Good old days

125 years ago

August 12, 1887

There was a runaway six miles from town on the Spring Flat road Sunday.

Five men in the employ of Bleeker, Spencer and Hoar were on their way to Pullman with Messrs.

Bleeker, Spencer and McMahon following in a buggy.

A band of loose horses frightened the buggy team, until it was impossible to hold them.

The front of the buggy box was pushed from its fastenings.

The hack team was whipped into a run to keep out of the way as there was no room for the runaways to pass.

Trouble ensued when the buggy horses tried to pass.

The hack was overturned and the occupants thrown over, through and under a wire fence.

Bleeker was thrown under and run over and walked on until he resembled an escaped hospital.

The horses attached to the hack were tangled in the wire fence and could not get away.

Chas.

Alexander, a carpenter, had a leg broken.

All were more or less bruised.

Pine City’s new water wheel will soon arrive, together with other machinery for the flouring mill 3 and a half miles below town, which will enable it to run 18 hours out of 24, and it will then be one of the finest mills in the county.

Some verdant Cow Creeker has sent this paper a poem. There is something wrong with the meter, which makes sudden jumps from short to long lines with a jerky motion, reminding one of dragging a harrow over a bridge or falling out of bed. It may as well be understood that the editor of this journal is something of a poet himself and samples of his work can be seen on application at this office. We would advise the man from Cow Creek to send his efforts to the Walla Walla Journal which makes a specialty of bad poetry.

100 years ago

August 9, 1912

The city council’s street committee will have charge with the city engineer in repairing the Cooper Lake bridge. County commissioners have agreed to pay $500 towards the repair work and $100 for making a temporary road through the river while the bridge is closed for repairs. The amount offered by commissioners is about half what the work will cost.

Telephone users in St. John and vicinity are considerably agitated over a proposition to make connections between the rural lines and the Bell system.

After being hunted for nearly a year Otis Cockerll was arrested near Garfield Sunday on the charge of a horse stealing affair at Tekoa last year. A team was taken from a hitch rack last year and the thieves made a desperate run but finally abandoned the team.

“Hen Day” may be observed in Garfield this year. A movement is on foot to spread to the world the news that the city and vicinity is an important shipping point for poultry and poultry products.

The new bridge at the foot of Malden’s Tenth street has been completed and inspected by Road Supervisor Henry Clark.

75 years ago

August 6, 1937

Forfeiture of three bonds totaling $35 in police court here during the past week was the choice of W.W. Pickett, former LaCrosse police officer. His first forfeiture, $10, was Thursday of last week following arrest for drunkenness, and his second was on Saturday when he posted the same bond for a similar charge. Saturday night he was found drunk in the street at West and Wall and, in clothes wringing wet from the rain, he was carried to the city jail by officers Bill Baker and Sam Littleton.

The Colfax garage operated by R.H. Morrell has installed a new electric hoist, the only one of its kind in this part of the country.

James Perkins, an Indian of the Colville reservation who comes here each year with the intention of doing harvest work, but who has made a slip on every occasion, was put in the county jail Sunday after his arrival for drunkenness and abusiveness.

50 years ago

August 9, 1962

Mayor William H. Burns extended a warm hand of welcome to 50 Cuban children Friday morning in special services at St. John’s Academy. “A unique experience” is how Mrs. Mary Brodie, teacher, describes her contact teaching an English class for the students. Four of the children were sent to St. Ignatius hospital with colds after arriving here last week. A hospital attendant reported Jorge, Juan, Silvia and Jose got sore throats and runny noses as temperatures dropped from 93 to the low 70s.

Principal Lyle Burns this week announced a room for slow learners will be added to the Steptoe school for the coming year. The room will be open to children all over Whitman County, with the screening done by Lynton Piatt of the Whitman County guidance program.

Mr. and Mrs. John Blumenshein entertained at their Little Valley home Saturday with a Hawaiian luau. Guests enjoyed barbecue food, Hawaiian favors and dancing.

Fire Chief Harold Powell made certain that the Fischer family cat was rescued from their blazing station wagon. The Fischers were moving to Walla Walla when the station wagon burned because of a fire in the engine compartment.

25 years ago

August 6, 1987

A whopping 92 percent of county residents responding to the Colfax Jaycees’ beer garden poll voted “No” to opening a beer garden at the Palouse Empire Fair.

A wiretap investigation last week in the county road department shop in Colfax was dropped for lack of evidence. Prosecutors were notified by Engineer Marvin Carroll and Personnel Director Starlene Schmick of a suspected wiretap on one of the county shop phones and an alleged tape recording of two-way conversations on that phone. Chief Barney Buckly investigated and said they came up with no evidence. Interviews suggested the incident was originally intended as a prank. The wiretap was removed and no copies of the tape could be located by the time the investigation got underway.

Work has begun on the new Tekoa High School gymnasium floor after two rainstorms in June caused the floor to buckle up to three feet in places, according to Supt. Jim Menzies.

Longest jump in the state Hershey Track Meet at Pullman has earned 10-year-old Jennifer Widman of Colfax, a “long jump” by airplane to the candy manufacturer’s national track meet at Hershey, Pa. Aug. 15. She jumped 2.09 meters for her best jump ever at the state meet.

10 years ago

August 8, 2002

Hospital officials gathered Tuesday to push golden shovels into the ground and begin construction of Whitman Hospital and Medical Center’s new surgery wing addition.

Former Whitman County Auditor Dave Repp will not receive compensation for July from the county until he returns property purchased with county funds during his term. Commissioners claim Repp owes $7,436 for costs associated with education, a laptop computer and software and three cellular telephones owned by the county.