Harrington News

Myers and Brace descendants drop in to visit

 

Last updated 8/20/2014 at 4:06pm



The Harrington Opera House Society met for their monthly meeting, opened by President Mark Stedman and attended by Sheryl Stedman, Becky and Stephen Hardy, Carol, Edwin and Bunny Haugan, Billie and Gordon Herron, D. P. Charlton, Bonnie Hardy, Karen Robertson, Marge Womach and Linda Wagner. Progress might appear slow in regard to the opera house building projects, however the progress is steady in consistent increments following a master list of pieces of the structure that need work; each is thoroughly investigated and attended to. The plaster work on the south and east walls will be started prior to this item going to print. The ADA ramp on the interior for the eventual elevator is temporarily on hold. Work on the curtain structure is scheduled to begin this week, and is not anticipated to be long-term. The "double doors" that are at the top of the old staircase are again hung after being beautifully refinished. Discussion was held on the type of glass to be used in them.

The upcoming events were noted, with September and October being especially busy. Discussion was held about updating the HOHS contract and booking procedure for the November season, with some recommendations stated. The community is welcome to attend the HOHS meetings, the next of which is scheduled for Sept. 8 in the Art Room at 7 p.m.

The next event sponsored by the HOHS will be the "Annual Dog Wash & More," an event to be held this year on August 23 from 9 to 3 p.m. All dogs of any size or breed that are friendly and socialized may be brought to the event on a leash. Your pet will delight in being pampered while in experienced hands - a spa day for your dog! --all for a donation to the Elevator Fund. The "and More" is an invition to bring cars, golf carts, cycles and "do it yourself" with the running water which will be furnished. The Rummage Room is planned to be opened during those hours and the proceeds will go into the Elevator Fund. Many different donations have been added over the summer, so please come help empty the room. The LCWALFPN has been invited to have their own fundraising table with their many and varied dog and cat related items for sale, and they will use those proceeds to support their effort with Lincoln County pets.

Chamber of Commerce

The Chamber of Commerce met Aug. 6, at noon, at Harrington City Hall, with Cassandra Paffle-Dick, Kathy Hoob, Cyndi Haase, Bunny Haugan and Harrington's new principal, Justin Bradford in attendance. The Chamber took care of old business pertaining to the signs and banners for the town, and introduced the new principal. Some discussion was held regarding the inclusion of the Mud Bogs in the Fall Festival activities.

Summer Reading at the Library

Aug. 7, seven young participants continued with the extension of the summer reading program and enjoyed a Winnie-the-Pooh movie, coloring, making new signs for their reading room door, and listening to stories. In addition to some of the guardians who stayed, supervision and reading was conducted by Terry Howe and Meka Eaton. The children enjoyed Goldfish treats and seemed eager to plan to return.

Traveling Researchers

to Harrington

Aug. 4 and 5 two ladies from the West Side came to the Harrington library in search of family history. Marta Brace, wife of a descendant of Harvey Brace, Jr., an early Harrington pioneer, came with a cousin, Mollie Merkley, a descendant of Davenport pioneer and attorney HAP Myers. Harvey Brace, Jr. applied for his homestead on Sept 1, 1879 in Section 20 of Twp 23N Range 37 in Lord's Valley. He received his patent on March 21, 1891 in the NW ¼ . How thrilling for relatives to find a vivid description of an ancestor such as was published about Harvey Brace while he was yet a bachelor!

"What An Oregonian Saw. Sprague, July 19, 1882. Ed. Tribune.-There has been a good deal said about Spokane County, and there is room for a great deal more, but I have heard nothing of that lively little place, Sedalia. Passing through Cheney to Spokane Falls, thence to Cottonwood, with a party of ten of us, we finally pulled up at Sedalia, the property of Mr. Harvey Brace; found him as busy as a bee cutting and stacking hay, having three teams and six men busy as nail drivers putting up his winter's feed for his horses, of which he has some fine ones. Brace is a comical genius and full of life and business, and a whole-souled man; in fact, he reminds me of the itch in a country school-he sets them all scratching to keep up. He is a go-ahead, and bound to make money. We staid all night with him; he fed and lodged us in good style, doing the housework himself, as neat and tidy as any woman in Spokane County. After supper he hitched up his pair of stallions and gave us a spin around his ranch. Taking in the location of that vicinity it is the prettiest located place we have seen in this upper country. First, a better site for an inland town don't exist anywhere, as there are seven leading roads that center at his place-the road to the Big Bend of the Columbia, the road to Camp Spokane, and one to Cottonwood, one to Medical Lake, one to Cheney, one to Lake Creek, one to Willow Creek country, one to Sprague and one to Walla Walla, all making Sedalia the central location of all that immense travel which is increasing daily, and being located in the richest agricultural country in Spokane County. I am informed by a neighbor that he receives applications for store sites, a lot for blacksmith shops, etc., but he’s not in a hurry to decide what step to take-whether to survey off a town site and have a population of a couple of thousand in a year or two, or go slower and have capital come in, men of means. Brace is a long-headed customer, and looks a good ways ahead. ** After leaving Sedalia we went west by the Ludy ranch, saw some splendid brood mares and a lot of fine cattle, principally milk cows. We passed on, still west, to Mr. Yarwood's ranch, an old Californian; he has in one hundred acres of crop this year, but it wants rain. From there we traveled through a beautiful country for miles, and never saw a house of any kind till we struck Wilson Creek; there we found quite a large settlement and more a coming-in fact, the whole country from Sprague, Sedalia and the Big Bend is alive with emigrants (immigrants?), and all seem to work back toward Sedalia and Sprague. But the day is not far distant when every inch of that beautiful country will be settled up and improved. ** Being out five days we returned toward Sprague, landing at Sedalia on the sixth day, and we never saw better land in any country than we did after leaving Sedalia and that vicinity. We partook of a sumptuous meal, at which I counted twenty-six that Mr. Brace would have to give supper, lodging and breakfast to. But he went at it with a will, like a cooper around a barrel; when it came time to retire for the night he gave the house to the ladies, and the men went to the barn. Everything passed off very pleasantly, the ladies being very complimentary to the cook in the gentlemanly manner in which he treated them-in fact, one lady wanted to pitch her tent on a corner lot on Main street and go no farther, as it was the prettiest place she had seen. But Mr. Brace would not have it that way. The most of us will locate near Sedalia. ** I assure you, Mr. Editor and your readers of Spokane County, you have a splendid country, and lots of people will follow us next spring. I will recommend to them the Sedalia country, as they will get splendid land and get in an enterprising locality. Oregonian." (excerpt Northwest Tribune: 7-28-1882) Harvey Brace, born in Canada, married Anna Marie, and they had one daughter, Bertha, born about 1884. "Harrington.-Lincoln County Times: Harvey Brace, a pioneer farmer of Lord's Valley, in this county, had a 60 acre field of Allen wheat which he has just threshed. It went on an average of 34½ bushels to the acre. That's a field that will compare with any other section, and the grain is sound and plump." (Sprague Herald: 9-27-1888) In 1890 Anna Marie Brace died at Fort Steilacom and was buried there. Harvey remarried in 1907 but died about 1½ years later with burial in Cashmere cemetery.

Our modern-day travelers were delighted to find local news items about Harvey Brace, a Civil War veteran, a drummer boy, who was successful in obtaining his patent and was contemplating competing with Mrs. Horace Cutter who purchased the land that later became the townsite of Harrington. It could have as easily been the townsite of Sedalia, founded by Harvey Brace.

 

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