Good old days

125 years ago

The Commoner

Aug. 9, 1889

Five blind horses belonging to the elevator company arrived in Colfax this week. Three of them are for work in the elevator here and one goes to Pampa and the other to Mockonema. Two carloads of these blind animals were brought to the coast by the company from Iowa for use in their different elevators.

The Colfax Milling Company is now busily engaged in the construction of a new water flume to the Eagle Roller mills which will give the mill greater capacity by reason of having a better head of water. Other radical improvements are also being made about the mill.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Aug. 7, 1914

A number of farmers have become discouraged at the continued fires and have ceased operations for the time being. In some cases the grain will be stacked and threshed later in the fall. Where the grain is not cut, it is too ripe to be bound and the threshing will probably have to continue until it is completed in those places.

Alarmed by the appearance of smoke, which was visible through the windows of the Onecho church where he was attending the funeral of William Rubin Thursday afternoon, D.E. Kinsinger, a prominent farmer of the Onecho neighborhood, hurried to his home in an automobile and found a field of grain on his farm on fire. A strong wind was blowing and the fire spread rapidly. It was impossible to protect any grain in the field which was burning and Mr. Kinsinger and a number of neighbors and harvest hands confined their efforts to saving the other fields.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Aug. 4, 1939

Deputy Sheriff Ora Rees was called from a softball game at Schmuck Park last Friday evening to await the arrival here of the Walla Walla stage (bus) on which there was a chance an escaped convict from the state penitentiary was a passenger. A search was being made for John Jackson, a prisoner who walked away from the penitentiary after dark that night. Deputy Rees however got back to the ball park for he was called there with Officer Carl Litsenberger to investigate a report that one of the toilets inside the athletic field fence had been damaged. They found that vandals had destroyed part of the roof and one of the sides shortly after the softball game.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Aug. 6, 1964

If the weather holds, Whitman County’s on-again-off-again harvest will hit its peak probably about Aug. 15, grain dealers reported today. From close to one and one-half inches of rain in the Garfield area to about two-thirds of an inch around LaCrosse interrupted harvest operations throughout the county last week and more rain fell in the Garfield, LaCrosse and Endicott areas. Harvesting was expected to resume in those areas by noon today.

Ambulance runs head the list of activities by the Colfax fire department with 101 runs through June 30, Fire Chief Harold Powell reported recently in his first half activities report. Lewis Organ led in the category with 26 runs, followed by Jim Keys with 14, and Bob McGrady and Pat Holbrook with 12 each. The department answered 21 fire alarms, including 17 city and four rural calls.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Aug. 10, 1989

Mayor Carol Stueckle says she doesn’t want Colfax to remain divided now that a Spokane judge has denied the recall bid against her. And the group of business people who petitioned Stueckle’s recall say they are considering an appeal but they will take no action one way or the other until their attorney returns from vacation. Meanwhile Mayor Stueckle said she’s not carrying any grudges against those who sought the recall.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Aug. 5, 2004

A wind blast which hit the area about 5 p.m. Monday evening re-ignited a mid-day field fire and destroyed grain crops in a widespread area between the Penawawa Road and Union Flat Creek. The fast moving fire had a run of more than three miles before the wind died down and firefighters and farmers were able to bring it to a halt.

Combines have been rolling over parts of the Palouse since mid-July with harvest for the rest of the region picking up. Having started in the west, farmers are now cutting the region’s mainstay of wheat in east central Whitman County where rows of swathed lentils have defined the Palouse contours for weeks. The timely spring rains this year promoted a better than average crop in many parts of the county.