LaCrosse marks 100th year of incorporation

Circa 1915 on Main Street in LaCrosse at the Chatauqua celebration which brought many people to town and packed the street with automobiles. LaCrosse was incorporated approximately two years after this photo was taken. Photo from the private collection of Anne Pierce Aslin and courtesy of the Whitman County Rural Heritage collection.

This weekend, LaCrosse will officially be 100 years old. The community became an incorporated town of Whitman County on Feb. 19, 1917.

An article in The Colfax Commoner on Feb. 9, 1917, announced the vote to incorporate, stating the vote was favorable by a majority of about two to one and that “the results of the election left no doubt in the minds of the citizens of that city that incorporation was desired.”

LaCrosse has ordered flags to commemorate the centennial, Town Clerk/Treasurer Angela Broeckel said. The flags will say “Incorporated 1917” and “Celebrating 100 years.”

One of the flags will go up across the street from the post office. The council has not yet decided where to put the other flags.

“It was a better deal to get all of them,” said Broeckel.

Though the town was not incorporated until 1917, the area was settled long before, with the history dating back to the completion of the railroad there in 1888. A post office opened in the town on Feb. 1, 1892, and the community was then called Dunlor.

According to a book compiled by Don Dorman, Ruth Dorman and Dorothy Smith, Dunlor was taken from the first three letters of the name Dunphy, an engineer on the railroad, and the last three from Taylor, the community’s first postmaster.

“This was not a popular choice with the post office patrons who thought it confusing to have different names for the station and the post office. A copy of the official petition to adopt the name of ‘Dunlor’ is dated August 14, 1889, and signed by Mr. Taylor,” the book read. “‘LaCrosse’ is marked out and ‘Dunlor’ is written in. The application also showed the town population as 12 and a service area of 25 families. A second official document from Washington, D.C., is dated September 9, 1896, and is addressed to the postmaster in LaCrosse, so there seems to be no question that we are entitled to a centennial celebration.”

The town also marked a centennial in 1996, at which time the book, “Writ in Remembrance: 100 Years of LaCrosse Area History,” was also published.

As for a celebration to mark the town’s official centennial, that will occur at this year’s Farmer’s Festival.

“Farm Fest is our big celebration, so the council thought it’d be good to do something at that time,” said Broeckel.

Farmer’s Festival this year will be marked June 23-25, making the jump from the third weekend in June to the fourth.

“There’s a lot of other activities that go on the third weekend, so we thought we’d try moving it this year,” said Lois Startin.

The decision to make the change was made last year and also marks a return to the original format. Farmer’s Festival started out on that fourth weekend when it first began. Startin indicated activities in other towns that third weekend may be drawing attendance away from LaCrosse.

On March 1, the Farmer’s Festival committee will be meeting to discuss more plans for the upcoming festival. Startin said anyone with questions about Farmer’s Festival can contact Sharon Schlomer at 509-549-3498.

Also, on March 9, the town council will meet again for its regular meeting and discuss more specific plans for the 100 year celebration at that time.