Good Old Days: Mar. 1, 2018

125 years ago

The Commoner

Feb. 24, 1893

The saloon of W.H. Helm was burglarized Sunday night or early Monday morning, and some $10 in cash, 60 beer checks and a couple bottles of rum were stolen. The till had been broken open. The matter was reported to Marshal Mackay, who immediately began a detective tour. Suspicions were fastened on a Japanese by the name of “Kee,” who has been a domestic at the hotels here for some time past.

Monday afternoon the suspect went to Helm's saloon and ordered beer, paying for it with one of the stolen chips. He was then arrested and on his person was found the greater part of the checks and one of the bottles of whiskey which had been stolen.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

Feb. 22, 1918

M.C. Strange, who has been at the county jail for some time, completed his jail sentence Wednesday and left on the morning train for Spokane. Strange was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and after he had served a short time of his sentence he escaped from the jail and was later captured at Spokane. Strange is a married man and he and his wife had charged the Farmer's Café in this city for some time before he was arrested.

75 years ago

The Gazette- Commoner

Feb. 19, 1943

Preliminary tabulation of anticipated crop acreage goals of Whitman County were reviewed Tuesday by the USDA war board. Indications are that the dry pea sign-up is about 30,000 acres short of the revised goal given this county, whose goal is 32 percent of the entire national acreage of dry edible peas required for all purposes.

***

Webb Tarbett, manager of the Grange Livestock Association at Lewiston, suffered a broken ankle Wednesday morning when he lost control of his car on the slippery pavement a short distance north of Thornton. He was brought to the Bryant and Weisman clinic here, and after his leg was put in a cast he went home. The car was badly damaged.

***

Ending the regular county conference schedule undefeated at Pullman last Friday evening, the Colfax High School Bulldogs chalked up their 18th victory of the season, defeating the Greyhounds 27 to 23.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

Feb. 22, 1968

Heavy rains penetrated the soft soils of the Palouse country this week, causing soil movement which blocked highway 195, clogged Whitman County roads and caused more erosion damage to planted grain fields. Monday, the bank above highway 195 at the North Flat cutoff broke loose, blocking traffic for 30 minutes and literally chasing state highway men from the scene.

***

The city's most ambitious improvement program in history, calling for a new swimming pool, new sewage treatment plant and water system modernization at a cost of more that $400,000, is under way. City councilmen opened bids Tuesday night on the new swimming pool and will issue calls for bids at the first meeting in March for the sewage treatment plant and part of the water system improvement, Mayor Donald Deen told the Gazette Wednesday.

25 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Feb. 25, 1993

Harold Powell can easily claim title of being around “the longest” on the Main Street business scene in Colfax. Powell, who earlier this week announced an approaching retirement, has been in business for more than 53 years, and the Powell name goes back 86 years to when his dad started the business which is now Powell Plumbing and Heating.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

Feb. 21, 2008

A one-car garage in back of a residence of the corner of First and N. Main was struck Saturday morning by a Palouse driver who was stricken with a seizure. The driver was taken by ambulance to Whitman Hospital. He was suffering from seizures when he was found in the Chevrolet pickup truck which struck the garage, according to the report by Colfax Officer Perry Tate.