HISTORY
6 • APRIL 2014
The Current
Rosebush served as early innovator, author By Bill Zimmer |
SPOKANE VALLEY HERITAGE MUSEUM
At left: Waldo Rosebush worked as an assistant manager in the office at Inland Empire Paper Co., shown in this circa 1920 photo.
This is Seth Woodard. As your Spokane Valley tour hosts, Howard Stegner and I are going to introduce you this month to Waldo Rosebush. Perhaps he is not one of the best known Valley pioneers, but he certainly left his footprints as a manufacturer, historian, gun collector and author. I, Waldo E. Rosebush, was born in 1889. After graduating from Alfred University in 1909, I took a job as a clerk with the Patten Fine Paper Co. in Wisconsin. A few years later I joined the U.S. Army and served under Gen. John Pershing on his expedition against Poncho Villa in Mexico. During World War I, I was promoted to major and served with the army in France where I met a young lady with whom I was quite impressed. When the war was over, I was discharged from the army and returned to Patten Paper (Wisc.) where I became secretary of the company. In 1920, I was hired as assistant general manager of the Inland Empire Paper Company in Millwood, Wash., where my oldest brother, Judson, served on the Board of Trustees and was currently president of the company. Most of the early administrators came from Wisconsin paper mills. While I was in France I became interested in the design of country houses in Normandy compared to those in the U.S. When I built my house in Millwood, I incorporated much of the French design, hoping that would help influence that certain French girl to come to America, but to no avail. After those hopes were dashed, I never
Below: This photo from the Boutwell Collection shows the growing town of Millwood taken from the roof of the Inland Empire Paper Company.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SPOKANE VALLEY HERITAGE MUSEUM
married. Incidentally, some of my neighbors asked for my advice on developing plans for homes they hoped to build. When I later became general manager of the company, we were busy acquiring and developing a site west of the paper mill where employees who had been living in tents and shacks could build homes with the assistance of the company. We provided a lowinterest loan fund for borrowing money along with “pattern books” for homes. We also provided a company steam shovel for digging basements. In addition to my work I had several other interests including manufacturing and gun collecting. In 1932, I applied for and was granted a patent for a log-loading device which transferred logs from the water to railroad cars or trucks. I also have a strong inter-
est in history, as well as writing. I have written two books. The first, titled “Frontier Steel,” has to do with firearms history and the U.S. military. The second, “American Firearms and the Changing Frontier,” focuses on the impact of firearms on U.S. history until about 1900. Between 1930 and 1933, I edited a series of articles detailing Spokane Valley history under the heading, “Valley of the Sun.” One of the Valley pioneers that I covered in some detail was Antoine Plante after I got information on him by corresponding with his descendants. Perhaps his most outstanding personal trait (often referred to by others) was reliability — a trait which I greatly admire. In 1936, I left the paper mill and began serving the army as a civilian in Alaska and the Pacific.
When I retired I moved to Appleton, Wisc., to my earlier roots, but I didn’t sell my house in Millwood. I rented it to a local family. I guess my roots run pretty deep in Millwood because I return annually to vote, as well as to visit friends and acquaintances.
This installment of the Footprints in the Valley Series was written by Bill Zimmer, a retired educator and longtime West Valley school board member. For more about this article or other aspects of the history of the Spokane Valley region, visit the museum at 12114 E. Sprague Ave. or call 922-4570.
FOOTPRINTS IN THE VALLEY In this 2014 history series from the Spokane Valley Heritage Museum, “History Heroes” Seth Woodard and Howard Stegner will take readers on a tour of “Footprints in the Valley,” month by month, through photos, documents, articles and treasure hunts. This month: Meet Waldo E. Rosebush, who served as manager of the Inland Empire Paper Company.