Personality Profile

This section on this site is dedicated to persons of interest in our local history.

Our intent is to share information about people who stood out during the history of our area.

Sometimes they were characters, so we thought their names ought to be recognized

Information provided and writen by Betty Panco

Lona Chilcoat Miller

Lona Chilcoat Miller's life spanned the years from 1885-1979. The following is taken directly from her notes, given to me by her daughter Alice (Miller Owens) Jessee.

Joe Chilcoat and his wife Alice, with their 2 children, Ernest and Lona, came to the Randle area in the fall of 1886 . They were the first white family to come to the Big Bottom. Ernest was 3 years old, Lona was about 19 months old. On October 21, 1887 baby boy was born, John Roy Chilcoat, the first white child born in the Big Bottom Country.

A young man, R. T. Siler, married to Josie Landers of Mossy Rock, was the next family. Their son William was the second child. The third child was Bee Blankinship of Sulphur Springs, the first born in the Upper Cowlitz Valley . The fourth child was Chilcoat's daughter Maud Ellen.

“Our pioneer days were busy ones, it was like one big family, several bachelors and Indians. They were kind, not wild, but my mother was a little afraid of them until she found out they were real good. Mary Kiona came to help her wash.

Our main meat was deer, sometimes a young cub bear. Its meat was like beef meat. No one wasted anything those days. Mother saved the fat and made it into good home made soap. The lye was also home made out of ashes from the fireplace. Dad made a through with 2 boards nailed together, put ashes in and poured water over it again and again until it became strong lye to make soap with.

We gathered hay and grass, dried it to make mattresses, sewed up flour sacks to make the mattress covers out of. It made a good bed. Our first log house was small, so Dad made a trundle bed. That is a big long box that went partly under their bed, like a bureau drawer. It made more room to get around it We were sure crowded up, but were happy and healthy, so we got by O.K.

To be saving on matches we would take a little long stick, stick it in the fireplace to light it, then lit our lamp or lantern with.

When we were out of coal oil Mother took strips of cloth, braided it real tight, put it into a can and put bear grease on it, pull up one end, light it and it would burn slow. That was our light at night.

Dad got some cows in Chehalis from a man named Kellogg. He told Kellogg he had a family and had to have milk and butter for them, so Kellogg came to see how things were. Lots of rushes, and some grass, plenty of feed so he let Dad have some cows on the shares. We got some chickens. We raised wheat and corn, ground it on a big coffee mill so Mother had the best to feed us children on. Cracked wheat made extra good mush with good real cream and butter. We all were happy with our good eats.

We were healthy and played hard. Games were drop the handkerchief, tag games, hop on one leg to see who could go the farthest, run a race, jump rope, played marbles, filled a little can with dirt then rolled it to each other. When any of us got into a fight, we all got a licking and Mother put a stop to our quarreling at each other. We ran and played so hard that anything Mother put on the table tasted good.

Clifford, Paul and Lafayette Orr were our first school teachers, they were all wonderful teachers who really wanted us kids to get an education. Mother wrote multiplication tables on the wall on the porch, we all learned them. When I was 16, I stayed a Dr. Coleman's in Chehalis to go to school. I was in the 6 th grade. It was my first 9 month long school term. My teacher was Anna Koontz.

In 1906, the North Coast Railway sent a survey party to the Big Bottom Country, with Hollenbeck in charge. The transit man was M. Steven Miller of St. Paul , Minnesota . Other members of the party were Valentine Myer of Alpha (later married Anna Owens), George Hall of Sulphur Springs, Crocket and Will Christian of Kosmos-Glenoma area, Charley Gardner of Randle and Joe Hill of Mayfield.

M. Steven Miller and I (Lona Chilcoat) were married. We had 2 children, Alice and Steve. We planned to be married at my Aunt Sally's in Portland . We traveled from Glenavon Station (near Morton), on a logging train to Tacoma and got our license at the courthouse. When we got to Aunt Sally's we could not get married because we needed an Oregon license. Aunt Sally, her daughter Lillian, my sister Maud, Steve and I crossed the Columbia River by ferry boat because the bridge was for trains only. We were married August 6, 1907, in Vancouver , Washington . My wedding dress was on sale at Meier and Franks in Portland at half price. It was only $8.00.

After we were married we rented a house on Rodney Ave. and Gong St. , 3 blocks from Aunt Sally's. The rent was $8.00 a month. Steve got work at City Hall in Portland at $85.00 a month, soon raised wages to $110.00. Later his wages were $150.00. He surveyed the Twillker Boulevard over the hill into Beaverton . We lived in Portland almost 20 years. I got homesick for dear old Cowlitz Valley . I returned to Randle when my children were 14 and 12. I sure enjoyed those dear bye-gone days. Now at 91, I let my memories float back 65 years ago. It all comes to me so sweet and clear.”

ona died in 1979 at age 94. She is buried in the Randle Cemetery .

Martha Hardy, A Legend, An Enigma

She was born July1, 1905 in the back of a railroad depot in a Mexican mining camp in Sopris , Colorado . Her father was a railroad agent and they lived in several railroad depots in western mining towns before coming to Black Diamond, Washington, and then in 1917 to West Seattle. She was a happy loner, proud of her Mohawk ancestry through her mother's side of the family.

After graduating from high school, she attended the University of Washington , graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, earning a President's Medal for Scholarship. She earned an M.A. in math and science. She had a unique way of putting words together. On the dust jacket of her book TATOOSH, she says “I went to the University of Washington and found out about mathematics. Then I ambled down to the ocean to teach school, and learned about getting along with kids.”

She was unassuming, courageous and met life head on. At the age of 20 she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Her first real bout with it was in 1950, when she spent 14 months in the hospital.

She is best known locally, for her book TATOOSH, about her summer of 1943 as one of the first women to man a forest service lookout. She gives the delightful impression that she was quite squeamish about many things, but in reality was not afraid of anything that walked, flew or crawled. She loved Packwood and its people and bought a place near Hall Creek but lost the house in a flood. She then bought the Minnie Patterson place near Smith Creek. She named this 120 acre “ranch”, SKYO (little skunk).

She spent the summer of 1944 at Lost Lake . This lookout was reached by first going to Packwood Lake . There was a fantastic view of Mt. Rainier , Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams .

Her second book, SKYO, published in 1949 is equally entertaining. In it she tells of many of the people in Packwood, her friends, and the reader gets a glimpse of how things were back in the “old days”. She was very interested in the history of our area. She conducted many interviews, including Mary Kiona, a 116-year old member of the Taitnapam tribe. She was a prolific and usually great photographer, preserving many scenes, places and people who are gone now.

During these years she was also making her mark as a teacher. She taught in Bellevue High School from 1949 to 1975. She received the Washington State “Teacher of the Year” Award in 1957, the “Teacher's Medal” from the Valley Forge Freedom Foundation in 1968 and the Bellevue Jaycees' “Distinguished Citizen” Award in 1969. She was a loved and respected teacher of math, English and Northwest History and was the annual yearbook advisor.

She loved to give slide shows to various groups, both in Bellevue and Packwood. She often entertained her colleagues at her summer home at Skyo. Often they stayed in her “guest house”, which was a dirt-floored garage. The floor was covered with a variety of small carpets. The walls and ceiling were decorated with various artifacts, pictures and posters. The metal beds were clean and comfortable and covered with hand made quilts, which may or may not have come from the Salvation Army or Good Will.

By the 1950's she had introduced “Bike Parties” to her friends. Originally they were for the Hall and Anderson children, but later included the Panco children and always parents and old friends, Irene Anderson and Harvey and Zelpha Mullins. Everyone brought something to eat and adults sat around talking, while the children and children-at-heart rode bicycles, tricycles, walked on stilts and spun around with hula hoops. One requirement was to wear bright colored clothes, which made better material for her ever-ready camera. Refreshments included cake and home-made ice cream and, at least on one occasion, elderberry wine!

As the Multiple Sclerosis began to narrow her physical activities she broadened her interests to include more things that did not require great physical strength or agility. When she could no longer ride a horse she faced it with typical courage saying, “It was about time I grew up anyway.” She devoted even more effort into teaching, beginning an accelerated math class. She began another book, this time about her feelings and the progress of her disease, hoping to dispel false notions about it and to help others to better understand it.

The Honorable James Albert Ulsh

The first personality profile featured Lona Elizabeth Chilcoat, who lived most of her life in the Randle area. Our second issue profiled Martha Elizabeth Hardy, schoolteacher-author who adopted Packwood as her home away from work. Now we'll check up on J.A. Ulsh, one of the first homesteaders in the Fulton/Kosmos/Glenoma area.

James Albert Ulsh was born September 4, 1849 (one source says April 1849) to John Jay Ulsh and Eliza Baker. He is listed in the Marion County, Ohio census, taken 1850, as being 10/12 of a year old. His mother died May 7, 1851, and his father married Jemima Cunningham the next year. Thus it is that John Ulch (note the difference in spelling), wife Jemima, son James A. and siblings are listed in the 1860 Marion County, Ohio census.

James' father, John, enlisted in Company E of the 96 th O.V.I. (Ohio Volunteer Infantry?) on August 19, 1862, providing distinguished service as a corporal until his death of disease on February 12, 1863, in St. Louis , Missouri . Neither James' mother nor father lived to see him reach adulthood.

The 1870 census for Marion County, Ohio shows that James, now 20 years of age, no longer living at home with his step-mother Jemima Ulsh and her other children. We do find an Albert Ulsh, 20, working in a rake factory in Marion County, Ohio.

James married Sarah Jane Sidle (or Seidle) September 19, 1873 in Marion County, Ohio. A daughter, Anna Margaretta, was born to them in February, 1875.

In the late 1870's, James took his family to Colorado , presumably in search of gold or silver. In the 1880 Larimer County , Colorado census, we find they have a little boy, George Albert, 1 year of age, who was born (March 8, 1879) in Colorado . James is not listed in that census; presumably he was out prospecting or otherwise unavailable for the census. A James A. Ulsh, miner, was listed in the 1882 Leadville , Colorado directory. A mining claim patent for the Buckeye State mine was awarded to S.J. Ulsh on the mountain 5 miles west of Leadville in 1888, and two claims nearby (the Lady Loftin and Consol Virginia) were patented to James A. (or J.A.) Ulsh and friends in 1895. Ulsh was manager of the mines for a time in the 1880's.

According to James obituary, the Ulsh's came to Tacoma , Washington in 1884. In 1888, Ulsh homesteaded a 127 acre tract along the west bank of the Cowlitz River about a mile southwest of Kosmos about 1890, receiving the homestead patent in 1899.

Ulsh's daughter, Margaretta, married John Joseph Clarken December 22, 1895. To this union were born two daughters, Sarah Evelyn (October 5, 1896) and Jessie Margarite (August 12, 1900). Margaretta died during childbirth January 15, 1902. A distraught Clarken left his daughters in care of their grandparents, the Ulsh's, and went to Alaska .

James Ulsh was elected to the State Legislature in 1905 and again in 1907, serving two terms as representative from what was then the 26 th legislative district, which included eastern Lewis County . One of his pet projects was a state highway across Cowlitz Pass. Without Ulsh's efforts it may have taken even longer before what is now U.S. Highway 12 over White Pass was completed.

At the time of the 1910 census, Eva (Evelyn) and Jessie Clarken were still living with James and Sarah Ulsh. Cora Hower, probably the girl's first teacher at Fulton , boarded with the Ulsh's.

When the 1920 census rolled around, Jessie Clarken was still living with James and Sarah Ulsh; Eva had married Leo Bristol. Later that year, James had a contract to place 3,000 cubic yards of gravel on State Road No. 5 from Kosmos Corner to the Rainey Valley schoolhouse, a distance of about 2 miles.

J.A. Ulsh was appointed postmaster at Kosmos on June 23, 1923. The postoffice was in his store at the intersection of State Highways 5 and 18. In later years, John Carnahan owned the store and called it Kosmos Korner store. Ulsh sold the store to the Barret's and turned the postoffice over to Lisa Barret on June 23, 1927.

Sarah Jane Ulsh died September 2, 1928. James Albert Ulsh, sick and unaware of her death, died two days later, on September 4, 1928.

Big John

The careful reader may have noticed the personality profiles have alternated from Randle to Packwood to Glenoma. We're back again to Randle with a look at one of her industrious pioneers.

The pioneers of this country were a hardy lot. They had to be. Each and every day was a struggle to survive. It was an ordeal merely to eke out a living. There were no guarantees of success; at best a man's chances were no better than even. Maybe less. It is a tribute to the pioneer spirit that so many of our forebears were able to endure. And yet, even among a land of giants, there were those who stood out. Such a man was John Kehoe.

Kehoe was born in Ontario , Canada in July, 1855. The family moved to Kansas when he was but a lad of eight, and there lived in a shanty made of sod. Now anyone who has ever read a western novel knows that times then were exceptionally hard in that country. John left home at the age of 16, off to make a fortune on his own. His travels took him to the mines of Minnesota , and who knows where else. By 1884, though, he had come to the Big Bottom country in search of a permanent home. He staked out 160 acres in Section 16 near Randle, on and about the site of the present Cowlitz Valley Ranger Station.

Kehoe spent the better part of his homesteading days clearing and slashing his land in order to grow crops and make a living. By early 1887 conditions were apparently improving because he had time to begin writing articles for the Lewis County Bee, a Chehalis newspaper of that period. He wrote a bit of poetry too. Then, in September, 1887 he made a trip to California with fellow Big Bottom pioneer, Tom Dalton. It is almost certain that when he returned, he brought with him a wife - Tom's sister, Annie Dalton. Annie gave birth to a son in 1888, the second white child born in the Big Bottom country. Annie died during the birth of their fifth child - Frank - in 1892. Her death must have struck John hard because he never wrote another article for the newspaper. After a time, he married Alice Dalton Finneghan.

About in the spring of 1897, John Kehoe moved his family to the White River valley in the vicinity of Enumclaw. He was not long there before he moved his family on to Alaska , taking a farm near Fairbanks , where he became one of the progressive farmers of the region. It was probably in Alaska that his second wife died, and he married a lady named Katherine.

Kehoe returned to his Big Bottom property in 1918. He settled down and lived quietly until 1935, whence began a series of events which marked him an uncommon man.

It may have been that he was just hankering for excitement. Or maybe he wanted to prove that he was still a virile man. At any rate, on December 7, 1935 he and Bob McNee, Jr. held a wood-cutting contest. McNee, 37, manned a drag saw while Kehoe, 80, wielded a single-bit axe. The object was to cut, split, and stack as much wood as possible in one hour. At the end of the allotted time, Kehoe had a stack containing a rick (1/3 cord) and a quarter of wood. McNee's stack contained a rick and a half. McNee and his cantankerous machine won, but the contest was such a hit locally that Kehoe's friends issued a nation-wide challenge for any man of his age to duplicate the feat. When there were no takers, McNee and Kehoe agreed to another contest.

About 175 people, including a cameraman for the Universal News people, attended the second event, held February 8, 1936 at Randle. Kehoe had recently recovered from a bout of flu, but the challengers were eager to go, despite the fact the ground was covered with snow. Kehoe, with his special-made Collins single-bit axes, stood by a pile of alder timbers, 6 to 9 inches in diameter; McNee had his drag saw perched on a 4 1/2 foot fir log. Promptly at 1:30 P.M., the contest began. The saw hummed. The chips flew. Both men worked furiously. When the whistle was blown at the end of one hour, Kehoe had one rick plus 27 cubic feet toward a second rick, McNee had 2 ricks and 19 cubic feet toward a third, about 1/3 more wood. Kehoe allowed he would have done some better but for the snow which interfered with his footing. Still, he did better than John Henry did in his challenging the steam drill, and well enough to give considerable credit to an 80 year-old man.

Although beaten a second time by McNee with the drag saw, John Kehoe remained confident that he was a mighty man with an axe. The Fourth of July celebration at Morton in 1937 was scheduled to include a log bucking contest. Again Kehoe issued his challenge, this time to the winning bucker, that he could cut more firewood in an hour. Art Rossander, a 46-year-old man from Ethel , Washington , had set a world record in the bucking contest, but he would not challenge Kehoe. In fact, Kehoe was unable to find a challenger, and had to settle for a simple demonstration of his prowess with an axe. The demonstration was scheduled for July 4th, but when the time came, the axe was missing. A hasty search revealed that some youngsters had borrowed the axe to pound in stakes. By the time the specially-made axe was resharpened and ready, it was too late to hold the demonstration; it had to wait until the next day, July 5th, 1937.

John Kehoe, undaunted, and unchallenged by another man, retired from competition after his brief flirtation with fame. He returned to the pastoral life at his Big Bottom ranch. As the years passed by, time finally stilled the arm that swung the mighty axe. John Kehoe passed to his reward on January 7, 1949, at the age of 93 years.

It has been seventy-some years since John Kehoe and Bob McNee, Jr. staged their last wood-cutting contest. It was reported to have been the first such event in the Pacific Northwest , and as such, can arguably be claimed to be the inspiration behind the Morton Logger's Jubilee. The next time you attend, keep an eye out for the spirit of John Kehoe watching from the crowd, urging the competitors on.

Ralph & Agnes Neeley

Packwood Lake was born about 1,000 to 1,100 years ago when a huge slide originating on Snyder Mountain deposited an earthen dam across Lake Creek, creating one of the most beautiful small lakes in the world. Fish trapped in the new lake were different from other Rainbow Trout. The water eventually found its way over the dam and continued its journey to the Cowlitz .

Those of us who knew the Neeley's cannot separate them and the lake in our memories. There is a place and a time that is special and will forever remain in our hearts. Neeley's were hosts at Packwood Lake from 1935 until 1978, with several periods of time from 1945 to 1965 and 1967 to 1974 when others ran the concession.

Ralph Aaron Neeley was born March 13, 1894 in Texas . As a young man he followed a herd of cattle to Canada where he met a beautiful young lady named Agnes.

Agnes Anita Dinnington was born October 20, 1902 in Scotland , the family immigrating to Fernie, B.C., Canada in 1903.

Ralph and Agnes were married in Vancouver , B.C. in 1923, coming to Tacoma to live. They had one son, Ralph Jr., born in 1928.

Ralph first learned about Packwood Lake and the great fishing from a friend and in July of 1927 they made their first trip to Packwood. The 100 mile trip took them over a rough gravel road, many times only one way and often there were stumps still in the middle of the road. They were driving a touring car with no windshield and no side curtains. Somewhere between Elbe and Morton they lost some of their groceries and when they realized this, they turned around and went back. By the time they got to Morton they learned that there were 4 miles of “corduroy” road between Morton and Kosmos and considered returning to Tacoma . They continued on their journey and found that the beginnings of the White Pass Highway was blacktop from Kosmos to Randle

A crew was working on the road beyond Randle and had just completed a big shot of dynamite. So Ralph and his friend sat for 3½ hours watching the mules and scrapers clearing the road. They arrived in Lewis at eleven o'clock in the evening and stopped for a sandwich and a cup of coffee at Brook Haynes' Cafe. Leaving their car in Lewis, they began hiking the 7 miles in to the lake.

In Ralph's own words, “At four o'clock in the morning we came into an opening and here was beautiful Packwood Lake , such as I'd never seen before. I stood admiring the beauty and looking at this little island out in the middle of the lake, which contained about three acres of land, and the reflection in the water from the Goat Rocks.” They rented a boat from Mr. Higgins who ran the concession. After fishing for a time they went back to Higgins's for breakfast. The buildings were crude and had dirt floors, but the food was good and Mrs. Higgins served them a large meal. Ralph asked Mr. Higgins if he would sell the concession. For seven years Mr. Higgins said no, but in 1934 as his health began to fail he agreed to sell to the Neeley's. There was a small shack to live in, the combination cookhouse and dining room and six or seven tent cabins.

During the next eleven years Neeley's, and a partner in the beginning, built the log lodge, seven shake cabins all with hand split cedar flooring, restrooms, a cooler and new floats. The hand made split cedar boats were replaced in 1937 by eleven boats that were hauled in from Packwood on the backs of Howard Andersen's mules.

In Agnes' own words, “It was rather rugged at the lake, and I had a wood stove to cook on. All our supplies were packed in by horses, or on our backs. Early in the season we packed things in through snow and in the fall things that would freeze had to be packed out again. Some of the fishermen were not very successful and I tried to make it up to them with the meals. We served the meals family style and the people coming up always said they felt like they were coming home.

Young Ralph was 9 when we first came to the lake. Sometimes Ralph stayed at the lake during the winter but Young Ralph and I had to come out so that he could go to school. We would ride horseback into the lake on Friday nights and come out on Sunday nights. I would cook up a lot of bread and other things for the week. During the three or four month season I would use about three or four hundred pounds of flour, three or four hundred pound of potatoes, cases of canned goods, bacon, eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables.

When you'd waken in the mornings, the sunrise over the Goat Rocks was magnificent, especially if there was new fallen snow. You would hear loons and mallard ducks and see fish jumping in the lake.”

During the times that the Neeley's retired from the lake, they lived in Glenoma where they ran a grocery store and in Packwood, but the lake always called them back. Agnes was in her late 70's and still made a weekly hike up the ridge to Mosquito Lake . The last time they retired from the lake in 1978, they went to live near their son, a few miles out of Toledo .

In April 23, 1986, Agnes' gentle, loving heart stopped beating and Ralph passed away on November 16, 1987. And although they are buried near Toledo , their spirits will always roam free over the lake that they loved. Betty Panco 9/26/07

Mary Kiona

Mary Kiona was perhaps the last full blooded Taidnapam Indian to make her home in the Big Bottom valley. She died June 15, 1970 at an undetermined age. Yakama Indian records apparently state her birth date to be January 1, 1855. A Daily Chronicle article used this date when it said she celebrated her 115 th birthday New Year's Day, 1970. Other sources suggest she was as old as 121 years, or as young as 99 when she died. The Social Security Death Index says Mary was born January 31, 1869. The 1900 Federal Census has her born in October 1869. From my research, it would seem most reasonable if she was born in 1869, thus making her just over 100 when she died. Mary's parents were William and Lucy Yoke. They are not listed in the 1900 census. William's brother, (Mary's uncle) Jim Yoke, is said in the 1900 census to have been born in 1857. The 1910 census shows William, at 75, to be 9 years older than Jim. If this be true, William would have been born in 1848, and 21 years old when Mary was born. Lucy, 10 years younger than William, according to the 1910 census, would have been a mere 11 years old when Mary was born. This seems quite young by modern standards, but if the1900 census be correct, Mary was only 11½ years old when her eldest child, Jimmie, was born in March 1881.

Mary married Charles Kiona, son of Columbus and Milyan Kiona about 1880. According to the 1900 census, Mary, 30, was head of the family. Her children were: Jimmie, 19, born in March 1881 (February 10, 1886 according to his obituary in 1949); Ola (or Ora), 13, born in October 1886 (December 15, 1885 according to her obituary in 1951), Sacilla (or Celia), 7, born in August 1892, Minnie, 4, born in May 1896, and Sallie, 1, born in February 1898. A headstone in the Kiona Indian cemetery reads Charlie (last name unreadable) 1859-1899; this is probably Charles Kiona's grave.

Mary never remarried. She was not listed in the 1910 census. In the 1920 census she was head of a family consisting of daughters Ora, 33; Celia, 28; and Minnie, 20; and granddaughters Joyce, 7; and Lavina (or Melvina), 1 year 8 months.

The 1930 census lists Mary's family as son Jim, 38; daughter Celia, 36; and granddaughter Melvina, 11.

Mary was a woman of many talents. She was a renowned basket maker, using cedar roots and bark to craft containers for carrying all sorts of berries and other items. She tanned deer hides; she'd often trade a tanned hide for fresh hides, which she'd tan and trade and so on. She served as a midwife for various families in the valley. She also helped families such as the Young's of Randle with their clothes washing.

She often rode a horse on her rounds, either leading her family and other Indians to fishing spots, or just going out huckleberry picking in the mountains. In later years, when the grandchildren learned to drive, she would sometimes shop for groceries in Kosmos.