station so that if it is in their power to improve our reception they will do so.

35 YEARS AGO • JANUARY 7, 1988

ONE-TIME PLAINS MAYOR CELEBRATES 85TH BIRTHDAY

The only woman to serve as mayor of Plains celebrated her 85th birthday Sunday. Fifty guests gathered for the celebration at her daughter and son-in-law, Joyce and Gerald Bybee home.

Mrs. Beamish, who retired from teaching in 1971, lives in a mobile home next to the Bybees at the Blue Slide Road turnoff, west of Thompson Falls. She is known for her “green thumb” and spends most of her time raising plants and flowers which Joyce says “she can grow on rocks.”

Lillian began her higher education in 1923 at Dillon Normal Teachers College, now Western Montana College. Her first teaching job was at the Little Rock Creek School in Granite County, out of Philipsburg. She later taught at Lync Creek School near Plains until she married Robert Beamish May 18, 1927.

She resumed her teaching career at Paradise during World War II due to the shortage of teachers. She later served as acting Plains postmaster for three years. She served as Plains first and only female mayor during the fifties.

Mrs. Beamish moved to Thompson Falls in 1958 where she taught school in the intermediate grades for 13 years, retiring in June, 1971. Mr. Beamish died two years later.

The couple had three children; a son, Robert, who worked for the United Nations for many years in the Arabian area; and two daughters, Joyce Bybee of Thompson Falls, Jean Holdsombeck of Seattle and nine grandchildren.