75 years ago

September 26, 1942

Boasting it will have the largest scrap iron pile ever seen on the Harbor after Sunday’s collections, the Aberdeen Eagles lodge last night challenged any other organization in the city to match it.

The pile last night was swelled to approximately five tons and Sunday the Eagles expect to add 10 more tons.

Clanging its bell, the 40 et 8 locomotive will accompany trucks to notify residents that the salvage committee is on hand to pick up scrap.

September 27, 1942

Sunday, no newspaper published

50 years ago

September 26, 1967

Grays Harbor Lodge No. 4 of the Sons of Norway will holds its 60th Anniversary celebration at the Grays Harbor Country Club Saturday evening.

Two charter members, Rasmus Lyse of Aberdeen and Peter Berge of North Bend, Ore. will be honored guests.

Speaker for the evening will be Hoquiam attorney Omar Parker and featured entertainment will be dancing to the music of the Stanley Clay orchestra.

September 27, 1967

Larry Elmore, Aberdeen log exporter, recently learned that 850,000 board feet of his logs were awash near the Aleutian Islands after a typhoon buffeted a ship on its way to Japan from Grays Harbor.

The vessel, the Mosbay, which sailed from Terminal Four Sept. 9, was hit by high winds and heavy rains about a week later. Two-thirds of the ship’s deck load rolled off the port side, taking with it much of the guard rail.

Noting that the seven million board feet cargo was insured, Elmore added, “This is the first cargo I have ever lost at sea.”

25 years ago

September 26, 1992

All it took was a few steps, just walking into the wood-wrought hallway of the Cooney Mansion and Judi Lohr was sold on the 84-year-old home.

Right now she and her husband, Jim, are managing the property for the current owner, George Barker, who had operated the mansion as a bed and breakfast until November.

The mansion, at 1705 5th Street in the hills overlooking Cosmopolis, reopened under the Lohr’s management this August. When the Lohrs sell their Ocean Shores property, they plan to purchase the home, Judi said. They want to plant a period rose garden, rewire the building, re-carpet, build a conservatory and turn the office into a one-room museum.

Neil Cooney, who operated one of the largest timber mills in the area during the early 1900s, had the three-story home built to showcase his mills products.

Most of the wood in the mansion’s furniture, even the piano, were milled at his facility, located where the Weyerhaeuser mill now stands.

The master bedroom which features a bathroom with antique shower over a claw-footed tub rents for $95 a night while the other rooms range from $65 to $75.

September 27, 1992

Friends and relatives of all ages mobbed the 100th birthday celebration for longtime Harbor resident Merritt Freeman. The gathering, which attracted so many visitors they overflowed the party room at Pacific Care Center also recognized Merritt and Mabel Freeman’s 70th wedding anniversary.

Merritt, a Wisconsin native, came to work in the Grays Harbor logging industry after World War I. He served in the U.S. Army’s Spruce Unit, cutting down trees for airplanes during the war.

Mabel moved here from West Virginia when she was 5 and in 1921-22 she played for the school’s high school basketball team.

The couple met in high school and dated for several years before getting married.

Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom