A Continuing Collected Newsletters of the Clayton & Deer Park Historical Society....
Please click "download file" to open each issue.
Please click "download file" to open each issue.
| Issue #13: Letters & Brickbats - April 20th, 2025 |
Subjects within Issue #13: Under the title "This Box of Red Comet Fire Extinguishers was in My Grandparents' House," this newsletter investigates the historical use of the toxic chemical carbon tetrachloride as a fire suppressing agent for both home and industrial use. The subject arose when society member Mike Reiter brought a box of glass grenades containing such to the society's attention. This chemical, which turned into one of the First World War's deadly battlefield gases when heated to 700 degrees or so, is now largely banned due to its poisonous nature.
| Issue #12: Letters & Brickbats - March 21st, 2025 |
Subjects within Issue #12: This issue recounts the story of James F. Congleton as recorded in the regions early newspapers and other vintage sources. This gentleman brought his family to the new State of Washington in 1889, leaving footnotes in the histories of Spokane County's settlements at West Branch and Milan, as well as Spokane itself, then on to Steven County's town of Meyers Falls. Among his adventures, Mr. Congleton, very much a survivor, was shot by one of Deer Park's founding fathers and some years later kidnapped by an unsavory young gentleman who remains unidentified to this day.
| Issue #11: Letters & Brickbats - February 9th, 2025 |
Subjects within Issue #11: It's likely the name Louis James Bowler is unfamilar to people now living in the tri-county area of northeastern Washington State. He was a teacher at Clayton's school from the late summer of 1907 until the late spring of 1912. Though only a part of this community for a short time, this remarkable gentleman, living his life as a unique blend of highly respected educator and steadfast warrior, deserves to be remembered.
| Issue #10: Letters & Brickbats - Dec. 4th, 2024 |
Subjects within Issue #10: The locations of and various techniques useful when searching free online sources of historical data. This newsletter includes active links to said sources.
| Issue #9: Letters & Brickbats - Oct. 1st, 2024 |
Subjects within Issue #9: This issue discusses Phillip Leliefeld's donation to the society of a ceramic Christmas card dated 1930 - possibly, in ceramic tile historian Ron Endlich's opinion, the work of Leno Prestini. There's also a piece suggesting the current location of the first terracotta object molded by Leno Prestini after he was hired at Clayton's factory - that back in 1925. And lastly just a short piece on the somewhat more vigorous Halloween pranks of years gone by.
| Issue #8: Letters & Brickbats - Sept. 8th, 2024 |
Subjects within Issue #8: Tracing the donation of a vintage postal scale - beginning with Clayton's first rural mail carrier: The "who" in Allen's Siding: Research into Clayton's first post office - the second that took and the first that didn't.
| lssue #7: Letters & Brickbats - July 19, 2024 |
Subjects within Issue #7: Ken Westby says, "Mom and dad were newlyweds at the classic Olson Hotel." The Spokane Public Library's Northwest Room - a treasure trove of historic data, changes its name: How to access Floyd Daggett's historic photos of the Arcadia: A 1905 Spokane County map donated by the family of Guy Knapp, and some background of said family: And a few notes in remembrance of Deer Park High School graduate Trudy Bishop.
| Issue #6: Letters & Brickbats - June 7th, 2024 |
Subjects within Issue #6: Susan Rumble donates several Prestini art tiles to Society: A newspaper ad suggesting Sleepless in Deer Park is looking for love as of 1894 - and finds it: Luminous image of Old Deer Park created by Leno Prestini's brush.
| Issue #5: Letters & Brickbats - April 27th, 2024 |
Subjects within Issue #5: Revealing some of the people associated with the early years of the Elk Mercantile Company: Recounting how a young Elk resident was kidnaped on his wedding night: Reporting that Professor Zentner of Ellensburg's Central Washington University says evidence suggests the entire Little Spokane River Basin was covered by glaciers some 150,000 years ago.
| Issue #4: Letters & Brickbats - April 15th, 2024 |
Subjects within Issue #4: George Emerson Crawford and his Eastern Washington and Southern Minnesota Families.
| Issue #3: Letters & Brickbats - Jan. 26th, 2024 |
Subjects within Issue #3: Beginning set of articles detailing longtime Clayton resident Eddie Olsen's recollections of working at Clayton's Brick Plant.
| Issue #2: Letters & Brickbats - Nov. 27th, 2023 |
Subjects within Issue #2: Progress in indexing the Mortarboards, searching for Elk’s first postmaster – Louis Thiesmeyer – and along the way tapping into the National Archives for data on pioneer post offices and Washington State’s digital archives for vintage birth and death certificates.
| Issue #1: Letters & Brickbats - Nov. 8th, 2023 |
Subjects within Issue #1: Loon Lake, Bass Fishing, D. C. Corbin, the naphtha launch Witch, Evan Morgan, Morgan’s Park, and Spokane Falls & Northern Railway