Good old days

125 years ago

The Commoner

Jan. 25, 1889

In Endicott news, another party of immigrants arrived here this week. Rev. F.V. Hoyt held morning and evening services here last Sabbath. Smith & Boardman have just received direct from the factory in the east another 30,000 pound carload of the famous Baker Perfect barbed wire. Person & Crow have reopened and are again selling goods. The fourth social dance of the Endicott Dance Club will be given Saturday evening. So far this has been the mildest winter experienced here for several years. No losses among stock have yet been reported. A dance was given by Jas. Stimpson at his residence on Union Flat Tuesday evening last which was a very enjoyable affair.

Colfax is not the “hub of the universe,” but it is the hub of one of the most productive countries on earth, whose climate, even in midwinter is soft and mild as could be desired.

The warm January days we are now enjoying have had a somewhat depressing influence upon the price of eggs, dealers now paying from 25 to 30 cents. The hens are cackling in the barnyards and eggs are becoming plentiful.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Jan. 23, 1914

Carroll & Sheffer shipped three carloads of fat hogs to Seattle this week. The Seattle market is better now than either the Spokane or Portland markets, and the buyers were able to pay $7.15, an advance of 15 cents a hundred pounds over prices that have prevailed for many weeks.

Upon the request of W.F. Hull, the county commissioners granted $15 to buy clothes for the children of Mrs. Mary Olson, who is making her home on the Hull farm east of town. Mrs. Olson was in the hospital when the last child was born and had assistance from the county before. She has two children, one of whom is a baby but a few months old.

The youngest student enrolled in Washington State College at Pullman is Francis Brown of LaCrosse. The boy is only 17 years old and is taking a course in pharmacy. Reports from Pullman are to the effect that the boy is “making good” and a bright future for him is predicted by his instructors.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Jan. 27, 1939

Colfax and Rosalia are the only two high schools eligible to enter debate teams in the state tournament in Pullman, according to Coach William Gasser who will take Leslie Endicott, John Pierson, Doris Pierson, Esther Davis, Wesley Tedrow and Elsie Archer to the meet.

Five generations are shown in a photo taken in Albion where all of the members reside. Mrs. Lucinda Luce is just 80 years old and in comparatively good health is standing beside her daughter Mrs. Eva K. Irwin. Seated is Mrs. Ruth Emerson and Mrs. Charles Ketcherside holding her infant daughter, Betty Lou, almost a month old. All of the group are oldest daughters. Mrs. Luce heads four generations in eleven different lines aside from this group of five.

Wheat remained steady during the past week and was quoted on the cash market here Wednesday at 49 cents for all white varieties, 48 cents for triplet and 46 and a half cents for hard winter.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Jan. 22, 1964

Only the “most skilled” of lucky drivers made any progress in trying to get up Thorn Street hill Sunday morning in the midst of one of the season’s heaviest but wettest snowfalls. The Thorn Street trouble ended quickly on the arrival of the city sanding truck, and the only reason it didn’t arrive quicker was that there were lots of slick hills in Colfax that morning and one sanding truck doesn’t stretch too far.

Five inches of snow and some high winds added up to a lot of work for the county road crew during the past week, I.W. “Rusty” Whitmore reported. Almost all the snow fighting equipment including the three big rotary plows saw action combating drifts up to 10 feet high. Most of the heavy drifting occurred in the northeast part of the county, around Rosalia, Malden, Tekoa, Palouse, Garfield, Colton and Uniontown. No snow was reported in the LaCrosse or Dusty area.

Jay Sweetser, Colfax High School instructor, will portray a colorful individual who lives in a garbage dump when “Everybody Loves Opal,” the next production of the Colfax Community Players, goes on stage in February. Leading roles are played by Doris Wakefield, Archie Magon, Dean Norton, Bob Clegg, Don Hickman and Harold Huber. Mrs. Mary Baker and W.A. “Chic” Johnson are producing the Elk-sponsored play.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Jan. 26, 1989

Bright sun sent three Oakesdale adventurers to the flanks of Steptoe Butte to test a sled created by Randy Hurlbert after he made a purchase of used water skis. Hurlbert and Elmer Hoenike and the Hurlbert’s dog, Pete, climbed out on a ridge on the northeast corner of the butte for a run on the sled which lost its steering device before the descent. Hurlbert and Hoenike were thrown in the early going and Hoenike sustained bruises and contusions. Hurlbert and backup man Dick Warwick pointed the sled back to the drawing board and Pete offered a little condolence to his master after a final crash.

Tekoa and Oakesdale entrants captured all the honors in the Elks Whitman County hoop shoot. They are Sean Crooks of Oakesdale, John Wall of Tekoa, Casey Lawson of Tekoa, Jeannie Roellich of Tekoa, Heather Cox of Tekoa and Brandi Taylor of Oakesdale.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Jan. 22, 2004

Weighing in at eight pounds, five ounces, Joseph Gerald Haugen came into the world at 8:53 p.m. on Jan. 13 to take the title of 2004 Baby New Year for Whitman Hospital and Medical Center. Although Joseph is the first child for parents, Dr. Keith and Wendy Haugen of Colfax, it’s not Wendy’s first time in the delivery room. She was a delivery room nurse at St. Joseph’s in Lewiston for a year. Keith is the new doctor at Whitman Hospital and Medical Center. They moved to Colfax this past summer from Cottonwood, Idaho.

A one-time St. John merchant who won the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Civil War will be among four honorees listed in the Hall of Heroes, a memorial which has been located at the Post Falls Cemetery. John Wesley Conaway, who died Nov. 21, 1913, is buried in Post Falls but spent a part of his adult life in Whitman County.

A new mini storage facility will be built in St. John this spring. Larry and Carol Harrison have plans to build as many as 50 units southeast of the Grange Supply on land formerly owned by Bert Hornbeck.