The History Of Yelm Washington
Logger Sees Bugs in Air and Goes To Asylum
Frank Lemoine was brought In from Yelm yesterday and after a hearing before Court Commissioner Fry was committed to the insane asylum at Steilacoom. LeMoine. who
has been working at a tie camp near Yelm, imagined he saw bugs in the air, and was laboring under several other hallucinations. He says he has had no sound sleep for weeks. (Morning Olympian March 8, 1910)
Lunatic Thinks Yelm is Cincinnati, Ohio
Chas. B. Spurlock yesterday morning mistook Yelm, Wash., for Cincinnati, O., and last evening was adjudged insane and today was taken to the Western Washington hospital for the insane. He was first seen at Roy, Pierce county, Thursday and was thought to be of unsound mind, but it la said that at Roy he was told to go over the river to find Cincinnati and when he reached Yelm yesterday morning: he asked if he had reached the fair Ohio city and said he wanted to find Flint street, where his father and mother lived.
When told that his mother did not reside in Yelm he broke down and cried like a child. Word was sent to the authorities here and Sheriff Gaston ordered him brought in. When questioned he said that he was 35 years of age, had been married and divorced
and that his wife lives In Kentucky. His parents, he says, live in Cincinnati on Flint street but he cannot remember their house number. He was in the San Francisco earthquake.
The examining physicians say that they think that he will recover when given the proper care. (Olympia Daily Recorder February 20, 1909)
[untitled]
Chief Savidge this morning received from Yelm stating that a man answering the description of M. Campbell, the patient who escaped from the asylum at Steilacoom Tuesday night, was seen in that town this morning. He is said to have had a handkerchief wrapped around his hand and was hastening east, probably to Tacoma. The three attendants from the asylum who were sent here to search for the man left this morning, two returning to the asylum and the other going to Yelm.” (Washington Daily Record May 22, 1902)
Campbell Quickly Captured
Insane Man Never Came to Olympia But Turned Off at Woodland—Offered No Resistance.
The escaped insane man, R. D. Campbell, who was thought to have made a visit to Olympia, was captured by the wardens of the asylum on the Northern’ Pacific main line between Yelm and Tacoma. Campbell never came to this city at all. After reaching Woodland he left the line of the railway and followed the wagon road to Yelm, He paused tliat place during the evening and turned back towards Tacoma. Supt. Parks, at Steilacoom, was notified of the direction the demented man had taken and the wardens easily found him yesterday morning. The wardens who were here were notified by telephone of the capture and left immediately for Steilacoom.
The Olympian was in error yesterday in giving tae unfortunate man’s name as M. E. Campbell. A gentleman by that name is secretary of-the John D. Campbell & Co. spice mills in Tacoma, with which concern the demented man has been associated. Evening paper please copy again. (Morning Olympian May 23, 1902)
‘Wild Man” Captured and Sent to Asylum
Captured in the woods near Yelm, where he has been acting the part of a traditional wild man, Harvey Dusenbery was today committed to the Western Washington hospital at Fort Steilacoom by Judge Linn. Dusenbery gave his home as Provo City, Utah. He has been in the vicinity of Yelm for about a week but defied capture until yesterday when J. F. Rice ran him down and after a struggle succeeded in overpowering him. The insane man threw Rice completely over his head during the struggle. He was brought to the city by Rice and Walter Longmire, The demented man was but scantily clothed and had been sleeping out of door without covering. (Olympia Daily Recorder December 6, 1906)
Echoes From Yelm: An Ambitious Little Burgh
(Tacoma Daily Ledger September 5, 1889 p. 3)
On Mount Tacoma
When the Ledger is publishing items about Mount Tacoma possibly the following may be deemed worthy of mention, owing to the extreme youth of the climber: on the 21st of August little Christine V. T., 9 years old, ascended Mount Tacoma to an altitude of 10,000 feet, climbing steadily four and a half hours from camp in Paradise valley to the height reached. During the ascent the youthful mountaineer passed through a finely arched ice tunnel 105 feet long by 30 feet in width, the arch 10 feet high. The solid ice of the sides and ceiling of the tunnel were beautifully tinted with green and sky blue, the rocky floor forming in the center the channel of a tumbly ice-cold stream.
At 10,000 feet elevation oh that bright summer afternoon little feet grew very cold and little hands were benumbed by the sharp blasts that swept down from the ice dome above. Several crevices two feet wide and of great depth were leaped by the little climber. From this elevation two mountain climbers Messrs. Gove and Nichol, it afterwards proved, could be seen slowly and laboriously toiling up the last steep stretch of the summit their bodies, even from the high point (10,000 feet) on the mountain itself, looking like mere black spots moving over the pure snow. Some persons have erroneously supposed that a flag planted on the summit of the mountain, as a tangible evidence of a successful ascent, might be seen from the Sound with a field glass.
At 9,000 feet the cairn built by Miss Fay Fuller and her companion in 1887 was visited. The tin box was examine and the writing it contained, though in pencil, was found to be as legible as the day it was written, notwithstanding the storms and snows of nearly three winters had swept over the spot.
A little further on is Camp Plummer, still as the professor left it in 1887, the wire flag staff from which his colors floated still in the rock crevice in which he placed it. Christine built a new cairn on the rocky ultima thule of her climb and deposited a tin box containing the date of her ascent. In 1870 General Stevens and his companion deposited in the crater a copper plate with their names engraved on it. In 1883 the Bailey party left an inscribed leaden plate, and the Ingraham-Muir party of 1888 deposited records of their ascent on the rim of the crater, as did the successful ascending parties of this year. These various points and depositories, all in the line of ascent, will form interesting features in the ascent of future climbers. Parties desirous, of a delightful and health-giving summer outing should visit the Southern parks of the mountain in late July or early August. They will enjoy mountain scenery that in sublimity and beauty beggars description.
Yelm, not to be outdone in vigor and enterprise by larger cities, has already begun to replace the three buildings destroyed by fire a fortnight ago. (Washington Standard March 29, 1907)
‘Wild Man” Captured and Sent to Asylum
(Olympia Daily Recorder December 6, 1906)
Captured in the woods near Yelm, where he has been acting the part of a traditional wild man, Harvey Dusenbery was today committed to the Western Washington hospital at Fort Steilacoom by Judge Linn. Dusenbery gave his home as Provo City, Utah. He has been in the vicinity of Yelm for about a week but defied capture until yesterday when J. F. Rice ran him down and after a struggle succeeded in overpowering him. The insane man threw Rice completely over his head during the struggle. He was brought to the city by Rice and Walter Longmire, The demented man was but scantily clothed and had been sleeping out of door without covering.
Campbell Quickly Captured
(Morning Olympian May 23, 1902)
Insane Man Never Came to Olympia But Turned Off at Woodland—Offered No Resistance.
The escaped insane man, R. D. Campbell, who was thought to have made a visit to Olympia, was captured by the wardens of the asylum on the Northern’ Pacific main line between Yelm and Tacoma. Campbell never came to this city at all. After reaching Woodland he left the line of the railway and followed the wagon road to Yelm, He paused tliat place during the evening and turned back towards Tacoma. Supt. Parks, at Steilacoom, was notified of the direction the demented man had taken and the wardens easily found him yesterday morning. The wardens who were here were notified by telephone of the capture and left immediately for Steilacoom.
The Olympian was in error yesterday in giving tae unfortunate man’s name as M. E. Campbell. A gentleman by that name is secretary of-the John D. Campbell & Co. spice mills in Tacoma, with which concern the demented man has been associated. Evening paper please copy again.
[untitled]
(Washington Daily Record May 22, 1902)
Chief Savidge this morning received from Yelm stating that a man answering the description of M. Campbell, the patient who escaped from the asylum at Steilacoom Tuesday night, was seen in that town this morning. He is said to have had a handkerchief wrapped around his hand and was hastening east, probably to Tacoma. The three attendants from the asylum who were sent here to search for the man left this morning, two returning to the asylum and the other going to Yelm.”
Serious Accident. John A. McKenzie of Yelm Badly Hurt by a Windlass
( (Morning Olympian November 2, 1895)
People that came of age in the 1960s might remember a public service annoucment warning one that if you found a blasting cap “Do not pick it up.” The danger was real “J. A. Piper has begun suit against this county for $25,000 alleged damages to a son from explosion of dynamite cap found by the boy on the road between this city and Yelm. The loss sustained by Bennie Piper, the son, is a thumb and two fingers. It is alleged that the dynamite was left on the road by the county’s employees, so that the boy had easy access to it.”