Good Old Days

125 years ago

The Commoner

Oct. 31, 1890

The sensational shooting of Farmer Click by James Blanton on the streets of Colfax, December 18 last, will be remembered by all the citizens of this city. A somewhat interesting denouement to this tragedy is the marriage of M. M. Click, the brother of the deceased, to Mattie Click, his widow, which was contracted this week.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Oct. 29, 1915

J. O. Mattoon, city superintendent of the Colfax schools is the highest salaried public school superintendent in Whitman County. He has been head of the city schools for more than a year and he is working under a two year contract which ends next June. He is paid a salary of $200 each month for twelve months each year. The school term in this city is nine months, but the salary of the superintendent is continued during the entire year. No reduction being made for the three months that schools are not in session. In addition to drawing a salary as City Superintendent, Mr. Mattoon is a member of the county board of education and for this service last year, he draw an additional $98 fee.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

Nov. 1, 1940

Pointing out reasons for refusing a third term for President Franklin Roosevelt, Mrs. George H. Spear, Duluth, Minn., regional director for Washington, Oregon and California for the women's division of the Republican national committee, gave the principal address at the meeting of the Whitman County Republican Women's organization at the Hotel Colfax Wednesday afternoon following a 1:15 luncheon. Mrs. Spear touched on several issues in the national campaign. Fifty women from all over the county attended.

Mrs. Spear, sent by the Republican National Committee to coordinate the work of the states with that of the central organization, has been in the west since August. Her third visit into Washington, this is the first time that she has appeared in the southeastern part of the state.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Oct. 28, 1965

A final drive to raise the remaining $50,000-plus needed to build a new hospital will be launched immediately, Co-Chairmen Ray Schmick and Robert Zorb announced this week after a meeting of area chairman Monday night in Colfax.

The campaign for funds will be reactivated in each community by the chairmen who headed the drive previously, and personal solicitation will be counted on to raise the funds, the co-chairmen said.

“Our goal is to raise at least $50,000 by Dec. 1, so that we can impress the committee which allocates federal funds with our earnest desire to get a new hospital,” Schmick said.

Final decision on allocation of federal funds will be made in mid-December and the application for the new Whitman County hospital is now being completed by the architect, the executive committee of the hospital association and the Sisters of Charity of Providence, who will operate the new facility.

Zorb said the committee can still accept contributions in the form of pledges payable over a period of a year, wheat receipts or other items of value. “The committee also wants to remind prospective donors that contributions to the hospital association are deductible as far as income tax is concerned.”

Proposals that the association borrow the remaining $50,000 or more needed for the hospital are not feasible, Schmick said, since the association itself has no earning power and would have no way of repaying a loan.

25 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Nov. 1, 1990

Contractors in Colfax are racing winter weather to complete the Thorn Street project and the AT&T optic cable burial projects.

City Administrator Phil Messina said Poe Asphalt, contractor for Thorn Street, was hoping to put asphalt surfacing on the street Friday. The contractor believes he can apply the surfacing in one day.

Poe, which was awarded the contract for $359,535, had expended its contract time as of last Friday. Whether or not penalties will be levied will have to be considered later, the city administrator said.

“We'll just have to sit down and look at it,” Messina noted.

Also to be done on the Thorn Street project are sidewalks. Bob Curtis of Pullman, subcontractor for the sidewalks, had hoped to put sidewalks down this week before the asphalt paving is finished.

Last chapter of the AT&T cable job in Colfax will be replacing sidewalks along five blocks of South Main Street. The main contractor, Con-Am of Dallas, cut the sidewalks to excavate a ditch for the cable.

Marvin Hergert of Endicott has been hired as a subcontractor to replace the sidewalks in a job which will be in the $30,000 to $40,000 range.

Hergert said his crew will be pushing the weather to get the sidewalks in place.

“It's all going to depend on the good old Whitman County weather,” Hergert noted.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Nov. 3, 2005

The Haunted Palouse benefit with its two haunted buildings and corn maze attracted more than 2,000 scare seekers over its five-day run.

Annie Pillars for the Palouse Chamber of Commerce said ticket sales totaled 2,088 at $10 per ticket. The haunted doors opened two weekends ago to a small crowd, but numbers peaked last Saturday with 696 in the streets of downtown Palouse.