100 years ago in Spokane: Ohio Match Co. to join Diamond as major match manufacturer with Spokane factory

The Inland Northwest was becoming an important hub for a critical industry, the match industry.

The Ohio Match Co. was preparing to open a new factory in Spokane and a new lumber mill near Ione.

The company also bought 5 million feet of white pine timber near the new mill.

That’s because white pine was ideal for making wooden matches, which were used almost every day by people all over the country to light their wood stoves, their gas lights and their cigars.

The Diamond Match Co. also was building a plant near Yardley.

From the gardening beat: The city of Spokane was planning to give away 20,000 gallons of water at no charge to gardeners who were tending “war gardens.”

War gardens were vegetable plots intended to help alleviate wartime food shortages. They were springing up on vacant lots and in backyards all over the city, and were considered to be a patriotic service.

From the food beat: Here was another act considered to be patriotic: Eating cottage cheese.

“Every pound of cheese eaten sends that much more meat to soldiers,” said a visiting official from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.