Remember When?

105 YEARS AGO • JANUARY 22, 1920

VULGAR DANCES BANNED

New York – Old fashioned keep-your-distance dances are to displace the modern jazz steps, if the nationwide reform movement undertaken by the American National Association of Masters of Dancing proves successful. The dancing masters, it is announced here, count on the support of mothers, fathers, sons, dance hall proprietors, dancing teachers and hostesses – and if necessary the police department – to exterminate the “half Nelson,” “body hold,” “shimmy lock” and other imported ballroom grips which are practiced by some dancers.

LOGGERS GOING STRONG IN WEST

Missoula - Eighty cars of logs are handled daily on the runs of the Northern Pacific and Milwaukee railways terminating at Bonner and Missoula according to estimates made by railway officials.

The A.C.M. Company has resumed log shipments from St. Regis, where lumber operations have been revived after an interval of some years. Twenty cars a day are being sent to the Bonner mills from the Coeur d’Alene country.

From 15 to 20 cars are being shipped from the vicinity of Evaro to the mill of the Western Lumber company at Milltown. Dan McQuarrie is shipping an average of four cars of logs daily to the Polleys Lumber company from Lolo.

The Milwaukee log run from Stark and Soudan to the Bonner mills is carrying 40 cars a day, the month's record for December being 810 cars or over 7,000,000 feet.

Plenty of cars are available for all shipments on both roads, no shortage being felt here, while any in this region will be relieved, it is expected, by the 31 trains of empty cars which are being sent to the northwest by the railway administration.

30 YEARS AGO JANUARY 5, 1995

UNDERSHERIFF BADGE WORK

AFTER 30 YEARS

When Sheriff Gene Arnold donned the badge of Sheriff of Sanders County Tuesday, he laid aside another badge, one that holds a special significance to a local family.

It was the undersheriff badge of A. Ben Cox, the sheriff of Sanders County from 1961 through 1966. Cox wore the undersheriff badge when he served in that position for his predecessor, Sheriff Wally Britton.

Arnold related that Highway Patrolman Tony Cox, the grandson of Sheriff Cox, found the badge while going through remembrances at his grandmother’s, Tynne Cox, who still resides in Thompson Falls. He showed the badge, which carries his grandfather’s signature on the back, to Arnold and then allowed him to wear it for about a month after he was elected to the sheriff’s post in November.

Arnold said it was an honor to wear the badge, which was more in the shape of a traditional sheriff’s star. The six-sided silver star is larger and simpler than the more ornate badges worn now. Arnold said badges are usually five, six or seven-starred.

Tynne, now 86, said she couldn't quite remember why her husband got into law enforcement, although she thought it was probably at the request of Britton. Ben succeeded to the office of sheriff in 1961 when Britton resigned and then won a full term in 1962. He declined to seek reelection in 1966.

She said she had forgotten that she had the badge until Tony discovered it and a smaller one in some of her things. She figured the reason she had the badge was because officers were probably asked to purchase their own badges back then.

A. Ben Cox died in 1973. His undersheriff, Dick Cole of Thompson Falls, had succeeded him in office.

Note: It was during Ben’s term as Sheriff that the first floor of the jail was renovated into a dispatcher's office and the official personnel no longer used the jail as living quarters. Tynne Cox, Ben’s wife, still did the cooking for the prisoners, but now it was done from their own home and she brought it to the jail. He retired from the sheriff’s office in July 1967. After working as the sheriff, Ben and Tynne ran the Big Pine Tourist Camp (now Little Bear).