Good old days

125 years ago

The Commoner

Aug. 30, 1889

We can state without contradiction that the dust was laid Tuesday morning in grand style. It was not done by Colfax's sprinkling cart, but someone "pulled the plug" from the heavenly cart and let a few drops down on our city.

We are informed by one of the brick masons in this city that there are over three million bricks yet to be laid to complete the asylum now under construction at Medical Lake in this territory.

The Colfax baseball club has accepted a challenge to play a friendly game with the Tekoa boys on the Colfax grounds, Sunday.

Last Monday evening, on account of a misplaced switch, an engine at the depot ran off the track and wrecked things generally as far as the rails were concerned. The engineer and firemen were not injured. It caused some delay in running trains.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Aug. 28, 1914

P.W. Cox received a telephone call Wednesday morning telling him of the destruction of the separator in his threshing outfit. It was not known how badly the machine was damaged or how much grain was burned. The crew was expected to finish Mr. Cox's threshing in about six hours when the machine caught fire. The outfit has been running for six weeks and the fire Tuesday afternoon was the first loss experienced by Mr. Cox this season.

Colfax is to have a new $30,000 school, under the direction of the Franciscan Order of Sisters.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Aug. 25, 1939

Sheriff's officers and city police are still searching for the burglars who ransacked the Ed Shinkoskey home some time Tuesday and took about $20 in dimes from a bank. Entrance was gained by tearing the screen off and jimmying a window into a bedroom at the back of the house. The intruders apparently wanted only money, for they passed up several other valuable articles. They made a thorough search of the premises, however, Shinkoskey reported. They pried the bank open with a butcher knife which they apparently handled with towels they found nearby.

Before returning to his home in Seattle, Roy Jones, former state legislator from Whitman County, bought back 635 acres of land two miles east of Dusty from Phillip Kleweno, to whom he sold a little over a year ago. The family of Mr. Jones plans to remain in Seattle, but Mr. Jones will probably divide his time between Seattle and his farm, the crop land of which he plans to lease while he retains the pastureland for a limited amount of livestock.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Aug. 27, 1964

Yields, in spite of none-too-favorable spring growing conditions, appear to be running higher than expectations, grain dealers reported to the Gazette yesterday.

Two "riders of the rails" spent an uncomfortable 12 hours trapped in an SP & S boxcar which had been placed on a siding in Lamont prior to grain loading Friday. Mrs. R.L. Voss, wife of a retired agent, reported hearing cries for help to John Lasen, agent for the SP & S in Lamont. Lasen investigated and freed the pair, who were almost overcome with heat and lack of water.

The Endicott volunteer fire department was called out Saturday afternoon to fight a fire at the Jim Knott ranch. The fire started from a trash fire and spread to cheat grass growing in a nearby alfalfa field. About three acres were burned over but firemen were able to control it before it reached a nearby barn and stubble field.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Aug. 31, 1989

Wheat harvest in Whitman County began to crank up Tuesday after a shutdown of eight to nine days because of record rains during August. Farmers and grain managers are counting the days left to go and sprout damage in the wheat. Whitman County Growers began to get wheat loads again Tuesday and samples indicate sprout damage. An assistant manager said he has seen sprout damage ranging from zero to 30 percent. He estimated the WCG system has 40 percent of the harvest left with most of the cutting in the northern and eastern areas.

Waterbust 1989 has come and gone and the sheriff is calling this year's back-to-school blast "the best one yet from a law enforcement view." By the time Waterbust wound down Saturday afternoon, some 8,000 Washington State University and University of Idaho students had passed through the gates of the annual music festival at Boyer Park.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Aug. 26, 2004

Rain over the last week has made for slippery travel on some county roads. Sunday downpours in the region left at least one driver wallowing in the mud for a short time on Palouse Cove Road which has been under construction for the last month. Palouse Cove is in the middle of being rebuilt and crews had just finished digging down to clay in preparation for rebuilding the rock base when the rain hit, according to county engineer Mark Storey. With the clay exposed the rain falling, the surface became very slippery. Downpours northwest of St. John closed Glorfield Road near Rock Lake Sunday night also due to mud and water over the roadway.