By Roberta McKern
For The New Era
At the East Linn Museum, we have been browsing through a book of poetry entitled, “Songs of the Santiam,” written by William Ralph Mealey, a well-known resident of the Foster area before the Santiam’s song was altered by the building of the Foster dam reservoir.
Bill composed rhyming verses throughout much of his life, although he was best known as a lumberman and a farmer. Writing poetry was an intellectual pursuit,…