Good Old Days 9/29/11

125 years ago

October 1, 1886

Work of excavating for the basement of the brick building to be erected by the city on the corner of Main and Canyon streets was begun Wednesday by McCord & Ford on a bid of $3,800. The structure will have a Main street frontage of 25 feet and a length of 40 feet on Canyon, be two stories high with a 20x25 foot basement. Ground floor will be devoted exclusively to the use of the fire company, while the upper story will be divided into three apartments, he largest to be used for a council chamber, the remaining as a sitting room and bed room for the fire company. Contractors hope to have the building ready for occupancy within six weeks.

A ham famine exists in this city. They cannot be had for love or money.

Mail will be carried to Garfield by train after the first of the month and will make tri-weekly trips. We prefer the old way, as mail will reach us several hours later than by stage.

Martin Menli of the Uniontown hotel speaks five languages.

100 years ago

September 29, 1911

Fifteen unbroken horses from the range have been secured to participate in the “buckaroo” race at the Whitman County Fair Oct. 16-21. A corral is now being constructed in the field in the center of the race track for the wild horses. When the race is called the contestant will be required to go to the corral, rope a horse, saddle him, lead him to the track and on signal starting a bucking contest and race.

No more food products will be displayed on the sidewalks of the city if the ordinance introduced at the suggestion of the National Council of Women Voters is passed in its current form. The council said keeping fruit, vegetables and groceries on the sidewalk violates laws of cleanliness and is detrimental to the health of the city.

Neckties by the dozen, suitcases packed with clothing, bundles of suits, hats and shoes and numerous other articles were stacked high in the sheriff’s office after the sheriff finished scouring the county for the men who had committed four burglaries in the last few days. Stores were burglarized in LaCrosse, Oakesdale, Winona and Tekoa.

75 years ago

September 25, 1936

Only a queer prank of fate kept the shooting at Tekoa Sunday of Gene Baty, selected as Princess Gold for the Rouned-Up here last week, the murder of her mother and the shooting of her step-sister, Mrs. F. Bruce, 27, by her stepfather, Henry Dowell, a carpenter who later committed suicide, from occurring either at the rodeo grounds here or on the city streets in the Round-Up celebration’s closing days.

Dowell’s actual shooting did occur at the Sam Pair ranch home four miles east of Tekoa, where Mrs. Dowell had been employed since her husband had allegedly chased her and her daughter, Miss Baty, from the Dowell home in Tekoa about four months ago.

Miss Baty was shot through the fleshy part of her leg above the knee while grappling with Mr. Dowell. She was shot again in the other leg above the knee in an attempt to prevent her stepfather’s shots from killing Mrs. Bruce, his own daughter.

Mrs. Bruce suffered wounds through the right shoulder near the collarbone and a long gash from elbow to wrist on the right arm. A third shot taken at her by Dowell as he left the ranch home, ripped a wound in her left side over the heart.

Dowell then got in his car and while the car was in motion, took poison and then shot himself.

50 years ago

September 28, 1961

Civil defense officials will make a survey next month of buildings in Colfax and other Whitman County communities to determine which would be suitbale for air raid shelters.

A bill to name the resevoir to be created by Little Goose lock and dam on the Snake river in honor of the late Dr. Enoch A. Bryan has been introduced in Congress. Dr. Bryan was president of Washington State University from 1883 to 1916. He long envisioned a modern utopia between Big Goose island and Little Goose island on the Snake, which he called the Riviera. His vision existed only as a ghost town for many years.

Mr. and Mrs. George Murray, Spokane, purchased the Cabboose tavern in Malden from Mr. and Mrs. Monte Rompel.

25 years ago

September 25, 1986

Palouse Empire Fair directors moved to raze the arena grandstands and again ask county voters to approve a levy to build a new one.

Whitman County may have to pay a $5,200 medical bill on an imate who was arreted by the Spokane County Sheriff’s department in 1984 on a Whitman County warrant. While in Spokane County jail, the Bonners Ferry man suffered a heart attack and was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center, where he spent three weeks in treatment.

The “Reaction” Singers quartet will be at the Ewan Nazarene Church Sunday evening. This will be combined with the previously scheduled Community Singspriation with the Methodist Christian and Christian Life Assembly churches.

10 years ago

September 27,

2001

Whitman County commissioners Monday signed a resolution condemning hate crimes, noting as America continues to mourn the losses of Sept. 11, we must not let anger, fear and sorrow surface as violence.

Approximately 35 acres of grass burned in the Harder pasture south of Lamont Sunday morning. The fire was caused by a broken guy wire that came loose from a power pole, arced on a transformer pot and ignited the grass.