Good Old Days: Jan. 17, 2019

125 years ago

The Commoner, Jan. 12, 1894

The record of events in Colfax during the present week has been sensational in the extreme. The report Monday morning that Cashier Chas F. Russell of the First National Bank, had disappeared from the city, and that he was a defaulter, had spread in the business center and created general astonishment. In the midst of public conjure on those reports came another startling report - that Cashier Russell had taken laudanum with suicidal intent and was lying at the point of death in the Masonic lodge room, where he had decided to end his existence.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner, Jan. 10, 1919

Hudson Klemgard went through an air hole Sunday afternoon while coasting with Paul Young on the Palouse river and he had a narrow escape. He was rescued by the thoughtfulness of his companion. The two boys are 10 and 11 years of age, and neither of them can swim.

Klemgard, the youngest boy, went through an air hole near the forks of the river and the water at this point was over his head. He clung to the ice and was rescued by Young, who helped pull him out of the hole.

75 years ago

The Colfax Gazette-Commoner, Jan. 14, 1944

Pleading innocent but judged guilty, A.D. Vanos, Colfax confectioner, was fined $75 in police court Friday morning for permitting Henry Geagley Jr., 18, to play a pinball machine. The conviction was the first under an ordinance adopted by the council in April 1941, prohibiting persons under 21 years of age from playing the machines.

50 years ago

The Colfax Gazette, Jan. 9, 1969

An ice jam in the North Palouse took out a private bridge serving the Fidel Reyes family across the river from the Colfax Meat Packing plant Monday morning. The ice had backed up from the entrance to the flood control works near the west end of the golf course and forced the water to flood a pasture owned by Roy McDonald and much of the golf course.

25 years ago

Whitman County Gazette, Jan. 13, 1994

The county has formed a space allocation committee to look into how the county can best utilize the space it has. The committee plans to have a set of recommendations for the commissioners by the end of this year.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette, Jan. 8, 2009

A one-two punch in the battle of winter 2009 hit at the start of the week when an all-night snow storm shut down schools, roads and highways Monday, and warmer temperatures Tuesday melted the snow to inflict flood damage across Whitman County.