Good Old Days: Sept. 21, 2017

125 years ago

Colfax Commoner

September23, 1892

The opening of the Columbia and Snake rivers to navigation from Lewiston to the sea is the dearest wish of the people of Eastern Washington and Why? Because it means a lower cost of transportation of their products and an increase in the price of their crops to the extent of at least five cents and probably ten cents a bushel.

Just think of it, ten cents a bushel.

An open river to the sea is not agitated in Eastern Washington from any love the people of this section have for Portland.

Their only object is to secure water competition to the seaboard so that all the railroads in the state shall be compelled by reason of this competition to charge reasonable rates of freight to and from all the coast cities.

***

_____ ______, a young man well known about Colfax, is in trouble once more. The manner in which he escaped without punishment from the charge of robbing a store in Colfax several years ago appears to have emboldened him in the practice of crime instead of having a deterring affect.

This time he is accused of forgery. He has been working for a time in the warehouse of the Shawnee Warehouse Company at Shawnee, a station between this city and Guy. Three or four days ago he persuaded George Hull, of the Home restaurant, to cash a check for $35, drawn in favor of George Myrick and signed with the name of S.S. Loomis and never suspected anything wrong. The check was written with an indelible pencil and was a rather coarse piece of work. Hull deposited the check with the Second National bank, endorsing it. This morning the paper was returned as a forgery and Hull at once secured a warrant for ______'s arrest.

He passed a similar check for $45 upon J.B. Fairchild, a laborer, which was also deposited with the Second National bank and returned as worthless.

The young forger worked one day after these transactions in the warehouse. While there he told some parties he was going to Pendleton for three or four days and disappeared.

***

J.H. Barager of Spring flat has just harvested a crop of wheat from a six-acre field which demonstrates full the character and endurance of the black soil of the Palouse hills. The little field has grown good crops of wheat each year for 20 years without rest or change of crop, and it this season produced 22 ½ bushels per acre. The crop was spring sown.

Chalmers car of C. E. Frederick, Palouse, 1912

Frederick's car when it arrived from the Mizpah mine. It was the first car to make the trip. The road from Harvard was mountainous. Previously the only means of transportation to the mine was with a packhorse. As the trail improved wagons were able to make the trip. Photo courtesy Whitman County Heritage, Roy M. Chatters Newspaper and Print Museum collection.

100 years ago

Colfax Commoner

Sept. 21, 1917

J.B. Lorch is to sell the autopeds.

One of the most useful little motor machines that has been manufactured in a generation is the autoped, a motor-driven vehicle that was manufactured to take the place of the bicycle.

The little machine is driven by a 1 ½ horsepower motor and dashed along at a speed of twenty five miles an hour.

One gallon of gasoline is sufficient to drive the machine a hundred miles and it is extensively used in the east by the city mail carriers.

The machine is not equipped with a seat and the passenger guides the machine standing up.

A crowd collected at Colfax Harness Company Wednesday where Lorch will sell the machines.

After they had seen the machine in operation several placed orders for its immediate delivery.

They will be sold for a short time at $124 each.

***

Government calls up 118 men from Whitman County for military service. They will meet in Colfax before leaving for Tacoma. A total of 294 men will be eventually called to service.

75 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Sept. 25, 1942

Flying is now included in school study. Johnny of Colfax High School may not handle the controls of a bomber but he will have aviation with his English, navigation with mathematics and flight with physics. Although no new technical or theoretical courses are being introduced in the high school, Supt Ralph N. Peterson explained, “standard studies are being broadened and enriched by relevant materials on aviation.”

***

John F. Whealen, 84, claimed by his family to be the oldest pioneer in Whitman County in point of residence, died early Wednesday morning at the farm home of his nephew, Richard Whealen on Union Flat near Endicott. Funeral services will be held this Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Bruning chapel,

***

A letter written to the people of Whitman County from Robert Neill of the Colfax Furniture Store states that the store was having a shortage of some items due to rationing. The shortage included steel bed springs, davenos, drapery and slip covers, curtain rods and electric appliances.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Sept. 21, 1967

The foundation walls for Whitman Community Hospital are mostly finished. With the cooperation of the weather the framing will start next week. It is hoped that the roof may go up before the snow flies. The construction is on schedule.

***

More than $200,000 of new and used farm equipment will go on the block next Wednesday in what will probably be he largest auction sale ever held in Colfax. Sponsored by Colfax farm implement dealers the auction will be cried by Bill Dippel of Lewiston. Offerings include 19 crawler tractors, 6 wheel tractors, 13 combines and nearly 300 pieces of other equipment. One of the largest crowds to ever attend a sale in Colfax is expected.

***

Dr. Ole Slind buys Rose theater and adjoining vacant lot for $35,000. Plans for the vacant lot next to the theater at the intersection of Canyon and Mill include a parking lot.

***

Local residents who don't know the ZIP codes of friends and relatives will get a chance to find out via a special ZIP kit which will be delivered to householders later this month. Each kit will have eight postal cards which can be mailed back to the post office with addresses needing ZIP codes. Each completed card will be sent to the home post offices where the ZIP code will be added and sent back to the Colfax sender. Last year approximately 15,000 addresses were coded by the Colfax post office. Seventeen percent of the nation's householders returned 96 million addresses for coding last year.

25 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Sept. 24, 1992

Gang graffiti has appeared in Pullman, Albion, Dusty and Rosalia, according to Sheriff Steve Tomson. The state Department of Transportation contacted the sheriff's department early this summer about the graffiti at the Dusty rest stop, Tomson said. It was photographed and recorded and then painted over. The graffiti lets other gang members know gangs are in the area, he explained. It is not necessarily a deterrent to rival gangs. Graffiti which is allowed to remain on buildings encourages gang activity because it shows no one knows or cares about it, Tomson said. Then they can stake out a particular area as their “turf.”

***

Enrollment is up slightly across the county as the school districts submitted their September head counts to the state.The numbers are used in determining funding levels. Each student is worth about $3,750 to the district. Pullman recorded 2,221 actual students. Colfax has 781, Colton recored 167, Rosalia 275, Tekoa 250, Steptoe 50.

***

An attorney for the Full Gospel Assembly Church, located on South Main in Colfax, said they have offered to sell their building to the state Department of Transportation to make room for the highway construction project now underway on the south end of Colfax..The sale offer was made at the state's own appraised price of $164,000, but it has not been accepted. Church officials believe the highway project has reduced the property to the point where a church cannot operate at the site.

***

Three top people at the Colfax Post Office have opted to retire under a national plan to trim the ranks of employees. The trio will take a total of 71 years of experience out the door with them when they depart. Postmaster George Kenfield, one of the retirees, said the postal service has 120,000 employees eligible for the early retirement. Latest count shows about 28,500 have decided to take the option. Don Welter and Betty Bird-Bircher are the other two who plan to depart by Friday.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Sept. 20, 2007

Wheat prices continued to climb through the $8 range. On Tuesday, the price reached $9 per bushel. Just two weeks ago, the price reached $8 for the first time.

***

County elected officials will get raises ranging from 18.5 percent to 21.8 percent next year, following a decision by the county's Citizens' Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials.

The pay commission last week scrapped its pervious guideline of setting salaries at 85 percent of pay rates for five comparable counties.

Salaries will now be based on the actual average of the 2007 salaries for those counties.

Sheriff Brett Myers, who personally asked the salary commission to remove its 15 percent discount at its last meeting, said he was “surprised but agreeable,” to the commission's decision.

Prosecutor Denis Tracy suggested the 100 percent number at that time.

Monthly pay for county commissioners will jump by $774 to $4,752, for assessor, auditor, court clerk and treasurer the increase is $802 to $4,680, for the sheriff it is $943 to $6,035, for the prosecutor it is $1,401 to $7,806 and for the coroner whose job was expanded last year from part-time to full-time it is $780 to 4,852.

***

Formal charges of second degree rape, burglary and residential burglary have been filed against two suspects in the reported early morning entry of three sororities on the WSU campus last Thursday. Pullman Police arrested one suspect Friday and identified the second suspect as Christopher Jack Reid, also known as Jack Venice, said to be an adult film performer who visited Pullman last week.