Good Old Days

125 years ago

Aug. 17, 1888

Whitman County will probably harvest three million bushels of grain this year, requiring 1,500,000 sacks, costing, at the present price, $150,000. Of this, 40 per cent of the first cost is a tariff tax. Supposing the original cost to be five cents, and we will warrant it is no less, and the remaining five cents to be the profit of dealers and the “trust” so largely controlling the grain bag market, which the present high protective system fosters, would make the total tariff tax alone amount to $30,000 which the farmers of this county will pay this season.

The Gazette continues to insist that the tax on tin amounts to nothing to the farmer. It might thus proceed through the entire list which the farmer buys so far as the availability of its persistence in the insisting is concerned. It will, however, be entertaining to witness the Gazette back out of its own argument on the tin question when the republicans in the senate offer their tariff bill to the public for comment. It is understood from very good authority that this bill will follow the example set by democrats and offer tin on a free list, in the interest of farmers.

Wm. Codd who has the contract for furnishing the power for the electric light company, has a force of men at work on the engine building which is built of brick and will be 18x20 feet. It is being constructed within a few feet of his new saw mill. The boiler rooms are to be apart from the main room and will not be built until the boilers arrive and are placed in position. The engine ordered is of 35 horse power.

It is reported on good authority that trains will be running over the new road from Riparia in a few days and that a Sunday train, carrying mails, will be put on. On completion of this road the main line and the one over which the present mail agents on the Moscow and Connell division will run, will be from Farmington to Pendleton, the Moscow road serving as a branch, as does the Farmington line at present.

100 years ago

Aug. 15, 1913

Fourteen million five hundred thousand bushels is the estimate of Whitman County’s grain crop for 1913, made by Seymour Manning, admitted to be one of the best posted and most conservative authorities on grain in eastern Washington. Mr. Manning has made a careful study of crop conditions and has visited all sections of the county.

The Inland Electric train from Spokane, due at Colfax at 8:05 Sunday evening, was wrecked a mile this side of Steptoe by striking a band of horses of which three were killed and several others seriously injured. The passengers escaped without serious injury. but the train was wrecked and the track torn up so that traffic was delayed 18 hours.

Colfax is to have a modern flouring mill which will be a credit to the town and a source of pride and income to its owners. The old structure on Mill Street, which was rebuilt after the fire of 1898 and was regarded as a fine structure with strictly modern machinery at that time, is being thoroughly overhauled, remodeled, new machinery added and the mill is to be the finest in the Inland Empire, outside of the great mills of Spokane.

Mrs. Cole, wife of William Cole, sheriff of Whitman County, was the recipient of a “stork” shower Tuesday afternoon. The shower was given by the Goldenrod club, of which Mrs. Cole is a member. The guests presented the prospective mother with many articles for the expected visitor to the Cole home.

Fat steers from the farms of Frank Hickman and Charles Johnson, south of Colfax, “topped” the market at Portland and created a sensation among the dealers of the Oregon metropolis. The cattle were fed in the stubble fields, pastures and summer-fallow lands of Whitman County.

75 years ago

Aug. 12, 1938

The golf clubhouse formally opened with a stag party. About 45 members and friends put on a Monday evening benefit to help furnish the cottage which was built and outfitted at a cost of approximately $750 of which $550 was raised by popular subscription among members. Business firms donated much of the furnishings for the two rooms. Construction was started June 20 and, except for a few last touches, was completed by July 4. The club hopes to eventually build a stone fireplace with a WFA labor. The next social affair planned is a card party for men and women.

Anticipating eight days of fun at the lower end of Hayden Lake, 45 children assemble at the courthouse lawn next Monday morning to be transported to Camp Mary Neil where they will be in county camp until August 22.

In a satisfactory condition at St. Ignatius Hospital is Clifford Knoshaug, about 30, railroad section of Hooper who was bitten on the foot by a rattlesnake Saturday as he climbed up a bank after taking a swim in a pool below the Palouse Falls. The reptile struck before Knoshaug had put on his clothes.

50 years ago

Aug. 15, 1963

Crop damage mounting into the thousands of dollars resulted from a freak storm which struck scattered areas in Whitman County shortly before dawn Monday, stripping ripened barley stalks of their kernels and splitting peas with hailstones larger than marbles.

In addition, high winds flattened at least one barn in the Saints Home district, and torrents of water from near-cloudburst rains eroded newly-harvested pea fields and summer fallow in some districts.

Probably the heaviest loss was on the Lester Baird and Bernie Davis farms about 15 miles south of Colfax in the Saints Home district.

Davis lost all of his barley and peas and about 50 percent of his wheat to hail damage, his barn was blown down, his garden completely destroyed, and his barnyard and machine shed floor covered with a layer of mud, straw and hail about two feet deep.

On the Lester Baird farm only a short distance away, a wall of hailstones and water about three feet deep cascaded down a drainage ditch through the farmyard, knocked a combine shed off its foundation and moved it 16 feet downstream, and picked up a hoghouse complete with sow and pigs and carried it downstream about 50 feet to a new location in the barnyard.

Colfax High School will switch from a six-period day to a seven-period day with the beginning of fall term in September, Principal William Heath announced. The new schedule calls for 50-minute periods with school starting 11 minutes earlier and dismissing 16 minutes earlier than last year, and allows a 10-minute longer lunch period.

25 years ago

Aug. 18, 1988

St. John Codgers show their grit for the upcoming Codger Bowl game in September. Shown in a photo are Virgil Schneidmiller, Howard West, Don Dodge, Vern Siler, Dave Johnstone, Wayne Miller, Harvey Schneidmiller, Loren Bloomenshein, Dave Repp and Bob White. St. John High School cheerleader J.J. Tiegs sat on “Loomis,” the secret weapon of the St. John team. The team gathered for the hanging of the St. John banner.

10 years ago

Aug. 14, 2003

Members of Thrifty Grandmothers have been collecting old and used items for over 50 years and selling them for extremely low prices at their shop in Colfax. Every three weeks the grandmas take everything out of the shop, clean and donate the leftover clothes to a mission or Goodwill. Thrifty Grandmothers is a nonprofit organization and donates all their earnings to other organizations and people around the community.

Tomco Construction’s Tom Henninger, Craig Dainelson and fair manager Bob Reynolds work on the new gazebo at the Palouse Empire Fairgrounds. The project, as well as 10 more hook-up sites in the RV park should be ready to go in less than three weeks when the fair opens its gates for another season.