History at a Glance

James Hodkinson was born in Matlock, Derbyshire, England, in 1833. He emigrated to America in 1882 and was one of the earliest settlers in the Satsop Valley. When he became the area's first postmaster, he gave it the name of Matlock, after his hometown.

A 1901 supplement to the Mason County Journal included two pages about "the thriving and prosperous town of Matlock, situated about 17 miles from Shelton in the midst of the great timber district." Matlock was 3 miles from the railroad line that led directly to Shelton, and boasted a large general store, a hotel, a boot and shoe shop, "and several other like-minded institutions," as well as 10 phone connections with the outside world, and regular mail service.

The primary reason for the town's prosperity was the nearby headquarters of Sol Simpson's logging company, which operated eight logging camps in Mason County, employed over 500 men, and was recognized as one of the leading firms of its type in the state.

The area was surrounded by land that was expected to become an agricultural district. Among the "very fine farms" that were already doing well were the chicken ranch of Mr. Joseph Simpson, the goat and sheep ranch of Joseph Carstairs, and the fine thoroughbred horses of J. A. Cole, foreman of Simpson's Camp Three.

The December 1986 Centennial Edition of the Shelton-Mason County Journal included the memories of Dora Hearing, who at that time had been writing the paper's News from Matlock column for more than 60 years. Dora was interviewed at her home near Mary M. Knight School, not far from the log house where she was born in 1901 to Swiss and German immigrants William and Anna Marie Rediska. In December 1924, Dora married Elvin "Chub" Hearing, and in 1935 they moved into her parents' home to be with her mother after her father died. According to Dora, "Matlock was a city in 1901. There were around 30 families and also a lot of one-room cabins where bachelors lived. The shops and roundhouse where the engines were kept were across the road from where the present store is."

Dora came from a farming family. "We milked cows, sold cream, raised our own meat, and smoked our own hams. We continued to sell cream after I was married. There were a lot more farms then. This house used to have three bedrooms, but we made one into a dining room. We needed that, especially at haying time for the hay crews - kids would work for a dollar a day in the hay, so you know that was the good old days!"

She recalled that in the early days, several logging camps were in the area and Matlock was much more of a town at the center of a number of smaller communities. The Matlock store was at the center of the community, but in those days it was a company store.

Simpson Logging Co. provided public transportation to Shelton by way of a little red caboose - the train stopped at the Matlock crossing so people could board for the morning trip to Shelton. Shopping in town could be done in time to catch the train on its return to Matlock and the camps.

Dora remembered walking to the grange hall for dances. "The roads were all gravel. My uncle had a 'Tin Lizzie' Ford, and sometimes we'd ride. We used to do a lot of visiting and a lot of walking. We'd have hay rides with horses pulling the wagons, and later trucks doing the pulling. We kept busy and didn't have time to get into mischief. There were a lot of organizations then, too: Red Cross, Maccabee Lodge, Woodmen of the World, and Royal Neighbors."

Dora still had the bell that used to call her to school in the old schoolhouse. "When that school was built they offered the old log schoolhouse to my father if he could move it. He put rollers under it and with a stump puller and a horse team he brought it across here. We used it for about 20 years before it fell down in 4 or 5 feet of snow one winter. Prior to 1924 there were small schools scattered throughout the area. Deckerville, Beeville, and Wayside all had their own schools. There was one at the hatchery, as well as the one where Mary M. Knight school is now, and some students came to the new school from Elizabeth, just across the Grays Harbor County line. Under the administration of Mason County School Superintendent Mary M. Knight, the host of little schools in Mason County were brought together to form the county's first consolidated school district. She worked hard for that consolidation, and that's why the district was named after her."

The biggest news stories during her youth were probably the forest fires. "The worst one was in 1902, when I was just a baby. It got so dark that everyone carried lanterns, and people in Matlock thought the end of the world had come. The fires would get people pretty excited; there was no way to fight them then. Our well was dry in the big fire of 1924; we lost our barn that year. One of our neighbors saved his barn but lost their house."

Dora also remembered John Tornow, subject of a manhunt that dominated the news for a while around 1912. "The fire of 1902 had burned out all the undergrowth, and lots of blueberries grew up. For years there were lovely blueberries around here. I remember Tornow and his mother picked the berries and washed them at our pump. He was just an ordinary person then. Later he took to the woods. One winter he stayed about 4 or 5 miles from us, but he wasn't sociable. He'd walk to Matlock to get groceries, but he wouldn't talk to my dad."

According to a June 1969 Journal article, Matlock was "folding" not long after the turn of the century. The Port Blakely Railroad had pulled up its tracks. The Simpson Company was pushing logging operations farther into the woods toward what would eventually become Camp Grisdale, and moving its headquarters into Shelton. But in 1986, Dora Hearing appreciated that "we still have our community church, the grange, the homemakers club, and the pinochle club. It's a good community."

The second schoolhouse at Matlock - the one with the bell - had been built on land donated by Dora's father and was known as the Rediska School. That building, minus the bell tower, is now the Matlock Museum, housing a large collection of artifacts and information about the area's history.

■ Jan Parker is a researcher for the Mason County Historical Museum. She can be reached at [email protected]. Membership in the Mason County Historical Society is $25 per year. For a limited time, new members will receive a free copy of the book "Shelton, the First Century Plus Ten."