MEMORIES OF WHITEPINE

(Excerpt from Crosscuts and Rails)

By Helen Haase

Helen O. Haase was appointed postmaster of Whitepine in Mrs. Sand’s place, and she and her husband, Lyle R. Haase, Purchased the store from the Anna C. Sand estate in 1945. After the death of Mr. Haase in 1964, Helen retired as postmistress and the postal equipment was moved to the Lloyd Austin home, and Pat Austin operated the post office until the spring when the red tape of officially closing the office was completed. The stock of the Whitepine Mercantile was sold and the building closed.

I recall that in the early 1920s the first Whitepine Telephone company was organized. The lines were the barbed wire fences, and it included families up to Little Beaver and through the valley as far west as the Andrew Marich home. Each family had a telephone, but we were not connected with the outside world. The phone in the store was put in by Mountain State Telephone and was the means of calling out. When the old store burned, the phone was installed in the Wagner store.

Sometime later the local telephone company assessed its members, and regular poles were installed with standard wires. When this was in good working order, a local phone was installed in the store and the Mountain States Telephone installed a switch so that the farmers line could be hooked to the main line for incoming and outgoing calls. This was another public service performed by the store personnel. In the 50s Mountain States began installing individual phones throughout the entire valley, and we were all connected with the outside world.

Briefly, there have been two murders – one in Whitepine Creek the winter of 1906 and another in 1914. I was too young to know much about the first, but the second occurred at a dance that was going on in the freight room of the depot. A man came in about midnight and shot the depot operator, then rode on horseback to Thompson Falls and gave himself up to the sheriff. He was found “not guilty” at his trial as domestic trouble had caused the event to take place.

Within my memory, there has never been a saloon or tavern in Whitepine. It seems there was a law that none could operate within a certain distance of a lumber camp, and the valley was dotted with these. Of course, there was liquor at the dances, but the drinking was done outside the hall and if one became unruly or belligerent on the dance floor he was ushered outside.

I recall the time a bachelor with no known relatives dies, penniless. The men of the community built a casket, the women lined it with black cloth, and the man was given a Christian burial. I believe he was one of the two unknown buried in the Whitepine Cemetery. There were no funeral directors in those days.

Another time a body was being shipped in by train to Thompson Falls. It happened that the funeral director couldn’t take care of the service so the neighborhood organized it. The one with the nicest pickup transported the body from Thompson Falls to the Church and then to the cemetery. Each person was given his assignment and the service went smoothly.

In those days the Cemetery Association had a casket bearer and straps for lowering the casket into the grave, which was hand dug.