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T
he
R
edmond
R
ecoRdeR
~m
ay
2007h
isToRy
 
is
h
appening
 
in
R
edmond
!
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  m
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T
HEMAY 2007 NEWSLETTER
VOLUME 9, NUMBER 5OUR MiSSiON:To Dscover, Recover, Preserve, Share andCelebrate Redmond’s HstoryHiSTORY iS HAPPENiNG iN REDMOND!
REDMOND HiSTORiCAL SOCiETY
16600 NE 80th Street, Room 106Redmond, WA 98052 ~ Tel 425.885.2919webste ~ www.redmondhstory.orge-mal ~ redmondhstory@hotmal.comHOURS: Tuesday through Thursday 1-6 p.m.,Frday, 4-6 p.m. and by appontment
 T
he business card reads:
DeJong Sawdust and ShavingsSoft in all the right places
CoryDeJonII
bought the business onAvondale Road from
AdeRosenber
andbegan delivering sawdust and wood chipsin a 1946 Chevy truck back in 1950. His wife,
Rby
, put in her time to make the business asuccess by answering the phone and takingsawdust orders. It wasn’t long before
CoryIII
was riding in the truck with his dadand working alongside him. Cory III recalls theday he and his dad took off in the truck andby the time they got to Syse’s Corner, his dadturned to him and said, “We don’t have anyorders today. Where are we going?”They worked together for years and nallyCory III took over. They continued on witha tradition of the family working together.
1 A
t the endof June 2006, theTown Shoe Repairat 7867 LearyWay closed.What made thislittle store uniqueis that it wasone of the oldestbuildings in thecounty, in itsoriginal location,that was still being used for the same purpose it was built for 102years earlier!
OleSkjarstad
, an immigrant from Norway who came to the U.S.in 1889, constructed the building in 1904. On the1910 census he is listed as a shoemaker. He livedfor a time with his wife,
Mary
, and daughter,
Olie
in the house behind the boot shop.That building is still there also, and it’s evenolder than the shop.In 1904, Redmond was stillwhat would be called afrontier town and there werea lot fewer buildings in thosedays. There was the OddFellows Hall (now EdwardianAntiques) built in 1903, W.D.Donnelly General Merchandisebuilt in 1900, the Corner Tavern
P
resdent’s Corner
T
he Lttle Shoe StoreThat Could
(Continued on page 2)
Satrday,May12at10:30a.m.attheREDMONDLIBRARY15990NE85thStreetinRedmondTOpIC:LakeWashintonShiyardsSpEAKER:ShirleyHaines
MeetngLocaton:REDMONDLiBRARY
MAY 12MEETiNG
(Continued on page 3)Cory Dejong (left) with an unidentified employee in hissalvage office.Photo of Town Show Repair by Miguel Llanos.
 
T
he
R
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R
ecoRdeR
~m
ay
2007h
isToRy
 
is
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appening
 
in
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!
22007GENERALMEETiNGS
2ndSatrdayotheMonth10a.m.(nlessotherwisestated)May12thMeetinplaceREDMONDLIBRARY
OLDREDMONDSCHOOLHOuSECOMMuNITYCENTER
16600NE80thSt
JuNE16(NEWDATE)~
RHS holdsits annual picnic at Anderson Parkat noon.
OTHERMEETINgDATES:SEpTEMBER8OCTOBER13NOvEMBER9
...................................................
2007 e
xecuTive
B
oaRd
Judy Lang
President 
Naomi Hardy
Vice-President 
Miguel Llanos
Vice-President 
Joanne Westlund
Treasurer 
Margaret Wiese
CorrespondingSecretary 
Beryl Standley 
Recording Secretary 
B
oaRd
 
of
d
iRecToRs
Terri Gordon Chris HimesTom Hitzroth Jon MagnussonAmo Marr Doris SchaiblePatti Simpson Ward
e
xecuTive
d
iRecToR
Beryl Standley
a
TToRney
Charles Diesen
...................................................
fRee n
ewsleTTeR
If you don't already subscribe,please sign up. Call the ofce at425.885.2919 or e-mail
mew@nwlink.com
. State yourpreference of e-mail or U.S. Mail(e-mail is cheaper for the city andthe photos look better on-line).
T
he
R
edmond
R
ecoRdeR
Published nine times annuallyMiguel Llanos
Editor 
Patti Simpson Ward
Newsletter Graphic Designer 
(Continued from page 1)
Presdent’s Corner
Lorraine
, Cory III’s wife, has been busy with telephone sales, and son
Dae
has worked as truck driver, loader operator and other various jobs.Their daughter
Shannon
is also involved in the business. It’s quite thefamily affair. Today the operation has expanded to 14 trucks, a coupledozen employees and two locations: Lake Stevens and on 11807 Avondale,across the street from the original site.One long-time employee is
ScottDaidson
. Today Scott and his twosons are part of the crew. Cory III tells me Scott started working when hewas 8 years old. Where were the child labor laws?The business clientele has changed somewhat over the years. The rstcustomers were chicken and dairy farmers. Then there were deliveriesto horse farms of the rich and famous like
EddieBaer
and
ChrisHimes
.Landscaping materials have been added to the wood by-products andare a major part of the business.So there you have it: bark, fertilemulch, chicken and chips, topsoil,play chips, hog fuel, and woodcarpet. Do we even know whatsome of those things are!Family and tradition are stilltrademarks of our great Redmondcommunity. Come and hear morestories at our next meeting in theRedmond Library at 10:30 a.m.,May 12th.
l
 
~ Judy Aries Lang, RHS President 
Cory and Ruby DeJong
A
nother Panful Paddle Memory
Wayne (Buck) Willhite
sent this e-mail about teacher 
Russell Kellogg
and his paddle:
“I was reading the (March RHS) Redmond newsletter . . . article aboutRussell Kellogg. I just jumped out of my chair and grabbed my butt inmemory.“I along with several others in shop class met with Homer ~ the 8-hole,3/4 inch-wide, 16-inch-long paddle, guaranteed to raise you off theground at least four inches. There were ve of us that skipped shopclass and went down to Sammamish Slough at the number nine holein the Redmond Golf Links. We swam, played tag, had some pop, thencalled it a day.
(Continued on page 3)
 
T
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3
(now O’Leary Park)built in 1903, theAlpine Hut (formerlyRedmond Hardware)built in 1903. Otherbuildings along LearyWay were constructedabout this timeshowing that by 1904Redmond was in asmall building boom.Three hotels werealso in that area oftown. They were theHotel Redmond, theHotel Walther, and the Sikes Valley Hotel. A circa 1905 photo of Leary Way shows that there were elevated woodsidewalks but the street was dirt. The photo also shows that there were only four buildings on that side of the block!Ole Skjarstad owned the rst car in town, the rst telephone, and opened the rst bank account in the RedmondState Bank. Ole died in 1942, almost 40 years after he rst came to town.This little building, the only one left on the block dwarfed by larger buildings, has had several changes of hands. Atpresent the current owner is going to keep the little building at 7867 Leary Way as it is, so for now it can still witnessthe changes in Redmond as the city moves further into the 21st Century.
l
 
~ Tom Hitzroth
 “The next day in shop class, it was explained to us whatwe did wrong by going to the river. Going to the river was alot of fun, butt turned out to be ‘not all that much fun.’“There was stinging pain felt by all involved. I was last andwill remember that 8-holer the rest of my life.
JimvanNoy
 was the rst to get the swat, and after all was over we all(except for Jim) headed for the boys’ bathroom with a fewtears showing.“When we walked into the bathroom, there sat Jim in thesink full of cold water, with tears, and his pants down aroundhis ankles.“The humor in that vision took a lot of the sting out ofthe group.”
l
This photo shows today’s Leary Way around 1905. The second freestanding building from the right is the shoe storestarted by Ole Skjarstad. A simple “Shoe Store” sign hangs from the awning. (Photo used by permission of the
Eastside Heritage Center 
.)
T
he Lttle Shoe Store That Could
(Continued from page 1)
A
Heap of Hstorcal Thanksfor These DonatonsAnother PanfulPaddle Memory
(Continued from page 2)
DOROTHYgILROY
,
JuDYLANg
and
DORISTOWNSEND
for planning the book signingevent at the library in February. And
BERYLSTANDLEY
and
JOANNEWESTLuND
forsuccessful sales at the event.
TOMHITzROTH
for representing us in judging the Puget Sound regional history daycontests in March
EILEENMCCOSKRIE
and
ANNE
and
HARvEYTOLLfELDT
for booth sitting at the ParksDepartment’s Fun & Fit Fair
of 00

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