Central Washington University Archives
Guide to the Roscoe Sheller Papers
RG 004, Series 07-01
Processed and Listed by: Dieter C. Ullrich
Date: March 20, 2007
Date Span: ca. 1950s-1960s. Size: 0.5 cubic feet. Number of Boxes: 1 letter sized document case. Type of material: Typescripts and drafts. Physical condition: Good. Arrangement: Organized alphabetically by title. Historical or Biographical Sketch: Roscoe Sheller was regional writer and businessman from the Yakima Valley of Washington State. He was born in Lanark, Illinois in 1890 to John and Leafy (Ustic) Sheller. His parents moved to Sunnyside, Washington in 1899 to farm the newly irrigated lands west of the Cascade Mountains. He attended the Acme School at Sunnyside during his early childhood and later other public schools. As a young adult, he ventured into selling automobiles and by the 1920s owned and managed a Ford automobile dealership. As a hobby he wrote short stories and brief histories on the people and places of the Pacific Northwest. Prior to his death in 1981, he published twenty-two books and wrote numerous articles for regional newspapers and journals. Scope and Content Note: The collection consists of photocopied drafts and typescripts of short stories and articles written by Roscoe Sheller during the 1950s and 1960s. Included in the papers are a typescript draft of Irrigation in the Valleys of the Yakima and a series of articles by H. P. Barrett titled Yakima Irrigation: 70 years old. Research Note: Open to the public for educational research.
Inventory List:
Box 1
1. 1853 Naches Pass Crossing
2. An 1855 Slaying that Triggered a War
3. Bert Manson’s One and Only Car in 45 Years
4. The Bridgeman Hatchery Dynasty
5. Captain Robert Dunn’s Konewock District
6. Father Wilbur was a Methodist
7. Footballs’ Great Phantom, Frank Merriwell
8. The Gannon Museum of Wagons
9. Grandmother’s Day (Poem)
10. The Hanging of Henry (Timmerman)
11. Harve
12. Heartbreak Tragedy at Fort Simcoe
13. Irrigation in the Valleys of the Yakima – pages 1-99
14. Irrigation in the Valleys of the Yakima – pages 100-231
15. The Key
16. A Killing at the I. X. L.
17. The Morgan Family’s Pioneer History Background
18. The Mystery of Home on the Range
19. A Novice Farms ‘By Ear’
20. Old Blue, Blew
21. The Perkins Massacre
22. The Round Billiard Table
23. To Shoot a Horse Thief
24. The Wagon Train Bride
25. Walter N. Granger: Granddaddy of Western Irrigation
26. Yakima Irrigation: 70 Years Old by H. P. Barrett
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