Good Old Days

125 years ago

The Commoner

July 24, 1896

News from Farmington:

Miss Ella Canty returned from Oakesdale Wednesday last.

T.S. Hutchinson returned from Priest Lake Wednesday last.

Mr. Joe and Miss Lillie Mitchell returned from St. Maries Thursday.

A.R. Downs and W.N. Bellinger of Colfax were in town Friday.

F.J. Harris made a trip to Palouse Friday.

Joe Schnurr and H.G. Taylor returned from Meadow Creek Friday.

B.F. Price has built a barn on his property this week.

The politicians of this town and vicinity have organized a silver club and it is to be known as the Farmington Silver Club. R.H. Hutchinson is chairman and P.U. Holm secretary.

A large number of people from town and vicinity went a huckle-berrying this week.

***

The Silverites of Colton burned a large quantity of powder and yelled themselves hoarse Saturday evening July 11, in honor of the financial plank of the democratic platform, and of the free silver leader, W.J. Bryan. The firing was kept up till long after midnight, and all political parties were represented. On Monday evening is a silver club was organized which has taken unto itself the name of Colton Silver Club.

Twenty-five names were enrolled and much enthusiasm displayed.

The republicans are working hard to keep discontented members of their club from deserting to the silver ranks.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

July 22, 1921

Colfax business people are talking about forgetting the annual county fair this year and turning all their efforts towards a “Joy Week” celebration to be staged early in September.

The county fair with its exhibits from garden and orchard and the little old horse races no longer attract and entertain. The people want something different and they have been going elsewhere to get it until the county idea has become a joke with the people who are supposed to attend, and a nightmare to the people who have been trying to put on the fairs for the past few years.

Proposed plans for the show that will be different were discussed at Wednesday’s Commercial club luncheon. The idea brought forth by J.D. Lewis is for a three or four days’ celebration with special afternoon features, possibly including a bucking contest one afternoon, a parade another afternoon, and some other special feature on other days, with a huge, home managed carnival each evening.

The scheme provides for no traveling carnival company, no grafting—instead, a home managed dance on an open-air dance floor, a wild animal show, country store, popcorn stands, hot dog stands, peanut stands and all sorts of concessions, all run by home people.

Mayor Glaser said a half dozen people cannot put over a jollification week like the one outlined, but it can be done if everyone will get in and help. When President Bigelow called for volunteers for helpers to put on the celebration, practically every man at the tables sprang to his feet.

County Assessor J.M. Klemgard, who rode a steer successfully at a round-up at the Clay Barr ranch in the Ewartsville country last Sunday before a crowd of 2,000 people, offered to ride a steer during the Colfax jollification week if W.E. McCroskey would do likewise. Dr. Tifft and Charley Schuldt are already matched to box for the featherweight championship, and many others are ready to take a part in the proposed jollification.

***

A wheat crop conservatively estimated at 12,000,000 bushels is being harvested in Whitman County.

Samples of new wheat are coming into the grain offices and the quality is found to be much better than last year. Practically none of the grain is pinched and shriveled.

Smut is the one thing which is reducing the grade. At that it is estimated that the average grade will be better than No. 2, while last year the average was around No. 3, grain buyers report.

Around Hay, many fields are turning out 18 and 20 sacks to the acre in a country where 25 and 30 bushels are considered a good crop. Grain men declare that there will be many 45-bushel crops in the county this year.

***

The Farm Bureau employment office was moved Thursday morning into the Maloney building, the county agent office having proved altogether too small to handle the large number of men seeking employment. For the last few days the number of men has exceeded the demand.

75 years ago

The Colfax Gazette-Commoner

July 26, 1946

Aftermath of a quarrel over a garden hose in the cemetery at Oakesdale was a scene in the justice court of H.J. Welty Tuesday when Mrs. Ruth James was fined $10 for assault in the third degree.

Testimony revealed that Friday, July 19, was cemetery clean-up day, with Mrs. Hazel Franks as chairman of the work committee. It was from Mrs. Franks, a friend and neighbor, that Mrs. James borrowed the cemetery sprinkling hose and took it home.

Come dinner time, Mrs. James had not returned the hose, so Mrs. Franks went after it and took it back to the cemetery. Following her shortly to the cemetery was Mrs. James, claiming she was not through using the hose. Her second demand for it denied, Mrs. James proceeded to hit Mrs. Franks on the head and shoulders with the doubled-up rubber tubing.

Mrs. Franks had some black and blue marks to show. Mr. James put up the money for his wife’s fine.

State witnesses were Mrs. Franks, the complainant; Mrs. Anna Ripley, Billy Ransier and Freddie M. Orck. Mrs. Arla Lust gave testimony in behalf of her mother, Mrs. James.

***

Ed Howard, Oakesdale, who made an oral agreement June 4 with the Lewis Korth Lumber company to cut, skid and deliver 580,000 square feet of lumber owned by the company, at $8 per thousand feet, was ordered to quit later in the month after he had delivered 96,000 or more feet, he alleges in a superior court action in which he asks judgement for $2,633.

Howard claims he lost $1,450 in profit and spent $1,183 in constructing a logging camp of two bunkhouses, transporting a cook house, renting a tractor and three teams, employing nine men, furnishing fuel, logging machinery and other camp supplies.

50 years ago

Colfax Gazette

July 22, 1971

Farmington voters will go to the polls July 30 and decide a unique proposal forwarded by members of their city council.

The voters will be asked to reduce the size of their town and thereby reduce some of the headaches involved in trying to maintain some of the roads leading into town.

Mayor Jerry Wagner said the special election is the result of a year-long study by himself and other members of the council. The measure has the full backing of the Farmington town dads, Wagner said.

Cost of road maintenance in the face of dwindling tax revenues has led to the special proposal, Wagner said. He added Farmington is one of five towns in the state which does not receive funds for the maintenance of a state or county road.

Farmington’s plan to reduce the size of the town will cut approximately a quarter mile off roads entering the city from Tekoa and from Tensed. Wagner said the law requires the town to include land along at least one side of the road when eliminating a road from the city limits.

The side of the road with the least amount of residents was selected.