Good old days - Aug. 12, 2010

125 years ago, August 14, 1885

Mayor Perkins requests us to announce that a meeting of citizens will be held in City hall Saturday evening, at which time the college proposition will be disposed of. Let there be a full attendance and some interest manifested in the matter.

J.V. O’Dell tells us of some rocks found by the Indians above his place on Snake River, which are curiosities. One of them, a stone measuring 2 1/2 x 2 x 2 feet, contains distinct deer tracks, as natural as if taken in plaster; another is covered with what appears to be coyote tracks, and the third bears the imprint of a human foot. The rocks are said to be of granite formation, which makes the find doubly interesting, as impressions in stone are seldom found in other than sandstone formation. The rocks are unlike any other in the vicinity and the theory is they have been washed down from above. Here is an opportunity for geologists to display their learning.

A gang of men with jack screws, bard, etc., are at work at Almota, endeavoring to get the steamer Spokane off the Pine Tree rapids, where she has lain since last Sunday.

100 years ago, August 12, 1910

While patrolling his beat last Friday Officer McAmis noticed a party who looked to him as though he came to town for hold-up purposes. He was arrested and on being searched a fine automatic gun was found in his pocket. He was fined $50, and in lieu thereof now sleeps in the Hotel de Carter.

Judge Canfield has denied the motion for a new trial asked by the attorneys for Anton Fehrenbacher in the case against the Oakesdale Copper Company. Plaintiff was injured by an explosion of dynamite.

Deputy Sheriffs Roberts and Cole assisted by two or three Idaho sheriffs with posses and a pair of bloodhounds from the penitentiary have been engaged in a man hunt near Emida. The fugitive is thought to be the man who killed Dell McConnell here on the Fourth of July.

75 years ago, August 16, 1935

With no definite clues established as to identity and whereabouts, Sheriff Carson J. Walker and two deputies Thursday morning were still assisting in the hunt for the two bandits who held up and robbed the Bank of Rosalia Wednesday afternoon, and the man, masquerading as a woman, who murdered Marshall Bert Lemley, as he stood in the doorway of the bank firing at the desperadoes.

Lemley was killed instantly by a shot fired from an automobile across the street, the bullet of about 32 caliber, striking him in the back, penetrating the shoulder and heart and lodging in the ribs.

Matthew Elliott, manager of the bank, was used as a shield as the bandits emerged from the bank with about $7,000. He was forced into the car and was released near the Whitman-Spokane county line. Elliott was a former assistant cashier of the First Savings & Trust here and sat on the floor with hands uplifted during the holdup of September 1932.

Fire of incendiary origin, that partially destroyed an untenanted house, drew an alarm shortly before the robbery, and roofing tacks on the pavement approaching town from the south indicate the holdup was carefully planned. The tacks cost Deputy Waller and Police Chief Benton three flat tires on their arrival at Rosalia.

License plates on the bandits’ car were reported P-4286 and D-4286. Either they were misread or the plates were bogus as a check up disclosed the plates bearing this number and letters were still on cars belonging to Raymond L. Carter, Colfax, who was in Clarkston, and a Snohomish county man who was in Seattle.

50 years ago, August 11, 1960

Peaches are ripe and ready for picking in orchards along the Snake River, Penawawa growers said this week. They have a crop at least as good as last year’s and probably larger.

Ownership of the old high school building was transferred officially from the Colfax school district to the city Tuesday with the signing of a deed by E.A. Hochsprung, chairman of the school board and Clerk Virgil Dixon.

Burning up the Colfax Elks golf links with three sub-par rounds, youthful Ron Olson followed in the footsteps of his brother Eddie Sunday and became one of the youngest champions in local history.

25 years ago, August 15, 1985

Farm wife May Ann Harlow won a $10,000 grand prize while on a Hawaiian boat cruise last January and decided she’d drive it herself. The prize was 75 hours of threshing with a new N7 Gleaner from the National Association of Wheat Growers.

A state law banning smoking in public buildings, except in designated areas, went into effect two weeks ago, and is in evidence in the courthouse this week, as no-smoking signs were posted in halls and reception areas.

Norm and Mary Ellen Kramer sold their business, Kramer’s Fountain, which they have owned and operated at Colton since 1957 to Walt and Chris Miner.

10 years ago, August 10, 2000

Sheriff’s officers Friday determined that five test plots in the Dusty area had been vandalized after getting a report that a group called “The Dusty Desperados” claimed responsibility for damage in a move to disrupt research into what they believed to be genetically grown crops.

A strawboard plant in Whitman County is a question of when – not if – a representative of a Wisconsin machinery company said at a press conference at the Port of Whitman County offices in Colfax Friday.