Jan 12, 2022
Liz Writes Life
Last week, I mentioned Mike Hunt who was the Etna Police
Chief in the late 1960s up to 1972. He is the only officer from the Etna police
department (that I know of), who was killed while serving as a police officer.
It was a freak accident. Chief Hunt was trying out a new ambulance and it
became involved in a single-car accident in which he died. I don’t recall who
was driving.
Mike was also a local butcher and owned the Etna Meat and Ice
Company on the Main Street business block.
I was a senior at Etna High School, when the accident
happened. Much like the community, we students were shocked. Chief Hunt was
well liked. Our “Nugget” yearbook staff dedicated the 1973 yearbook in his
honor.
I made several phone calls to friends who I thought would
recall some of the details about the accident and no one answered. Oh, the
frustrations of writing my column when the deadline is looming! I did find him
online. His real name was Everett and he died Sept. 8, 1972.
Because I am curious about what I do and do not recall about
Chief Hunt, I will try to find answers this week and report them. Guess I might
try sending emails or texting!
So, the history bug has hit me again. I think it is the
winter months of cold that many of us turn to doing genealogy or writing about
family. I will confess the garlic still needs to be planted in the garden and
the rain has melted the snow, so I should do that – soon! I do like my
homegrown garlic. But, it is so hard to get motivated to garden in the winter!
Thinking about Chief Hunt got me to remembering the 1993 law
enforcement issue of “The Siskiyou Pioneer” book. Anita Merrill Butler served
as editor and asked me to write up my grandfather, George “Dad” Dillman. He
served as Etna Town Marshal from 1943 to 1959 and died in late Nov. 1960 at the
age of 75. I will likely write about him in the near future, but wanted to pay
tribute to Anita and the fine job she did of sharing stories about various aspects
of law enforcement. She divided the book into sections called “The Enforcers”
and “The Crimes” and “The Criminals”.
Interestingly, Anita wrote a bit about herself. Her father,
Floyd Merrill, was elected to the office of Siskiyou County District Attorney
in 1951 and served two terms ending in 1959. During D.A. Merrill’s first term,
he also held the offices of Public Administrator and County Council (attorney
to the Siskiyou Co. Board of Supervisors).
During his first term, Merrill was paid $300 a month and was
allowed to keep his private law practice. This changed during his second term, when
and he was told to terminate his private practice. But his monthly salary went
up to $600 and he was given the use of a county vehicle.
Part of the Public Administrator job was to inventory public
estates. As a youngster, Anita accompanied her parents on their weekend
excursions to fulfill that need. She said that many of the estate cases were
like tumble-down shacks. It wasn’t until years later that she realized most
people thought of an “estate” as a palatial mansion. Her image and description
was much different!
After graduating high school, Anita went to work for the FBI
in Los Angeles under J. Edgar Hoover who was the director. It was a turbulent
time period in the late 1960s with the unpopular Vietnam War and Selective
Service cases (draft board bombings and “draft dodging”) made up much of the
FBI’s case load. During this time, Dr. Martin Luther King and U.S. Senator
Robert Kennedy were assassinated. The FBI was busy. Anita must have worked in
the clerical offices, because women were not allowed to be agents she said; and
the agents were required to be either attorneys or accountants.
In 1975, Anita returned to Siskiyou County with her husband,
Dave, and two children. They lived near Etna. She volunteered to type (the
old-fashioned way – on a typewriter) the 1983 “Siskiyou Pioneer” for editors
Ernest Hayden and Wally Trapnell. She volunteered and worked with Siskiyou
Museum Director Mike Hendryx, served as executive secretary for the Siskiyou
Co. Historical Society and co-edited “The Siskiyou Pioneer” in 1986 with Sheila
Meamber and Velma Nelson on the Montague Centennial Issue.
This 1993 issue of “The Siskiyou Pioneer” holds some pretty
interesting stories. So, in the near future I will likely write a bit about
Macdoel’s Lady Judge and Ruth Markon, who was a Justice of the Peace in Sawyers
Bar. Then, there is George Wacker’s story about a leading Yreka citizen who
helped outfit a pirate ship to aid the Confederates during the Civil War. Yep,
pretty fun stuff!
Have you written or recorded a few of your life stories? Yep,
I will keep prodding!
May peace and calm
be with you this week. Smile – just cuz it makes you feel better!
Liz Bowen began
writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of
Siskiyou County. Columns from the past can be found at:
lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.
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