Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
125 years ago
The Commoner
July 8, 1892
Two jail birds arrived from Pullman on Thursday's train to fill the vacated cells of murderer Miller and forger Doyle, who took their leave of Colfax at that hour on an extended ramble of several years among the spacious cells and corridors of the state prison.
The new arrivals are Richard Tobin and Thos. Taylor, committed by Justice Merriman in default of $200 bonds each to await the action of the superior court on a charge of robbing Chas. Miller, a laborer, of $135, while asleep in his room at the Pullman house.
Tobin and Taylor were strangers in town and were suspected by Miller of the robbery soon after the discovery of his loss.
Officers found the men sitting on the rip-rapping along the railroad yesterday and arrested them. They denied all knowledge of the crime or the whereabouts of the money, but, one was finally frightened into a confession after a vigorous overhauling and said the money was in a tin box under the rocks where his pal sat. The latter was gently lifted up and the lost money found and returned to the now overjoyed Miller.
***
The people's party celebration held in Palouse yesterday was not as well attended as was expected. Probably 3,000 people were on the grounds and in the city during the day. Many citizens say the crowd was not more than half so large as it was last year. However, many distant parts of the country were represented by farmers who drove long distances to attend the official demonstration to the people and drink in the eloquence of J. N. Pickrell, republican candidate for prosecuting attorney, who performed the duties of orator of the day in the usual spread eagle manner.
The procession was a creditable one after the usual style, headed by brass band and liberty wagon, and tapering down to the every present small boy in all his barefoot glory.
The declaration of independence was read by Miss Kate Hogan. Just before noon the bower was turned over to the people's party who held a grand rally until 4 o'clock. They were addressed by Ahira Manring, and J. M. Reed.
At this hour the citizens again took charge of affairs and a long program of sports was carried out. It included foot, bicycle and horse races, tugs of war, hammer throwing and various other contests for handsome prizes.
The day was most uncomfortably warm and many ladies were compelled to retire from the grounds. Miss Jessie Peddicord was overcome by the heat in the crowded arbor and fainted away. It was several hours before she recovered.
Every hour of the day was marked by unusual orderliness and quietude. No disturbances were raised and if there were any who were the worse for too frequent indulgence at firewater bars or sour water stands, they kept discreetly out of sight.
***
The celebration in Colton yesterday passed off most pleasantly. From 1,500 to 2,000 people were present. An excellent program of entertainment was successfully carried out.
Among the sports were horse and foot races, baseball and a broncho riding contest.
The ball game was between the Colton and Cornwall clubs and was close and exciting. The score was 21 to 20 in favor of Colton.
The bucking match drew the crowd. First prize money was divided between Joe Leitch and Dick Maynard.
Matt B. Kelly, of Colfax, was orator of the day.
100 years ago
The Colfax Commoner
July 13, 1917
The work of completing the new $75,000 addition to the St. Ignatius hospital is well under way and the work of laying the walls on the fourth story will be finished this week. In order to expedite the work, the patients have been removed to another building and contractors are working every man possible in order to complete the building in the shortest time possible.
The new hospital when completed, while not the largest, will be one of the best equipped hospitals in the eastern part of the state.
One of the improvements is the elimination of the west entrance and the main entrance to the building will be from the north side. The grounds surrounding the hospital will be made a place of beauty and every effort will be made by the Sisters to so surround the patients with every comfort so necessary to the welfare of the sick.
The hospital is located on one of the highest points in the city and affords an excellent view from the many windows of the patient's room of the city to the north.
The second and third floors are given over almost exclusively to patients rooms, a number of which have private toilet and bathrooms.
At the northeast corner of the second story is a small chapel.
The fourth story contains the surgical department occupying the center floor of the new building and provide the following rooms: general and septic operating rooms, sterilizing room, instrument room, doctors and nurses washing and dressing rooms, Sisters and nurses' work and supply rooms.
The new fourth story to the present building provides sleeping rooms and accessories there for the nurses and Sisters, also an X-ray department consisting of general operating room, electric apparatus room and developing room.
This department will be fitted with all service and working equipment required for thoroughly up-to-date work and will be a valuable addition to the hospital service.
The basement of the new building contains the boiler and coal storage rooms, rooms for cooking school, a general supply room, kitchen, storage, drug room and employees rooms. This story has a street level entrance from East street. The first story has rooms for administration and other working departments such as parlor, business office, superintendent's office, drug room, dispensary and nurses' lecture and dining room, Sister's community and dining room, Chaplain room, kitchen pantries, employees dining room, service and toilet rooms, etc.
***
The Buck Canyon road, the scene of several fatal accidents, is again brought to the attention of the public by the business men of the city who are anxious to have the dangerous curve eliminated from this road.
Commissioner Manchester says that the members of the county board fought against having a curve in this road for two years but their objections were brushed aside by the engineers in charge of the road. Mr. Manchester maintains that the road could have been built up Buck Canyon on practically a straight line on a six per cent grade. The engineers in charge of the survey insisted that they wanted a five per cent grade and the result is that there is a dangerous curve in the road which appears even worse than the curve that was in the old line.
The Buck Canyon road is the direct line connecting Colfax north and is one of the most extensively travelled roads in the county. Farmers who use this road have entered a complaint against the dangerous curve and the question of having the curve eliminated or made safer has been taken up by the business men and the tax league. The grade is nearly completed and the culverts built. It is doubtful if any changes can be secured in the road at present as the engineers of the highway have always opposed the advise of the layman.
The chairman of the board of county commissioners stated that the grade leading out of the city to the south is an eleven per cent grade and that a six per cent straight road along Buck Canyon would have been better and more serviceable than the five per cent road with the dangerous curves. The members of the board did all they could to have the curve eliminated and failed, said Mr. Manchester, and we are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the efforts of the tax league and the businessmen who have taken up the proposition with the state engineers.
75 years ago
July 10, 1942
Whether the city of Colfax shall take over and operate the cemetery will be determined at the polls in the general city election next December, it was decided by the council Monday evening in acting on a report submitted by a special committee composed of Councilmen J. A. Masterson, M. L. Crawford and Guy Irwin.
The change in ownership and management of the cemetery was proposed recently by officers of the Colfax Cemetery association, a non-profit organization which has about $8,000 in a perpetual care fund to turn over to the city should the change be authorized by the voters.
The council raised the salary of Perry Cram, custodian of the sewage disposal plant, from $110 to $125 a month, which is in conformity with increases allowed recently to employees of the street and water departments.
***
Farmers will be confronted with a serious labor situation during harvest if present indications continue to prevail, states A. F. Harms, county agent.
Many are already having difficulty in obtaining hay hands and it is expected that maximum cooperation will be needed between farmers and townspeople in order to harvest the 1942 crop without loss. The county farm labor committee composed of Carlos White, Colfax; J. A. Seagle, Palouse; A. L. Wolf, Tekoa; Roscoe Cox, Pullman, and Karl Schrenk, Lacrosse, recently met with Howard Holmquist of the U.S. employment service here to consider ways and means of solving the labor problem.
50 years ago
Colfax Gazette
July 13, 1967
Restaurant patrons in Colfax were faced with the threat of “slim pickins” this week as two Colfax operations offered closed doors to possible customers and a third establishment came close to closing.
Henry Johnston, owner of the Whitman Hotel and veteran of the restaurant business in Spokane, reports he will take over management of the Whitman Dinner House in the hotel starting Saturday. Johnston will take the helm in the absence of Tom Caldwell.
The new manager promises some “new additions” to the menu at the hotel restaurant and plans to aim service at the harvest season clients.
Pete Eng's Colfax Coffee Shop has been closed since July 2 when the Colfax operator began extensive remodeling in his Chinese-American establishment. Also closing this week was the Korner Koffee Kup operated by Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Kraus at the intersection of highway 195 and 295.
Still operating at full tilt in Colfax is the One-Ninety-Five restaurant operated by Mr. and Mrs. Ernie Robillard and the Top Notch Snack bar operated by Jim Maston. Marshall Hyde's Hyde-Out Tavern and Don Allen's A and W Drive-in also offer food services. During working hours, patrons can pick up a snack at counters in Grady and Tick Klock drug stores.
Eng reports his Colfax Coffee Shop will be open in about four weeks.
***
Dirt will begin flying within a week on the Whitman Community Hospital site, Chairman Dan Scheideman of the board of trustees said this week following formal approval of contracts by the state department of health and signing by representatives of the three builders who submitted the low bids.
An informal ground-breaking ceremony is being planned for Friday about 7:30 p.m. at the site on the Almota road just beyond Colfax's southwest city limits. Hospital association officials, representatives of the Sisters of Charity of Providence, and civic officials from several communities around the county may participate.
Fred Cunningham, partner in ADSCO, general contracting firm which will build the $1.5 million structure, told Scheideman that he expects to have some personnel in Colfax today and tomorrow making arrangement for electric power and water, establishing an office and erecting the official sign that designates the project as one receiving federal funds.
Contracts with ADSCO, Powell Plumbing & Heating of Moscow and Kehne-Crabtree Electric Co., Inc., of Spokane were signed Monday and Tuesday by Scheideman and Tracy Eriksen, president and secretary of the association.
One of the first jobs to be undertaken by the contractor will be surveying and setting stakes to mark the building's boundaries. Barring unforeseen difficulties, the contractor will move heavy equipment onto the site next week to begin excavation for footings.
Another part of the job that will be tackled first will be the laying of drain tile on the property. The grove of tall evergreens remaining on the property must be removed before much work can be done but this part of the job is not in the contract, Scheideman said.
“We've been trying for a year to get someone to cut the trees for the wood that is in them, but no one seems to be interested,” he said. “Maybe we can get somebody to cut the trees and haul them to Potlatch Forests mill in Lewiston.”
The contractor has 340 working days to complete the project, which will mean from 12 to 13 months calendar time.
A pre-construction conference will be held in Olympia within the next week or 10 days to study further the contractors' planning, Scheideman said, and to go over programming of the different phases of construction.
25 years ago
Colfax Gazette
July 9, 1992
Union Pacific will decide soon on a bidder to remove the 69 miles of track the company abandoned last year, according to spokesman John Bromley from the company's headquarters in Omaha.
They are “pretty close” and should make a decision in a couple of weeks, Bromley said.
The winning bidder probably would want to start on the project as soon as possible, he added.
Salvage contractors began surveying the tracks in May in preparation for making bids.
The 69 miles of track run between Tekoa and Fairfield and Colfax and Seltice.
Union Pacific sought to abandon the lines in hopes of getting almost $2 million in salvage as well as using the material for other projects.
The Port of Whitman County and manager Jim Weddell led a consortium of local growers and shippers in a two-and-a-half year fight to save the lines.
he said, adding alcohol is involved in about 85 percent of the city's crime. Violent crime, including rape, is down, which is good, Weatherly added.
10 years ago
Whitman County Gazette
July 12, 2007
The mercury broke the triple digit mark and hit record temperatures July 5 with the National Weather Service recording 104 degrees at the Pullman Airport.
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