Good Old Days 10/6/11

125 years ago

October 8, 1886

The proposition to illuminate Colfax with electricity has matured, and C.B. Hopkins has completed arrangements for an electric light plant, which will be put in at an early date.

Ed. Hall, one of the six guests at the county bastille, made a break for liberty Thursday morning while breakfast was being served. Taking advantage of an open window, he climbed quietly out upon the roof, skipped over the high fence and was making off in great shape when an alarm was sounded by Mrs. Webster, wife of the jailer. He had covered four or five blocks when he was intercepted on the hill side by B.F. Newcomer and returned to jail.

Owing to the shutting down of the Lincoln and Colfax flouring mills, the former for lack of water to run it and the later for repairs, flour is scarce in this city.

100 years ago

October 6, 1911

A strike is on at the county jail because county commissioners have refused to furnish any more tobacco for the prisoners who have been working on the rock pile. Prisoners have been receiving tobacco to the value of nearly three cents a day per man and the bill for September reached $14.

About 20 shopmen employed in the O.W.R.&N. car shops at Tekoa went out on a strike at 2 o’clock Saturday along with the other shopmen along the line. It was reported to the sheriff’s office Monday that strikers were dropping rocks from the high Milwaukee trestle onto the heads of O.W.R.&N. workmen below.

P.R. Lair, living three miles north of Colfax dug out a potato which weighed 56 ounces. It was a Maggie Murphy and he doesn’t care who knows it.

75 years ago

October 2, 1936

The 75 homing pigeons released here by Milton Crawford some time ago at the request of the Kimberly, B.C., pigeon club, made the 205 miles home in 4 1/2 hours, according to word received by Crawford this week.

Troop 88, local scout troop sponsored by the American Legion, named Louie Perkins its senior patrol leader. Jack Schmick has been chosen as junior assistant scoutmaster and Bob Sanders, scribe.

50 years ago

October 5, 1961

One of 16 microwave communication stations that will aid in the flow of natural gas in Oregon, Idaho and Washington is nearing completion on the summit of Steptoe Butte. The equipment is being installed by Pacific Gas Transmission Co.

The Palouse country resembled a scene from a science fiction movie last Thursday as dust-clogged air cast a peculiar orange light on the region during one of the worst dust storms in many years. Visibility was cut to zero in many areas. Two highways were closed as winds up to 40 miles per hour whipped power lines and trees, resulting in three electrical failures in downtown Colfax and an hour of darkness in the LaCrosse-Endicott area.

The Rural Electrification Authority in Washington, D.C., must approve the low bid on Lacrosse Telephone Company’s new dial central office and an equipment building at Endicott before a contract can be let out. L.K. Ford Co. at Richland turned in the low bid at $32,134.

Garfield school directors are expected to take action Monday on a petition for a district financed swimming pool signed by 259 citizens.

25 years ago

October 2, 1986

Delivery of PIK certificates to farmers and landowners caused Wall Street type “heavy trading” on the corner of Canyon and Main Saturday. Farmers lined up at Almota Elevator Co. to sell the certificates for a 15-cent gain on the dollar. Value of the generic certificates had reached as high as $1.18 earlier in the week. PIK certificates make it possible for the owner to buy a quantity of wheat or other commodity in the amount that equals the value of the certificate.

A 136-ton General Electric transformer was delivered to the new WWP substation at Shawnee last week by a crew from Neil F. Lampson Inc.

A group of Colfax residents are circulating petitions to name the Colfax High School auditorium the K. David Coe Auditorium. Coe, chorus teacher at CHS for 20 years, resigned last month to take a teaching post in the Philippines.

10 years ago

October 4, 2001

The crew from TLC Flying spent three days last week painting an American flag on the hangar door at the Whitman County Airport. The painters reported they received honks from Airport Road motorists who noticed their work in progress. Brian and Ken Windsor and Cael Savage put the flag in place.

A proposal to covert Deanway into a one-way street was turned down by the Colfax City Council Monday night, just two weeks after it was placed on the council’s table.