Good Old Days

125 years ago

July 29, 1887

The Baldwin House received a new couch last week, and on Saturday evening the band christened it by taking a ride around town and giving an open air concert, a la circus band.

Colfax needs a good opera house. Completion of the Riparia branch means first-class companies will be enabled to come here from Walla Walla on their way to Spokane Falls. At present we have no accommodations for good companies if they should come.

Dr. B.W. McPhee expects a brother, a professional base ball player from the east, will soon join the Colfax club. The doctor thinks he can make our club one of the best in the northwest.

There are 340 dwellings, including hotels, in Colfax. This is a gain of 90 in the past year. So says Harry Cornwell, who has taken the trouble to count them.

Garfield’s new paper, the Enterprise, John V. Hamilton, publisher, appeared last Saturday. It is an eight column, patent outside, is neat in appearance and well edited.

There are, no doubt, people in the Palouse country who do not adorn their persons with jewelry of any kind, but they are in the minority. That reminds us that M.A. Rose, popular jeweler of Colfax, is constantly adding to his stock new and unique goods. He makes a display second to none in eastern Washington.

100 years ago

July 26, 1912

Contractor O.H. Stratton began work this week on a concrete bridge at Tekoa which is the first of its kind to be erected in Whitman County.

Fred Schreiber considers himself and family lucky to have escaped as well as they did from an automobile accident in which his machine rolled completely over and landed right side up in the mill race. Mrs. Schreiber received two broken ribs and he received a bruised leg. Their baby, aged a year and a half, was entirely unhurt.

Arnold Lebrbass was bitten through the shoe by a rattlesnake last week while mowing with a scythe at Winona. He did not know he had been bitten until the foot began to swell. He took an antidote and was all right in a few days.

The Kerr-Gifford warehouse at Warner, between Oakesdale and Seltice, was burned Wednesday night. A small amount of wheat was stored in the warehouse.

75 years ago

July 23, 1937

The closing out sale on July 30 of all of its equipment and livestock will mark the passing of the famous Hercules ranch, an institution that for nearly a quarter of a century has bred and distributed shorthorns of outstanding quality throughout the northwest. At one time it was the largest herd of registered shorthorns in the United States. On Aug. 1, possession will be given over to new owners Jake Harder & Sons of Ritzville, pioneers of that district.

Elmer McMasters, 16, Garfield, was brought to St. Ignatius hospital Saturday suffering with injuries received at noon that day when the grocery delivery truck he was driving was struck by a Northern Pacific train at a street crossing in Garfield. The impact scattered groceries and parts of the truck along the track for 300 feet to where the train stopped. He was picked up unconscious, but suffered little but a fractured wrist.

K.E. Busby, proprietor of the Colfax Hotel, has hung a neon Coffee Shop sign over the sidewalk. He stated the juice would not be turned on until he opens the coffee shop, which he anticipates will be ready for Round-Up time.

The Central Supply company (Standard Lumber) last week started construction of a warehouse, 100 by 20 feet, on ground under lease from the Great Northern Railway company, on the west side of Main street between Last street and the Codd bridge. Cost will be approximately $1,000.

50 years ago

July 26, 1962

At the request of county authorities, the St. John town council adopted a curfew ordinance which requires all youths under 18 be off city streets by 10 p.m. Parents of youths who disobey may be penalized up to $100.

Improvement of the road to the top of Steptoe Butte may have to wait on a special appropriation by the legislature, Rep. Elmer Huntley told the Gazette this week. Engineers estimate repairs to the 15-year-old oiled road would cost $38,500.

Mrs. Pearl Bailey, 78, St. John, had surgery Tuesday at St. Ignatius hospital because of her second fracture within one week on her right leg. Mrs. Bailey fell in her garden July 16 and broke her right leg near the knee. She was again walking Sunday with a cast when she fell and broke it above the cast.

Tools and other equipment valued at several hundred dollars were taken Friday night from the partially completed plant of Colfax Grain Growers at Steptoe.

More than 1,000 visitors took part in the grand opening of Wes Texaco service - Colfax’s newest service station - at Main and Island last week.

25 years ago

July 23, 1987

Flash floods Saturday damaged the Monte Kammerzell home south of Colfax, left mud and debris across county roads, soaked the inside of the Community building at the fairgrounds, hit rooms in one wing of the convalescent center and left mud in Gilchrist Pond above Union Flat Creek. Volunteer weatherman Lem Long recorded 1.15 inches of rain on the Walla Walla highway. Most of it fell in about 30 minutes around 3 p.m.

A centennial reunion of the Becker family brought over 600 to Colton July 11. A family parade, dinner and dance were part of the celebration. They also attended an over-flow mass at St. Gall church July 12 before dispersing.

St. John Mayor Leon Miller, who has served 20 years in the office, announced he would not be a candidate for re-election at the council meeting July 13.

A $30,000 debt owed by the Palouse Empire Fair to the county general fund was wiped off the books by county commissioners. The debt was the result of a booking snafu in 1984. Somehow, the fair’s regular $15,000 loan was not repaid at the end of the year. The debt did not show and the fair was not billed.

10 years ago

July 25, 2002

By unanimous vote, Whitman County commissioners appointed Naomi Daubert as interim auditor. Daubert will temporarily fill the vacancy created when Auditor Dave Repp submitted his official resignation last week.

An internal review of a complaint against the Whitman County Sheriff’s Dept. alleging lack of response for a call fore assistance involving a child in a locked car was closed Tuesday. Undersheriff Don Anderson determined the complaint was “not sustained.”

Dennis McDonald of Colfax won the quilt which was raffled off by Sterling Savings for the Relay for Life. Staff members of the bank made the quilt pieces which were assembled by Tami Drader. The raffled raised $1,060.