This story was found from a photocopy of the Senior News newspaper article, dated 1985, in my
father's bedroom after he passed away in July 2000. It's about my Grandfather, Jethro "Jeff" Miller. He
was my Grandmothers 2nd husband and the only Grandfather I ever really knew.

                           THE INSPIRATION FOR A STORY
                          BY YOUR EDITOR, BERNIE ALTMAN

As I was in my office looking through the mail, I heard a senior citizen walk into the adjacent office and
contribute some napkin holders he had designed and built as a retired carpenter for the Silver Bells
Christmas Craft Show. As he was telling June and Marilyn about the holders, he made the remark, "The
stories I could tell about how Longview got started", and a light flashed in my sleepy, after lunch brain.
Here is a story sitting next door...Don't let him get away. I approached him about telling his story and
having his picture taken. At first he must of thought I was asking him to write it, because he said he was
getting too lazy after living 85 years. But, when he realized I would do the writing, he became very
cooperative. The story that follows is the result.

                     HE HELPED BUILD LONGVIEW & RYDERWOOD

In 1923, Jeff Miller was a young man of 23 living in Forestburg, Alberta, Canada. His brother-in-law told
him about a new city being built south of where he was. When he arrived here, he went to work building
the dike along Willow Grove. He could still see the collapsed Cowlitz River bridge in the water. He
remembers one property owner who wouldn't sell out, so they started building around him, then he sold.
Jeff had charge of the carbide lights with a gas flame to light the way for the night crews.
The crews slept in a dairy barn. One night in a cot next to his, he saw a man light a match and blood was
pouring from his eye. Jeff helped him get some treatment, but he never got back to work. It was a rat that
bit right through his eye. Perhaps he was one-eyed the rest of his life. Jeff never saw him again. Then he
went to work building the homes in Ryderwood. In order to save money, the contractor tore out the sway
bracing on the staging while Jeff was on the top landing, A wind came, and it collapsed. Jeff fell 50 feet,
fracturing his skull and breaking his arm. He was in the old Kelso hospital about a month, and
convalesced a year, he ran a pool hall for Long Bell.. The first employment agent at Long Bell called him
by name as he walked through the door, although he had seen him once five years before. Jeff worked 35 years
for Weyerhaeuser, first firing the oil burners. Then, when they turned to hog fuel, he shifted to
the pulp mill as a carpenter. He has been married 53 years to his second wife. Among his, hers and theirs,
they have five children and 16 grandchildren all living in this immediate area. 
One of the things that bothers someone like Jeff is some of the misconceptions that live down the years.
For example, he says that most people think the term "Jeep" was started during World War 2 by the
service. According to Jeff the term came before that by the private company Willis Overland from a
comic strip character by the same name, Popeye's ghost which could go anywhere. It is quite sobering to
think what those who built this area for us had to go through to make the beautiful, relatively safe place it
is to live and work today.