Good Old Days

125 years ago

The Commoner, June 23, 1893

The distance between Colfax and Pullman was covered on bicycles Wednesday morning at a rate not very much slower than the average time made by the mixed train on the Moscow branch railroad. At 4-o'clock in the morning, D.W. Waske, Fred Waite and Eugene King started their wheels from this city to Pullman. They kept close together, but their bikes sped along with swift and steady motion, except when the descent of a hill allowed their feet to rest. The boys reached Pullman in one hour and 38 minutes.

***

The visit of a circus never fails to attract a usual crowd of people to the city. Main street sidewalks were almost impassable at noon Wednesday, and hotels and restaurants were taxed to feed the throng. The parade at noon was not very imposing, but the attendance was quite large. The show is said to have some very good features.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner, June 21, 1918

The people of Colfax have been busy all week cleaning away the fallen trees and cleaning up the old buildings which were blown down by the cyclone that visited the city a week ago Thursday evening.

***

Deputy Sheriff Cole in company with Sheriff McClure arrested the three Weitz brothers, Peter R., Peter C. and R.A. Weitz of Pine City, late last week on the charge of bringing liquor into dry territory. The three live at Endicott and are well-known farmers of that section of the county. The men drove their cars to Pine City and took the train from that point to Montana and brought back with them a quantity of liquor in suitcases. The officers were notified of the men's departure and they waited at Pine City for the men to return. As they stepped off the cars they were arrested by Deputy Sheriff Cole and brought to Colfax. The men were arraigned before Judge R.L. McCrowsky who fined each one of them $150 and costs which was paid and the men released.

50 years ago

The Colfax Gazette, June 20, 1968

Strong testimony in favor of adding the Steptoe Canyon route to the state highway system was voted by Whitman County witnesses at a hearing in Clarkston yesterday afternoon at the state legislator's subcommittee on highway extensions.

***

Three-year-old Sally Jean Carlson will probably be leaving St. Ignatius Hospital soon with little but some rapidly-healing lacerations on her scalp and back to remind her of a nightmarish encounter with a full-grown cougar at an Idaho campground last afternoon.

25 years ago

Whitman County Gazette, June 24, 1993

Whitman County Library has taken its bookmobile out of service. The bookmobile, which has mainly been used to serve county school districts, was parked after the end of the school year and is now on the sale block.

***

With no opposition or fanfare, the county commissioners Monday signed a three year agreement with Waste Management for exporting the county's garbage, which is scheduled to begin July 1.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette, June 19, 2008

Volunteers are needed to help move the contents of the St. John Library down the street to the newly constructed Denton Building. The library has planned a book train for Friday June 20, to move the library from its old office on the east end of the zero block of Front Street to the west end of the block, at the intersection of Front and Park streets.