Good old days

125 years ago

The Commoner

Oct. 19, 1888

The mail lines between Colfax and Palouse City, and Colfax and Lewiston, over which the mails have previously been carried by stage were discontinued. Mails for these points will hereafter go by rail.

Charlie Hubbard, the well known young Dry Creek farmer and who cultivates the largest farm in Whitman County, met with a painful accident in this city Saturday evening. While feeding his team which was hitched on a back street, he was kicked on the left leg by one of the horses, breaking the bone of that limb about the middle of the middle third. Though a painful accident, Charlie is getting along well under the care of Dr. Davis.

A corps of physicians and druggists corralled one of Gus Schapp’s rattlesnakes yesterday at Hamilton’s Drug store and laid him out with chloroform. A Commoner reporter witnessed his snakeship’s decease from the top step of a ladder. Gus will bottle him and start a museum with him when he gets across the Atlantic.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Oct. 17, 1913

Not at all discouraged by a loss which may reach $2,200, the management of Whitman county’s fair is already making preparations for holding a better and larger fair and holding it in September when there is less danger of rain interfering as was the case this year. It is impossible to give the full amount of the deficit at this time.

Linny Ramey, one of the girls with the “Red Mill” show, which stood on the streets of Colfax during fair week, was arrested by William Baker, deputy sheriff, on the charge of indecent exposure, the first of the week. The girl resisted arrest and stabbed the officer in the hand with a pocket knife. She was lodged in the county jail and two charges were placed against her.

It is hoped that the Whitman County fair management has learned that the fair dates have, for many years, been too late. Colfax should not have to wait until all the other fairs are over before holding her fair. Let some of the other counties wait occasionally. We ought to hold our fair in September and we hope that arrangements will be made next year to hold the fair before the bad weather begins.

Everett Brown, a contractor of Palouse, was in Colfax Monday night and left for Pullman Tuesday morning. Mr. Brown was looking for bricklayers. “There is more brick work being done in the Inland Empire this fall than for many years,” said Mr. Brown.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Oct. 14, 1938

Whitman County farmers are urged to avoid overseeding of all wheat by Carl O. Izett, secretary of the Whitman County Agricultural Conservation Association. The wheat acreage cut of 27 percent is still tentative and cannot be fully approved until all wheat farms in the county have been accounted for and the acreage figures audited and approved by the state.

Basses, tenors, sopranos and various other tone modulations will be emitted by alarm clocks, the rulers of all bedrooms, to disturb the anticipatory slumbers of lovers of the field this weekend, which marks a double-barreled opening for bird hunters in Washington. Guns will be aimed for prey with the declaration of war upon ducks Saturday morn at 7 o’clock, and shots will be fired intermittently until 4 p.m. that day, only to begin at the same hour on Sunday with the stilling of the Chinese pheasants’ hearts as the goal.

Traffic on the Colfax-Walla Walla highway began passing over the new Union Flat Creek bridge after barricades had been taken from the approach and replaced in front of the detour which has been in use for several months. Motorists are relieved by the opening of the bridge of having to make two dangerous right angle curves on the detour road.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Oct. 17, 1963

At least one Whitman County farmer is trying to do something about the near record drought. McGregor Land & Livestock Co. of Hooper was recently given a one-year permit to seed clouds during the winter to produce rain, and Bill McGregor is hoping that his contract with Weather Resources Development Corp. gets results soon.

Whitman County is unlikely to share in wheat sales to Russia or other Iron Curtain countries under permission granted by President Kennedy last week. Local grain dealers said that the Russians want mostly the type of wheat grown in the Midwest. An embargo has been placed on further shipments from this area to the coast because of lack of space.

Plans for a three story, nine unit apartment building in Colfax were submitted to city building inspector Joe Deysenroth last week by a Spokane businessman, Ron Russell. The plans show an apartment with identical floor plans for the three levels. The plans include one each three bedroom, two bedroom and single bedroom apartments on each floor. An application for a building permit for the structure, which will be located at the rear of the Lincoln Savings building, is expected to be submitted to the city clerk this week.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Oct. 20, 1988

A dedication ceremony to rename the Central Ferry Bridge the Elmer Huntley Bridge has been postponed. Petitions have been circulated in both Whitman and Garfield counties opposing the name change on grounds the name “Central Ferry” has historic significance in the area. Over 100 names have been collected. “This is nothing against Mr. Huntley. My husband and Mr. Huntley have been friends for years and he’s done a lot for the area,” said Mildred Riley who lives three miles from the bridge. “It’s just that we don’t feel a new name should be given to what is a landmark in our area.”

Oakesdale Baptist Church will celebrate its 100th anniversary as a congregation Sunday. In the morning worship hour the pastor will minister from the same text the Rev. James Carins used a century ago. The church has a long history in the community and descendants of the founders remain in the area.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Oct. 16, 2003

Residents of Hay are banding together to try and rid their town of four abandoned houses and they want the county to help. A letter signed by 23 residents, said to be the entire population of Hay, was sent to the Whitman County Health Department and read into the minutes of the county commissioners’ meeting Monday. The four structures are scattered throughout the small community and date back many years, possibly to the early 1900s, according to resident Bruce Bell.

The Bridges of Madison County may have had Hollywood fame, but the bridges of Whitman County can hold their own when it comes to the sheer number spanning the countryside. More than 340 bridges exist and are maintained by the county Public Works Department according to county engineer Mark Storey. State highway and cities also maintain their own bridges adding to the count.

“Some of the oldest are concrete arch bridges from 1910 to 1920,” Storey said. Those bridges, called Luten Arch bridges are based on a patented design by a man named Luten from Chicago. Staley Bridge south of Pullman and White Elephant Bridge north of LaCrosse on the Winona Road are both examples of Luten Arch bridges. Concrete arches serve as supports for a deck which is covered by a layer of gravel. The bridges have held up well over the years and will probably go several more, but, they are beginning to show their age, Storey said.