A Brief History of Tenino 1900 - 1930
By Curt Cunningham

At the beginning of the 20th century, Tenino and Bucoda had become the largest industrial center in Thurston county. The following is a brief history of some of the events that took place in and around the town of Tenino between 1900 and 1932.

Coal Oil Discovery

On May 31, 1901, coal oil was discovered on the Jonathan Sarver place. The farm was orginally owned by Abraham Tilley whose home was once a rest stop for stage passengers. The home was located at the intersection of the Pacific Highway and Tilley Road east of Scatter creek. As the news spread of the discovery, many questioned whether the strike was real as they did not want to be taken like the people in Bucoda did when they were duped into thinking they had a major coal deposit that was salted by Henritzi. The townsfolk were correct in their assumption as the oil strike did not materialize. The Puget Sound Petroleum Co. had drilled a 198 foot hole and only found small amounts of the oil.

Tenino in the 1900's

By December of 1901, Tenino had 370 residents, and was the first year the town tried to incorporate. It would take a few years of running notices in the papers until the town was finally incorporated on July 24, 1906.

On April 20, 1905, W. F. Pattison who was the editor of the Bucoda Enterprise in the 1890's, founded the short lived Tenino Journal. That same year a fire broke out and destroyed a majority of main street, which was rebuilt using the nearby sandstone. The new block of sandstone buildings was used to advertise for the stone company. The Tenino Bank, which was founded a year later in 1906 was housed in a new stone building.

In 1908, fire broke out again in Tenino when the business section of town was wiped out along with the newly finished A. O. U. W. hall.

Commercial Activity in Tenino 1910's

On May 15, 1911, the Hercules Sandstone Company of Tenino was awarded the contract to supply the material for the restoration of the Gray's Harbor jetty. The company first delivered 700 tons a day to the jetty at South Aberdeen. After the south jetty was completed and for the next couple of years it took for completion of the north jetty, the company was to supply 1,200 tons a day. The contract gave a big boost to Tenino for the jobs it created.

1911 was the year the Tenino Cigar Factory was to be opened by an experienced cigar maker from Tacoma. They were going to make the "T-9-O" cigar, but only on conditions that they would be a superior cigar or the townsfolk would not allow the company to use the name. Apparently tobacco does not grow very well in the Northwest as some of the farmers soon found out and the scheme never took off.

Also in 1911, the Mentzer Bros. Lumber Company shut down logging operations and closed the sawmill. This was a blow to the town as many good jobs were lost. Two years later in 1913, the Mutual Lumber Company of Bucoda purchased the mill and timber holdings after their mill in Bucoda burnt down. The employees from Bucoda moved with their families to Tenino to work for the company. The mill was overhauled and put to work earning $15,000 a month in payroll for the employees.

In 1914, the Tenino Bank was doing good business and everyone in town used it. The extra cash the bank received was deposited in the Centralia Bank because it was a federal bank and was thought to be a safe place to store the money. The Centralia banker, Charles Gilchrist had a good reputation and people had faith in his bank. That year, the Centralia bank was found to be insolvent and the bank along with the Tenino bank and some others, collapsed. It was later found out that Gilchrist had been embezzling funds. In the end, the Tenino depositors received .50 cents on the dollar. 

The Washington Monument

When the Washington Monument in Washington DC was constructed, a stone from Tenino was placed inside the obelisk. On May 1, 1914, The Washington State "stone" that was to be placed in the Washington Monument was prepared for shipment. The stone was 4 feet long and 2 feet wide and bears the inscription "State of Washington" with the state seal cut into the stone below the words. The stone was a gift from the owners of the quarries at Tenino and was made of the finest grade of Tenino sandstone.

Tenino Continues to Grow

On May 22, 1914, Tenino citizens circulated petitions advocating that Tenino become the county seat of Thurston county. William McArthur and Joe Taylor were the promoters of the change and offered a site free of charge that would enable the county to build a courthouse twice the size of the current one. They said that Tenino offers better transportation than Olympia and they thought the rest of the county would join with them. Since Olympia is still the county seat, it is safe to say the rest of the county was not as interested with the plan as Tenino was. 

In 1914, the first streets were concrete paved and by 1915, there was over 1,000 souls living in town. There were 11 saloons and a complete block of stone buildings between Olympia and Howard Streets.

Fire!

On November 9, 1917, fire broke out in town and the Masonic Temple, the Central Hotel and the building in between them were destroyed. The fire started sometime between 2am and 3am in the middle building. The hotel had leased out the upper floor and on the lower floor in front was Gene Fryou's barber shop, and the rear was unoccupied. The 3 wooden buildings were completely destroyed in about an hour. The fire was so hot the glass windows of the building across the street had shattered into small pieces or were so badly cracked that they had to be replaced. D. D. Axtell of the Tenino Market which was located in the brick block suffered $25 damage to some sheds and his chicken coops out back.

Prohibition

In 1917, Thurston county police arrested Frank Peasley of Tenino who was a jitney driver at the lumber mill. He was caught selling 4 pints of whiskey to a couple of deputy sheriffs near town. Peasley had been under suspicion for some time and fell into the trap laid out by county authorities, in which C. C. Likins, who was a special employee of the sheriff's office took the leading role in the arrest. 

Upon instructions from the prosecuting attorney and Sheriff Gifford, Likins arranged with Peasley to deliver a couple of bottles of "milk" to him under the bridge near Tenino. Hiding in the dark was the sheriff, a deputy and Chief Cusack. When they saw the transaction they pounced and arrested Peasley who was put up on a $1,000 bond and pleaded guilty when arraigned.

The Soldiers Come Home

On June 21, 1919, a crowd of more than 2,000 people from Centralia, Olympia, Tono, Bucoda and other nearby cities attended a welcome home celebration to honor the returning soldiers of WWI. Music for the event was furnished by 3 bands. There was a patriotic parade in the morning with many beautifully decorated floats and automobiles.

Following the parade a ceremony was held for those who could not make it back and then a BBQ was held in the Tenino park to feed the masses. That evening a banquet was held in the St. Francis Hotel. Following the banquet a concert was given by the Centralia band and the day's activities closed with a street dance where 2 blocks of the recently paved street was roped off. More than 200 men from Tenino served in WWI and the majority of them returned home safely.

The Wooden Money

In 1931, the Citizen's Bank of Tenino closed its doors leaving the town merchants without any means to get cash to carry on their businesses. For a time, all business in town was at a standstill as nobody had any cash to buy anything. Nobody knew what to do until the chamber of commerce came up with the idea to help the economy get rolling again. The idea was that a depositor in the closed bank could assign to the chamber, a certain amount of his proven deposit up to 25%. In exchange, the depositor would receive wooden script, which the chamber guaranteed to redeem when the bank was liquidated.

The first script was printed on a lithographed sheet in denominations of .25, .50 $1, $5 and $10 by the Thurston County Independent. This worked well except the wooden sheets would break and they were too bulky to carry around. The chamber then decided during February of 1932 to print the denominations onto a 3 ply Sitka spruce coin. This coin was more durable and convenient to carry. The wooden money helped carry the town through it's financial crisis.

Of the early paper scrip, $1,279 was circulated and $1,079.75 was redeemed. Of the wooden money, a total of $10,308 was issued. But the money was prized primarily as a collector’s item. Only about $40 was ever redeemed. King Farouk of Egypt and Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy were the most famous of those who collected the coin.

Downtown Tenino is now a historic district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Tenino today is a suburb Olympia with many of its citizens commuting to that city and to Tacoma for work.