Good Old Days

125 years ago

The Commoner

Sept. 12, 1890

A special session of the board of county commissioners was held at the office of the county auditor in this city yesterday for the purpose of re-apportioning the voting precincts of the county.

The reason of this special session was to meet the provisions of the new law requiring the registration of voters in all incorporated cities and towns, which has heretofore been misinterpreted by the commissioners. The law, as defined by Attorney General Jones, makes it necessary that all cities and towns comprise a voting precinct within their corporate limits, and that voters residing therein must register in order to cast a legal ballot. As many of the precincts of the county contained incorporated towns, a re-apportionment was necessary, hence this session.

The precincts have been re-established as follows, the old boundary lines remaining as heretofore and the incorporated towns being cut out and made precincts within themselves: 1 Uniontown, (South), 2 Clinton, 3 Branham, 4 Former’ of Palouse, 5 West Farmington, 6 Lone Pine, 7 Formerly of Rosalia, 8 Steptoe, 9 West Colfax, 10 Onecho, 11 Seats, 12 Almota, 13 Penawawa, 14 Sutton, 15 Endicott, 16 Pine City, 17 Rock Creek, 18 South Colfax, 19 Texas, 20 Diamond, 21 Pampa, 22 N. Rock Creek, 23 Albertan, 24 Staley, 25 Warwick, 26 Colton, 27 Former’ of Pullman, 28 Former’ of Garfield, 29 Former’ of Oakesdale, 30 Guy, 31 Ewartsville, 32 Harper, 33 Coin, 34 Union, 35 Thornton, 36 Colfax, 37 Tekoa, 38 Rosalia, 39 Uniontown, 40 Oakesdale, 41 Pullman, 42 Garfield, 43 Farmington, 44 Palouse City.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Sept. 10, 1915

An important meeting of the city council was held at the city hall Monday evening. In addition to transacting the regular monthly business of the city, action was taken in regard to the proposition of Eugene Brown, who agreed to dismiss all action involved in his civil case against the city with the exception of the claims filed by J. R. Good Company, and the Potlatch Lumber Company. These claims were included with many others in the injunction granted by the court in the civil action against the city of Colfax which was filed by Mr. Brown’s attorney about a year ago.

The outstanding city hall warrants amount to $3500 will be paid with the exception of the $1000 which was paid for the cells and this amount has been held by the plaintiff to the commission of the council to advertise for competitive bids for this material.

The law requires that when the city purchases material involving an expenditure of more than $500, the officials are required to advertise for bids from parties or companies who are in a position to furnish it.

For many years it had been the custom of the city officials to buy the supplies from the business men and taxpayers of the city of Colfax.

Many of the men who have served on the council in past years claim that the city was better served when the taxpayers money was spent at home and point to the fact that a difference in only a few dollars, lost a valuable water pipe contract to a Colfax firm during the month of June, owing to this law.

The vote to accept the compromise was close and it required the deciding vote of Mayor Rogers to decide the issue.

The claims which are held up under the compromise are all recognized as valid claims but were contracted while the agents of the firms or companies were serving as members of the city council.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Sept. 13, 1940

Farmers were urged to reduce the number of varieties of wheat they grown in Whitman County at a meeting of growers at Lacrosse Friday. George A. Hargrove of the federal grain grading office in Spokane told the growers of work of his office and pointed out that a large number of fields in the county were graded as mixed and therefore resulted in losses to farmers who could just as well be growing pure varieties.

In discussing wheat varieties, O. E. Barbee of the State college experiment station told of the results of experimental work over a long period of years.

He suggested that farmers in the Lacrosse area growing winter wheat should concentrate on the Rio, a selected strain of Turkey, and should eliminate other varieties. He stated that Rio had yielded fully as well as any other varieties and had other advantages so far as milling qualities, strength of straw, and disease resisting was concerned. He further suggested that Rio could very well replace old type Turkey, Yogo and Oro and in most areas could also replace Ridit.

Farmers in the western part of the county who desire to grow a red spring wheat should concentrate on Marcus, said Barbee.

Baart and Federation, said Barbee, were the white spring wheats which have yielded best in all parts of the county.

In the Pullman area Hymar and Rex have been proven to be the best yielders over a period of years. It was pointed out by Barbee that seasonal differences sometimes made one variety yield better than another, but farmers were urged not to switch varieties in accordance with seasonal yields.

According to Barbee, Golden or shatter-proof Forty-Fold had yielded very well in the Oakesdale, Tekoa and Farmington areas, although it had been one of the lowest yielders in the experimental plot at the college. This variety is extremely susceptible to smut and was not recommended for general use.

Triplet is one of the most dependable yielders and is fairly well adapted to all areas of the county. However, it is quite susceptible, it was said, to smut and for that reason should be grown with caution. Records of the federal grain grading office showed that 28 varieties of wheat were grown in the county in 1939. It was pointed out that farmers should stick to either red or white wheat on their farms to avoid dockages for mixtures.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Sept. 16, 1965

Failure of the six-mill special levy sought by directors at last week’s school election will probably force the Colfax district to begin paying its bills with “IOUs” next spring, Supt. Milford Crowley said this week.

By spring the district will have exhausted its cash reserve and tax collections for 1966 will be slow in piling up until after April 30, he explained, forcing the district on a registered warrant basis. The district will continue to pay teachers’ salaries and other expenses as usual, but the warrants will not be payable at the treasurer’s office and will bear interest at three and one-half per cent until the district accumulates enough money to redeem them.

The Colfax district has seldom been on a registered warrant basis, Crowley said, but defeat of the $69,000 levy severely crippled to local schools.

School directions have asked the administration to practice “strictest economy,” which may force the suspension of some parts of the present school program.

Plans to spend $12,000 for school buses, $5,000 for routine maintenance on the high school building roof and $4,000 on an alternate hot water heating system for the high school have been junked by the school board following defeat of the levy.

In addition, the directors have decided that the district cannot avoid using up all of its reserve and will still be unable to grant the three per cent pay raises for teachers and other personnel urged by the last session of the legislature.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Sept. 13, 1990

The candidates for the county commissioner seat being vacated by John Henley, Jr. all point out the need for economic development and improved roads in the county.

Walter Swannack of Endicott is running against John Huber of Colfax Tuesday for the Republican nomination.

He said taxes, roads, and the Pullman-Moscow corridor “seemed to be (the issues) I heard about at the fair but I know there are others.”

Saving the Tekoa and Pleasant Valley branch lines from abandonment by Union Pacific is important, Swannack noted.

“(The railroad) is essential to farmers and rural areas,” he stated. He also said the county needs to increase its tax base because “people have been taxed just about to their limit.”

The county needs to encourage businesses and light industry into the area, he added.

Swannack mentioned the recent attempt to attract a state prison to the area as a good example of how to bring growth to areas with the need for it but lacking in the necessary capital.

The county’s infrastructure and schools are capable of handling the population increase that economic development would bring, he added.

His opponent for the Republican nomination, Huber, mentioned the roads and railroads in the county when asked about the most important issue facing the county.

“We need to keep the railroads going,” Huber said.

Heavy traffic would increase without the railroads, he noted, “these roads which were built in 1930’s can’t stand up to that without spending lots of money to rebuild them.”

Huber also raised the issue of needing to work on the county budget and noted that a lot of what county government does is governed by the state and federal governments.

“You have to learn how to work with them and around them,” he said.

Democrat Bill Schmick of Endicott said the most important problem is the long range one of economic development.

He had ideas for developing and diversifying the local economic base, Schmick said but they “need to be tempered by input” from various sources in the county.

“I think we should start with the income producers already here, such as agriculture.”

He suggested working with the cooperatives to provide more services to the local economy.

The county also needs to take advantage of the recreational opportunities the area provides, such as the Snake River, Schmick said. The Palouse hills also are attractive to bicyclists he has been told.

“We need to take advantage of existing conditions,” Schmick said. “The county should be making efforts to bring ideas and people together.”

Schmick said the county should meet with the agricultural community and WSU to find out what obstacles exist to diversifying and expanding the local economy.

“The county needs to take a leadership role. They should support the people and organizations (trying for economic development).”