Good Old Days: March 28, 2019

125 years ago

The Commoner, March 23, 1894

Charles –––––, a day laborer from St. John, was Monday morning examined by a lunacy commission before Judge Sullivan, and committed to the Medical Lake insane asylum. –––––, is a Swede, 27, is a monomaniac on the subject of religion, and was thrown off his mental balance five days ago during a revival meeting in St. John. He made a speech to Judge Sullivan, wherein he declared that five days ago he had a vision in his sleep, and he found out that all his mother’s ancestors had been preachers. When he woke up his head ached very bad, and he sought the evangelistic preacher, who told him he should interpret his vision to the people. He started home and on the way had a second vision, in which he was commanded to go out and save people.

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City Engineer Roberts had a battle all by himself with the overflow on Canyon street Friday. The laborers he had employed seemed helpless to stop the gulch stream from flooding the street, and the city engineer had them stand aside while he applied pick and shovel and remedied the situation by his own efforts.

The foot bridge at the mouth of Spring flat creek at Cooper street was washed away; as was also the foot bridge at the rear of the Union Pacific depot. These will be replaced as soon as practicable.

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Two landslides occurred near Glenwood Saturday evening, and rendered the passage of train impossible until Monday. The Union Pacific wreck train went to the scene, and the track is now clear. The first train from Portland since Saturday reached Colfax at 3:45 Monday afternoon.

The landslide near the Stoneberger ranch blocked travel on the Moscow branch line for a few days.

Passengers to Colfax were transferred at Glenwood, but had to wade up to their knees in mud to get across the slide.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner, March 21 1919

F. L. Kennard returned Monday from Uniontown where he had gone to supervise the mixing of a ton of squirrel poison. At Uniontown, the committee mixed up nearly a hundred pounds of squirrel bait and it was distributed among the farmers this week.

Another ton of squirrel bait will be mixed sometime this spring. The farmers at Uniontown are taking advantage of the offer of the county agent to assist them to mixing their squirrel poison and they are going to make an extra effort this year to clean up the squirrel pest. The county agent stated that the farmers of the Uniontown district are wide-awake and that other farming communities should visit this section of the county and take notice of the farming operations that prevail in that section of the county. The farms are all kept in splendid condition and the majority of the place have a shed for machinery and everything is kept in its place.

75 years ago

The Colfax Gazette-Commoner, March 24, 1944

Tentative plans for a Whitman County library, probably to be located at Colfax, were discussed Wednesday afternoon at the regional meeting of public librarians at the high school.

The group was told by Mrs. Gretchen K. Schenk, state librarian, that the library could be legally financed by a maximum two-mill tax levy on property outside incorporated towns, and that once the library was installed, municipalities could, if they desired, levy a tax for added financial support.

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Under the guidance of the county farm labor committee, the farm labor problem will be handled this year entirely through the offices of the extension service, it was announced following a meeting of the committee with County Agent Troy Lindley Tuesday evening. The U.S. employment service officer here was a cooperating agent last year.

The group heard a report on the status of selective service agricultural deferments in the county and the indicated farm labor needs as revealed by tabulations from farm work sheets filled out by approximately 90 per cent of the county’s farm operators.

Discussed also were the possibility of importation of foreign labor and methods that might be employed to obtain full mobilization of all local people.

50 years ago

The Colfax Gazette, March 20, 1969

Heavy rain Monday sent many small channels over their banks in parts of the county, but erosion watchers report little damage to Whitman County fields. Water across roads and one accident were reported after the rains.

Sylvia Parsons, 16, sustained leg cuts at 7:15 p.m. Monday when the car she was driving struck water on the Oakesdale-Thornton road two miles west of Oakesdale. Trooper Al Fife said the Oakesdale girl was driving south on the Thorn Creek road. The car, damaged $800, came to rest on its top in a field.

Water also spilled out of Pine Creek and covered the highway between Oakesdale and Tekoa for a short time Monday night. The water covered the highway for a distance of approximately 50 feet.

Fred Wetter, conservationist with the Pine Creek soil and water conservation district, said many of the flats in the area around Oakesdale and Tekoa were full of water, the result of overflowing channels. Damage seemed to be minor, he said.

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Numbers can be tricky.

In a Seattle newspaper article on the tendency of state welfare expenses to “skyrocket,” Whitman County was singled out as one of the several rural counties having the “greatest percentage increases” in funds going to families which do not have an employable parent.

Has the county had a sudden surge of families which require (Aid to Families with Dependent Children grants?

Actually, the Colfax office had been averaging approximately the same number of cases.

“We do have a rather wide fluctuation within our small numbers. One reason for this is that we have a much faster than average turnover in cases,” Carroll Clifton, head of the Colfax office of public assistance, reported.

As an example, Clifton noted a 500 percent increase in AFDC-E cases—a two-parent household where the breadwinner is unemployed.

“What it means to Whitman County is that in November, we had no unemployed employable families receiving assistance and now we have five,” Clifton explained.

25 years ago

Whitman County Gazette, March 31, 1994

The Colfax Chamber of Commerce is making another attempt to add housing to Colfax. Jeff Geier, chamber president, met with the county commissioners Monday to discuss the sale of county land to private developers. Geier wanted the commission to give an estimated asking price of the land.

The proposal to sell off county land to a developer was introduced last year and then dropped because the county was unable to move out bridge shop and storage buildings on part of the site, which is located behind Whitman Hospital.

The project was later revived when the county considered moving the shops to the airport site now being developed by the port.

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Palouse Empire Fair board members Monday night learned they would get about $8,500 more than expected from state horse racing funds. The sum gives the fair something of a reprieve from a funding bind which was expected to be in the $20,000 range.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette, March 19, 2009

Special hunting seasons aimed at reducing the population of does in the Colfax area have been proposed by state game officials. The aim would be to reduce the population of deer inside Colfax city limits, Game Officer Bob Weaver reported to the city council Monday night.

Weaver gave a report on deer feeding policy and answered questions from city council members on possible deer control at the start of Monday’s city council session.

However, after the report, city council members again declined to consider a proposed ordinance which would make it illegal to intentionally feed deer inside the city limits.

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Get it while you can Colfax, because barbecue icon Smokin’ Papa is moving to Garfield.