Good Old Days: Jan. 18, 2018

125 years ago

The Commoner

January 13, 1893

The old council went out of existence at 5 o'clock Tuesday evening. Their closing session was not an eventful one. There was no rush of business, there was no great clean up to make, and there was only one subject that seemed to disturb the council's dying hours.

100 years ago

Colfax Commoner

January 11, 1918

The meeting for electing the officers of the Colfax State Bank was postponed this week until next Tuesday. For many years a portion of the stock of this institution has been held by Spokane parties.

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The farmers residing in the western part of the county have been plowing during the greater part of the winter and last week a majority of the acreage which is to be sown in spring wheat was waiting ready for seeding.

Methodist Episcopal Church, Albion, Wash., 1915. Photo courtesy Whitman County Heritage - Guy Albion Historical Society & Museum Collection.

75 years ago

The Colfax Gazette-Commoner

January 8, 1943

Cars driven by Willis M. Pflugard, Winona farmer, and Mrs. W. N. Freeman, Colfax, were damaged Wednesday morning at the intersection of the Manning-Rye and Steptoe-St. John roads, five miles west of Steptoe. Pflugard reported to the sheriff that he was unable to stop his car on the slippery road when Mrs. Freeman's car stopped in the middle of the intersection.

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Tekoa and its 1,200 persons were without water from about noon Monday to early Tuesday morning because of a break in the main line near the artesian wells that supply the town. It was feared the wells had run dry until the big leak, where the line crosses Hangman Creek, was discovered. A fire hose was used to pump water into a hydrant and to the city's cistern thus reestablishing the service before it became necessary to chlorinate water from auxiliary wells.

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Businessmen are careless about locking their doors at night, the old city council learned Monday evening in listening to the annual report of Police Chief Parnell who also submitted his resignation to become county sheriff. During the year 206 doors were found unlocked. The police officers made 162 arrests, received an average of 50 calls a month, and halted law infractions that resulted in the collection of $1,119, of which $208 was in fines and $911 in bond forfeitures.

Whitman County courthouse and Texaco gas station on the corner of Main and Island streets in Colfax, Wash., during the Palouse River flood of 1948. Photo courtesy Washington Rural Heritage, Whitman County Heritage Collection.

50 years ago

The Colfax Gazette

January 11, 1968

Carl Baumunster, laborer on the Gene Feenan ranch, lost part of the first finger on his left hand when he caught it in a belt on a hammer mill Jan. 2. He also suffered lacerations on the other fingers of his left hand and was treated at St. Ignatius hospital.

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A weak crop start, finicky winter weather and a market price which will probably swing according to “world conditions” will hold the attention of Whitman County farmers as they check the outlook for 1968.

25 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

January 14, 1993

News this week is scarcer than hens teeth because the citizens are either basking in the sun in warmer climes or staying home, thawing pipes and trying to find a swift cure for cabin fever. There's been a variety of weather - winds, snow storms and temperatures are ranging from below zero to 25 above.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

January 10, 2008

As 2007 wound to a close, the United States Congress passed an extension of the 2002 Farm Bill in an Omnibus Appropriations Bill. The bill extends the provisions of the 2002 Farm Bill, which expired at the close of 2007, until March of this year.