The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1913-06-26
CRADLEBAUGH WRITES
OF PIONEER DAYS.
Salem. Ore. June Is, 1918.

write something OF nOOu hlNeF ear
lier days is thoroughly appreciated, for
my recollections of the richest and
most beautiful little valley in the
world, are indeed pleasant to recall,
and to put them on paper, indeed la
Dor of love. There are two difficulties
in the way of complying with your re-
quest, however. One, that with all
the pleasant things that come trooping
10 the front as memory beckons, one
knows not where nor how TO begin
and the other that once started there is
no good stopping place. Added to this
the fact that YOU have still with you
those who found Hood River valley, as
il were, a wilderness and have made II
an orchard, who know il from its baby
hood, makes it presumptuous on my
part to speak of il other than Of my
own too brief stay there.
first went to Hood River at the re-
quest of George I. Prather. At the
time | was editing a newspaper in The
Dalles, the old Wasco Sun, II my men,
ory serves me right. and Prather sug-
gested starting a little paper at Hood
River. | visited the little town nestled
under the hill, like lone chick under
its mothers wing, and took a trip out
through the valley. | was deeply i'm
pressed with the beauty of the valley
as all must be who see it, and was
struck by its immense possibilities in
the way of fruit growing, but | must
confess that when it came to looking
at it as a newspaper fled, it did not
strike me as being ideal. Prather.
however, had the courage of his con-
victions and, while he was not then in
the millionaire class, guaranteed the
payment of 500 a week. With this
understanding and sort of quasi part
nership arrangement the first issue OF
the Hood River Glacier was gotten out.
1t wasn't very large, sort of cross
between a postage stamp and letter
head, but small as il was, through
Prather's hard work. it was subscribed
for by practically everyone in the val
ley. In month or two 1t was "en-
larged" to a five column quarto, and
later to a metropolitan sheet of six
columns, two pages patent" !" The
first ten or a dozen numbers were
printed in The Dalles. Then a Wash
ington hand press was secured, and
when it reached the six column size II
was printed in Hood River. did the
writing, proof reading, etc, all by my
lonesome, some five or six columns a
week. Mrs. G. ''jerked the antimony''
for few columns from the one little
case, and S. f. Blythe came in Thurs
days to keep his hand in and worked
one day at the case. | pulled "the
devils tall, on the hand press with
Johnny (his name has slipped my mem
ory, Henningsen, | think running the
/ ink roller. The subscription list and
exchanges required 306 papers Grant s
number) and 320 were printed.
The Hood River Townslte Company
was organized soon after this, being
composed, as | remember it, of the
! Hon. E. l.. Smith. Jos. A. Wilson and
Sherman La France. The company
very generously presented the Glacier
! the lot on the corner of Oak and Third
, and this alone kept the Glacier from
the hospital, if not from the graveyard
T that yawns so hungrily for young
newspapers. About the same time
Henry Coe laid out WaucOma, and ar
+ ad carried by him swelled the Glacier s
, income 81 so month, aiding material.
! ly in keeping its little bottle supplied
with milk.
J Col. G. f. S. Wood, and Portland
parties, completed Cloud Cap Inn, anC
! the road thereto that year and Charles
: Bone and Lou Adams put on a stage
line. An armory was built in Waucoms
addition and Hood River began to licl
itself, wax fat and like Jeshuron, kick
Hood River at that time was not OF
the map very largely. J. H. Middleton
+ had a general merchandise store, Pra
ther had a little store, Uncle Bol
Rand owned and ran the hotel, and
recall now that his advertisement il
the Glacier, stereotype made whel
e the Glacier started, read all through
! the next winter: "Neat, Clean an'
r Cool" The Glacier home was built b.
y y "Jim Langille, Rare old Jim, will
} a tongue tipped with vitriol and
q heart of solid gold, who said the mean
d est things publicly and did the mos
y generous and charitable ones privately
e of any man | ever knew. Will Ian
y D gille, now prominent Alaskan, was
II guide from Cloud Cap Inn to the sum
nit of Mount Hood at this time. an
u shortly after the Glacier arrived +. 4
d Lytle took charge of the o. X. & N
re telegraph and depot work. He is
ie railroad owner now, building the road t.
:. Tillamook. DR.. Adams, who had al
Of tended to the coming in and going ou
u of the world events for the whole va
Of ley up to about this time, now share
this line of work with DR.. Brosius, VIII
II came from the east, from having rea
: of the valley in the Glacier. Maj
Harrison had store too, and late
bought out Middleton. He also owne
y fine bull, known as Tippecanoe, wh
~ roamed the streets at will, smashe
Ct fences and did about as he pleased. II
nt furnished enough news for the littl
Y Glacier to entitle him to a salary. bI
IS well, he didn't get it.
The Glacier owes its name to the hi
IL morous side of events. Its size and r,
e. e. sistelss force, suggesting the big Gil
in cier. However, the name was a hapL
a one, for the little bantling has lived L
= te to its name and grown weighty.
al AS stated in beginning this article
ri there is no place to stop. | recall |
"a many of the old settlers, good war
a. friends, both of mine and the paper
I'd to whom both owe much, and which
,Ts ne have stored away in. my memory alor
ed with the countless other pleasal
Of things, the only kind, thank God, thu
la memory keeps fresh and green and fir
by grant for US, and let us live over agai
OF while the sorrow and pain, the ills az
hias suffering she blots out. The "forge
re- cry" branch of memory is one of h
on most pleasant attributes, and my r
ca1}i membranes of Hood River are Of sut
N. a nature that have none would vii
i'd ingly forget. Her people. like h,
To- fruits, are, Al, first class, the best
the world.
= Just a little word more of the Glacie
From its first number it has worked f
Hood Rivers interest, energetically al
or steadily. il boosted Strawberries, b
from the first took the position tn
they were but the means to an EN-
. that the apple was to be Hood River
aA, A,I -