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A History of Yacolt Light & Power System – By C.R. Miller November 1955
The first electric lights in the town of Yacolt were turned on the last day or Feb, 1910 and this as the day I came to town from Portland, I had been employed there by the Portland Railway, Light & Power Co, soon after graduating in Electrical Engineering from the W.S.C. 1n 1908.
Cort Miller installed the first electric power generators for Yacolt, Washington. A steam plant came first, then a hydropower plant.
He supervised the power distribution for business and homes in and around Yacolt.
His history of the power system is a window into the growth of the area. His report is a valuable historical document.
The Rotschy Family Book
I, Edgar Rotachy, was born August 29th, 1868 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Madeleine Germaine deNiederhausern, my wife, was born March 13th,
1874, in Geneva, Switzerland.
I came to the United States in October 1889, as an immigrant. My betrothed came from Geneva to Portland, Oregon, in July 1894,and we were married in that city August 1st, 1894, by Pastor
Morrisson of the Calvary Presbyterian Church.
. . .
the first man by name of Rotschy or Rotschi appearing on the registers was a Russian who was Captain in the army of Survaroff.
He probably was left behind and escaped when the Russians were beaten by the French, under Massina, near Zurich in 1799.
. . .
I was a pretty child too, so I was told, . . .
When I was about to enter the world, Dr. Brinet was called in a hurry, and so he was in his medícal officer’s dress (Swiss Army).,
He did hot take the time to change, and came ín thís blue coat. When leaving,he offered it to my mother, saying playfully:”This is a sign that your son is going to be a general sometime.”
“Oh, said mother, “I am we1l satisfied if he is only an honest man.”
The Mt Valley Grange #79 – Farmers Organized
Why They Met Chelatchie worries about transportation monopolies. Delegates from sixteen Washington Territory Granges met in Camas on September 10-12, 1889 to form the Washington State Grange.
Where They Met The first meeting of the Mountain Valley Grange was held on August 6, 1889 at Charlie and Mary Pitchford’s log cabin
Results Grange secures independent transportation. In the minutes of Mountain Valley Grange for February 15, 1891 “James McKee was initiated and then appointed as delegate to the LaCenter Grange.” The LaCenter Grange had a boat building project to build an opposition boat to compete with the Lewis River Transportation Co.
C.R. Miller’s Story
Cort Miller was raised near Goldendale, Washington and was one of the first graduates of the Electrical Engineering Program at Washington State College. He developed and operated the Yacolt Power & Light Company for a couple of decades, moved to Pullman to operate the WSC power plant and retired at his home at the end of the Rotschy Road between Amboy and Yacolt.