Good old days

125 years ago

June 1, 1888

The towns of Whitman County never showed brighter prospects or displayed a future more encouraging for their own welfare and that of the county in general than at the present time.

Colfax, the county seat of this, the best county in Washington, presents an exceptional good showing in the matter of growth and business increase, which is duplicated by the many other towns, though smaller, in the same proportions.

Notwithstanding the dreadful calamity which befell Palouse City, property there is said to be higher than before the fire.

The town will rapidly rebuild.

Encouraging words come from Farmington, Garfield, Oakesdale, Rosalia, Pullman, Guy, Colton, Uniontown, Endicott, Pine City and the others.

No county in the territory has as many promising towns as Whitman.

Success to them all.

There is no popular craze just now for growing sunflowers. It is quite as well since the old-fashioned reasons for planting them are as strong as they ever were. They make excellent winter food for hens and if protected while young, the sunflower will rapidly tower up and make a splendid shade for them in hot weather, in the yard where fowls run. The plant is a gross feeder, and even the henyard is scarcely too rich for it.

100 years ago

May 30, 1913

Georgia McCarthy, the “box car queen,” as she styles herself, who has taken several columns of space in the Spokane dailies during the past week, is at present confined in the county jail here and is making the lives of the jailers miserable.

Sheriff Cole and his deputies describe the woman as being well dressed and rather attractive, but fluent in her abusive language and a mighty warm fighter.

The “queen of the side-door Pullmans” first got into trouble at Tekoa, where it is claimed she stole a watch.

Deputy Sheriff Baker was sent to Spokane to bring the woman to the county jail and his trip here was full of excitement.

The woman rode peaceably until the train reached Tekoa and then she started to create trouble.

She attempted to leave the train and when detained she abused the deputy and swore at him.

Upon arriving in Colfax, she was escorted to the county jail where she spent considerable time attacking, verbally, the authorities.

In this section of the county, the wheat crop prospects are not at all good. The grain has not stooled well and in most of the fields the stand is thin. Such good judges as J.M. Reid and Mark Whitlow agree that the present crop outlook is poorer than for a number of years and men who have traveled over the county report similar conditions in several other sections and say that first-class stands of wheat are very rare.

75 years ago

May 27, 1938

The relay team of four young men which will represent the district in the state high school track meet at the state college in Pullman this Saturday is gunning for victory. At the county meet the quartet made the best relay record in the state this season and the boys will be out to do it again. They are Tom McGuire, who also represents the district in the 220-yard dash; Gordon White, Bill Lothspeich, the district entry in the shot-put; and Ed Stewart, is the district man in the low hurdles.

Harmonicas - a stage full of them! That’s what Johnny O’Brien is bringing to the Rose and Roxy theatres Wednesday. Every type of harmonica will be in use from the peewee, less than two inches in length, to the big bass. More than 50 different harmonicas will be used during the process of one selection.

50 years ago

May 30, 1963

Sherman Hatley has submitted his resignation as a Colfax police officer effective July 1 to accept employment elsewhere, Councilman Donald Deen of the police committee said today. Hatley came to Colfax from LaCrosse earlier this year to join the local police force.

Dick Warwick of Oakesdale High School was awarded a scholarship to Washington State University summer camp as outstanding underclass speaker in the boys’ division at the recent high school debate tournament held at WSU. The Oakesdale team was composed of Warwick and Sandra Henson.

25 years ago

June 2, 1988

At St. John-Endicott High School, Principal Dick Fike’s corner office is more like a traffic lane than an inner sanctum. Fike conducts business with a flow of teachers, coaches, students and fellow administrators cruising around the desk. After 23 years, Fikes will be departing the scene at St. John.

Faced with lingering cash problems, Palouse Empire Fair directors have decided to put aside plans for any major bleacher construction project this summer before the September fair.

10 years ago

May 29, 2003

Despite thunderstorms over Memorial Day weekend, three Snake River parks, which were officially out of business at the end of last season, attracted big crowds under their new proprietors. Visitors filled camp sites and boat launches. Northwest Land Management, the new operators of the parks, opened the gates for Central Ferry, Lyon’s Ferry and Chief Timothy. The three parks had been run by the state which closed out operations in the face of a state budget pinch.

The coal fired steam plant on the campus of Washington State University has heated the various buildings at the school for decades, and for decades huge hills of coal have been carried by train to the Pullman campus storage yard. But completion of construction on a new natural gas facility will soon change that.