Good Old Days : June 15

125 years ago

The Commoner

June 10, 1892

At Oakesdale last Monday morning at 8 o'clock Joe Purdy's house in the west end of town was discovered on fire.

Mr. and Mrs. Purdy are keeping house for Samuel Brown while his wife is visiting in the east and no one has been at the house for two weeks except W. T. Waldron, who rooms there.

The neighbors discovered the house on fire and gave the alarm.

The upper part of the house is not finished and it was found that someone had placed a quantity of pitch on the inside next the roof and wrapped a number of pieces of phosphorus in paper and saturated rags, leaving the phosphorus exposed that it would take fire by action of the air.

When the phosphorus caught fire it dropped through a crack to the ground instead of into the pitch, and it lodged along the wall and set fire to the house down near the ground.

It was discovered by chance almost as soon as it caught and was put out before much damage was done.

Mr. Waldron was sick and in bed and knew nothing of the fire until neighbors rushed in.

The fire was incendiary and Mr. Purdy is at a loss to know who has a grudge against him.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

June 15, 1917

The city council of Pullman at its last session accepted the proposed paving of the highway in College park addition of 8000 square yards. Bids for this work will be asked for in a few days.

***

A packed house greeted the children of the St. John's Academy at the Ridgeway Theatre Friday evening. The program opened with an instrumental ensemble “Children's Festival” and was well rendered. The drama in three acts of St. Agnes which was given by the high school girls was good. The customs and the language used carried one back to the old Roman days.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette Commoner

June 12, 1942

Daylight saving time is likely to cause a revised schedule in school hours in the late fall and winter months, Acting Superintendent R. N. Peterson told the Colfax defense council at its regular monthly meeting Monday evening, in asking the council to help him solve a problem that has been created by rural patrons.

There has been demand, he said, that school busses cover their routes an hour later in the morning, in order that children would not have to leave home before daybreak. This would mean a lunch period from 1 to 2 p.m. and afternoon dismissal at 5 o'clock instead of 4 o'clock, said Mr. Peterson, who wondered if Colfax families would accept the change in lunch hours, particularly in those homes in which other members of the family have to observe the 12 to 1 o'clock period.

***

Given the “go” sign by the war production board after many weeks of waiting, Colfax Grain Growers, Inc., Monday started construction of an annex to its bulk wheat elevator in Colfax, a project to be carried on concurrently with the construction of additional bulking facilities at Penawawa and a pea processing and storage plant at Steptoe.

R. P. Jones, manager of the local cooperative, announced that he had been advised through Congressman Knute Hill that the WPB had approved the release of building materials, the freezing of which had held up the expansion program for more than two months.

Total cost of improvements will be approximately $56,000, with an expenditure of about $26,000 on the addition here, $15,000 at Penawawa, and $15,000 at Steptoe, where the cost item includes the equipment for pea processing. The Colfax and Penawawa projects will be on the cost plus basis, with Charles Hanson of the Morrell Construction company, Lewiston, as supervisor. The Steptoe plant will be built on the day labor plan, with Roy Smith, Colfax, as foreman.

The Colfax elevator annex will have a capacity of 95,000 bushels, giving a total bulk storage space of 240,000 bushels. It will be built of wood cribbing, the ground dimensions being 44 by 84 feet.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

June 15, 1967

Bids have been sent to Olympia and San Francisco for state and federal approval, so work on Whitman Community Hospital can begin before June 30, Chairman Dan Scheideman said Wednesday. The association voted to submit the bids last Thursday after selecting a $1.5 million hospital package and figuring their plan for payment.

Treasurer S. H. Butler reminded area residents to keep up their pledge payments on the hospital as the board voted the project into the dollars and cents stage.

Louis Wakefield, chairman of the board's executive committee which spent all day last Wednesday studying the bids, suggested an alternative which would omit $19,860 for paving the parking lot and include the living quarters without a $2,526 brick screen.

Wakefield said Charlotte Marie, provincial mother superior of this district, suggested the living quarters be accepted.

“After all was said and done, we decided to construct the living quarters as planned,” Wakefield said.

“We have not done anything that would make any difference to you or I as a patient,” Scheideman explained. He said the sisters were convinced the quarters were not over-elaborate and did not consume funds which could be used in equipping the hospital.

At first glance, Wakefield said, the $62,000 allowed in the budget for the hospital's equipment did seem below what the sisters usually budget on equipment purchases for hospitals the size as Whitman Community. “Usual” equipment budgets averaged around $200,000 on hospital of like size, he said.

***

Great Northern railway package serving a number of Colfax firms has been leased to the Union Pacific railway and the company will close its Colfax depot at the end of this week.

Agent Don McCormick was informed last week that the local job had been “abolished” and Miss Gail Cannon of Rosalia, who is keeping the station open this week while McCormick is on vacation, told the Gazette she had been informed this week that the station would be closed permanently after Friday.

The Steptoe and Manning stations, formerly served by the Colfax station, will be handled by the GN agent at Palouse, she said.