Good old days

125 years ago

September 9, 1887

Articles of incorporation of the M.E. Church of Oakesdale were filed at the auditor’s office Wednesday by James McCoy, T.C. Mills and Samuel Brown, trustees.

Rancheros, the great Montana trotter, has entered for the all prizes in the races at the coming fair.

We have heard some solicitude expressed by people to whether other horsemen would care to bring horses here to compete in the free for all trot if they knew Ranchero would take part. There need be no uneasiness on that score.

There will be horses here capable of measuring strides with the big Montana stallion with even chances of winning.

Fred Hambleton is already entered and little Joe, who vanquished Ranchero on his own soil, is also likely to take a hand.

If Jane L. should come, which is not improbable, she will cause some of the liveliest trotting ever known in the northwest.

Of course, Hambleton and Ranchero alone would make splendid race.

Rev. Gully of Pine City was thrown from a horse one day last week and sustained a serious injury to his left shoulder.

There is feeling of uncertainty and dread pervading the entire Pullman community in regard to the prospect for grain. A great deal has been ruined already and another spell of rain would finish the work and bankrupt half the farmers.

Saul Kaminsky of Oakesdale went to San Francisco yesterday to recover 27 post holes which a man stole from him. We do not know whether he got them back or not.

100 years ago

September 6, 1912

Acute dilation of the heart caused the death of Mrs. Barbara Heidenrich in the dentist’s chair at the office of Dr. H.W. Pugh in this city Tuesday afternoon. She was having several teeth pulled and was in a nervous condition which prompted her to decide to take an anesthetic. Somnoform was administered and work commenced before a change was noticed in her condition. Physicians were summoned but life was extinct.

Hod Hollis, the crack pitcher for the Lamont team is to have a try-out with the Spokane Indians next spring and will accompany them on the training trip. For the past few weeks, Hod has been playing with the Dolby team of the Spokane city league.

E.C. Hunton of Steptoe is the only man so far as we know to stack his bundles. No sooner had he done it than a thunder shower came along last week and lightning split open one sack and burned it. The stack contained whet from about 14 acres.

Work is underway on the potato warehouse for the C.E. Frederick company at Palouse. The building when completed will be 50 by 150 feet and will have a capacity of at least 10,000 bushels. The building is on a stone foundation and will be frost proof. The railroad company has agreed to build a spur at once to the new warehouse site.

Malden has purchased a six-ton wagon scale that will be installed on Broadway just north of the Sullivan store.

The Huser saloon license was revoked at a special meeting of the Tekoa city council last week. There are still five saloons in the city.

E.L. Mennet’s record with a 14-foot combined harvester near Pullman one day last week in an 11-hour run was 732 sacks or 1,650 bushels.

75 years ago

September 3, 1937

That the Colfax Round-Up will not be boycotted by members of the Turtle Association, professional cowboys who walked out on the Ellensburg Rodeo Wednesday when refused the privilege of naming their own judges and officials, is the opinion of round-up officials here. R.H. Morrell, chair, anticipated no trouble, with satisfactory arrangements having been made with Evertt Bowman, president of the Turtles.

A near quarter-century of judging the socially maladjusted, of listening to heated arguments of attorneys, of instructing juries and of handling routine court problems in Whitman County is the record of Superior Court Judge R.L. McCroskey, who announced to the county bar association last Friday that he would retire Oct. 1. Judge McCroskey will receive half of his present $4,500 salary, provided in the judges’ pension law passed by the last legislature.

Harold Arndt, Palouse, was arrested at Palouse Tuesday by Game Protectors Gene Fennimore and C.H. Shields on a charge of illegal possession of beaver skins which he shipped to Helena, Mont., Jan. 1. Justice Weldon fined him $100 and costs, in lieu of which he went to the county jail.

First theft of sacked wheat from grain fields to be reported this year to the sheriff’s office was that of five sacks belonging to August Wagner of Farmington. Wagner believes the grain was taken Sunday night from his wheat field near Belmont.

50 years ago

September 6, 1962

County agent Felix Entenmann said today it may be impossible to obtain enough Gaines wheat seed to meet the demands from Whitman County farmers for seeding this fall. All of the certified seed raised in Whitman County this year will be sold to Whitman County farmers but the county may lack as much as 30,000 bushels of having enough to meet demand. About 1,954 acres were devoted to Gaines seed production this year. Yields averaged between 65 and 70 bushels per acre.

A new little “gadget” is expected to play an important part in cutting down speeding violations on local highways. The new device has a radar screen mounted on the rear window of state patrol cars, resembling a spotlight focused on the rear or a rear view mirror for back seat passengers. Advantage is that one officer can operate it. Under the old system, one officer had to read radar results while another one chased down violators. The state patrol has 21 of the mobile radar units.

School districts in Whitman County owed more on outstanding bonds by the close of 1961 than they did at the end of 1960. Total owed by all county school districts was $3,486,000, compared with $3,195,000 at the end of 1960, according to the annual report of Auditor Pauline H. Lust.

The crew from the Rosalia Ready Mix has finished the job of tearing down the old residence between the Ye Towne Tavern and the Massey-Ferguson building. The house was one of the oldest buildings in town.

25 years ago

September 3, 1987

St. John school bus driver Richard Eades and Endicott driver Ray Bunch swapped mounts at the gravel lot on the Endicott-St. John highway as part of the schools’ new cooperative effort. Eades returned to St. John with high school students and Bunch headed south with seventh and eighth graders from St. John.

Lamont echoed with the now rare sound of a train going through town Sunday, the first in many weeks as Burlington Northern sets in motion the business of abandoning the railroad. Ten grain cars were left on the siding to load out from the elevator. BN will continue to haul from Lamont until January 1.

County commissioners delivered a rebuke Monday to the staff of the Regional Planning Council, accusing them of dragging their feet in coming up with a plan for development of the Pullman-Moscow corridor.

10 years ago

September 5, 2002

Whitman County Commissioners Monday voted to send former Auditor Dave Repp’s final paycheck, around $1,400, in the mail “with a note that says we expect him to return county property in his possession as soon as possible,” said Commissioner Greg Partch. Commissioners allege Repp to have over $7,000 in county property.

Coming up on the one year anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, plans are underway for observance ceremonies in Whitman County and Pullman in combination with Washington State University.

Colfax skateboard park equipment will arrive in 33 pieces which are scheduled to be assembled in a four-day work session at Schmuck Park.