Good old days

125 years ago

The Commoner

Nov. 30, 1888

Tomorrow, December 1st, Mr. W.A. Ladd assumes the management of the Colfax hotel, having leased the property for a term of twelve months. The former proprietor, Joseph Ryan, contemplates spending the winter with his family beneath the sunny skies of California, and they will probably take their departure some time next week. If Mr. Ladd proves himself genial and accommodating a host as Mr. Ryan, he will not lack for patronage. Success to the new management.

That Colfax offers a splendid and unrivaled field for nearly all industries in the line of manufacture goes without saying. That, of all such enterprises, a tannery, properly founded and conducted would from its establishment imbibe all the elements of success and prosperity, in a financial success and prosperity in a financial sense for itself and a business sense for our town and the surrounding country, there can be no shadow of doubt in the mind of anyone at all familiar with the business and demands of this country.

Without any attempt to conceal the fact, the Commoner is called upon this week to chronicle a slight case of smallpox in Colfax. The alarm, which is usually awakened at the announcement of this loathsome disease, however, need not be apprehended, as every precaution has been taken by Health Officer Boswell and the city authorities against its spread, a building in the outer edge of town having been secured and the patient placed therein, under a strict quarantine.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Nov. 28, 1913

The Colfax Corn Show will be held Dec. 2-3. This will be the first corn show ever held in Whitman County and special preparations are being made to make it an interesting and instructive event. Bring in your best samples of corn and corn exhibits; your might receive the grand prize. The O.W.R.&N. offers $1000 in cash and prizes. St. John and other towns will be here with good exhibits.

Ed Sommers, who has been ranching on leased land near Almota for several years, has bought 250 acres of land, known as the tunnel ranch, three miles northwest of Colfax, and will later move upon it and make it his home, engaging in stock and dairy farming, for which the land is suitable. The land was bought from George D. Brown of Moscow, Idaho, the Colfax Insurance & Realty Co. of this city representing both buyer and seller.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Nov. 25, 1938

With an almost 100 percent success in collections and pledges, the 1938 community chest drive went over the top when $2,632 had been raised early this week and about $150 more was expected before the end of the week, Chest Treasurer Guy Streamer announced.

Colfax Christmas holiday festivities will be initiated immediately after Thanksgiving day, when Main Street will resemble a Christmas tree with its blazing lights, evergreen trees and individual yuletide decorated store windows, according to O.C. Glaser, head of the committee to advance the spirit of old St. Nicholas. Sufficient funds were donated by merchants to beautify the street from the Whitman Hotel to the Kincaid Implement company, and Joe Deysenroth will be on deck with the trees and foliage this weekend to begin his professional face-lifting operations.

Plans and specifications for three county roads have been completed and the construction will be made as rapidly as county funds will permit, word received from the Whitman County engineer’s office revealed this week. The roads include the Thornton-Pine City road, the Penawawa extension and the Albion road east to the Pullman-Palouse highway for which it was hoped that PWA funds would be available. First in line to be begun is the Penawawa cut-off, for which the plans have been sent to Olympia for acceptance.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Nov. 28, 1963

Members of the American Legion firing squad are pictured paying tribute to the memory of President John F. Kennedy during the memorial service at the Colfax cemetery. The Rev. C.R. Schultz spoke briefly and the Rev. Chester Blair offered a prayer.

Whitman County residents joined the nation in mourning the loss of President Kennedy last weekend.

Many churches throughout the county held memorial services and many events were canceled or postponed in respect for the late president.

School was let out early Friday at LaCrosse, Tekoa and St. John.

Other schools in the county were unreported.

The Lamont Community Church was filled Monday afternoon when the Rev. Richard Temple conducted brief memorial services.

Special services were also held at the St. John Methodist church with the Rev. Hardy Thompson of the Assembly of God church as speaker, as a large crowd attended.

Many attended the memorial services, sponsored by the American Legion Monday at the Colfax cemetery, in spite of the inclement weather.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Dec. 1, 1988

Rosalia Mayor Ken Jacobs reiterated Monday that he believes the county has ultimate responsibility to foreclose on the condemned on the former Anderberg Chevrolet building in Rosalia and demolish the building. Real estate taxes have not been paid on the building since 1982 and amount to $3,152. The building was condemned in 1985 and continued deterioration now threatens to damage the building next door that shares a common wall.

Nancy Sanders of Colfax, 4H program assistant with the county extension office, has resigned to begin working for the state office at Washington State University. Sanders has been with the county extension office in Colfax for more than nine years. She began as an office assistant, or secretary to the 4H program, and worked her way up to 4H program assistant.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Nov. 27, 2003

November snowfall across the Palouse ushered in winter. A clean white slate covers the hills. More snow over the next week caused many fender benders and cars off the roads while law enforcement and road maintenance crews scrambled to keep up with Mother Nature.

The Garrett families of LaCrosse have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day. U.S. Army Sergeant Chris Garrett, son of Steven and Cheri Garrett, is home from Iraq, if only for a couple of weeks. Garrett is married to the former Olena Kock from Colfax, and the couple has a 23-month-old son named Zachary. Garrett is a mechanic with the 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, currently serving near Tikrit, Iraq.